>> Terrified that Donald Trump could launch a new Middle East war, Iran dispatched one of its top generals to Baghdad last week to order allied Iraqi factions to cease all attacks until Joe Biden is in the White House, paramilitary commanders told Middle East Eye. >> Arriving 24 hours after a barrage of rockets targeted the US embassy in Baghdad’s Green Zone, Brigadier General Esmail Qaani was explicit in his instructions to paramilitary leaders on Wednesday. >> “Qaani made it clear that Trump wants to drag the region into an open war before leaving, to take revenge on his opponents over losing the election, and it is not in our interest to give him any justification to start such a war,” a senior commander of a Shia armed faction, who was among those briefed about what was said at the meeting, told MEE. >> With the United States doubling its troop presence in the Gulf, and Israeli normalisation deals with the UAE and Bahrain bringing Iran’s archenemy to its doorstep, Tehran is beginning to feel boxed in.