‘As bad as its ever been’: Relations between the US, Iran and Israel worry insiders

President Joe Biden warned Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, that the US would not take part in a counterattack against Iran after it launched 330 drones, cruise, and ballistic missiles at Israel.

Almost all of those strikes, launched on Saturday, were shot down — and the US urged Israel not to retaliate. Despite that, Israel has said that it will “exact a price” for the attack.

The Iranian strikes came after Israel struck the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus, Syria, killing several top military officials of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Beni Sabti, a researcher in the Iran program at the Institute for National Security Studies, a think tank connected to Tel Aviv University, tells The Independent that “it’s because of US weakness in its attitude toward the Middle East countries and also Israel” that current relations in the region are so tense. That, he adds, is a “very good situation for Iran”.

Linda Robinson, a senior fellow for women and foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, tells The Independent in an email that “President Biden has clearly stated it is in the US and Israel’s interest for Israel to avoid direct strikes on Iranian territory”.

“Escalation carries a high risk of a wider regional war, and the imperative should instead be to concentrate on bringing hostages home through a ceasefire, increasing humanitarian relief, and winding down the Gaza war,” she writes.

About 1,200 people were killed in the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, and more than 33,000 people have been killed in Gaza in the following counteroffensive.

John Hannah, who served as national security adviser to then vice president Dick Cheney from 2005 until 2009, says that the taking down of