https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/05/11/how-trumps-iran-deal-decision-may-lead-to-war/?utm_term=.f7073bf25658

Tension between Israel and Iran is nothing new, of course. But the speedy acceleration of violence between the two countries is cause for concern. And it’s almost certainly a result of Trump’s decision. “While Israel and Iran have been conducting a shadow war in Syria for months under the cover of the civil war there,” the New York Times wrote, “the conflict has now burst into the open.” It’s anyone’s guess how far things may now go.

So the worst-case scenario may not be a brutal regional war with thousands of lives on the line. It could be an American intervention with tremendous global consequences. As The Post’s editorial board put it earlier this week: “The Saudis and Israelis may hope that Mr. Trump’s decision will draw the United States back into the Middle East through a confrontation with their enemy. The president has frequently said that he has no wish for further Mideast wars; his decision has made one more likely.”

Looks like GB may be going the lapdog route again

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/11/europe-prepares-countermeasures-against-us-iran-sanctions

Europe is prepared to introduce measures to nullify the effect of Donald Trump imposing sanctions on any non-US firm that continues to do business with Iran, the French government has said.

The warning from the French finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, suggests Trump’s proposals to corral Europe into joining US foreign policy on Iran may lead to a severe backlash by EU firms and politicians, especially advocates of a stronger independent European foreign policy.

“We have to work among ourselves in Europe to defend our European economic sovereignty,” Le Maire said, adding that Europe could use the same instruments as the US to defend its interests.

When Trump announced he was pulling the US out of the Iran nuclear deal he said the US was also reimposing sanctions, including on any entity that continued to trade with Iran, in effect threatening billions of euros of European business.

The British foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, apparently anxious to avoid a deepening rift with the US, has not criticised the principle of extra-territorial sanctions, simply saying he will work with European partners to do his utmost to protect British business.

The UK is not as heavily involved in Iranian trade as France, Germany and Italy, partly because UK finance houses are so strongly interwined with the US, and therefore vulnerable to fines if they are deemed to have breached sanctions.