Morning Note

The Trump administration’s Houthi airstrikes seem to have worked, at least in the short term.

Iran ordered its military personnel to leave Yemen on Thursday, abandoning its rebel allies after they fell victim to last month’s U.S. attacks. A senior Islamic Republic official reportedly said that America’s assaults directly caused the move, adding that Tehran’s primary concern is “Trump and how to deal with him.”

“Every meeting is dominated by discussions about him, and none of the regional groups we previously supported are being discussed,” the source said. That is sure to be music to the president’s ears.

Don’t expect neocon calls for a hot war with the Ayetollah-run nation to simmer now that the U.S. appears to have won the Yemeni freedom of navigation dispute. It won’t be long until they or the foreign government they serve come up with a new reason for why “liberating Iran” is America’s patriotic duty. It’s only a matter of time.

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