US and Israel chose war with Iran despite progress in negotiations

With a peace deal at hand, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu chose war. Negotiators have said unprecedented progress was being made in US-Iran talks. Iran itself said it was willing to offer immense flexibility on the nuclear issue and other questions.

The US and Israel attacked anyway.

Their pretext is incredibly weak — perhaps even weaker than the rationale for the Iraq 2003 invasion. Donald Trump’s rambling eight-minute explainer was so thin that he started citing events from the 1950s:

As the bombs were dropped on 28 February, Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi — a key negotiator — told CBS News that unheralded breakthroughs had been made in the talks:

I’m asking to continue this process because we have already achieved quite a substantial progress in the direction of a deal. And the heart of this deal is very important, and I think we have captured that heart.

Asked what the heart of the deal was, Albusaidi said:

if the ultimate objective is to ensure forever that Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb, I think we have cracked that problem through these negotiations by agreeing a very important breakthrough that has never been achieved any time before. And I think if we can capture that and build on it, I think a deal is within our reach.

And pressed on the nuclear questions, the minister said the deal had gone beyond even former US president Barack Obama’s 2015 deal with Iran:

The single most important achievement, I believe, is the agreement that Iran will never, ever have a nuclear material that will create a bomb. This is, I think, a big achievement. This is something that is not in the old deal that was negotiated during President Obama’s time. This is something completely new.

Read the full transcript here.

Peace thrown away by US and Israel

It is highly unusual that a figure like Albusaidi would publicly disclose details like this. Guardian diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour suggested it was a desperate — and, it seems, vain — attempt to avoid a war:

The US was about to achieve its objectives. Trump opted to attack. The Omani minister even said that Iran had even agreed to discuss its ballistic missiles — a previous red line for Iran:

Oman FM says he believes Iran will discuss its ballistic missile program in context of a separate security negotiation with GCC countries.

He told CBS Iran was open to direct nuclear inspections, again at an unprecedented level:

This is why I think this is a much, much better deal, because I think Iran is open to the idea in a way that- that- that never had been the case in the past.

Drop Site News is one of the few outlets to engage with official US enemies. Drop Site have made a point of speaking to Hamas. The outlet has also interviewed Iranian officials.

On 24 February, an Iranian official told them:

We have demonstrated an almost unbelievable level of flexibility on the enrichment issue itself.

The same individual claimed:

Iranian negotiators, he said, working in coordination with the Supreme National Security Council and empowered by the country’s leadership, “decided to exercise maximum flexibility on the nuclear issue, but only on the strict condition that it would genuinely prevent the outbreak of war.

Drop Site are publishing regular strike updates here:

British operations against Iran

The Brits say they aren’t involved in hitting Iran. This is false. As the Canary reported on 24 February, at least one Royal Navy sailor permanently serves as navigator for the USS Churchill. The Churchill is currently part of the US armada attacking Iran.

And in 2024, our colleagues at Declassified UK reported the UK has a secret war pact with Israel to attack Iran:

According to leaked documents, the British project was codenamed HEZUK and designed to counter the “destabilising regional activity of Iran and Hizballah”.

This would be done by strengthening UK-Israel intelligence collaboration and increasing military cooperation, with the effect of deepening bilateral security integration.

Read the full report here.

The US — with Israeli assistance — has thrown away the very deal Trump has been clamouring after for years. Against a background of genocide in Gaza and increased belligerence in the western hemisphere, Trump and Netanyahu have pulled the trigger. And the so-called ‘peace president’ — who built his brand around opposition to American wars in the Middle East — may have just blown open the gates of hell.

Featured image via the Canary