Iran and the U.S. have sent mixed messages at different moments, but neither side appears ready to make major concessions in the showdown.
two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman
"Although this particular incident might not be the one to push the parties over the edge of the abyss of war, each cycle of escalation brings us closer to the brink."Hours after the explosions, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described the incident as a"blatant assault" and said the U.S. had concluded Iran was responsible for targeting the Norwegian-owned and Japanese-owned ships along the vital oil transit route near the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
"Iran is lashing out because the regime wants our successful maximum pressure campaign lifted," he said. In a bid to broker talks, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe paid an unusual visit to Tehran Wednesday and said he brought with him"a message" from President Trump. “We’re on a collision course here,” Stavridis, who is the chief international diplomacy and national security analyst for NBC News, told MSNBC.
Norman Roule, a former CIA officer who focused on Iran, said"the circumstantial evidence is vast and sufficiently significant that Iran was responsible for these attacks." “This is purely a function of Trump's escalatory 'maximum pressure' campaign. You can't just keep poking someone & expect them to sit around & take it," Goldenberg, now a senior fellow at the Center for New American Security think tank, said in a tweet.
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