Iran war on repeat: Will Tehran wait out Trump’s midterms? | w/ Trita Parsi

“If there is a return to the talks — which would make us all very lucky if there is — I suspect the Iranians will wait even longer this time around. Perhaps even until after November, to give Trump as much of a defeat in the midterm elections, to impose as much of a political cost on him as possible.”

We’ve entered the Iran war doom loop, with airstrikes back on for the third time since the MoU that “ended” the conflict was signed, Trump’s blockading Iran’s ports once more, and Tehran has declared the Strait of Hormuz closed – again.

The US and Iran signed the same deal and walked away with two different ideas of the post-war order. But Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, says the stakes in this war are rising, and fast: With the world’s oil inventories depleted since February and Trump’s political clock running out ahead of the November midterms, next moves on both sides will make clear whether a diplomatic off-ramp to the war still exists. Plus, Washington lost its poster boy for war crimes this week with the death of Lindsey Graham; will the senator’s departure from Trump’s ear leave a vacuum in bloodlust leadership? Surely not when the bench of warhawks is so deep on Capitol Hill.

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