“I may do it, I may not do it - nobody knows what I’m going to do.” With this sentence, spoken to reporters at the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump once again made it clear that America’s role in the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran is, above all, a tactically deployed riddle. While the world waits for a decision on whether the U.S. will actively intervene militarily in the Middle East war, Trump is conducting a form of foreign policy that seems less guided by strategy than by performance. But the price of this calculated uncertainty could be high. Tensions are rising - not only in the Middle East but also within the American centers of power. Iran’s supreme leader issued a stark warning on Wednesday that any direct U.S. involvement in Israel’s airstrikes on Iranian territory would be met with “harsh retaliation.” To seriously target Iran’s underground nuclear facilities, bunker-busting bombs would be needed - and those would have to be dropped by American aircraft. Trump, however, gave only evasive answers - and left the rest to speculation.
Behind the scenes, however, concrete preparations are already underway: U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee announced that Americans in Israel would be evacuated by plane and cruise ship. A special task force at the State Department is active, with around 700,000 U.S. citizens currently in Israel, many of them with dual citizenship. Thousands more Americans are also present in other countries in the region, including Iran. And while diplomatic channels appear to be at a standstill - Iran denies having sent negotiators to Oman, even though planes departed for Muscat - conservative forces in Washington are preparing to act if necessary without a diplomatic solution. In Dubai, Republican Congressman Zach Nunn made it clear that diplomacy and deterrence must go hand in hand for him. “If the Iranians refuse to choose the path to peace, then America has the ability to eliminate their nuclear program for them,” he told the Associated Press. At the same time, his Democratic colleague Brad Schneider emphasized that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose an “existential threat.”
While the bipartisan delegation of four U.S. lawmakers - two Democrats, two Republicans - meets with allies in the Gulf, Iran’s proxy militias are also voicing increasingly uncompromising positions. The Houthi militia in Yemen announced that it would continue its attacks on Israel - as long as the “assault on Gaza” does not end. Houthi leader Mahdi al-Mashat declared that they would continue their support for the Palestinians “regardless of the sacrifices.” The Houthis are considered the last active component of Iran’s so-called “Axis of Resistance,” regularly launching rockets at Israel and disrupting shipping in the Red Sea. Trump, however, remains silent on a central question: Will he give the order to strike Iranian targets - or will he stick to hints and military displays? His opponents accuse him of hesitation, his supporters call it smart unpredictability. One thing is certain: with each passing day, the risk increases that rhetoric and reality can no longer be separated. And the fact that the American president, of all people, is relying on “Nobody knows what I’m going to do” in this situation is a troubling signal to a world that is not waiting for tweets, but for decisions.
English 
German 
