US-Iran war, then and now: How the landscape has changed since February
The positions of Washington and Tehran have changed dramatically since US-Israeli strikes began the war, analysts say.
Iran says seven oil tankers have caught fire or sustained damage in and around the Strait of Hormuz as its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warns that renewed US attacks could trigger a wider response and the world braces for the possibility of renewed hostilities.
Although analysts consider a US attack before the November 3 midterm elections unlikely, sabre-rattling on both sides has raised fears that escalating rhetoric could give way to renewed attacks with control of the Strait of Hormuz and Iranian nuclear facilities at the heart of the conflict.
But the critical Gulf waterway, through which one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies were shipped before the war, was not even an issue before the United States and Israel first launched strikes on Iran on February 28. Furthermore, talks over Iran’s nuclear programme were under way at the time.
Meanwhile, Trump faces much tougher political pressure before any renewed strikes. His approval rating has fallen from 40 percent in a Reuters/Ipsos poll reported days before the war began to just 31 percent in a survey released on Monday – the lowest recorded by the pollster across either of Trump’s presidential terms – amid frustration over high petrol prices and the deep unpopularity of the war on Iran among Americans.