Reports emerged today of Iranian ballistic missiles targeting a U.S base in Jordan, alongside attacks on shipping around Hormuz and possible air-defense activity in Kuwait.
But the bigger development is what Iran's military is now saying: Tehran claims it has shifted to a doctrine of preemptive strikes.
Instead of waiting to be attacked and then retaliating, Iran says it will strike U.S positions whenever it believes an attack is being prepared against it.
And the timing matters.
Washington is trying to step back from the enormous military exchanges of earlier in the war and strangle Iran economically instead.
A Turkish bank accused of facilitating transactions for the IRGC was just cut off from the U.S financial system, and the Treasury Dept. is threatening further action against Iranian oil flowing to China.
Iran's response appears to be the exact warning Prof. Mohammad Marandi gave earlier today: Economic pressure will be answered with military force.
That creates a potentially dangerous new cycle.
America tightens the economic noose, Iran attacks ships or U.S military infrastructure, Washington decides whether the attack crosses its threshold for retaliation, then both sides do it again.
They're no longer simply exchanging blows.
They're probing each other to discover the new rules of a war that neither side shows any signs of ending.
@WeTheBrandon
