The United States and Israel have embarked on what they say could be a lengthy military campaign in Iran after unleashing strikes over the weekend that killed the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several senior military and political figures. The escalation of attacks from both sides opens a volatile chapter of global uncertainty, raising the specter of a regional war, unbridled retaliation and broader great power entanglement that has already rattled markets sensitive to energy supply disruptions and geopolitical risk, experts say.
The spiraling hostilities also thrusts Congress into a debate over whether to rein in the president’s unchecked use of military force. The U.S. could be thrown into a constitutional crisis should lawmakers successfully pass a pending war powers resolution that could restrain Trump, the experts said. Trump has been building up an armada of aircraft carriers, destroyers and air defense systems in the region in recent weeks as indirect nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear and missile programs, mediated by Oman, played out. Tehran has long been on a war-footing amid years of sanctions, covert strikes and simmering hostilities with the U.S. and Israel.
