The United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran have reached a tipping point in their long-standing hostility.

Following the killing of three American soldiers and wounding of many more in a drone attack on the US military base Tower 22 in Jordan, for which Washington has blamed the Iranian-backed Iraqi group Kata’ib Hezbollah, the US has begun a military campaign against this group and similar organisations in Iraq and Syria. President Joe Biden’s choice of response is to degrade Iranian regional capability against the US and avoid a direct conflict with Iran. But the danger of this strategy, amid the spectre of the ongoing Gaza war, could easily further unravel the Middle East.

President Joe Biden stands as an army carry team moves the case containing the remains of 24-year-old Ladon Sanders.Credit: AP

The US and Iran have been locked in a vicious cycle of animosity since the advent of the Iranian, predominantly Shia, Islamic regime 44 years ago. Following the toppling of the pro-Western monarchy of Mohammad Reza Shah in the revolution, the founder of the regime, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, condemned the US for its regionally “hegemonic” support of the Shah’s dictatorial rule and castigated Israel for its occupation of the Palestinian lands, especially Jerusalem – Islam’s third-holiest site. The takeover of the US embassy in Tehran by Khomeini’s militant supporters in 1979, where 52 of the embassy’s personnel were kept hostage for 444 days, and the US’s rejection of the Islamic regime as........

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