My last piece about the War On Iran had closed with this:
Trump will be hard pressed by both parties in Congress to cancel the MoU. His critics however fail to point to better alternatives. Strategic oil reserves are running dry, tankers are still held up in Hormuz, and even if things go well it will take many months for oil prices to come down to more normal levels. (Things would by the way be much worse if China had not rapidly decreased its imports of oil.)
The continuing lack of oil on the market is giving Iran an huge advantage in upcoming negotiations.
Trump has since acknowledged that the economic situation is on the verge of catastrophe. He is eager to not let the crash happen during his watch:
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he was motivated to finalize the memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Iran to prevent “economic catastrophe” if the war was not resolved soon.
“So rather than possibly going into a depression, rather than having your favorite president be Herbert Hoover, he was always the one I didn’t want to be,” Trump said of the 31st president whose policies are often blamed for starting the Great Depression.
“I didn’t want to see economic catastrophe. If you kept this going, that could have happened. But all I know is, every time we talked about the possibility of peace, the stock market shot up like a rocket ship,” Trump said during a press conference Wednesday on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Évian, France.
This confirms that Iran is currently in an extremely strong negotiation position.
The Memorandum of Understanding stipulates among other things a ceasefire in Lebanon between Israel and Hizbullah as well as a retreat of Israeli forces from sovereign Lebanese territory. Israel, which recently extended the occupied territory in south Lebanon, does not want to stop the war or retreat from it.
Last night Israeli forces tried to capture a controlling ridge near the town of Nabatieh. Hizbullah managed to trap and kill four of IDF soldiers. Five others were wounded. The Israeli forces responded with heavy bombardments.
Another ceasefire in Lebanon announced for 14:00 UTC today was broken within minutes.
Today, after having allowed traffic through the Strait of Hormuz over the last 24 hours, Iran announced that the Strait will again be closed until Israel withdraws from Lebanon.
The Israeli Minister of War Israel Katz boasted today that it had completely obliterated the first line of Lebanese villages. National Security Minister Ben Gvir demanded that “All of Lebanon must burn!”:
Enough with the ping-pong. In the Middle East, you don’t win with measured responses and restraint—you need to go berserk. To obliterate. To crush the terror.
These people are lunatics. It is hight time for the rest of the world to apply Ben Gvir’s devised attitude and methods to his own deranged ideology and country.
Trump is in a pickle. He knows that oil reserves are running out. He knows that the economy will crash if the Strait of Hormuz stays closed. He knows that he will have to rein in Israel to avoid becoming responsible for a global recession.
Given that the Israeli government is determined to stay its course Trump will need to apply the harshest pressure available to him.
How can he do this when Congress, including the members of his own party, is owned by the Zionist lobby and still dreams of defeating “the Ajatollahs”?
As commander in chief Trump can order all U.S. air defenses in the Middle East to stand down – to not defend Israel – should Iran (on silent request from the U.S.?) fire another barrage of missiles against that country.
That would be a lecture Ben Gvir and other Zionist war criminals would take long to forget.