US Resumes Direct Airstrikes Inside Iran After Intercepting Five Tehran-Launched Missiles at Jordan Base

Washington has not struck mainland Iran so openly since Operation Praying Mantis in April 1988, when a single-day naval clash sank or disabled half the Iranian fleet and reshaped Gulf deterrence patterns. Today’s exchange fits a decades-long sine wave: US forward basing persists, Iran probes with missiles or proxies, and each side periodically tests the other’s red lines—much like the January 2020 Soleimani assassination–Ain al-Asad retaliation cycle. What is new is Riyadh’s direct participation after years of hedging toward Beijing and Tehran, suggesting a tentative re-coalescence of the pre-2015 security architecture. If this dynamic hardens, the region could drift back toward block politics last seen before the 1979–88 Iran-Iraq War, but in a far more missile-saturated environment. Over a 100-year horizon, whether this becomes a footnote like the 1984–87 “Tanker War” or the spark for a wider realignment hinges less on tonight’s explosions than on structural pressures: US willingness to sustain Gulf deployments as domestic appetites wane, Iran’s drive for strategic depth amid demographic decline, and the still-forming multipolar order that offers both actors alternative patrons. In that longue durée, this strike is significant only if it tips the escalation ladder into direct, sustained state-on-state war; otherwise it will be another data point in the enduring contest for control of the world’s chokepoint energy routes.