It is pretty clear Iran is only going up the escalation ladder when Israel does. Even Trump blamed Israel for the escalation: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8x7leknlywo

There is no point talking with these people. It's hard to explain how much the overton window shifted for Israeli-Khaleeji cooperation after the past few weeks, and after the strikes that have been hitting the Gulf.

The tone has shifted significantly that even KSA is now saturating WhatsApp, Snap, and other Gulf heavy media with anti-Iran and pro-Military Intervention ad campaigns [0][1][2], with a tone I've been noticing is similar what I saw in Israel right before 2014.

Anti-Iran sentiment was already prominent after the Houthis and the insurgency in the Eastern Province a decade ago, but the sentiment has now become extremely hardened.

The tone shift is similar to what happened to Saddam way back in the 90s and 2000s. MbS is trying to position himself the same way King Abdullah did during the Gulf War and Iraq War.

[0] - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-u2DYl0FQ-M&pp=0gcJCcUKAYcqIYz...

[1] - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fujoYIjeS-I

[2] - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LhdqEB4dKgc