What comes next as the US enters the conflict between Israel and Iran

As the world witnesses the rapid escalation of conflict in the Middle East, the question on many people's minds is: "What happens next?".

Four analysts speaking to Al Jazeera give their opinions, read more below:

US attack 'more or less guarantees' Iran will be nuclear-armed within decade

Trita Parsi, the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, says that there was "absolutely no evidence" that Iran was about to get a nuclear weapon.

"Neither was it existential, nor imminent," he told Al Jazeera.

"We have to keep in mind the reality of the situation, which is that two nuclear-equipped countries attacked a non-nuclear weapons state without having gotten attacked first. Israel was not attacked by Iran – it started that war; the United States was not attacked by Iran – it started this confrontation at this point."

Parsi said the attacks on Iran "will send shockwaves" throughout the world because it will be very difficult for countries that risk ending up in the crosshairs of the US and Israel to feel that they are safe without having a nuclear deterrent.

"So I fear that we will see proliferation, but I also think that this has more or less guaranteed that Iran will be a nuclear weapons state in five to 10 years from now."

'This is how the escalation cycle starts'

Adam Weinstein, the deputy director of the Middle East programme at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said the US is now at risk of getting dragged into a prolonged war in the Middle East.

He noted that Iran has already indicated that it intends to continue with its nuclear programme.

"They'll do it more secretly. They might exit the NPT, and, of course, the Israelis will say, 'Well, this is why we need even more strikes.' And there's likely to be some sort of retaliation by the Iranians, or else the very legitimacy of their regime would be in question," Weinstein said.

"And so this is how the escalation cycle starts. And so I'm very sceptical that it will be a one-off strike by the US. I think the US is at risk of being pulled into a war of choice with Iran that, unfortunately, it started."

Iranians fear Netanyahu wants to 'dismember' Iran along ethnic lines

Mehran Kamrava, a professor of government at Georgetown University in Qatar, told Al Jazeera that the people of Iran fear that Israel's goals stretch far beyond its stated goal of destroying the country's nuclear and missile programmes.

"Many in Iran believes that Israel's end game really is to turn Iran into Libya, into Iraq, what it was after the US invasion in 2003 and or Afghanistan. And so the dismemberment of Iran is what Netanyahu has in mind, at least in as far as Tehran is concerned," he said.

"And so, for the Iranians capitulation is not an option. Because they would see this as not just regime change, but as a dismemberment of the country. Already, there's talk in Jerusalem of providing security guarantees to Iran's different ethnic communities, the Baluch, the Arabs, the Kurds, and to do to Iran the de facto division that has occurred in places like Libya, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan."

'Netanyahu's plan all along was to drag US into this'

David Phillips, an academic visitor at Oxford University, says Netanyahu has succeeded in his goal of dragging the US into direct military action against Israel.

"This whole episode was unnecessary. The US was about to resume diplomacy with Iran, there was a proposal on the table that would have obviated the need for military action," he told Al Jazeera.

Nonetheless, the Israeli prime minister "decided to go ahead", said Phillips, who served as a senior adviser at the US State Department during the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations.

"His plan all along was to drag the United States into it. He seems to have been successful with that, and the US has been directly involved in attacking three nuclear sites.

"So it's wishful thinking for the US administration to believe that this is an isolated incident, that now it's the time for peace."