Investors seem calm, relying on Donald Trump's reputation as a deal maker but the reality is this conflict could be long and destabilising.

But more fundamentally, this conflict is being run to some extent by extreme adherents of three of the world’s great religions — Islam, Christianity and Judaism — who happen to be in charge of Iran, the US and Israel, and they see it as some kind of battle between good and evil.

Both Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump have repeatedly described the Iranian regime as “evil”, and Iran’s leaders have been labelling the US the “Great Satan” since 1979 and the Zionists as evil.