As U.S. President Donald Trump talks up military options and moves additional troops, warplanes and a carrier strike group into the region, Iran’s armed forces have issued one of their most fiery warnings in years, vowing that any American strike could engulf the Middle East in a “widespread fire.” Tehran has seized on Trump’s strike rhetoric to send a dual message: publicly, it insists Iran is not seeking war; privately, it is signalling to Washington and its regional allies that it is prepared for a level of confrontation the U.S. has “never experienced.”
