The Patriot Post® · Are the Iran Negotiations Fruitless, or Is There Still Hope?
The Iran peace talks are a moving target. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) may have been signed last week, but Iran is clearly back to the same song and dance — by which I mean Tehran will agree to a peace deal, then immediately renege on it.
It’s a pattern we have seen time and again. This weekend was no different.
On Saturday, the Iranians claimed that Israel broke the MOU ceasefire and attacked Hezbollah in Lebanon. This was, of course, a lie. Hezbollah attacked first, killing four IDF soldiers, leaving Israel with no choice but to retaliate. Hezbollah is an Iranian terror proxy and would not act without approval from the mullahs in Tehran.
On Sunday, Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz closed again — though this was merely silly bluster, as ships were still able to navigate the Strait without a problem.
And then yesterday, Iran walked back concessions in the MOU regarding IAEA inspectors coming to oversee the end of its nuclear program. This was intended to embarrass Vice President JD Vance, who had touted what an achievement this concession was.
Today, President Donald Trump doubled down, claiming, “Iran has fully and completely agreed to highest level Nuclear inspections long into the future (Infinity!!!). This will insure [sic] ‘Nuclear Honesty.’ If they did not agree to this, there would be no further negotiations!”
Regardless, Iran sees us as weak.
As columnist Josh Hammer pointed out, “For decades, Iran’s apocalyptic Shiite theocracy has demonstrated a consistent pattern of deception and hostility, undermining any notion that it can be a reliable partner in Western diplomacy. The history of Iranian negotiations is littered with broken promises, yet the administration — with Vance as its most prominent salesman — somehow argues this time will be different.”
Hammer added, “The Iranian regime, long guided by the sharia doctrine of taqiyya, has always viewed negotiations with Western powers as a strategic tool to buy time while advancing its nuclear capabilities, exporting jihad and sowing discord across the region. To imagine that Iran will suddenly embrace a spirit of good-faith cooperation is simply preposterous.”
The Iranians smell blood in the water, so to speak. They realize that even though the U.S. has utterly destroyed their military and has the upper hand, it benefits President Trump politically to come to a hasty agreement. It is a powerful tool, to be sure. Trump isn’t even being shy about why he wants to end the war in Iran.
The first reason is that if the war doesn’t end, the consequences for the world economy would be catastrophic. Trump stated that he didn’t want to see the market “go down at levels that nobody ever saw before, maybe except for 1929.” He added, “The one president I did not want to be was the late, great Herbert Hoover.”
The second reason is that our oil reserves are set to run out in a matter of weeks. “The U.S. had options but Mr. Trump blinked at the risk,” the Wall Street Journal editorial board speculates. “Instead, after two months of cease-fire weakness while the public soured and oil reserves declined, the President acknowledges he gave in to Iran’s economic pressure.”
Yet Iran could be flying a little too close to the sun with its continual games. As President Trump pointed out, the world economy is being held hostage by a theocratic dictatorship that massacres its own people. At the end of the day, if it infuriates enough countries, it will pay the price.
In other words, there is still hope for a better outcome than the weak MOU and a still-dangerous Iran.