The US-Israeli attack on Tehran on Saturday marks a turning point for President Donald Trump, who is wagering that a war - the kind of which he once vowed NOT TO START - will strengthen his second-term agenda.

In a break from his campaign promises to keep the US out of foreign wars, Trump decided to attack - despite what Arab mediators described as significcan progress in nuclear talks with Tehran, and in the face of polling showing MOST Americans oppos fresh military action.

It came less than two months after he order a high-states US military raid inside Venezuela, another signal that his second term has tilted toward muscular intervention abroad.

The Iran strikes are the biggest gamble yet for the US leader, whose approval ratings have plunged in recent weeks, with surveys showing Americans think he is concentrating too much on foreign policy and too litte on the economy.