Iran War Descends Into Regional Conflict With Global Spillovers

(Frud Bezhan – RFE RL) In just a few days, the United States and Israel’s massive bombardment of Iran has sprawled into a regional war that has dragged in key America allies in the Middle East and sent global energy prices soaring. Iran has responded to the joint US and Israeli campaign, which killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on February 28, by unleashing unprecedented barrages of missiles and drones at US military and diplomatic facilities and striking key energy infrastructure in the Persian Gulf. Fighting an existential threat, experts say, Tehran is aiming to raise the economic, political, and military pain of the conflict for the United States and secure an end to hostilities. “Tehran appears to be wagering on [US President] Donald Trump’s reluctance to become entangled in messy and costly wars, seeking to demonstrate that it possesses the capability to prolong the conflict and make it increasingly complex and expensive,” said Hamidreza Azizi, a fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. – Iran War Descends Into Regional Conflict With Global Spillovers