Was scientist’s killing the opening shot of a Trump-led war on Iran?

The assassination of the country's top nuclear expert raises fears that the outgoing US president is determined to take further action

The assassination on Friday of Iran's leading nuclear scientist has heightened suspicions t hat Donald Trump, in cahoots with hardline Israeli and Saudi allies, may be trying to lure the Tehran regime into an all-out confrontation in the dying days of his presidency. Trump's four-year-long Iranian vendetta is approaching a climax - and he still has the power and the means to inflict lasting damage.

Speculation that Trump might soon initiate or support some kind of attack on Iran, overt or covert, kinetic or cyber, had swirled across the Middle East in the wake of last weekend's unprecedented meeting in Saudi Arabia between Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, and the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.