LONDON, July 15. /TASS/. The resumption of military aggression against Iran increases the likelihood that the Middle East conflict will devalue US President Donald Trump’s second term in office, the Financial Times (FT) reported.

"Trump has seemed to come to the end of his rope on [Iran]," Ron Bonjean, a Republican political strategist, told the publication. "Reality is setting in that this is going to take a while. It could be months or years before this conflict gets resolved," he said. It remains unclear how the US leader intends to "limit the economic, political and diplomatic costs of the latest escalation, particularly as the autumn midterm elections loom," the publication said.

"Escalation to de-escalate <…> hasn’t proven to be very successful in the past," Becca Wasser, a defense strategy expert at the Center for a New American Security think-tank in Washington, noted. "There’s continuing to try and squeeze Iran economically as part of a long game. But thus far that hasn’t been as successful as President Trump would like," she added.

According to Elizabeth Dent, former director for the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula in the office of the US secretary of defense, "the entire conflict has now become about the Strait of Hormuz rather than about what we initially went to war over, which was the nuclear programme, the ballistic missile and cruise missile programme <...>".

Earlier, it was reported that Trump had a discussion with key administration officials on July 14 on the topic of expanding the scale of military operations against Iran in order to force Tehran to yield to Washington’s demands. In an interview with Fox News television channel, the US president also asserted that Washington is prepared to destroy all Iranian bridges and power plants if Tehran does not agree to negotiations. He stressed that such strikes could be carried out next week.