Iran seeks to pressure Trump before midterms, analysts say

Analysts say Iran is intensifying confrontational actions against the United States to raise the political and economic cost of the war for President Donald Trump before US midterm elections on November 3.

The assessment follows several Iranian moves in and around the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries around a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas. Iran has announced and expanded a prohibited zone there, and the Revolutionary Guards said Wednesday they targeted 10 vessels that tried to cross it.

The Guards also said they struck a US military base in Jordan after US forces destroyed five Iranian oil tankers a day earlier. CBS News reported that roughly eight US F-15s sustained light damage in Iranian strikes overnight Tuesday.

Trump said Wednesday that he thought the war would end immediately after the election because Iran "can't hold out any longer". Thomas Juneau of the University of Ottawa told AFP that Iran appears to believe it is winning and can exploit US weakness. Sanam Vakil of Chatham House said Tehran is trying to turn escalation into leverage, but could be overestimating how much Washington will tolerate.

The war erupted on February 28 with US-Israeli attacks that killed Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei. Iran's chain of command remains unclear because Khamenei's successor and son Mojtaba has not made a public appearance.