Analysts said the strikes—aimed at nuclear and military sites including Natanz and Parchin, according to Iranian media—may derail Trump’s faltering bid to mediate Mideast and European security crises, according to Reuters.
“Trumpian diplomacy is one of the first casualties of these attacks,” said Brett Bruen, a former adviser to Democratic President Barack Obama. “He has struggled to even get close to a Gaza ceasefire, let alone end major wars. Iran was looking the most promising—and Netanyahu just spoiled it.”
The raid also undercut Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, who had urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to await progress in stalled U.S.–Iran nuclear talks. Instead, Tehran launched more than 100 drones toward Israel; the Israeli military said most were intercepted over Saudi Arabia and Syria.
Peace pledges falter elsewhere
Trump’s aides privately concede his broader peace agenda was lagging even before Thursday. A Gaza truce brokered before his January inauguration collapsed within weeks, no breakthrough has emerged in Russia-Ukraine negotiations, and the Abraham Accords [2020 bilateral agreements on Arab–Israeli normalization signed between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and between Israel and Bahrain, mediated by the United States] have not expanded beyond Trump’s first-term signatories, Reuters reported.
Foreign-policy infighting has emptied ranks across the National Security Council, Pentagon and State Department, officials say, with some now questioning Witkoff’s role as chief negotiator.
Political backlash
Meanwhile, democrats blamed Trump for scrapping the 2015 Iran nuclear deal without offering a credible replacement.
“This is a disaster of Trump and Netanyahu’s own making, and now the region risks spiraling toward a new, deadly conflict,” Senator Chris Murphy wrote on X.
Whether the strikes trigger wider war remains unclear; Tehran may target U.S. interests via proxy forces such as Yemen’s Houthis. Analysts note Israel alone cannot destroy deeply buried facilities like Iran’s Fordow plant without U.S. support—assistance Washington says it did not provide.
“If tonight’s strikes mark the first round of an all-out Israeli campaign, Iran’s regime is now knee-deep in a potentially existential moment,” said Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute.
“That makes the risk of a major spiral of escalation far more real than anything we’ve seen before.”
(jh)
Source: Reuters, The Guardian, Associated Press News