As his “four-to-five” week war against Iran is halfway through its eighth week, President Donald Trump is now complaining that polls reflecting the war’s consistent unpopularity are “rigged” while seeming confused about peace talks that appear to be, at best, recreating a deal with Iran he ripped up during his first term.
The two-week ceasefire Trump announced on April 7 is set to expire on Tuesday, with negotiations to permanently end the fighting now reportedly including terms reminiscent of a 2015 agreement limiting Iran’s nuclear programme negotiated by President Barack Obama’s administration.
Trump tore up the deal in 2018, and a return to that framework has former Obama administration officials wondering what, exactly, was the point in abandoning it in the first place.
“Exactly,” said Jim Townsend, a former deputy assistant secretary of defence in the Obama administration. “And how many people had to die to gain what we already had?”
Thirteen US service members have died in Trump’s war, with hundreds more injured. At least 1,...
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