Jonathan Lemire and Nancy A. Youssef write:

In 2015, then–Secretary of State John Kerry testified before a Senate committee about a new deal to restrict Iran’s nuclear development. After more than a year of talks, with Iran on one side and several nations—including the U.S., China, and Russia—on the other, an agreement was on the table, full of hyper-technical details about what Tehran could and couldn’t do for the next two-plus decades. The U.S. had plenty of other complaints about Tehran. But Kerry said the talks had centered on one thing—“the nuclear issue”—for a reason. If other issues were included, Kerry told the senators, “it would be rope-a-dope, staying there forever, negotiating one aspect or another.”

Trump in his first term ripped up that agreement and in his second term went to war with Iran to try to stop its nuclear program—but also to force regime collapse, eliminate Iran’s missile capabilities, and destroy its proxy forces across the Middle East. Now, as the president seeks an off-ramp after a massive military campaign failed to achieve any of those goals, Trump appears to be in precisely the predicament Kerry warned about: Trying to tackle too many issues at once may mean none of them gets resolved.

Under the deal now being discussed through Qatari intermediaries, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz would ramp up, in stages, to prewar levels. But Iranian officials want the strait to remain under their oversight, possibly in partnership with Oman, even if sea traffic resumes. That may be a nonstarter for the United States, which has insisted that the strait must be a free and open waterway, as it was before the war. “The strait’s going to be open to everybody. It’s international waters,” Trump told reporters at the Cabinet meeting.

The proposed deal may also include provisions for the release of some of Iran’s assets that were frozen by international sanctions, which Iran sees as a form of war reparations, according to the people we spoke with who are familiar with the terms. But Trump appeared at the Cabinet meeting to play down that prospect: “We’re not talking about any easing of sanctions,” he said.

Whether Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon will be included in the extended cease-fire was unclear. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that he had ordered strikes to increase, and Israeli forces ramped up their ground campaign.

The complex web of issues is one reason that a deal to end the war has been so elusive. Another is the administration’s approach to the talks. Ultimately, Trump bears responsibility for both starting the war and ending it. Beyond that top line, though, it has been hard for the American public to tell where things stand. The only consistent source of information has been Trump’s Truth Social posts, which aren’t a model of clarity. [Continue reading…]

ABC News reports:

President Donald Trump said during a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday that he isn’t concerned about making a deal soon with Iran, adding that he doesn’t “care about the midterms” in what he said he thinks is the regime’s calculation that he has to negotiate a deal before what are expected to be highly-competitive elections in November.

“They thought they were going to out-wait me, you know. ‘We’ll out-wait him. He’s got the midterms.’ I don’t care about the midterms. Look what happened last night, that was a prelude to the midterms. People understand it,” Trump said, likely referencing his endorsed candidate, Ken Paxton, winning the Senate Republican runoff in Texas.

With tensions escalating with Iran and gas prices still up across the country, Trump said he feels no urgency to end the war.

“Mr. President, you’ve said that you’re in no rush to make a deal, but with gas prices that are still high across the country, people are paying more for travel. Does that give you more urgency to make a deal? Why doesn’t it?” ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott asked Trump during the Cabinet meeting.

“Well, I’ll tell you, the primary urgency, I’ve said this, it wasn’t covered properly, but the primary urgency is that we can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon,” Trump responded.

The president also appeared to issue a new threat against Oman, a key American ally in the Middle East.

Trump said he would not accept a short-term deal that allows Iran and Oman to control the Strait of Hormuz — as reported in Iranian state media, and that the critical shipping lane will be “open to everybody.”

“Oman will behave just like everybody else or we’ll have to blow them up. They understand that,” Trump said. [Continue reading…]