After news over the weekend that President Trump was stopping his planned bombing attack on Iran because a deal looked imminent, Iran held a press conference denying it was in any negotiations with the U.S. Trump even went so far as to announce that he had the “perimeters” of a deal with the Islamic Republic, when he clearly meant parameters.
Iran is notorious for covering up what’s really going on, so we can choose to believe or dismiss their denial of talks. However, the sad truth is that our president is also quite comfortable with making stuff up to put a good spin on things.
According to Trump, talks were to begin today. He announced yesterday: “Now, what we’re doing is talking to them in the form of a negotiation. It begins tomorrow afternoon.” I haven’t read any news about Steve Witkoff or Jared Kushner catching flights to the Middle East to resume negotiations, so it’s anybody’s guess what he meant.
Iran does admit to ongoing talks with Oman over the Strait of Hormuz, but even in that case, I read a report last week saying that Iran had ended the talks because the two sides couldn’t come to an agreement.
As many media outlets have reported, the real reason that Trump halted planned Iranian air strikes was due to Gulf Country entreaties. If the U.S. targeted power plants and water desalination facilities in the Islamic Republic, then Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan — you name the country — could face the same threat from Iran.
It appears that we’re now deadlocked in a conflict we can’t win without sending in massive ground forces, and one where our opponent is more than content to wait us out and see what happens in the upcoming midterm elections. The sad options: Either invade, or just cede the Strait of Hormuz to the Islamic Republic, sign some kind of nonbinding nuclear agreement with the country, and walk away claiming victory.
That latter scenario is a big laugher. Despite $50 billion in munitions spent to force Iran to “surrender,” Trump still hasn’t come up with anything as good as Barack Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which he continues to criticize without forging a workable alternative.
