Trump faces threat of widening regional war with Iran 

The U.S. war with Iran is flaring up across the region, threatening to pull U.S. allies into a fight that President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu started five months ago. 

Egyptian leaders said on Thursday that a drone sparked a fire on two gas vessels in the port of Damietta on Wednesday, and while no one has claimed responsibility, the incident has fueled concerns about a widening war. 

Wednesday’s incident comes as the U.S. launches retaliatory strikes on Iran for launching missiles on U.S. forces in Jordan earlier this week. 

And Saudi Arabia teamed up with the U.S. on Tuesday night to launch joint strikes on Iranian proxy militias in Iraq. That came in response to drone strikes on the Saudi Aramco oil processing facility in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia.

The attack on the Egyptian port of Damietta underscores the potential vulnerabilities of the Suez Canal, which connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and highlights how expanding the conflict could further disrupt global trade. 

Iran pinned the blame for the tanker strike on Israel, while praising Egypt as an “important friend and partner” in the region. 

“We must all be vigilant against Israeli plots and false-flag operations designed to undermine regional peace,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abass Araghchi said on social media. “The threat is clear, mutual and fearful of Muslim solidarity.” 

Military experts who spoke to The Hill on Thursday were skeptical of Iran’s ability to keep up such attacks, assuming Tehran is to blame, while also questioning the strategic prudence of pulling Egypt into the war. 

“It’s not clear that they’re able to do that at scale to the point where they would be significant. So if they could demonstrate, like the Ukrainians are against the Russians, that they would have the ability to conduct a sustained campaign against strategic targets like that, then that might be a little bit more influential,” said Ret. Army Lt. Gen Sean MacFarland. 

He compared the drone strike to Iran’s firing at Diego Garcia, a the joint U.S.-U.K. base in the Indian Ocean earlier this year. The Diego Garcia attack didn’t land, but it shattered assumptions about Iran’s missile strike radius.  

Jason Campbell, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, noted that the war has been a regional conflict since its inception in March, but characterized the latest Iranian strikes as “an uptick.” 

“Perhaps........

© The Hill