The crisis is one that Biden hoped to avoid at all costs. If the worst has been avoided, in the absence of massive losses among the Israeli population, Biden is faced with a potentially explosive situation.
Even though Tehran announced that its operation was over, the American president must now convince Israel not to undertake reprisals likely to lead to a regional conflagration. He called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday evening, asking him to consider Saturday a victory, since Iran's attacks had been largely unsuccessful and demonstrated Israel's military superiority. “I told him that Israel had demonstrated a capacity,” Biden said. ‘I said, ‘You’ve got a lot of work to do.’” “It’s going to be a long time before we get the results we want,’ Biden said of the U.S. response to the Iranian attack. � “We’re going to have to get through this.”