likes to say that he holds all the cards in the Iran war. But at the moment thats not true.
Iran has one card that has frozen the situation. The murderous mullahs are in no rush to make a deal, and may not even want one.
Trump said he didnt even finish reading Tehrans latest counter-proposal, calling it “garbage.” And he uttered his instantly famous line about the ceasefire being on “life support.”
As the war enters its third month, Trumps upbeat talk has never been matched or its parliament speaker, Mohammad Ghalibaf. Its economy is seriously ailing. But their view is that as long as they get to keep their enriched uranium, some of which is buried, theyll be fine.
Trump keeps declaring victory, but since the main rationale for the invasion was to keep the Iranians from developing a nuclear weapon, anything less will be seen as a major failure.
Maybe this is just the presidents negotiating style, taking everything down to the wire. But the result is dueling blockades â Iran at the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. at Iranian ports â that again has Trump issuing dire threats.
What really rankles Trump is that Iran is charging “friendly” ships â those not tied to the war â 100 percent to pass through a waterway that carries one-fifth of the worlds oil traffic. Others are blocked from the strait, where Iran has laid explosive mines.Â
So the two sides are eyeball to eyeball over who, if anyone, will back down.
As the Wall Street Journal puts it:
“The U.S. and Iran are locked in a diplomatic stalemate over issues that have bedeviled the two sides for years, as the conflict settles into a gray zone that is neither war nor peace.Â
“The ceasefire is entering its second month and, despite sporadic violence, has now lasted almost as long as the fighting which preceded it. There is little to indicate that either the U.S. or Iran is ready to compromise, but neither wants to start fighting again.”
Trump told reporters that Iran believed he would get tired or bored of the conflict, or feel pressure to end it because of soaring energy prices.Â
“But theres no pressure,” Trump said. “Were going to have a complete victory.”
Iran, meanwhile, continues to portray itself as the winner of the conflict, its regime intact, its missile and nuclear programs still a threat. Ghalibaf warned the Americans against escalation in a Monday posting: “Our armed forces are ready to deliver a well-deserved response to any aggression.”Â
But instead of fighting, both sides have doubled down on dueling blockades that are hard to undo without one side blinking. The Trump administration has tightened a U.S. embargo of Iranian ports and vessels, while Iran has maintained its grip on the Strait of Hormuz.Â
The New York Times reported last night that U.S. intelligence officials, at odds with the administrations public stance, say privately that Iran has restored operational access to 30 of its 33 missile sites along the Strait of Hormuz, “which could threaten American warships and oil tankers transiting the narrow waterway.”Â
Trump did orchestrate a three-day ceasefire â and prisoner exchange â between Russia , which was mainly about Vladimir Putin not being embarrassed during his scaled-down parade marking the Soviet victory over Nazism.
As for Trumps meeting this week with Xi Jinping, already postponed once
