Axios' Barak Ravid, a journalist very close to the Israeli government,writesWednesday that the Trump White House is now "closer to a major war in the Middle East than most Americans realize. It could begin very soon."

The sources he spoke to, which could be American or Israeli, say that such an operation would be a "massive" campaign at least weeks in sustained length. If it the campaign goes the way of Iraq or Afghanistan, or Syria, the conflict could eventually be measured in years and not just months.

Further, "The sources noted it would likely be a joint U.S.-Israeli campaign that'smuch broader in scope—and more existential for the regime— than the Israeli-led 12-day war last June, which the U.S. eventually joined to take out Iran's underground nuclear facilities."

All of this looks to be going down with no public or Congressional debatewhatsoever: "With the attention of Congress and the public otherwise occupied, there islittle public debate about what could be the most consequential U.S. military intervention in the Middle East in at least a decade," notes Axios.

Both sides are citing 'progress' in the two rounds of indirect negotiations (in Oman and then Geneva) which have taken place thus far, however, there's been nothing yet in the way of specific agreement. Washington's commitment to see talks through even for weeks at this point is highly in quesiton.

The following was the initial Iranian assessment of how the talks led by Witkoff and Kushner in Geneva wentthis week:

Iran has said it hasreached an understanding with the US on the main "guiding principles"to resolve their dispute over Tehran's nuclear programme.

Speaking after indirect talks in Geneva, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi added that work still needed to be done. The US said "progress was made".

Badr Albusaidi, foreign minister of mediator Oman, said the negotiations "concluded with good progress towards identifying common goals and relevant technical issues".

The Iranians have asked for two weeks to hammer out a detailed proposal, with an American officialstating, "Progress was made, but there are still a lot of details to discuss. The Iranians saidthey would come back in the next two weeks with detailed proposalsto address some of the open gaps in our positions."

Source: ZeroHedge News