Trump asked to stop the attacks, Netanyahu moved on: what triggered the new crisis between Israel and Iran

The fragile truce between Israel and Iran It showed its cracks again. An exchange of attacks between both countries on Sunday and Monday reignited tensions in the Middle East and jeopardized the diplomatic efforts of USA to end the war in a negotiated manner.

On Sunday, an Israeli bombardment against targets in Hezbollah in the suburbs of Beirut triggered a Iranian response with the launch of missiles into Israeli territory.

LOOK: Trump and Netanyahu: How the “tense call” over Lebanon exposed their differences over Iran and the Middle East

At this point, it should be explained that the escalation seems to have its origin in a truce whose interpretation was never shared by all parties. While Iran considers that the ceasefire reached in April also included the LebanonIsrael rejects that reading and the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has maintained operations against Hezbollah. The United States, for its part, has aligned itself with the Israeli position.

The same Sunday, Trump tried to prevent the crisis from escalating into a new open war by ensuring that he was very close to closing an agreement with Iran. Furthermore, the president revealed that he spoke with Netanyahu and asked him to refrain from responding militarily.

However, Israel launched a barrage of missiles against military targets in Iranian territory, in a decision that seemed to contradict the containment efforts promoted by Washington.

First thing on Monday, Trump asked Israel and Iran, through a message on social networks, to stop shooting “immediately”. Hours later, Tehran announced that it was ending its attacks.

Through a statement, Iran He stressed that any new aggression by Israel and its allies, including in southern Lebanon, would be responded to with much more severe and forceful measures than the previous ones.

Subsequently, Trump spoke to Netanyahu again. After that communication, The Israeli Prime Minister announced that he was ceasing attacks on Iran and assured that Israel had already achieved its military objectives. However, he made it clear that the truce remains fragile by warning that will respond “strongly” to any new Iranian attack.

“For Israel it is key to continue attacking Hezbollah”

For the international analyst Carlos Novoathis new escalation between Israel and Iran has its origin in the fragility of the agreements reached in April.

He manifested to The Commerce that the situation in the Middle East is so precarious that Any understanding ends up being vulnerable to divergent interpretations by the actors involved..

Novoa explained that the discrepancy over the scope of the truce is not surprising. “In the case of the Israeli reading, For them it is key to attack Hezbollah bases in Lebanoneven if that ends up interfering with Trump’s plan”held.

The analyst also said that the decision of Netanyahu to respond militarily to Irandespite calls for restraint from the trumpdoes not constitute an exceptional fact. He pointed out that tensions between these allied countries over the conduct of regional security have been recurring with different US administrations.

“The challenge of Netanyahu It is permanent, it has already happened with other governments because Israel needs to defend itself at any cost and Trump is looking more at the global panorama due to the urgency of reaching an agreement with the Iranians”, Novoa indicated.

Regarding the immediate scenarios, he considered that A further increase in tensions cannot be ruled out before the situation begins to stabilize.

In his opinion, both Israel and Iran could continue to exchange direct attacks or through allied actors such as Hezbollah to avoid projecting an image of weakness.

Only after that phase, he estimated, USA would be in a position to put more effective pressure on Israel to stop, once it considers its military objectives against Iranian targets met.