Trump’s Negotiation Tactic In Iran War Exposed By BBC Expert

Donald Trump is trying to play it cool with the Iran war by insisting he does not feel any political pressure to hurry up the peace process, experts have said.

The US carried out strikes on Iran overnight, targeting a military site in Bandar Abbas.

Iran claims to have responded by striking a US air base.

The fresh attacks threaten to undermine the fragile ceasefire between the warring countries.

It’s the second time in three days that the US has launched such strikes.

But the US has insisted this is self-defence, while Iran called it a “grave violation of the ceasefire” and vowed not to leave “any act of hostility unanswered”.

The war began when Trump worked with his Israeli allies to bomb Iran at the end of February.

Iran responded by effectively closing the major shipping lane, the Strait of Hormuz, causing oil prices to spike around the world.

This economic impact means Trump has faced intense pressure from international and domestic allies to find an off-ramp for the war.

But he is bizarrely pretending he is not under kind of strain and that it is Iran who needs to make a deal.

As the BBC’s North America editor Sarah Smith told Radio 4′s Today programme: “He wanted to stress that he doesn’t feel under political pressure to hurry this up.”

During a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the president insisted Iran is “negotiating on fumes”.

He insisted the November midterms would not impact his negotiations, adding: “Maybe we have to go back and finish it, may be we don’t.”

Smith said: “He obviously thinks that Iran thinks they can run out the clock here, that Donald Trump has less time than they do to get to a position where the Strait of Hormuz can be reopened, because they think it’s putting so much political pressure on the president.

“He was keen to say that’s not the case, and he will take as long as he needs to to get the deal he wants.

“And the US is making it clear they’re not held back from striking Iranian facilities if they think they pose some kind of threat.”

Kirsten Fontenrose, senior director for the Gulf at the National Security Council during Trump’s first administration, also told Today: “Both sides are trying to stay to lines they think will prevent super-escalation.”

She said this was effectively “sabre-rattling with a little bit of active fire”.

Fontenrose said she thinks the negotiations are “stuck” right now.

“There seems to be as many differences about how this war should end within Iran and the US as there are between Iran and the US,” Fontenrose said.

“You’ve got a regime in Tehran which is divided into multiple factions, you’ve got the IRGC opposing any concessions or something even talks with the US.

“You have the diplomats, president, vice-president in Iran arguing in some cases that making concessions could save the regime.

“And in Washington you’ve got the US administration divided into several factions, some saying there should be no deal with Iran, and that military strikes should resume, and others saying the blockade should be allowed to do its job with a slow, sustained squeeze that strangles the regime.”

“The debates that are going on on either side of the negotiating table are just as intense as the talks that are going on between the two sides,” she said.

“It does not look like a deal is close,” she added, despite both countries trying to push their opponent to a negotiation.

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