Washington is reportedly worried about a major escalation fraught with "catastrophic consequences"

https://www.rt.com/news/595934-biden-no-support-iran-retaliation/

For many years Israel has been pushing Washington to attack Iran, and neoconservatives and Congress have been chomping at the bit to do so. If this report on Axios is correct, it suggests that the power of neoconservatives over US Middle East Policy has been broken. I cannot help to be a bit suspicious of the report as it attributes more sense to Biden and his regime than we have previously seen any sign of.

And there are what seem to be conflicting reports. For example: "US sends reinforcements to 'defend Israel'" https://www.rt.com/news/595838-us-defend-israel-from-iran/ and "Biden has been clear: The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran," US National Security Council spokeswoman stated. https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/iran-warns-us-not-to-respond-says-next-attack-on-israel-will-be-more-severe-796859

There are also differing reports as to the success of the Iranian attack. As I have previously written the attack and the risks of it could have been prevented by the announcement of a Russian-Chinese-Iranian mutual defense treaty, but the political vision was absent.

The attack could also have been prevented if Syria had been permitted to use Russian air defense systems in Syria to prevent the Israeli attack on Damascus that provoked the Iranian retaliatory response.

If the Axios report is correct, the downside is that it is likely to convince Putin and Xi that Washington has finally come to its senses, and they will put their guard down and be tricked into more deceiving agreements like the Minsk Agreement resulting in even more distrust.