With Iran and Hezbollah promising retaliation for last week’s assassinations of a Hamas leader in Tehran and a Hezbollah commander in Beirut, the Middle East has been facing the threat that war could erupt at any moment. When President Joe Biden assembled a coalition of countries to help Israel thwart an Iranian aerial onslaught in April, the White House hoped the mission might result in a reciprocal willingness to achieve the president’s priorities of avoiding a wider war and bringing the war in Gaza to a close. But now, as the White House works once again to avoid a wider war that no party seems to want, there is also deep frustration with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and faltering trust in his willingness to cooperate.
Still, diplomacy has a chance, some analysts say. “All the indications are that no one – not Iran, not Hezbollah, not Israel – wants a devastating and unpredictable war right now,” says Hanin Ghaddar, an expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “If Iran ends up responding in a way that Israel can tolerate,” she adds, “then I think there is still room for a bigger role for diplomacy.
” When President Joe Biden assembled a coalition of countries to help Israel thwart an Iranian aerial onslaught in April, the White House had high hopes the mission might reap something of a twofer from Israel. First, the demonstrated value of international partners might dissuade Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from pursuing the .