Are we witnessing the opening salvos of World War 3?

With tit-for-tat missile strikes by Iran and Pakistan, tensions are rising in the Middle East – as are fears that small but distinct local skirmishes could trigger a new global conflict, says Mary Dejevsky

After missile attacks on Houthi positions in Yemen, is it time for the Middle East to prepare for the worst? (UK MOD)

For what seems like the umpteenth successive day, Europe woke up to the news of overnight air strikes causing deaths, injuries and damage in one of many volatile regions further to the east.

The latest attacks were launched by Pakistan on a border region of Iran, and were explained as reprisals for Iranian attacks on a border region of Pakistan two days before. The reported casualties in both attacks were in single figures, so – by any military, if not simple human, standards – relatively small.

It is hard, nonetheless, to escape the impression of a theatre of military conflict that is inexorably growing – to the east and the south, if not yet to the north and the west. And if you look backwards, rather than forwards, the Hamas massacres of Israelis on 7 October, and Israel’s all-out military response, can be seen as turning the tiny sliver of the Gaza Strip into the epicentre of a conflict that could embrace regions many hundreds of miles further afield.