Netanyahu outplayed Trump on Iran. Now the US risks being mired in another war | Mohamad Bazzi

If Trump wants to be the peacemaker he claims to be, he must negotiate a new deal with Tehran

Before dawn on Friday, Israel unleashed a wave of air strikes against more than 100 targets in Iran, including nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories and air defense systems. The surprise Israeli attack also killed some of Iran's most senior military commanders and nuclear scientists. The Iranian regime called it a declaration of war" - and western powers raced to prevent a wider regional conflict that could draw in the US along with other countries in the Middle East.

While the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, claims that he's trying to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, the attack is as much intended to blow up ongoing negotiations between Tehran and Donald Trump's administration. While Trump's overall foreign policy has been a disaster, for months he had resisted Netanyahu's pleas to give Israel a green light to attack Iran, with US assistance. Trump insisted he wanted a chance to negotiate a deal with Iran's leaders that would compel Tehran to give up its nuclear program in exchange for relief from US and other international sanctions.

Mohamad Bazzi is director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, and a journalism professor at New York University