As Trump balks again at escalating war, Iran smells ‘blood in the water’ and looks to exploit its newfound strategic advantage, experts say

In what has become a familiar pattern in the Iran war, President Donald Trump again threatened a massive attack then pulled back from the brink.

But while he attributed his latest reversal to U.S. allies pleading with him to give diplomacy another chance, experts also see signs Iran is gaining the upper hand.

That’s as Tehran has used its proxies to expand the war across the region, most notably Houthis rebels threatening ships in the Red Sea that are trying to use the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.

At the same time, Iran has warned its Persian Gulf neighbors they will be targets in the event of a renewed bombardment after demonstrating that its long-range weapons can evade U.S. air defenses.

“Iran and its clients see blood in the water and see a benefit for all of them in escalating and entering the fray,” Afshon Ostovar, an Iran expert at the Naval Postgraduate School, told the Financial Times.

He added that their goal is to prolong the conflict instead of inflicting more severe damage as........

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