Countdown to Middle East war? How the region can step back from the brink

JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON –With Israel poised to attack Iran, having already blindsided friends and foes alike with its blitz against Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, all the talk is of an inexorable slide toward a new, pan-Middle Eastern war.Yet brakes remain to halt a regional fall into a wider conflagration that would lock Israel and Tehran into escalating conflict and suck in other nations, according to several people with experience in intelligence and military decision-making.

Israel is unlikely to flinch from launching an aerial barrage on Iran as soon as in the coming days in retaliation for Tehran’s decision to launch about 180 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday, the experts said.