Trump could be key to de-escalating the Israel-Iran conflict, experts say

Military and national security experts have raised alarms about significant escalations between Israel and Iran amid the ongoing airstrikes and retaliation, which could transform into a much larger conflict in the Middle East.

Israel launched a targeted attack on Iran’s nuclear and military structure on Friday, aiming their weapons at key facilities and top scientists and leaders, a move they deemed as necessary to make sure Iran didn’t get any closer to building an atomic weapon, the Associated Press reported.

Speaking with CTV News Channel on Friday, military expert (Ret’d) Maj.-Gen. David Fraser believes U.S. President Donald Trump could be the key to mediating a peace deal between the two countries, due to his marketing and opportunistic leadership skills.

“Both sides have given him the great opportunity to bring both parties together where he can actually achieve what he wanted to,” Fraser said. “He wanted a deal with Iran on denuclearization. He wanted to deal with peace in the region, with Israel.”

Meanwhile, Fraser warns about underestimating Iran, despite being significantly hit hard by Israel.

“They were fighting against Iraq for years, so they’ve got a tremendous arsenal of munitions and ballistic missile on drones,” he said. “They could probably do an awful lot of damage to Israel.”

Anthony Seaboyer, a military and national security expert, says Iran has clearly suffered a significant blow towards the nuclear weapons program, which could lead to it being in a weaker spot in this conflict.

However, Seaboyer says it is difficult to assess Iran’s progress in the program.

“I do believe this is not the end of their response,” he said. “At this point, what’s surprising is that apparently, quite a few missiles are getting through the Iron Dome.”

Seaboyer adds that Israel’s defence system has been very effective in the past, but it got overwhelmed this time due to the sheer number of missiles launched by Iran. This raises questions about safety of civilians on the ground.

According to Fraser, Israel will continue to attack any power structures and systems that Iran tries to recover.

“They will be going after more military targets and more nuclear targets, just to press this attack and (try to take) this fight home,” he said, adding that Iran could be looking at its proxies – Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis – to pressure Israel and use them to try and inflict damage on American interests in the area.

“Now is the time for diplomacy to kick in – to stop this from getting out of control.”

‘When enemies build weapons of mass death, stop them’

Iran confirmed the deaths of three of its top military leaders: Gen. Mohammad Bagheri – who oversaw the entire armed forces; Gen. Hossein Salami – who was leading the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, and Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh – the head of the Guard’s ballistic missile program.

Other top military officials and scientists were also killed in the strikes, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said.

Israel had alluded to this move long before they opened fire, but the American administrations had tried to prevent it – due to the wider fallout across the Middle East.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the U.S. was made aware of the strategic move in advance.

U.S. ground-based defence systems near Israel are helping shoot down the Iranian missiles, a U.S. official told the Associated Press.

“When enemies build weapons of mass death, stop them. As the Bible teaches us, when someone comes to kill you, rise and act first. This is exactly what Israel has done today,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech on Thursday.

Shortly after, Iran retaliated by launching scores of missiles at Israel.

“We will not allow them to escape safely from this great crime they committed,” Khamenei said in a recorded message.

With files from the Associated Press