Middle East crisis live: US launches fresh strikes on Iran after days-long pause in attacks

US announces attacks early on Thursday, as experts say strikes carried out by both sides in previous day increase risk of return to all-out war US-Saudi strikes in Iraq push region into ‘uncharted territory’, analysts warnBefore this new round of American strikes against Iran, Saudi Arabia joined the US in hitting an Iranian-backed militia in Iraq – a move that has pushed the Middle East region into “uncharted territory”, analysts are warning.Riyadh’s decision to publicly join the US in striking sites associated with Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces – killing at least 20 fighters – has added another complicating dimension to a war being seen as increasingly unpredictable and in danger of widening.Everyone is trying make sense of something that is increasingly senseless. One view is that the informal [US] pause in direct strikes on Iran saw a shift from Tehran to its proxies to maintain pressure [on Washington]. But there is no longer any plausible deniability because everyone knows how the relationships are intertwined. Continue reading...