Iran refuses to play by Trump’s rules, to his great frustration

President Trump’s forever ceasefire with Iran is now 59 days running. So is his dance with Iranian negotiators. Both are bad optics for the White House.

A stubbornly determined Trump insists that “Iran really wants to make a deal” with the U.S. At least that is what they tell his negotiating team of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner behind closed doors.

Iran’s actions — especially those of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, under the leadership of Ahmad Vahidi — suggest otherwise. And this led Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to submit his resignation to the Office of the Supreme Leader last weekend.  

On a separate note, proof of life still has not been established for that supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, even though Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday that there were “indications that he is increasingly engaging at some level” in negotiations.

Pezeshkian said he has been “effectively excluded from major and vital decision-making processes in the country, and that the vacuum created by this situation [had] enabled hardline factions within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to take control of affairs, and that under circumstances, he [was] unable to run the government.”

Pezeshkian gets it — so why can’t the White House? Armed hard-liners are now running the country. A deal that compromises their power in the Middle East is not in the cards.

Trump wants a deal, but Iran will not deliver on his terms. Instead, the Iranians refuse to acknowledge his demands concerning their nuclear aspirations while imposing new demands that seemingly contradict his fourth objective for Operation Epic Fury: “The Iranian regime........

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