Iran war live: Trump says US may target Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain ‘very soon’

Giorgio Cafiero, the CEO of Gulf State Analytics, a DC-based geopolitical risk consultancy, says that while the US economic pressure campaign on Tehran is punishing for millions of Iranians, it was not clear how it could help achieve the Trump administration’s objectives in the war.“The daily economic challenges and the humanitarian crisis in Iran were certainly set to worsen as a consequence of the Trump administration’s campaign,” he told Al Jazeera.However, when it comes to its effectiveness in achieving war objectives, he said: “I had serious doubts. For many years, Iran had been under intense economic pressure and living under sanctions had been a reality.”“Over time, the Iranians found many ways to circumvent pressure, and in the context of the current US-Iran crisis, it was very clear that the Islamic Republic had cards to play that could make the US and other countries pay a very steep price for imposing these intensified economic sanctions on Iran,” Cafiero added.He also noted that China had been Iran’s leading trading partner, helping Tehran to circumvent Western economic pressure.“And if the Trump administration was not going to challenge China on its Iran relations, I thought it was quite clear that China, as an Asian giant, could help Iran weather the storm,” Cafiero said.