Trump Agrees to Negotiate on Iran's Terms
The U.S.-Iran "Memorandum of Understanding" punts on all U.S. demands, and has America making concessions just to get partially back towards the pre-war status quo
President Donald Trump announced an imminent agreement to end the Iran war, and while he’s said things like that before, Iranian officials and Pakistani mediators also say there’s a deal, so this time it’s real. The U.S. and Iran are expected to sign something on Friday. But it’s reportedly a “Memorandum of Understanding” (MOU) that agrees in principle to end hostilities and continue discussing broader issues, not any sort of comprehensive deal. Essentially, American and Iranian negotiators have reached an agreement to work towards negotiating an agreement.
The language isn’t publicly available yet, but the core reported provision is Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz—a narrow passage at the end of the Persian Gulf by which Iran has blocked nearly 20% of the world’s oil and gas supply—and ending the U.S. blockade on Iran, as well as Israel-Hezbollah fighting in Lebanon. We’ll have to see if those things actually happen, but however it goes, the MOU displays remarkably scaled back ambitions.
Trump launched the war at the end of February talking of regime change, calling for the Iranian people to overthrow their government, and demanding “unconditional surrender.” When the initial U.S.-Israeli assault failed to achieve any of that, Trump downshifted to talk of Iran’s nuclear program, repeatedly insisting that Iran will never have nuclear weapons, lying that Iran was on the verge of getting some—which contradicted his previous lie that U.S. bombing last year “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capacity—and accusing war critics of wanting Iran to get the bomb. Now with the new MOU, Trump is touting a deal with de facto recognition of the Iranian regime’s sovereignty that leaves any nuclear discussions to further talks.
That means negotiations to get this MOU have been on Iran’s terms. Instead of…
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