As President Donald Trump struggles to find an exit to his deeply unpopular war against Iran, U.S. officials revealed a stunning concession he’s floated privately to senior aides, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
Trump launched the U.S. war against Iran in late February with one key objective: to prevent Iran from ever acquiring a nuclear weapon, but on Sunday, U.S. officials told the Journal that the president had been “floating the idea privately to senior aides that he’s willing to walk away without a nuclear deal.”
However, even Trump’s supposed watered-down offer to Iran may be off the table. On Saturday, Iran made public its demands for re-opening the Strait of Hormuz to all shipping vessels: a full withdrawal of all U.S. forces from the region, a lifting of the U.S. naval blockade, an end to all sanctions, unfreezing of Iranian assets, and billions of dollars in payments for reparations, among other things.
Trump’s supposed desperation to end the war is well known among Iranian officials, according to Gregory Brew, an analyst with the Eurasia Group, who told the Journal that Tehran was strategically using it against him.
“The Iranians fully believe Trump wants out and is focused on opening the strait, which is why they are playing hardball,” Brew told the Journal.
Furthermore, with the midterm elections just around the corner, Iranian officials could very well sink Republicans’ electoral prospects as gas and food prices remain elevated amid the Strait of Hormuz’s partial closure.
“Iran’s ability to essentially choke off the waterway through sporadic missile and drone attacks has proven to be powerful leverage for the country, stalling commercial traffic and roiling global oil markets,” the Journal’s report reads.
“Trump has declared repeatedly in recent weeks that the Strait of Hormuz was already fully open, but each of those promises has proven premature. Now, with less than three months until the midterm elections and the price of gasoline still much higher than it was before the war started in late February, Trump has been looking for ways to tell the American public that the war is won.”