David Petraeus, the retired general who led the CIA and US Central Command, said the decision to wait two weeks was a “pretty good call”. It would give more time for a second US aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz, to move from the Indo-Pacific region to the Middle East, he said.

Hubris and miscalculation blew apart Tehran’s decades-old deterrence doctrine as Israel’s appetite for risk grew

"Iran will have no other option but to use its tools to teach aggressors a lesson," a senior Iranian diplomat said.