President Trump has set a new red line for military action against Iran: the death of one US citizen at the hands of the Iranians would be the trigger for an attack. Despite his dramatic change of heart over approving a dawn strike on Iranian air defence sites today, Mr Trump has signalled to Tehran that he would still be prepared to escalate the tense confrontation in the Gulf. Senior US commanders have indicated that the military would defend themselves against targeted attacks by the Iranians on any US assets or international shipping under their protection. A Qadr H long-range ballistic surface-to-surface missile is fired by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard during an exercise Omid Vahabzadeh/Fars News Agency/Associated PressGeneral Paul Selva, vice-chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, warned this week: “If the Iranians come after US citizens, US assets or US military, we reserve the…

Source: The Times June 21, 2019 16:07 UTC