Eyes on the White House: Israel on Alert, and the ‘Shouting Match’ Between the Mediator and the Iranian General
Israel is closely following the exchange of blows between the United States and Iran, as well as Donald Trump’s explicit threats to strike again tonight, between Wednesday and Thursday. In Israel there is still alertness and preparations for a resumption of fighting if Iran launches missiles toward Israel in response to an American attack, but security officials assess that the Iranians will not fire missiles at Israel so as not to give it justification to attack Iran. 3 views in gallery (Photo: Miri Alster, Evan Vucci/AP, Shutterstock)
Meanwhile, the level of threats continues to rise from Iran as well. The chairman of the National Security Committee in the Iranian parliament, Ebrahim Azizi, wrote on X this evening: “We are not afraid to fight losers. The number of American casualties is much higher than Trump admits and it will only rise. This time the war will not be limited to the region.” He ended the post with the words “we’ll see what happens,” a phrase that US President Donald Trump often uses to describe the situation with Iran. An Israeli security source said: “Trump is raising the bar. I assume that soon, if no agreement is signed, he will return to war. But for now he is increasing pressure on the Iranians in the belief that it will lead Mojtaba Khamenei to give a positive answer to his proposal. But from the way it looks, the Iranians are stalling and Trump is losing patience and becoming frustrated. In any case, we are prepared for a resumption of fighting.” Despite the assessment that Iran will not launch missiles at it, Israel is also preparing for such a possibility, since Trump is unpredictable and could order a very broad attack.
3 views in gallery. Still at the center of the tension, ships in the Strait of Hormuz (Photo: REUTERS/Stringer)
According to the assessment in Israel, Iran will not sign an agreement with the Americans and will continue to play games with the Trump administration. Jerusalem’s preferred option is a resumption of the war and carrying out the strikes that Trump halted in the Islamic Republic. Incidentally, Trump himself also spoke about striking bridges and power stations. But so far the American president has also restrained Israel regarding these targets. The Americans think another strike might shake the Iranians and make them say “yes.” But in Israel’s view, the Iranians are only detecting weakness and think that Trump does not want to return to fighting. In any case, even if Tehran agrees to the wording of an agreement, it would be a temporary arrangement giving them another 60 days of ceasefire, not a real agreement that ends the conflict.
“Only because of us were you not eliminated”
Meanwhile, more details continue to emerge about the tense negotiations between Iran and the United States, mediated by Pakistan. According to information received by the French newspaper Le Figaro, what is delaying the reaching of an arrangement is the way Iran is conducting the negotiations, and in particular the inability to communicate directly with the new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei. According to the report in France, when Pakistan’s army chief, Asim Munir, arrived in Iran for a two-day visit on May 22, he held a tense meeting with the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Ahmad Vahidi. According to a source cited by Le Figaro, before the visit began it was agreed that the Pakistani army chief would be able to meet with Mojtaba Khamenei in order to finalize the details of the emerging agreement between Washington and Tehran. But when Asim Munir asked Vahidi when he could meet Khamenei’s son, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards replied that this was not possible because the Supreme Leader was still suffering from injuries. According to the report, the tone of the conversation became heated, and Pakistan’s army chief even reminded his counterpart that he had not been eliminated by the United States or Israel only thanks to Islamabad’s efforts.
3 views in gallery. A tense visit in Iran. Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir (Photo: Inter Services Public Relations via AP)
Regarding the series of military incidents between the United States and Iran, including the downing of the Apache helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz, security analysts told the Wall Street Journal that this may indicate a change in Iran’s defense doctrine, under which the Revolutionary Guards give a high degree of freedom of action to army field commanders, who can now make operational decisions independently without receiving approval from headquarters in Tehran. Through this change, Iran seeks to reestablish deterrence against the United States and Israel. At the same time, according to an analysis by the Wall Street Journal, a group of hardline leaders within the Iranian leadership, together with those pushing for more aggressive responses, also hope not to be dragged again into full-scale military confrontation. According to Hamidreza Azizi, a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs: “A very fragile situation has been created. The pattern on the Iranian side is to keep the escalation below a certain threshold, and that threshold is the killing of American soldiers and personnel during the ceasefire.”
