Trump risking ‘forever war’

US President Donald Trump’s war with Iran is likely to drag on for another six months, Leon Panetta, the former US defence secretary, has warned, as the US president struggles to find his way out of the controversial conflict.
Panetta declared in an interview that the war with Iran – launched by Trump over six months ago – risks becoming another “forever war in the Middle East”, with no clear end in sight.
“It’s no mystery that the United States and Iran are caught in a terrible stalemate, in which there really are very few options available to bring this war to an end,” said Panetta, who also served as CIA director under Barack Obama, suggesting the conflict is on course to become “another failed war” in the Middle East “like Iraq and Afghanistan”.
“I think the likelihood is this war is going to continue for another six months without being resolved,” he added.
Panetta spoke to the Guardian days after the US army secretary, Dan Driscoll, abruptly resigned, departing amid the conflict, following reports of tensions with the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, over a series of firings.
Meanwhile, Iran said it will step up efforts to tackle problems created by the US sanctions that are crippling its economy, while a senior Iranian official warned of a "painful response" if it comes under further attack.
Six months after US-Israeli strikes against Iran, the war appears to be at a stalemate. A preliminary ceasefire accord reached in June has unravelled and little progress has been made in diplomatic efforts to get the peace process back on track.
After a pause in military action for much of August, tit-for-tat strikes have resumed with US Central Command saying it hit three Iranian tankers on Saturday in response to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launching ballistic missiles at two US Navy ships.
Following the attacks, Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said on Sunday that the US should understand that the rules of the game in the war against Iran have changed "before it is too late".
"From now on, any attack against Iran’s interests and security will receive a faster, heavier and more painful response,” he said in a speech published on his Telegram channel.
Tehran has shown it still retains the capability to attack US interests in neighbouring countries and to shut down oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil supplies flowed prior to the conflict.
Iran said Sunday it struck an unmanned US vessel trying to enter the Strait of Hormuz, a claim that the US military dismissed as a “total lie.”
On the other hand, Israeli strikes killed four people, including two women, in southern Lebanon on Sunday, the Lebanese health ministry said, as Israel retaliated for what it said were Hezbollah drone attacks within areas occupied by its troops. 
Fighting between Yemeni government forces and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in southwest Yemen killed more than 140 combatants between midday Saturday and early Sunday morning, military sources said.