Missile attack as a way to peace?

It's actually absurd: Iranian missiles hit US bases in Iraq - and the world breathed a sigh of relief. As things stand, little damage has been done in all previous attacks. US President Donald Trump reacted quite soberly for his words: he was talking about economic sanctions, not about military strikes on Iran.

On the Iranian side, Foreign Minister Jafad Sharif tweeted that Iran reacted with appropriate self-defense measures and - that those measures have been concluded.

Has this removed the danger of a major war conflagration in the Middle East? It's not. But it seems that the world has at least taken a step away from the abyss on the edge of which it found itself after the US killed the Iranian general Suleimani.

The missile attacks were balanced - on a large enough scale for Tehran to save face. But that's below the threshold Trump has set for attacks inside Iran. The whole world knew that Tehran would respond in some way. The killing of Soleimani was an act of war, which the Iranian leadership could not leave unanswered.

At the same time, it is striking that Tehran has announced that it will retaliate itself. It could also be understood as a message to the allies on the "axis of resistance", in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, not to undertake anything independently.

Now that some steam has come out of both boilers - both the American and the Iranian one - space has been opened for diplomacy. And thus also for Europeans. They must now do everything to move the two sides to military and rhetorical disarmament.

The public exchange of blows could very soon be followed by new actions by Iranian paramilitary formations or actions with which Tehran will not officially have anything to do...

This will be the case above all if Washington continues with the policy of maximum pressure. With sanctions, they are waging an economic war that is suffocating Iran. It is not out of place to remind: the escalation was caused by a unilateral move by the USA, which withdrew from the "nuclear agreement" with Iran in May 2018.