Something is at play and I think the US is trying to improve its negotiating position so it can pressure Iran on tolls, nuclear enrichment then eventually drones and missiles. The main priority for trump is to stabilise oil markets and if he has a plan to attack Iran on a large scale again then oil/weapons inventories need to be replenished and that means lots of traffic through SOH.
This low intensity conflict is not good for Iran, its probably worse than a full on war as it grinds Iran down. So then Iran is not left with many options but to counter the US over the SOH.
The GCC countries obviously dont want Iran to control the SOH and so they continue to allow the US to use their territory to attack Iran. Iranians dying regularly now and their government has not found a way to stop it.
If im Iran, there are two hard choices. Accept a settlement with trump where he will likely want big concessions and could go back on any agreement like he normally does over next few years - so get congress to ratify and make it binding.
Or second choice is war and force a strategic deterrence by heavily damaging GCC countries Infrastructure.
The US is very sensitive to economic fall out especially through its allies Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, SA and UAE. Damaging them economically will hurt the US as well, the petro dollar is still a thing.
Both options come with huge risk for Iran, I still think trump wants regime change but he realises his options are limited right now. Iran needs to take the least worst option which can preserve its sovereignty and help kick start its economy.
