Trump’s great humiliation: Middle East may be entering a post-American era

August 11, 2026 — 3:00am

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Donald Trump’s America has squandered so much credibility in the Middle East that neither its friends nor its foes seem to be taking it very seriously any more.

Foes first. Trump last week said that the Iran war would soon end because Iran was so weakened: “I don’t think they can go much longer.”

On the contrary, Tehran showed that it’s enjoying humiliating Trump so much that it doesn’t want the fun to end. Two days after Trump’s claim, Iran issued a tough set of six preconditions for opening the Strait of Hormuz.

The regime’s latest demands “make it increasingly difficult for the president to manufacture a face-saving off-ramp from the conflict,” observed Mona Yacoubian, the Middle East program head at Washington’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

Five of Iran’s demands were ones that the US had largely agreed to in a June memo of understanding, which was soon abandoned amid mutual recriminations. But now Tehran has added a sixth.

The five reissued conditions include the demand that the US lift its naval blockade, withdraw all naval and air forces from the region, and lift all sanctions against Iran. The sixth, new stipulation is that the US must pay war reparations to Tehran for the current war and for last year’s, too. Trump’s reaction? “We are low-keying it,” he said on Monday (AEST), offering no substantive response. There are no direct negotiations between Washington and Tehran.

The Iranian people are suffering the consequences of the war, notably savage inflation and shortages. But........

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