The U.S-Iran ‘Maximum Pressure’ Campaign: A new proxy war in the Middle East?

The United States has hurled its first airstrikes in nearly a decade against Iran-backed militia forces in Iraq and Syria. Cloaked under the umbrella of a ‘maximum pressure’ campaign, whereby draconian U.S economic sanctions compel Iran to more worthwhile enterprises at the table of negotiations, it now seems evident, that, this ‘political betrothal’ is now steering the US into a new proxy war in the Middle East. Although the U.S remains equivocal about whether the ultimate goal of its ‘maximum pressure’ campaign is to force a regime change in Iran, a modification in Iran’s behavior, or even to claim influence for Iraq as an objective, Iran’s responses are causes for concern. And maximum pressure now demands maximum confrontation.