IT has been six months since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran — a costly misadventure that remains far from being resolved. In fact, the threat of renewed hostilities is ever-present, despite efforts by regional states, such as Pakistan, Oman and Qatar, to revive peace talks. The war has been a miscalculation of Trumpian proportions, and the US president and his coterie of war hawks have few ‘good’ options to save face and bring their troops home. Despite the decimation of its religious, political and military top tier in the first few days of the conflict, Iran — which is militarily no match for the US war machine — managed to defend itself, and now conservative factions within the Iranian establishment are unwilling to back down. Rather, they seem prepared to absorb the pain and play the long game with the Americans. Yet instead of realising that the kinetic option has failed against Tehran, the US has stepped up its economic war against the Islamic Republic, warning sovereign states not to do business with Iran. While this action will impact the Iranian economy — which has survived sanctions for over four decades — it is unlikely to make Tehran raise the white flag,
