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From the defiant tone struck by Iran’s newly appointed supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, in his first statement as leader on Thursday, it appears that the ayatollah has no intention of calling an end to Iranian resistance. Instead, Khamenei – who did not appear in public but whose words were read out on state media – said Iran was preparing to open new fronts in the war and would continue to block the strait of Hormuz.

He also vowed to avenge Iran’s “martyrs”, among whom he counts his own father and wife, stressing that “every member of the nation who is martyred by the enemy is an independent subject for revenge”.

The messages coming from the Trump administration continue to be mixed. The president himself seems to change his mind on this fairly regularly. He told a rally in Kentucky on March 11 that while: “You never like to say too early you won. We won.” On Monday March 9 he was saying that: “I think the war is very complete, pretty much … we’re very far ahead of schedule.”

But at the same time he has also declared that nothing short of “unconditional surrender” will do and that he wants to pick Iran’s new leader personally.

Andy Gawthorpe believes Donald Trump is talking himself out of seeking an early exit ramp from the war. He explains that whether a conflict is a success or failure is “typically judged against the goals the combatants set for themselves”. But, he notes, not only has Trump set some lofty and unlikely goals, but his senior advisers are also introducing other factors into the equation.

Gawthorpe says it may be that the war aims as expressed by secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, are more realistic. Rubio wants to destroy Iran’s ballistic missile programme and its navy. This is a more achievable wishlist, although it might cost the US a fortune and seriously deplete its........

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