A cease-fire between Israel and Iran should be a prelude to peace

Boston Globe

11 hours ago

After years of insisting it would not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon, Israel followed through by launching a wide-ranging attack earlier this month, assassinating nuclear scientists and military leaders and destroying many sites associated with Iran's decades-long nuclear program. Trump initially stayed on the sidelines, until Saturday when US bombers delivered the coup de grâce, destroying — or at least heavily damaging — a key underground site that only American bunker-buster bombs could reach.
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Iran retaliated first by raining ballistic missiles down on Israel, some of which evaded the country's air defense and harmed civilians, and on Monday also attacked a US military base in Qatar.
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But Iran was humiliated by its inability to stop almost daily Israeli hammer blows, and none of the proxy groups it has cultivated, such as Hezbollah, stepped up to defend it.
If the Israeli pummeling had continued, they could have more directly targeted Iranian energy infrastructure, taking aim at the oil and gas revenues that are the regime's lifeblood.
So, now what?
Stopping Iran, whose unofficial national motto is 'Death to America,' from gaining a nuclear weapon has rightly been a US priority for decades.
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Iran's nuclear program is now damaged but not destroyed. The administration should seek a deal in which Iran gives up its program in a verifiable way in exchange for some lifting of international sanctions.
After all, military action can at best only delay an Iranian nuke. The only surefire way to prevent it is either to overthrow the regime in Iran — favored by some hardliners but sure to cause chaos and possibly lead to an even more hostile government in Tehran — or reach a deal.
Elements of a deal could include some relief from sanctions and investment in Iran's tattered economy.
It would also have to include an accounting for the
A deal is preferable because while Iran has suffered setbacks, it can still do immense damage.
Some 40,000 US troops are based in the Middle East, vulnerable to Iranian attack. There is also the lingering threat to the transport of oil and gas through the
Regime change, meanwhile, will have to be up to the Iranians. The mullahs have misgoverned Iran for four decades, and hopefully by exposing the regime's core weakness the Israeli and American strikes will embolden opponents of the government. The mullahs' obsession with Israel, a country hundreds of miles away, has brought its people nothing but hardship.
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The United States could, of course, have made a more significant contribution toward regime change had it not virtually abandoned efforts at soft diplomacy such as
Talk about false economizing. The furloughs were right up there with the
For now, the goal must be to turn the reported cease-fire into a more durable peace.
Trump has a reputation for not being a long-term thinker or planner. But actions have consequences — and this one admittedly brilliant military operation will reverberate in the region and beyond for years to come. Now the president's obligation is to help put the diplomatic pieces back together.
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