Iran is intensifying confrontational actions against the United States in the hope of further raising the cost of the conflict for President Donald Trump less than two months ahead of the US midterm elections, according to analysts.

Over half a year after the war erupted on February 28 with US-Israeli attacks that assassinated supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran is upping the ante, even risking a return to all-out fighting, rather than dialling down and looking into diplomacy.

But even as the chain of command in Tehran remains nebulous, with Khamenei’s son and successor, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, still yet to make a public appearance, the leadership has doubled down on the Islamic republic’s traditional policy of confrontation with the United States.

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