BBC Expert Delivers Grim Assessment Of Iran Peace Deal Hopes

A peace deal to end the Iran war “will take a long time” to be reached, the BBC’a chief international correspondent has declared.

In a gloomy assessment, Lyse Doucet said “neither side wants to back down”.

Her comments came after Donald Trump said American officials would not take part in planned negotiations with their Iranian counterparts in Pakistan.

The US president has declared victory on several occasions since the conflict began with Israel and America’s began bombing Iran two months ago.

An indefinite ceasefire is currently in place, but with the key waterway the Strait of Hormuz still blocked and America blockading Iranian ports, Doucet said hopes of a perman end to the war seem remote.

She told Radio 4′s Today programme: “Neither side wants a ‘no war, no peace’ situation. Neither side wants to back down.

“Both sides are saying they won the war. President Trump has his own political and economic pressures at home, the Iranians have their pressures at home. So a deal may be in reach but a reach is not days, it will take a long time.

“Does President Trump want to make that time? How long does Iran want to drag it out and thrash out every day? It’s within the realm of possibility, but right now they’re just not there.”

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