US-Iran war, then and now: How the landscape has changed since February
The positions of Washington and Tehran have changed dramatically since US-Israeli strikes began the war, analysts say.
Eight months into the war between the United States, Israel and Iran, the landscape looks very different from the day US-Israeli strikes began on February 28, an Al Jazeera explainer says.
The conflict has widened far beyond its original aims of toppling Tehran's leadership and weakening allies such as Hamas and Hezbollah, the explainer says. Hamas has been severely weakened, while Lebanon was drawn in after the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the first strikes, with Israel displacing more than a million people in a bombing campaign there, according to Al Jazeera.
The Strait of Hormuz — through which a fifth of the world's oil and gas once flowed — has become a central battleground, the explainer says. Iran says seven tankers have caught fire or been damaged there, and shipping has been severely disrupted as Tehran targets vessels while Washington blockades Iranian ports.
The economic toll is mounting on both sides, Al Jazeera reports. Iran estimates $270bn in damage from the attacks, with its economy contracting 10.1 percent, while the US Congressional Budget Office put the war's cost to the Pentagon at $38bn through August. Oil prices have surged from $72 a barrel before the war to above $114, and diesel prices have doubled in the US.
Politically, President Donald Trump's approval rating has fallen to 31 percent, the lowest of his two terms according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, while in Iran, hardliners have been reinforced after Khamenei's son Mojtaba succeeded him, the explainer says.
Source: Al Jazeera English — TrendWire reports stories in its own words; facts should be confirmed against the original source.