I write this from Srinagar on the eve of Muharram. Black flags wave in the summer wind through neighbourhoods in parts of the city. On the boulevard that overlooks the Dal Lake there towers a billboard-sized portrait of Iranian leaders staring down upon us. It is an unsettling backdrop against which to meditate upon the American-Iranian blueprint for peace being stitched. A deal that troubles rather than reassures.

US President Donald Trump can claim victory, as he has already done. And he deserves to: Purely on the basis of this day alone. The guns may fall silent. Markets will stabilise. Oil shipments through the Gulf will no longer navigate minefields. That is laudable. But the foundational fault-lines that set up this crisis — Iran’s ambitions and proxies in the region, Israel’s vulnerabilities and security obsessions, the Gulf’s volatility and Donald Trump’s hubris — remain exactly as they were yesterday. What has been bought by this breathing space is time, masquerading as victory.

While this deal breaks a war, it doesn’t settle the numerous questions that led to it. Lebanon remains on a wire. Hezbollah’s future is still up for grabs. Israel has said it needs the freedom to operate. And the nuclear issue isn’t solved, it’s been kicked under the table — a 60-day delay where there should have been a resolution. A ceasefire suspends all these concerns. It doesn’t answer any of them. And it can’t prevent other nations from drawing their own conclusions about deterrence........

© Indian Express