Israel-Iran

Axios -President Trump said Friday that it will be "very hard" to pause Israel's war against Iran in order to allow for direct negotiations with the U.S., noting that Israel is "doing well" in its efforts to take out Iran's nuclear program. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told his European counterparts Friday that Iran will not negotiate directly with the U.S. as long as Israel continues its military campaign, according to two European diplomats with direct knowledge of the discussions.

In These Times -  Israel’s attack on Iran last week has opened a stark danger — a predictable pattern of escalation ushering in a new phase of the long-standing crises roiling the Middle East region. Certainly Israel has a long history of attacking Iran — including bombing raids; assassinations of political and military leaders as well as nuclear scientists; cyberattacks; assaults on Iranian allies in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, and beyond — and Iran has on occasion struck back. But while it is too soon to know exactly how this latest assault will fully play out, it now holds the prospect of full-scale war between the two strongest military forces in the region, one of them backed by the strongest military power in the world.

The specific role of the United States in the first hours and days of Israel’s war against Iran remains uncertain; we don’t yet know if U.S. forces were directly involved, and whether or how much the Israelis relied on U.S. intelligence or other immediate assistance in carrying out the assaults on Tehran and other cities across Iran. What we do know is that Israel has always been able to count on continuing U.S. backing — economic, political, diplomatic as well as military — whether or not any particular White House administration supported or disagreed with any particular military attack, and whether or not that support involved direct U.S. military participation.