Since Israel launched air strikes on Iran last Friday, the two states have traded missiles with mounting casualties on both sides.

Iranian military leaders have been killed as have some of its nuclear scientists but the country’s citizens have borne the brunt of the air attacks.

Israel has said its rationale for the middle-of-the-night attack that sparked the war was its need to ensure, for its own protection, that Iran’s nuclear programme is halted.

How close Iran is to actually having a nuclear bomb is unclear but for Israel to obliterate entirely the nuclear threat it needs the US to join the war, to send its “bunker buster” mega bomb to destroy the Fordo uranium enrichment facility buried deep in the mountains.

But if the US does enter the war, what will that mean for the region? And what is Donald Trump’s position on entering the war?

Is there any chance that Iran, whose military capabilities have been weakened, will surrender?

Faraz Gergez, Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is the author of several books on the Middle East including The Great Betrayal: The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in the Middle East.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.