1.The US is actively seeking to undercut Iranian attempts to increase its leverage through disruption to shipping in the Mideast Gulf.This was the message senior officials in the administration of US President Donald Trump intended to send when they told the New York Times that the US deployed a cyberattack to take out information systems used by Iran and its forces to target ships in June.Iran was still targeting ships in July,however.Trump this week appeared open to negotiations with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani,although Washington also moved forward with sanctions targeting a network used to supply Iran's ballistic missile program(p1).2.A third Lebanon-Israel war could be in the cards after drones on Sunday targeted Hezbollah operations in Beirut and the Lebanese army on Wednesday fired at two of three Israeli drones operating in the skies above south Lebanon.The result could be wider regional escalation,with Lebanese President Michel Aoun describing the targeting of Beiart as an act of war-although the Iran-backed Shiite militant group Hezbollah itself downplayed that prospect,saying its response would involve a calculated retaliatory strike.
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