Iran’s Boiling Frog Strategy | Khosro Isfahani

Iran has attacked two Emirati supertankers with cruise missiles and attacked Bahrain and Jordan in retaliation for a third night of US airstrikes on targets across the country. President Trump informs Congress that the war has resumed and orders a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz. A new Reuters poll shows nearly 80 percent of Americans now expect the war with Iran to continue for the long term, although only 37 percent support the U.S. military campaign.

Meanwhile, Israeli and Lebanese negotiators are meeting in Rome for the latest round of ceasefire talks, as Beirut pushes for an Israeli withdrawal from parts of southern Lebanon under a pilot plan. France pushes for the UN Security Council to renew a mandate for the failed UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL.

In Gaza, Israel says it has killed Hamas’s naval commander along with three more terrorists, while the European Commission has unveiled a new $1 billion reconstruction initiative backed by 15 countries and international organisations.

Elsewhere, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi is making his first visit to the White House in a bid to strengthen ties with Washington, despite fresh defiance from pro-Iranian militias refusing to disarm.

Today’s guest is Khosro Isfahani, Research Director at the National Union for Democracy in Iran (NUFDI). He says the Islamic Republic is deploying a ‘boiling frog’ strategy with the West, constantly testing its boundaries until it will be too weak to respond to its aggression.

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