Trump's Power Test: Can He Stop the Iran War as Netanyahu Pushes On?
Donald Trump returned to the White House on 18 March 2026, after attending a dignified transfer for US air force members killed in Iraq. Behind the presidential bombast, however, lies a growing worry: as he attempts to halt the war on Iran, will anyone truly listen? Simon Tisdall analyses the spiralling conflict in the Middle East, where Trump's great power may not be enough to control unforeseen developments.
Netanyahu's Obsession and Trump's Unprovoked War
It is a profound pity that Benjamin Netanyahu remains free, despite an international arrest warrant issued in 2024 for alleged war crimes in Gaza. Had he been detained, the peoples of Iran, Lebanon, the Gulf, and even Israel might have been spared immense suffering. Netanyahu's lifelong, passionate obsession with eradicating threats from Iran reportedly played a key role in prompting Trump's abrupt, unprovoked plunge into all-out war. Instead of facing justice, Netanyahu continues to commit crimes while the ego-driven US president negligently watches.
Netanyahu ridicules claims that he dragged the US into the conflict, asking, "Does anyone really think that someone can tell President Trump what to do? He didn't need any convincing." Yet Oman's foreign minister flatly contradicts this, stating that Netanyahu's opposition convinced Trump to abandon indirect talks with Iran in Geneva, overseen by Oman, which were close to success.
Escalating Conflict and Diverging Aims
Since joint US-Israeli operations began on 28 February, Israel's campaign has rapidly taken on a life of its own. The Israeli air force and army have inflicted death and destruction across Iran and Lebanon, targeting both military and civilian sites. A significant escalation occurred this week with Israel's bombing of Iran's South Pars gas field, leading to spikes in global energy prices and fierce Iranian retaliatory strikes against Gulf oil and gas facilities. Trump disowned this attack, claiming no prior knowledge, but anonymous US and Israeli officials contradicted him.
This episode highlighted diverging war aims between the US and Israel. Netanyahu seeks to collapse Iran's regime entirely, while Trump has indicated he could accept a Venezuela-type deal if new, cooperative leaders emerge in Tehran. By forcing the world to stare into an energy abyss, Netanyahu may have inadvertently set limits on what was, for him, an open-ended war. He now says South Pars-style attacks will not be repeated, but talks of putting troops on the ground—a potentially huge expansion that Trump has not ruled out.
Trump's Deference and Netanyahu's Warmongering
Trump wields power as he sees fit, yet he has often appeared willing to defer to Netanyahu's aggressive policies, especially since the Gaza war. He consulted the Israeli leader extensively before the Iran conflict, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested to Congress that the US was hustled into action by Israel's determination. The war's timing was dictated by intelligence that Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, was meeting officials on 28 February; his assassination by Israeli missiles upped the ante from the start.
Further evidence of a near-miss peace deal emerged in a Guardian report this week, revealing that UK national security adviser Jonathan Powell believed Iran had made "surprising" concessions in Geneva. However, Trump and his amateur negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, unconvinced by Netanyahu's opposition and lacking technical advice, abandoned diplomacy two days later, launching the war without warning.
The Human and Global Toll
Netanyahu stands as one of the era's leading warmongers, alongside Russia's Vladimir Putin, with Trump catching up fast. Despite personal culpability for the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack, Netanyahu styles himself "Mr Security" ahead of autumn elections. His unilateral wars in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Gaza have failed to improve Israel's security. In Gaza, he vowed to destroy Hamas but failed, leaving over 70,000 Palestinians dead. In Lebanon, a heavy-handed campaign against Hezbollah has killed hundreds and displaced over a million, with claims of eliminating terror threats proving risible.
Iran's surviving leaders may turn more hostile, potentially seeking nuclear weapons. Past US leaders like Joe Biden sought to restrain Israel for such reasons, but Trump gives Netanyahu free rein, mounting unprecedented joint operations. Netanyahu appears indifferent to the global oil crisis, damage to Gulf allies, or the transatlantic alliance, focusing solely on destroying the Iranian threat.
Trump's Abominable Behaviour and Economic Threats
Trump's behaviour in the past three weeks has been abominable, even by his standards. He misled the public about an "imminent" Iranian threat, Tehran's nuclear timeline, nonexistent ballistic missiles, European treachery, and the Minab school massacre. He fiddles with golf balls as oil terminals burn, boasts about his White House ballroom amid thousands of casualties, insults allies like Keir Starmer, and flirts with plans to deploy ground forces to seize Iran's uranium stockpile.
Meanwhile, Trump tries to dodge blame for failing to anticipate Iran's move to widen the war and close the Strait of Hormuz. Three weeks into the conflict, key realities are clear: Iran's regime still stands and fights back, Khamenei's plan to spread war costs across the region is working, and falling stock markets, rising energy prices, and global economic disruption—along with clouded midterm election prospects—pose a bigger personal threat to Trump than any Iranian bomb.
Can Trump Extricate the US?
For these reasons, Trump belatedly moved this week to rein in Netanyahu, not out of human, legal, or moral concern, but due to economic and political pressures. The bigger question remains: can Trump extricate himself and the US before the situation worsens? If he calls a halt, will Iran or Israel listen? As the conflict spirals, Trump's ability to control the war faces its ultimate test, with global stability hanging in the balance.
