Iran is intensifying confrontational actions against the United States in the hope of further raising the cost of the conflict for President Donald Trump less than two months ahead of the US midterm elections, analysts say. Over half a year after the war erupted on February 28 with US-Israeli attacks that killed supreme leader Ali Khamenei, Iran is upping the ante, even risking a return to all-out fighting, rather than dialling down and looking into diplomacy.

“I think the war will end immediately after the election because they can't hold out any longer,” Trump stated as he prepared to board Air Force One.

Iran has resumed its attacks, and in Jordan, sixty Patriot interceptors were deployed in a single night. Ukraine is requesting three hundred; the more that are used up in the…