Despite US President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that the Iranian regime is on its knees and has all along desperately pleaded for a deal to end the seven-month-long war launched jointly by the US and Israel on 28th February, he has admitted on 9th September, albeit indirectly, that Iran was still standing firm, blaming the midterm elections — taking place on 3rd November — for the spectacular failure of his erratic tactics aiming to compel Iran into capitulation.

According to Trump, the chief reason behind Iran’s steadfast determination not only to hold out in the face of a ferocious US onslaught — which included 40 days of full-blown US-Israeli attacks — but also to fight back was because they are “desperate to try and affect the election, so that we can get a nice weak group of people in there”, meaning the Democrats, adding that “the war’s going to end immediately after the election because they can’t hold out any longer” and also predicting that “Right after the election, oil prices are going to be tumbling downward.”

Clearly, Trump’s claims are nothing short of a desperate attempt to incentivise the American electorate to vote for the Republican Party, as he is acutely aware that the US is stuck in an increasingly unpopular and unwinnable war that he had deliberately triggered without a clear strategy or endgame.

As a result, Trump has been struggling to break free from this war, which has undeniably turned into a new forever war, which he had pledged to end.

As things stand, Trump has been hell-bent on securing a much superior deal compared to US ex-President Barack Obama’s 2015 agreement with Iran. As such, he turned his back on the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that he signed in June with Iran, as it was widely perceived in Washington as a sellout.

As things stand, Trump has been hell-bent on securing a much superior deal compared to US ex-President Barack Obama’s 2015 agreement with Iran. As such, he turned his back on the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that he signed in June with Iran, as it was widely perceived in Washington as a sellout.

But with Trump running out of patience and options, he sought on 30 August to escalate the war by simultaneously deploying a combination of tactics: a comprehensive blockade of Iran’s ports, intensifying the tit-for-tat US attacks, targeting of Iranian oil tankers and unleashing what Trump has described as the “most crushing economic operation ever taken”.

Iran pulled no punches in its response, targeting not just US bases hosted by its........

© Middle East Monitor