War Against the Mullahs: Will U.S. President Trump Have More Stamina This Time?
U.S. President Donald Trump is no longer willing to be made a fool of by the mullahs in Tehran and has once again taken up arms. This is not only an opportunity for the oppressed Iranian people, but for the entire Middle East—and for the rest of the world. That is, provided Trump has the staying power this time and sees the war through to the end.
For about a week now, U.S. President Donald Trump also seems to have realized what was actually clear from the very beginning: The mullahs in Tehran are leading him by the nose. As Israeli President Yitzhak Herzog just said in an interview with the Saudi Arabian TV station Al Arabiya: “You can’t make deals with the Iranians. They always break them.”
That is why Trump is once again letting his weapons do the talking and bombing military and infrastructure targets in Iran. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards, for their part, are responding with missile and drone attacks on the Gulf states. So far, they have wisely refrained from attacking Israel. For they know that this is exactly what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is eagerly waiting for.
Trump and Netanyahu may not have always seen eye to eye lately, but they’re in the same boat. After his diplomatic overtures to the Islamists in Tehran failed miserably, Trump now needs at least one (small) military success. Otherwise, his Republican Party will fare not just poorly, but disastrously, in the midterm elections for the U.S. Congress in November. For Netanyahu, a successful Israeli military strike against the mullahs would also be welcome. After all, his chances of remaining in power following the Israeli parliamentary elections on October 27 are slim.
At any rate, the Israeli prime minister can take credit for the fact that, thanks to his tough stance toward the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah—and, on this issue, toward the U.S. as well—peace talks with the Lebanese government are continuing. This week, they took place in Rome, not in Washington. Although an effective peace agreement is still a long way off, both governments describe the negotiations as constructive.
Israel also views the conflict between the U.S. and Iran—which is hitting the Gulf states particularly hard, both economically and militarily—as an opportunity to resume talks with Saudi Arabia that were suspended following the Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023. These efforts to normalize bilateral relations had been put on hold due to the Gaza war.
Now it seems that people in Jerusalem are hoping the time is ripe for a resumption of talks. This is suggested not only by the fact that Israeli President Herzog gave an interview to the Saudi broadcaster Al Arabiya, but also by what he said during the conversation. Herzog spoke very highly of Saudi leader Mohammed bin Salman: “It is my dream to see peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia. I have great respect for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. What we in Israel want most is a rapprochement between our nations.”
In an apparent reference to former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who in 1977 had effectively invited himself to Jerusalem to make peace with Israel, Herzog went on to say: “I don’t think I can just go to Riyadh as an ordinary citizen. But I hope to make this dream a reality and to be able to meet with the Saudi leadership officially in due course.”
For the Iranian government, it could therefore prove to be a mistake in two respects that it provoked Donald Trump for so long that he had no choice but to resort to force again to save face.
- For one thing, the severe economic consequences at home could ultimately lead to the downfall of the mullah regime, which is hated by the population.
- On the other hand, with every day that the neighboring Gulf states suffer economically and militarily as a result of the conflict, this situation paves the way for a rapprochement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
It therefore remains to be seen whether U.S. President Trump will run out of steam prematurely in the fight against the Islamist regime in Tehran—this time not due to misguided political calculations.
[i] Sacha Wigdorovits is president of the Fokus Israel und Nahost association, which operates the website fokusisrael.ch. He studied history, German language and literature, and social psychology at the University of Zurich and has worked, among other things, as a U.S. correspondent for the SonntagsZeitung, served as editor-in-chief of BLICK, and co-founded the commuter newspaper 20minuten.
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