‘No clear strategy’: how Trump went from shock and awe to wait and see in Iran

Lack of a sustained plan to end the war has convinced US allies that the White House is running out of ideas

Nearly eight weeks after Donald Trump launched his assault on https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran">Iran, the White House has shifted from a strategy of shock-and-awe bombardments and leadership decapitation to a plan of sustained economic pressure as it tests the wills of a regime practiced over decades at wars of attrition.

Since the negotiations stalled, the White House has begun to shift its messaging to say it is willing to wait to strike a more durable deal with Iran – despite the growing economic toll inflicted on the world economy by the closure of the strait of Hormuz.

The reason, senior officials have said, is because of the joint US-Israeli strikes were so successful that they have fractured Iran’s leadership and prevented a new consolidation of power.