Iran's latest aggression part of distraction campaign from poor handling of coronavirus

“Iran is attempting to show its strength while trying to avoid escalation,” said Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director general of the Royal United Services Institute. The government is under tremendous domestic and economic pressure because of sanctions and the virus. But Iran does not want to escalate beyond a certain point. It has not yet changed its calculus to do something above the US retaliation threshold that would provoke a severe response from Washington. Tehran clearly understands that killing US personnel is very much a red line for President Trump, with the chances of escalation extremely high.”