What to make of Trump’s announcement that the Iranians have called him and asked for talks?
If Iran was throwing in the towel, they wouldn’t want these talks to be known. They would want to appear strong publicly while acting weak in private. This would explain why Iran is denying that any dialogues are taking place.
On the other hand, why is Trump so openly bragging about these talks? Is there any other evidence or corroboration that the talks are happening? Knowing Trump’s past history, I’m guessing that it’s all lies.
Trump must have realized that he could not possibly bomb all of Iran’s hundreds or even thousands of power plants.
Wait! These are just Iran’s SOLAR plants.
The world was coming to understand that his 48-hour threat was all a bluff, so he had to climb down somehow, while saving face. The announcement of peace talks was a way out of the trap he had set for himself.
Dana Stroul, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, stated, “It is surely no coincidence that the announcement of a five-day pause and talks came right before markets opened in the United States on Monday morning.”
In other words, classic TACO.
At first, I wondered why financial markets reacted so positively to the announcement. The Dow Jones rose nearly 1000 from its lows, and oil prices declined about 10%. Did financial analysts around the world believe that peace talks were happening? No, I think they figured out that this was yet another Trump TACO, just like his tariffs, and that Trump was not going to bomb the power plants. [Recall that it was actually the stock market analysts who coined the phrase TACO after Trump threatened tariffs but then backed down.]
Why five days, I wonder? A comprehensive cease-fire or peace plan certainly can’t be hammered out in 5 days.
What will happen in five days, if there are no talks? Trump can probably string this out by claiming that the talks are going well, but that more time is needed. He could prolong his threatened bombings indefinitely.
Or else, maybe 5 days is the time needed for the Marines to be ready to invade Iran, or at least Kharg Island or the shore along the Hormuz Strait.
Meanwhile, the war goes on and the Straits remain closed. Nothing has changed.