With President Donald Trump poised to determine whether the United States will plunge into the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, anxiety over the possible consequences is sweeping across the Middle East.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday broadened his demands for Iranian capitulation, moving beyond calls to dismantle the Islamic Republic’s nuclear enrichment programme. Now, he is insisting Iran scraps its ballistic missile arsenal and abandons support for its regional allies.
These heightened demands accompanied Netanyahu’s incendiary suggestion that assassinating Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei could end the war. He has also urged the Iranian people to rise up against their government.
For Middle East experts, such rhetoric is a clear signal of Netanyahu’s underlying ambition to force regime change in Tehran, or perhaps even precipitate the collapse of the Iranian state.
Yet analysts agree that Israel alone lacks the military might to so thoroughly undermine the Iranian regime – unless Trump decides to intervene.
Without US support, Israel cannot weaken the Iranian government to such an extent as to force its capitulation
“Without US support, Israel cannot weaken the Iranian government to such an extent as to force its capitulation,” said Annelle Rodriguez Sheline, a Middle East research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft think tank in the US.
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