Iran-US face-off tests Trump

It is no accident that John Bolton, the national security adviser of President Donald Trump, flew straight to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to comfort him about the sudden backtracking of Trump on his decision to launch three military strikes against Iranian military installations in retaliation for the downing of a US spy drone over the waters of the Strait of Hormuz. 

Netanyahu is in effect the architect of Trump's policy on Iran from day one when the US President withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal between the so-called P5+one nations (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) and Iran. The agreement aims to prevent Tehran from the development or the acquisition of nuclear bombs in return for a relaxation of US-led sanctions against it. 

The next question is why Trump is so prepared to toe the Israeli line on Iran, so closely? The answer is simple and straightforward: Eyeing the 2020 US presidential  election, Trump wants to continue to count on the support of Israel and the Jewish lobby  which would make his second term at the White House nearly a sure thing. 

Of course, this does not absolve Iran from the responsibility for giving Trump reasons to strike back at it first by economic and financial sanctions and then by threats of selective military strikes. 

Iranian officials have been giving the US ammunition for making military threats against it by so openly interfering in the internal political affairs of Syria, Lebanon and, last but not least, in Yemen. The Houthis in Yemen would not have been able to carry out sustained attacks against the Saudi-led forces in Yemen had it not been for the open military, economic and political support of Tehran.

Feeling the crunch of being driven against the wall by Trump’s sanctions, Iranian officials have reacted by wreaking havoc on regional security and stability right across most of the Middle Eastern countries. 

Now that the US president has vowed to increase sanctions on Tehran, Iranian officials are expected to stoke tensions in the region likewise on a tit for tat basis knowing that Trump would not dare start a major military operation against it in an election year, especially when he does not know how such a military entanglement may end.