A 12-day ceasefire between Israel and Iran has halted open hostilities but is widely viewed by regional analysts as a tactical pause rather than a settlement. Military experts say Israel regards its June air campaign, conducted with U.S. support, as the opening phase of a longer effort to degrade Tehran’s nuclear infrastructure and maintain what Israeli officers call a “free highway to Tehran,” underscoring Israel’s newly established air superiority over Iran. Iranian policymakers, meanwhile, are expected to use the lull to rebuild conventional forces, tighten internal security and rally public opinion through nationalist messaging, according to assessments by Kabir Taneja of the Observer Research Foundation. The leadership in Tehran has already detained hundreds on espionage charges and executed several alleged collaborators as it seeks to address what it sees as deep intelligence vulnerabilities exposed during the conflict. Foreign-policy scholar Suzanne Maloney writes that the joint U.S.–Israeli strikes inflicted substantial damage on Iran’s nuclear facilities and decapitated parts of its military command, but did not eliminate Tehran’s capacity to reconstitute its program. Maloney warns that the setback, combined with Iran’s sense of strategic isolation, could harden internal support for pursuing a nuclear deterrent more covertly. With Washington signalling no appetite for a prolonged Middle East deployment and Gulf states wary of further disruption to their economic agendas, diplomats see limited prospects for a durable de-escalation. Analysts caution that absent a new diplomatic framework, the region could drift back toward confrontation once the ceasefire lapses.