Middle-East Tracker (@me.skyfleet.blue)

Analysis-US and Iran slide towards conflict as military buildup eclipses talks By Samia Nakhoul, Parisa Hafezi and John IrishDUBAI, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Iran and the United States are sliding rapidly towards military conflict as hopes fade for a diplomatic solution to their standoff over Tehran’s nuclear programme, officials on both sides and diplomats across the Gulf and Europe say.Iran’s Gulf neighbours and its enemy Israel now consider a conflict to be more likely than a settlement, these sources say, with Washington building up one of its biggest military deployments in the region since the invasion of Iraq in 2003. https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2026/02/analysis-us-and-iran-slide-towards-conflict-military-buildup-eclipses-talks