I’ve spent the last several days checking with foreign policy experts, analysts and specialists in the Middle East for their understanding of Donald Trump’s real goal in Iran, and how anyone (including him) will know he’s achieved it.

Several told me that Trump is seeking the kind of “war” that the US executed in Venezuela – an abduction of a leader by special forces or, as in June, surgical airstrikes on locations where Iran appeared to be building nuclear bombs.

With the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, they said, Trump can now claim that his goal of “regime change” has been achieved.

Hence, as soon as possible – before US casualties mount and before higher oil prices show up at the pump – he’ll declare the attack on Iran a success and say the action now moves back to the bargaining table.

They assume he’ll now expect Iran to cave to his demands for an end to the production of weapons grade plutonium and to its nuclear program, a destruction of all its ballistic missiles, and agreements to disarm its proxies: Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas, various militias in Iraq (PMF,........

© The Guardian