Trump Trying To End Iran War Without ‘Looking Like A Sucker’

Donald Trump is still desperately trying to end the Iran war without “looking like a sucker and a failure,” according to a former US ambassador.

Tensions across the Middle East have escalated over the weekend after Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen said they were behind missile attacks on Saudi Arabia.

There are fears about a potential Saudi retaliation, as Houthi and Saudi rivalries mount having imposed naval blockades on one another.

Middle Eastern countries have been fighting to find alternative routes for their oil exports after the US and Israel’s war with Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz earlier this year.

Trump’s decision to initiate strikes against Iran in February has rocked the global economy for the last seven months.

America’s former envoy to the Middle East for humanitarian issues and previous ambassador to Turkey, David Satterfield, has now warned that Trump is still focused on trying to save his own skin.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the president is thinking: “How do I get out of this? How does this conflict end in a fashion that doesn’t leave me look like a loser, a sucker, a failure? How can I declare victory credibly enough and bring this to a close?”

He said he believes the president could keep the war going in a “stable-unstable” situation as it currently is while the economic sanctions continue to bite Iran – though that will make the war escalate, too.

He added that he hopes the president is being told the truth: that the Iranian regime was not close to toppling when the war began on February 28, nor is it close to doing so now.

Satterfield suggested the other option for Trump is to “declare victory and leave” while claiming to have ended the nuclear enrichment programme.

The ex-ambassador said Trump could then say the Strait of Hormuz was someone else’s problem.

“What will the president do? I don’t believe he knows,” he said.

The diplomat noted: “The Saudis may not be happy with this but at the end of the day they cannot turn for security to anyone but the United States.”

The BBC’s security correspondent Frank Gardner also told Today: “We don’t know, they don’t know, whether the Saudis are going to escalate this or not.”

He said the country is unable to get their oil out of the Strait of Hormuz, which “poses an existential threat to their economy and to the world economy”.

“The Saudis are looking around wondering where their friends are right now,” the journalist said.

“Because the Americans so far are not prepared to do the airstrikes and join in that the Saudis may be asking for.”

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