President Donald Trump often suggests that something will happen in "two weeks” when he’s looking to buy himself some time. But his latest two-weeks declaration — on possible U.S. military strikes in Iran — comes with unusually high stakes.
The pause, after days of bellicose rhetoric and social posts about evacuating Tehran, rattled markets in the region, triggered new threats from the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, led Iranian officials to call the U.S. Israel’s "partner in crime” and left Israel in a holding pattern.
Because by now the world knows that Trump’s "two weeks” could mean two days, two months or never, his delay this time only fed the uncertainty. Regional equities slid on Friday, despite a sustained surge in oil prices that would typically support sentiment in Gulf economies.
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