A ‘terrible spiral of escalation’: World braces for intensifying Iran-Israel conflict

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June 19, 2025
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Urgent international calls for restraint appear to be falling on deaf ears as the world braces for intensifying conflict in the Middle East.

All eyes are on the White House, as U.S. President Donald Trump

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Trump remained noncommittal in his comments on whether the U.S. would attack Iran.

“I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do. I can tell you this, that Iran’s got a lot of trouble, and they want to negotiate,” he told reporters on the White House lawn on Wednesday.

He added that “the next week is going to be big.”

The president said later from the Oval Office that he likes to “make the final decision one second before it’s due… because things change. Especially with war.”

‘Dirty work’

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stirred some controversy, saying in an interview Tuesday that Israel was doing the “dirty work” for other countries by carrying out strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites.

“I can only say I have the greatest respect for the fact that the Israeli army and the Israeli government had the courage to do this,” Merz told a German broadcaster. The foreign ministers of Germany, France, and the U.K. are set to meet with their Iranian counterpart on Friday.

Smoke billows from Soroka Hospital in Beersheba in southern Israel following an Iranian missile attack, on June 19, 2025.

John Wessels | Afp | Getty Images

Meanwhile, China’s Xinhua state media service cited Chinese Premier Xi Jinping saying that a ceasefire between Israel and Iran is “an urgent priority” and that the use of force is not the right way to resolve the conflict.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Xi held a phone call Thursday, during which both men strongly condemned Israel, saying the country’s actions in Iran “violated the UN Charter and other norms of international law,” according to a Kremlin aide.

The leaders, both of whom are allies of Iran, said that military action would not resolve the issues Western and Israeli leaders have over Iran’s nuclear program and that diplomacy was the only way forward.

It comes after Trump posted comments on his Truth Social platform earlier this week, demanding that Iran unconditionally surrender and warning that the U.S. has the capability to assassinate Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Khamenei responded by saying that any American attack on Iran would be met with “irreparable damage” and spark a wider war.

Overnight, Israel and Iran traded missile barrages, with Israel striking Iran’s Arak and Natanz nuclear facilities, while Iran said it hit a hospital in Israel’s Negev region after aiming for a military site.

At least 30 people were injured in the strike on the hospital, authorities said, with Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz saying after the attack that Iran’s leader “can no longer be allowed to exist.”