Iran-US warning: Trump sanctions to spark 'devastating war', former Obama aide predicts

The former defence assistant to Barack Obama, Colin Kahl noted in The Washington Post, explained how armed conflict could breakout. Mr Kahl who was deputy assistant secretary of defence for the Middle East explained that: “As tensions mount between the United States and Iran, American and Iranian leaders publicly insist they want to avoid war.” But, he added: “history is littered with accidents, misperceptions, miscalculations, hidden bureaucratic agendas and other factors that produced armed conflicts nobody seemed to want.”

He hypothesised a fall in oil sales that he described as “the lifeblood of the Islamic Republic’s economy” due to sanctions placed by the Trump regime would heighten tensions and trigger a devastating chain of events ending with a full scale-invasion.

The Trump administration previously pulled out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and imposed sanctions limiting Iran’s ability to access the US financial system and trade in US dollars.

Mr Kahl believes Iranian forces will engage Iraqi Shiite militias Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Kataib Hezbollah to target Americans.

The former advisor to Joe Biden says diplomats in the Green Zone of Baghdad could become targets too and the US Embassy targeted.

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Mr Khal’s claims come after Iran sends a chilling warning to the rest of the world as tensions continue to soar with the US.

Tehran flexed its military power by insisting it is ready for full-scale warfare should its relationship worsen with the West.

Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said: “Whoever starts a war with us will not be the one who finishes it.”