Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Israel-Hezbollah War Could Easily Draw In Iran, U.S. Intel Official Warns

WASHINGTON (JTA) — A top Trump administration intelligence official warned of the “real potential” of war between Israel and Hezbollah that could bring in Iran and embroil the region in conflict.

“I worry about the prospect of real major state war in the Near East region,” David Cattler, the national intelligence manager for the Near East in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, told a Washington think tank on Tuesday.

“What if a war between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah that emerges is not solely between them but becomes a northern war that embroils more of the Levant in that?” Cattler asked. “What if Iran becomes a party to that war more directly and overtly rather than clandestinely or covertly, and that becomes a conflict that doesn’t just embroil Israel and potentially us by extension but also many of our other allies in the region?

“It is a real potential that’s out there.”

Cattler, speaking to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, quoted President Trump’s comments from last year, identifying Iran as the main source of destabilization in the region.

The Iranian regime “remains the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, and provides assistance to al-Qaida, the Taliban, Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist networks,” Trump said in October. “It develops, deploys and proliferates missiles that threaten American troops and our allies. It harasses American ships and threatens freedom of navigation in the Arabian Gulf and in the Red Sea. It imprisons Americans on false charges. And it launches cyberattacks against our critical infrastructure, financial system and military.”

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.