Iran and Israel continued on Sunday their aerial attacks, which began Friday with a series of Israeli strikes on Iran.

President Donald Trump said the United will come down on Iran “at levels never seen before” if the Middle Eastern country attacks.

Amid ongoing strikes between Israel and Iran, Trump is publicly and privately making clear his desire to keep the United States out of the fray for now.

The conflict, the most intense fighting between the two countries in decades, has been met in the United States with feelings of “frustration and helplessness,” as well as heartbreak.

Shapiro served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East until January—charged with, among other things, considering scenarios in which tensions between Israel and Iran escalated into all-out war and preparing U.

Countries trade strikes as tensions grow over larger Middle East conflict - Iranian missiles struck an apartment building in the Galilee region, killing four people, as the countries exchanged fire

The push to do a deal on the country’s nuclear program could be revived, even after the Israeli strikes scuppered the latest round of talks.

The United States is the main international backer of Israel, Iran's biggest regional foe. It is also a close ally of Sunni Gulf monarchies which for years pursued their own rivalry with the Islamic Republic, seeing it as their main regional threat.