Editorial | Responsibility lies with US to halt Israel-Iran conflict, resume talks

After Israel’s attack on Iran the two have launched strikes, which have escalated by the day, at each other. Missiles have struck countless strategic targets and killed hundreds of people, mostly on the Iranian side, including military commanders and scientists. Israel has targeted nuclear facilities and missile sites. Iran has launched waves of missiles at a widening range of targets, including Tel Aviv and Haifa in the north, where fires were seen at an oil depot.

Both sides have threatened more devastation. That does nothing for global security already strained by the Russia-Ukraine war, not to mention the deeply troubling toll of Israel’s attempt to destroy Hamas in Gaza, now estimated at more than 55,000 Palestinian lives.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the goal of the attack on Iran is to prevent its long-standing enemy from acquiring nuclear weapons, which it sees as a threat to its existence.

But the surprise attack on Iran widens regional conflict. It increases the risk of the worst-case scenario arising from Hamas’ October 7, 2023 assault on Israel – all-out war in the Middle East. China has expressed “grave concern” over the potential fallout from Israel’s strikes on Iran and urged de-escalation.

The United States, as Israel’s main backer, has a critical role to play in bringing that about. President Donald Trump says he thinks it is time for a deal, “but sometimes they have to fight it out”. The world rightly expects a more proactive stance than that.

The reality is that Trump’s part in this crisis goes back to his contentious decision in 2018 to withdraw the US – the key partner – from an accord that limited Iran’s nuclear activities, on the widely disputed grounds that Tehran was not compliant.