Trump should look before he leaps on Iran - David Ignatius

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Trump should look before he leaps on Iran
By David Ignatius Opinion writer February 2 at 7:43 PM

By putting Iran “on notice” for its aggressive behavior, President Trump has taken aim at a country that’s opposed by many U.S. allies. But he has begun this confrontation without much preparation or strategic planning, continuing the haphazard pattern of his first two weeks in office.

Iran is a convenient enemy for Trump. Israel and the Gulf Arab states share the administration’s antipathy toward Iran, and the regime’s hard-liners gave Trump a pretext with a ballistic-missile test last weekend that arguably violated a U.N. Security Council resolution.

Trump’s challenge also comes at a moment when Russia, Iran’s only major ally, is seeking better relations with the new administration. That may be a useful point of leverage. Some American, Israeli and Arab officials hope Russia might be persuaded to accept limits on Iranian behavior as the price of rapprochement with the United States. But some senior intelligence officials are skeptical.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-should-look-before-he-leaps-on-iran/2017/02/02/521b79f0-e997-11e6-bf6f-301b6b443624_story.html?utm_term=.75c7d3afe807