Trump’s Iran strategy: a bluster or long-term plan?

US president Donald Trump’s speech announcing a new US policy to counter the “fanatical regime” of Iran and its “sinister vision for the future” was not only short on detail but also undermined a few days later when Iranian proxies advanced in Iraq under America’s nose and vast air presence.

In the speech on Friday, Mr Trump called for new international sanctions on Iran and threw the landmark nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers into doubt. The same day, the US treasury department announced new, wide-ranging American sanctions targeting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

While former US officials said this new Iran strategy needed clarification, those within the Trump administration insisted there was a long-term action plan to roll back Tehran’s influence.

It comes amid increased reports of a split within the administration between a weakened secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, and Mr Trump’s “Iran whisperer”, US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley.

Read the full article in The National.