BEIJING, January 15. /TASS/. While the US administration has so far refrained from military intervention against Iran, given President Donald Trump’s personality, it’s highly likely that they’ll do just that, Han Jianwei, an associate professor of the Middle East Studies Institute at Shanghai International Studies University, told TASS in an interview.
"Right now, Iran is perhaps experiencing the most serious crisis since the Islamic revolution, being faced with both domestic protests against the economic and living conditions and the external threat of military intervention from the United States and Israel," the expert explained. "The pressure from the United States is likely based on the premise that Iran has been extremely weakened which creates quite a favorable opportunity for toppling the Iranian regime," she continued.
Han pointed out that the United States and Iran have been at odds for years, and now the chance of all-out war is as great as ever. "If those differences escalate to a certain extent, the likelihood of a war will be quite high. Trump’s personality, too, makes it much more likely that the United States will attack Iran," she continued. "However, the Trump administration is not fully ready for military action against Iran yet," she argued.
Unlike Venezuela, the expert said, it would be much harder to crush Iran with a single strike, which is why the US side is currently weighing how to deal a swift blow to Iran with as minimal losses and at as low a cost as possible, Han added.
"However, I believe that the chances of using force against Iran under Trump are quite high," she concluded. Han cited encirclement without an attack, psychological warfare, an information war or a cyber war among potential scenarios for the near future.