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South China Morning Post
17-07-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
How the Israel-Iran conflict changed the scope of 21st-century warfare
The Israel-Iran war , from June 13 to June 24, marks a watershed moment in modern conflict. Precision-strike technology, multi-domain operations and social media diplomacy converged in the direct combat between nuclear-capable adversaries. The confrontation has fundamentally altered strategic deterrence frameworks and validated new paradigms of 21st-century warfare. The conflict began when Israel bombed Iranian nuclear facilities, military installations and key personnel . Tehran soon retaliated. According to Israel, Iran used 550 ballistic missiles and 1,000 drones. The United States' June 22 strikes against nuclear sites in Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow represented one of the largest escalations between nuclear-capable states in modern history. What distinguished this confrontation was the seamless integration of conventional strikes, cyber operations, electronic warfare and real-time social media diplomacy, which apparently compressed traditional military decision-making from hours to minutes. Israel's systematic targeting of both physical infrastructure and human capital marked a strategic evolution from destroying facilities to dismantling institutional knowledge. The precision-strike capabilities show that nuclear-capable states can engage in extended conventional combat without triggering a strategic nuclear exchange. This potentially encourages military adventurism by suggesting advanced conventional capabilities can achieve strategic objectives while remaining below the nuclear threshold. US President Donald Trump's initial ceasefire announcement on social media was quickly disputed by Iranian officials, leading to continued fighting. The real ceasefire came only after intensive behind-the-scenes diplomacy, highlighting how digital platforms are now forcing rapid crisis responses while traditional diplomatic channels remain essential for actual resolutions. Currency markets and energy futures rapidly reacted to leaders' social media posts, fundamentally altering how international actors assess geopolitical risks.
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump ‘all for' Iran peace talks, but ‘ready, willing and able' to strike again
President Trump said he was 'all for' lasting peace with Iran but 'ready, willing and able' to strike if Tehran poses additional threats to the U.S., speaking alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday. Trump offered wide-ranging remarks to the press in what was initially billed as a private dinner with the Israeli leader. He said that talks with Iran are expected within the next week and warned that he is prepared for more military action if necessary. 'I will tell you that in my view, I hope it's over. I think Iran wants to meet. I think they want to make peace and I'm all for it. Now, if that's not the case, we are ready, willing, and able,' Trump said, responding to a question on whether he believes the Israel-Iran war is over. 'But I don't think we're going to have to be.' Trump said Netanyahu was better positioned to answer the question. The prime minister, sitting across the table, referred to Iran's nuclear program and its ballistic missile program as two 'tumors' that the combined operations of Israel and the U.S. had removed. But like a cancer, he said, the situation would require constant monitoring. 'We had great achievements; it's part of the effort to make sure we don't have to repeat this, we have to monitor this,' Netanyahu said. 'No question this is a historic victory and I think as was said here today, we changed the face of the Middle East, we have an opportunity to create here a historic expansion of the Abraham Accords … that deserves a Nobel Prize for the president. I hope the opportunities are much bigger; I'd like to believe Iran will not test our fortitude. It would be a mistake.' Netanyahu is also expected to visit Congress on Tuesday, meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.). Monday was the first time Trump and Netanyahu met in person since the president ordered U.S. strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, a decision made in coordination with Israel's bombing of key Iranian nuclear sites, nuclear scientists and military personnel. U.S. officials in recent days have also sounded optimistic signals on securing a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, seen as key to unlocking much of the rest of Trump's goals in the Middle East, which range from keeping Iran weak to warming ties with Israel's Arab and Gulf allies. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters earlier in the day Trump's special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, would travel to Qatar this week to participate in ceasefire talks. 'I think things are going very well,' Trump said of the talks. Trump helped complete a previous ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in January that had been largely negotiated by the Biden administration. The ceasefire lasted for two months before falling apart over the second phase of the deal, which would have seen an end of the war. The latest proposal offered by the Trump administration includes a 60-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, with Hamas releasing 10 living hostages and 18 bodies over the course of the two months, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. The talks are also reported to be considering the withdrawal of Israeli troops from certain parts of Gaza. Also on the table is a scale-up of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, with the United Nations and Palestine Red Crescent Society taking over distribution from the controversial, American-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF). While the GHF has denied reports that the organization uses live ammunition and stun grenades to exercise crowd-control measures, Israeli officials have acknowledged that not enough food is reaching Palestinians. The Gaza Health Ministry has said hundreds of people have been killed and thousands were injured when trying to receive aid. An NPR journalist detailed the dire situation and dangerous conditions in trying to get food aid, battling looters, live ammunition fired by Israeli soldiers, people being crushed in the chaos and stepping over bodies to continue the journey for food. A major sticking point in the ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas is what happens beyond the 60-day ceasefire. The proposal reportedly includes holding discussions for ending the war. But Israel has called for maintaining freedom of movement to carry out military operations, along with international governance of the strip and Hamas's exile. Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said Israel's goal is for Hamas to abdicate power and its leadership to leave Gaza, similar to the situation in 1982 where Israel forced the exit of then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization from Lebanon to Tunisia. 'That's something which is being discussed, to take the leadership of Hamas out of Gaza. … We don't want Hamas to stay in power,' Danon told reporters during a visit to Washington, D.C., last week. Brett Samuels contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Guardian
08-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Netanyahu nominates Trump for Nobel peace prize at White House meeting expected to focus on Gaza
Benjamin Netanyahu told Donald Trump that he would nominate him for the Nobel peace prize on Monday, as the two leaders met for the first time since the US launched strikes on Iran's nuclear program as part of a short-lived war between Israel and Iran. Trump was expected to press Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire in Israel's 21-month-old war against Hamas in Gaza amid an outcry over the humanitarian cost of an offensive that has led to nearly 60,000 deaths, most of them Palestinian. Israeli and Hamas negotiators met for indirect talks for the first time in six weeks in Qatar on Monday. While both sides have spoken positively about the prospects for a ceasefire, a number of crucial negotiating points remain including guarantees from the Israeli side that the war would not continue and Netanyahu's insistence that Hamas be banished from Gaza for good. Before a dinner in the Blue Room at the White House, Trump was asked whether he believed that Palestinians should be forcibly removed from Gaza, amid reports that Israel has laid out plans to force all Palestinians in Gaza into a camp on the ruins of Rafah – a plan that has been criticised as a blueprint for ethnic cleansing. Trump directed Netanyahu to answer the question. 'It's called free choice,' said Netanyahu, who is wanted by the international criminal court for alleged war crimes relating to the Gaza war. 'You know, if people want to stay, they can stay, but if they want to leave, they should be able to leave.' At the beginning of the meeting, Netanyahu presented Trump with a letter that he said he had sent to a committee for the Nobel peace prize commending Trump's efforts to end conflicts in the Middle East. 'I want to express the appreciation and admiration not only of all Israelis, but of the Jewish people,' Netanyahu said before presenting the letter. 'You deserve it,' Netanyahu added. 'Coming from you in particular, this is very meaningful,' Trump said. It was the second high-profile nomination for the president: last month Pakistan said it would recommend Trump for the prize. Asked about Russia's war in Ukraine, Trump suggested that he would resume weapons shipments to the Ukrainian army, although the White House had recently confirmed it had halted some weapons deliveries due to a Pentagon review of dwindling US munitions stocks. 'We're going to send some more weapons,' he said. 'We have to. They have to be able to defend themselves. They're getting hit very hard now. They're getting hit very hard. We're going to have to send more weapons.' Trump claimed during the meeting that Hamas 'want to meet and they want to have that ceasefire.' But he did not share any additional details on preparations for a ceasefire, and when asked about a two-state solution with the Palestinians, directed the question to Netanyahu, who repeated Israeli insistences that they would maintain a 'security guarantee' over territories like the Gaza Strip. 'I think the Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves, but none of the powers to threaten us,' Netanyahu said. 'And that means that certain powers like overall security will always remain in our hands.' Before departing for Washington on Sunday, Netanyahu said he was confident a deal could be achieved and that Israeli negotiators had been given clear instructions to achieve a ceasefire – but only with conditions that Israel has already agreed. Sources in the prime minister's entourage described the talks in Qatar as positive, according to Israel's military radio station and an Israeli official quoted by Reuters. Palestinian officials were more downbeat and said initial meetings on Sunday had ended inconclusively. Netanyahu had met with Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and secretary of state Marco Rubio earlier on Monday. He is expected to remain in Washington to meet with vice-president JD Vance and senior officials, including house speaker Mike Johnson.
CNA
07-07-2025
- Politics
- CNA
Trump and Netanyahu to meet at the White House for talks
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington for talks with US President Donald Trump. It will be their third meeting this year and the first since the war between Israel and Iran. It also comes as indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas continue in Doha. Trent Murray reports from Tel Aviv.
Japan Times
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Japan Times
The U.S. bombing of Iran was a win for Putin
The consensus after Israel's 12-day war with Iran seems to be that it ended in humiliation — not just for the Islamic Republic, but also Russia, which failed to lift a finger for a loyal ally and lost a supplier of critical drones. But that profoundly misreads both President Vladimir Putin's priorities and the timescale on which he conducts foreign policy. There's no doubt that Putin's ambition to reassert Russia as a force in the Middle East has been set back. The fall of President Bashar Assad in Syria was a significant loss. His failure to come to the aid of Iran, with whom he'd just signed a 20-year strategic partnership was embarrassing. A year ago, that would indeed have hurt Moscow's war effort in Ukraine, but Russia now makes its own version of the Iranian Shahed drones. Much more important is to understand where all this fits into Putin's worldview and priorities. Destroying the Ukrainian state ranks much higher for the Russian president than any other foreign policy goal, whether in the Middle East or elsewhere. And on that score, the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran was a net positive. In a broad sense, the outbreak of another war in the Middle East has sucked attention, energy and resources away from Ukraine, leaving Putin with a free hand. Even at the recent NATO summit, the core deliverable of a pledge to boost defense spending — to levels only justifiable by the threat from Russia — was shunted to the corner. Nobody wanted to anger U.S. President Donald Trump during his victory lap. More concretely, Israel was able to blunt the impact of the Islamic Republic's missile barrages only by consuming a significant part of its air-defense stockpiles, as well as some from the U.S., which lent a hand using shipborne air defense systems. Equally, the U.S. could only involve itself once it was confident it had enough Patriot batteries in place to protect its military bases around the threat may have receded for now, but planners at the Pentagon are obliged to assume the war restarts and more air defense will be needed, making less available for Ukraine. They went further, confirming recently they were halting already planned military aid for Ukraine, including air defense supplies. A Pentagon statement said the decision put American interests first and that "the strength of the United States Armed Forces remains unquestioned — just ask Iran.' The Trump slogan used was false. The Department of Defense has put Russian interests first; the U.S. cannot benefit from a rout of Ukrainian forces and the wider destabilization of Europe that would bring. The recent dramatic boost in Russian missile and drone strikes on Ukraine was well timed. Overnight on June 30, Russia launched its biggest single barrage since the start of the war, including 477 drones and decoys, as well as 60 ballistic missiles that require high-level interceptors, such as Patriots. Since then, Russia has launched even heavier aerial assaults. The fact that Ukraine lost an F-16 and its pilot trying to shoot down some of the barrage is a clear indication of the strain on the country's air defense systems. The attacks in previous days had been only a little smaller, so there was an air of desperation around President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's ask for more Patriot interceptors when he met with his U.S. counterpart at NATO. There was also truth to Trump's comments afterward. He said he'd told Zelenskyy that he'd see what the U.S. could do, but that the Patriots were hard to get, because: "We need them too. We were supplying them to Israel.' Meanwhile, the Pentagon was cutting off even planned supplies. This is what matters to Putin, far more than the optics abroad of his failure to come to Iran's aid. For this war will define a legacy that he sees in the context of the Russian Empire's construction over centuries. Or as his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, reportedly quipped in 2022, his boss has just three advisers: "Ivan the Terrible. Peter the Great. And Catherine the Great.' Nothing that has happened in the last three years has dented this vision of Great Russian restoration. To Putin, not only is the very existence of Ukraine an affront, but the reabsorption of its resources — human, economic and military — into mother Russia is the sine qua non for Moscow's ability to remain at the top of the multipolar world order he sees replacing Western dominance. This is the reason for which Ukraine's plan to sign a trade treaty with the European Union so enraged him in 2013; it meant Kyiv would not join his own rival group, the Eurasian Union. "All of Ukraine is ours,' Putin told an enthusiastic domestic audience at the annual St. Petersburg Economic Forum, on June 20. He wasn't shy about adding a new city, Sumy, as a new public target for occupation, either. Make no mistake, Odesa and Kharkiv would be next on the list, whose extent and end will be determined solely by what the Kremlin deems possible at acceptable cost. Ukraine is at a critical juncture. Until Trump came to office, it was evenly balanced as to whether Putin would be able to continue to exchange swathes of his armed forces for small increments of Ukrainian land long enough for Kyiv's defenses to collapse. With Trump's withdrawal of U.S. military support, those calculations have shifted and the long-range missile and drone war forms an essential part of Russia's path to victory. From the moment Ukraine runs out of air defense interceptors, Russia's air force — still menacing in its scale and capabilities — would for the first time be able to impose air superiority across the country. The impunity that Israeli jets enjoyed over Iran should serve as a timely reminder of exactly what this could mean for Ukraine: A catastrophic collapse of defensive lines as its troops were bombed into submission from the air. Trump recently switched from the moral obscenity of blaming Ukraine for being invaded, to complaining about Putin's disinterest in peace talks. But he needs to do a lot better than that. He needs to recognize, at least to himself, that Putin has played him. The intelligence operative running the Kremlin has leveraged Trump's desperation for a ceasefire to further Russia's war aims, and at a time when he too has growing vulnerabilities, including a looming credit crisis. It may be years before anyone can say with certainty that the U.S. military intervention in Iran was a success or failure. But if there is one conclusion Trump can draw from its success in imposing a ceasefire on Israel and Iran, it's that for peace-through-strength to work, you need to first show the strength. That's something he has woefully failed to do in his dealings with the Kremlin. Marc Champion is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Europe, Russia and the Middle East.
