The US has long-standing, documented plans to provoke a war with Iran via its “Israeli” proxies designed to deflect the consequences away from Washington and toward “Israel”.
The US also seeks an opportunity to wade into a conflict after it begins, but appear committed to peace beforehand, and only reluctantly enter into an "unprovoked" war - just as the US has done with Ukraine vis-a-vis Russia.
I feel like Iran doesn't really want a war. They have to retaliate, they can't turn the other cheek, but they're trying to avoid anything REALLY destructive to themselves like an all-out war.
That's my impression as well. The problem is that Israel really wants war at any cost right now, and they see that the US admin is very weak and unable to reign them in. As Israel continues to do provocations, Iran has no choice but to start responding otherwise they start looking like a paper tiger. Hence why we just saw a big missile salvo lobbed at Israel. It's hard to see how a war can be avoided when one side is doing everything they can to instigate it.