by Michael
When will the charade finally end? Over the past several months, Iran has been given opportunity after opportunity to make a reasonable deal. Every single time, negotiations have broken down and fighting has resumed. The Iranians are simply not going to compromise on the Strait of Hormuz, and they are simply not going to make the nuclear concessions that President Trump has been requesting. But Trump seems to think that if he just keeps making extremely over the top threats, the Iranians will eventually give in.
On Monday, Trump told the world that Iran is being given “a last chance” to sign an agreement. If they do not sign an agreement, they will face “decapitation”…
President Donald Trump warned he’s giving Iran one final opportunity to agree to a peace deal or risk “decapitation” as the two sides disagreed publicly about whether new talks were underway.
“This is a last chance,” Trump said on Aug. 3. “This is a last chance for them to sign a good document.”
Trump, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, later added that he wants to give Iran “every last chance before decapitation.”
How many times has Iran been given a “last chance” now?
Seriously, if someone out there has the number please let me know because I have lost count.
Of course the Iranians are not blinking.
They have no intention of agreeing to a deal that will be acceptable to Trump, and they are denying that any talks are taking place…
Iran said Monday that there weren’t any talks under way with the U.S. nor were any meetings planned, after President Trump said he had called off a major strike on the country to provide more time for negotiations on freeing up traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.
This is all just so bizarre.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei couldn’t have been any clearer when he stated that “we are not negotiating with the United States at this time”…
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said at a press conference Monday that Tehran had no plans to hold direct talks with Washington, after Mr. Trump’s claim that a “deal is imminent.”
“To avoid any misunderstanding, it is important to clarify what the current negotiations are about and who they are with. We are not negotiating with the United States at this time,” Baghein said.
“Our negotiations are with Oman and are focused on reaching an understanding on a route that will ensure the safe passage of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.
Over and over again, the Trump administration and the Iranians have not even been able to agree on whether they are negotiating with one another or not.
I have never seen anything like this in my entire life.
In response to Iran’s claims, Trump insisted that his administration really is talking to the Iranians whether they want to admit it or not…
Many of us would like to believe that is true.
But then CBS News just reported that U.S. officials are admitting that no “new” negotiations are planned…
There is only one “deal” that Iran will accept.
According to the New York Times, the Iranians would be willing to return to “the Memorandum of Understanding” that Trump previously signed…
“They are ready for the war, and they won’t back down,” said Amir al-Mousawi, a former Iranian diplomat, who said he had met over the weekend with the team surrounding Iran’s head negotiator and speaker of Parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. Mr. al-Mousawi described an exchange of messages between U.S. and Iranian officials sent over the weekend through Pakistani and Qatari officials, in which he said Mr. Trump vowed a severe attack on civilian infrastructure like power plants if the Iranians did not restart negotiations.
The Iranians refused, he said, unless Washington returned to the previously agreed “memorandum of understanding,” which many experts say was in Iran’s favor.
“‘We have no problem with war at all, and we are ready for the big confrontation,’” Mr. al-Mousawi said the Iranians told the Americans. “Trump told the Iranians: ‘I will hit the power in Iran.’ So, the Iranians said: ‘If you strike, we strike.’”
The Iranians are calling Trump’s bluff.
They know that he doesn’t want more war, and so they are sticking to their guns.
The Memorandum of Understanding hands control of the Strait of Hormuz to the Iranians, and it does not require them to make any nuclear concessions at all.
It was the most lopsided international deal that any U.S. president has ever signed, and it certainly would not end the war in the Middle East.
But since they got Trump to actually sign it, the Iranians will not accept anything less at this point.
Now we have a real conundrum on our hands.
The Iranians will not accept a deal that is acceptable to us, and we will not accept a deal that is acceptable to them.
So where do we go from here?
Apparently the Pentagon is asking members of the military for “creative and unconventional” ideas for dealing with Iran…
This tells me that our military leaders are very unsure about how to proceed.
Bombing Iran from the air is not going to open the Strait of Hormuz, and it is certainly not going to get the Iranians to give up their nuclear program.
But President Trump does not want to conduct a ground invasion of Iran, and recent surveys have made it abundantly clear what the U.S. public would think of such a move.
And the Iranians know that the Democrats are probably going to take control of the House and the Senate after the midterm elections.
So the Iranians feel like time is on their side.
The wild card in all of this is Israel.
If Trump gives Israel the green light, the IDF is fully prepared to start hitting Iran like never before.
If that happens, the Iranians have warned that they will launch ballistic missiles at critical infrastructure all over Israel.
Once we get to that stage, the danger that unconventional weapons could get used will be very real.
And once someone uses unconventional weapons, there will be nothing that Trump or anyone else will be able to do to stop what happens next.
