Launching what was initially described as “a pre-emptive” campaign against Iran on February 28, the United States and Israel set out a series of highly ambitious and ultimately vital goals. When US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire and declared victory 39 days later, amid significant tactical success but inadequate strategic planning, none of them had been definitively achieved.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu encouraged an evidently amenable Trump to go to war in order to close the vicious and rapacious regime’s path to nuclear weapons, destroy its ballistic missile capabilities, dismantle its proxies and thwart its global terror activities. And the president has indicated that he remains committed to achieving all of this in a multi-point “long-term” peace deal that is now supposed to be negotiated.

But, for now, while Iran’s nuclear “industrial base” has been further degraded, the regime retains its buried stockpile of highly enriched uranium. It may, if anything, be more inclined to attempt a breakout to the bomb, amid a heightened determination to destroy Israel and to achieve broader invulnerability to future attack.

Similarly, while its ballistic missile capabilities, including all the necessary manufacturing elements, have been greatly degraded — Netanyahu and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have both said Iran is not capable of building more missiles at present — the regime proved able to keep firing throughout the war, at........

© The Times of Israel