Is Trump seeking a quick US exit?

United States President Donald Trump is attempting a high-risk manoeuvre in bombing Iran and then quickly seeking to de-escalate tensions, analysts told Al Jazeera.

But it remains to be seen whether Washington can navigate a clean exit from the deadly imbroglio, which has the potential to erupt into a large-scale regional confrontation.

Even if Trump avoids a wider war, analysts say troubling questions remain over how worthwhile the US military intervention was.

Despite the rocky first hours after the ceasefire announcement, Israeli and Iranian leaders appear to have fallen in line with Trump's messaging about peace.

But experts warn that the talk of peace and diplomacy might conceal greater challenges ahead. Trita Parsi, the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, a think tank, told Al Jazeera that Trump's harsh words for the latest attack reveal his increasingly public frustrations with Israel, a longtime US ally.

Sina Azodi, an assistant professor of Middle East politics at George Washington University, noted that the US strikes appear to be less successful than the Trump administration has claimed. Evidence has surfaced that Iran relocated much of its uranium stockpile in the lead-up to the attack.

"In the long term, you can't bomb the knowledge. Iran's fissile material appears to have survived. And now Iranians have a lot of motive for withdrawing from the NPT," he said. That, he warned, would mean that "it would be impossible to monitor their nuclear programme".