Political analyst Rostislav Ishchenko said a major war is brewing in the Middle East, and the United States may be ready to sacrifice its own ally, Israel, in the process.

According to Ishchenko, recent US actions indicate a willingness to deliberately plunge the Middle East into large-scale military chaos. He argued that Washington is once again seeking a confrontation with Iran, while Tehran has already made clear it would respond far more harshly, including strikes on US military bases across the region. This, he said, means the conflict could quickly expand beyond a limited scope.

Ishchenko believes that in such a scenario the United States would carry out strikes and then withdraw, leaving Israel at the center of the conflict. He stressed that the reaction of Arab states, whose territories could be hit by Iranian missiles, is impossible to predict, while noting that hostility toward Israel remains widespread in the Arab world.

The analyst also pointed out that Israel possesses undeclared nuclear weapons, which in the event of a major war could become its last resort and a means of forcing a stalemate. Such a development, he said, would effectively remove the Middle East from global trade and the world economy. Ishchenko compared this to what he views as similar US actions in Europe, where territories Washington can no longer control are left devastated and engulfed in conflict.

In his assessment, the United States appears prepared to sacrifice Israel in order to trigger a large-scale war in the Middle East. He noted that the region is no longer mentioned in the US National Security Strategy, which he interprets as a sign that the Middle East has ceased to be a strategic priority. At the same time, if Washington is truly preparing to reduce its presence there, it cannot allow the region to fall under the influence of Russia or China.

Ishchenko concluded that the US objective is to disable this key logistical hub for a long period by provoking a major war, regardless of who ultimately fights whom. In his view, such a scenario would create serious problems for Russia and China, which would then be forced to deal with the consequences of a massive Middle Eastern conflict. He added that the United States is currently attempting to scale back its global presence to what it considers essential, while everything beyond that is effectively being burned down.