IRAN/MIDDLE EAST/MILITARY/NUCLEAR/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump has moved closer to a military conflict with Iran than at any time in his presidency, redirecting warships to the Middle East to respond to what officials said Monday [5-6-19] are heightened Iranian threats to U.S. troops and facilities. The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier is headed to the region earlier than planned ahead of Iran’s expected announcement on Wednesday [5-8-19] that it will pull back on some of its commitments under the Iran nuclear deal, which the U.S. quit a year ago on Trump’s order. The White House, meanwhile, is expected to impose even more sanctions on Iran in the coming days. Taken together, Trump’s ‘maximum pressure campaign’ against the Islamic Republic and its latest attempt at gunboat diplomacy may be reaching a hazardous crescendo…The situation has escalated swiftly since Trump designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization last month, a move some top Pentagon officials warned could lead to retaliation by Iran or its proxies against the United States and its allies, including Israel.”
–Nahal Toosi and Bryan Bender, “Trump inches toward military confrontation with Iran,” Politico, May 6, 2019 6:05 pm