Author: Frank Gardner Security correspondent, Riyadh

Most people, although not everybody, want this war to end as quickly as possible. But on what terms? That is where positions diverge. The United States President Donald Trump’s war aims have been somewhat opaque, appearing to vacillate between a simple curtailment of Iran’s nuclear programme, to capitulation to all US and Israeli demands, to the total collapse of the Islamic Republic regime. So far, Iran has neither capitulated nor collapsed. But its military has been severely weakened by 16 days of relentless precision bombing. Indirect talks between the US and Iran in Geneva in February, mediated by Oman, were making…