{"id":39698,"date":"2025-06-14T11:45:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T11:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=39698"},"modified":"2025-06-15T05:54:37","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T05:54:37","slug":"what-does-israels-strike-mean-for-us-policy-on-iran-and-prospects-for-a-nuclear-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/what-does-israels-strike-mean-for-us-policy-on-iran-and-prospects-for-a-nuclear-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"What does Israel\u2019s strike mean for US policy on Iran and prospects for a nuclear deal?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Javed Ali<\/a>, University of Michigan<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israel\u2019s strike on Iranian nuclear and military facilities<\/a> has pushed the Middle East one step closer to a far wider, more dangerous regional war. It also has implications for recent U.S. diplomatic efforts<\/a> toward a deal with Tehran over its nuclear program.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran\u2019s immediate response \u2013 the firing of about 100 drones<\/a> into Israel, many of which were shot down \u2013 appears an opening gambit; meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country\u2019s airstrikes would continue<\/a> \u201cfor as many days as it takes.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Conversation turned to Javed Ali, an expert on Middle East affairs<\/a> at the University of Michigan and a former senior official at the National Security Council during the first Trump administration, to talk through why Israel chose now to strike and what the implications are for U.S. policy on Iran.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did Israel strike now?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There was a combination of factors that led up to this moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the more immediate reasons was that an International Atomic Energy Agency report found that Iran was making progress toward enriching uranium<\/a> to a degree that, in theory at least, would allow Tehran to very quickly upgrade to a weapons-grade level. That is the thrust of what Netanyahu has said by way of reason for the attack now \u2013 that intelligence shows that Iran was getting closer to a possible breakout status<\/a> for a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there is a confluence of other factors that have built up over the last year and a half, ever since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack<\/a> by Hamas in Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran\u2019s proxy Axis of Resistance<\/a> \u2013 that is, regional groups aligned with Iran and supported militarily by Tehran, including Hamas and Hezbollah \u2013 doesn\u2019t present the same level of threat to Israel as it did in the pre-Oct. 7 landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the past, an Israeli attack of the sort we are seeing now would have invited a multidirectional response<\/a> from all corners of the resistance \u2013 and we saw this in the early days after the Oct. 7 attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of now, none of Iran\u2019s resistance partners have done anything in response to the latest strike \u2013 and that is, in large part, due to the fact that Israel has successfully degraded these group\u2019s capabilities through a series of campaigns and operations. The United States has also contributed to this effort to a degree with sustained operations against the Houthis in Yemen from March to May this year, including hundreds of airstrikes<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further, Israel\u2019s previous attacks on Iran<\/a> in April and October 2024 managed to degrade Iran\u2019s ballistic and surface-to-air missiles and air defense radar systems. This likely played into Israel\u2019s calculations, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, Israel knows that it has a strong supporter in the White House with President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress. Washington may not be 100% aligned with Tel Aviv on every issue, but at the moment there is no criticism from the the White House or Republican members of Congress on Israel\u2019s attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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