President Donald Trump vowed that his order to bomb Iran would be a one-off and not the beginning of another prolonged US war in the Middle East.

But with Trump musing about everything from "unconditional surrender" to regime change, it remains to be seen if the US intervention will remain limited -- or if Iran will let it be.

Two days after the United States bombed Iran's key nuclear sites as part of an Israeli-led military campaign, Iran fired missiles at a major US base in Qatar that were shot down.

Trump said that Iran gave advance notice of the missiles and offered thanks, apparently seeing a choreography to show that Iran can hit back without causing American casualties that would be sure to trigger another US strike.

Iran acted similarly in 2020 when Trump ordered the killing of top general Qasem Soleimani, hitting back at a base in Iraq housing US troops without killing any -- and tensions then subsided.

But Israel's strikes on Iran starting on June 13 mark the........

© Al Monitor