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The West must call Iran's bluff or face the devastating consequences

Mandatory Credit: Photo by NABIL MOUNZER/EPA-EFE/REX (10265665o) Hezbollah Supporters listen to Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah delivers a speech via a big screen during a gathering to commemorate the 'Al-Quds (Jerusalem) International Day' in southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, 31 May 2019. Many Muslim countries demonstrate on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan, to mark Al-Quds day, and to express solidarity with the Palestinian people. Al-Quds (Jerusalem) International Day is an annual event opposing Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories. Anti-Zionist demonstrations are held on this day in some Muslim and Arab countries and by Muslim and Arab communities around the world, but especially in Iran where the occasion was first suggested. Al-Quds (Jerusalem) International Day in Lebanon, Beirut 
Tehran calculate that any US response will be very limited - but is this correct? Credit: NABIL MOUNZER/ REX

Appeasement has failed. Time for a tough approach

Neither the US nor Iran wants war. President Trump was elected partly on a platform that sought to end long-running US involvement in conflict in the Middle East and South Asia. Even if he wanted it he knows better than to engage in a major war with Iran in the run-in towards the 2020 presidential election. Following the traumas of Iraq and Afghanistan he also knows he would be hard-pressed to find allies to fight alongside the US.

As for Iran, the ayatollahs know the immense damage that would be inflicted on their country by war with the US. That alone does not deter them —  they would be willing to exchange the lives of thousands of their...

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