Faced with his own deadline to double down or stand down against Iran Tuesday night, President Donald Trump blinked.
Announcing a two-week ceasefire subject to Iran’s “COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump posted on social media that “we have already met and exceeded all Military objectives, and are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Longterm PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East.”
On the one hand, it’s great that Trump’s threatened military operations against Iranian power plants and other infrastructure have been at least temporarily halted. And the president’s claim to have received a 10-point proposal from Iran that he called a “workable basis on which to negotiate” is a positive step. But there’s a fundamental obstacle to an enduring end to this conflict: Trust is nonexistent, and none of the major disputes powering hostilities has been resolved yet.
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