Something that I don’t get, and that I’m not hearing in the media: the US-Iran agreement commits both Israel and Hezbollah to stop fighting, although neither Israel nor Hezbollah agreed. That sounds impossible; how could Iran and the US be so stupid as to write Israel and Hezbollah into an agreement that Israel and Hezbollah didn’t agree to? On second thought, maybe they weren’t so stupid.
Including Lebanon was the very first sentence of the very first of the 14 points of the agreement:
Of course, both the US and Iran knew that Netanyahu could sabotage the deal.
In other words, both Iran and that US agreed to a condition that could not stand. It was deliberate sabotage of the deal before it even got off the ground. Why don’t I hear this in the media?
So who wrote the deal? It appears that Iran proposed the 14 points, one of which was the Lebanon deal breaker. Therefore, it appears that Iran didn’t really want a deal. Why would it be to Iran’s advantage to prolong the war?
Maybe Iran figured that Trump was so desperate to surrender, he would agree to rein in his surrogate Netanyahu by any means possible. That is still a possibility, as many voices in Congress, such as Thomas Massie, are calling on the US to stop funding the Israeli war effort, or at least threaten to do so. For the moment, at least, it appears that Netanyahu is not backing down. Perhaps Iran underestimated the clout of the Israeli lobby in Washington.
On the other hand, why didn’t Trump complain about it? Why did he accept the condition, knowing that Netanyahu could bring down the deal at any time?
Probably he actually thought he could browbeat Netanyahu. After all, our narcissist-in-chief has been claiming, “I’m the boss”, and “I hold all the cards.” He was genuinely furious with Bibi for continuing to fight in Lebanon.
Trump is notorious for signing agreements that he has no intention of keeping. Perhaps he figured that Israel might break the deal, but Iran wouldn’t react.
Then again, perhaps this has something to do with the Epstein files. Like, maybe Iran knows that Bibi has the files and can blackmail Trump, but Trump either doesn’t know, or else refuses to believe that Bibi or Iran have any dirt on him.
As I write, ‘negotiations’ have stopped between Iran and the US. After Trump threatened Iran, their delegation walked out, with a statement that Trump must apologize and Israel must withdraw from Lebanon. What is there to negotiate? They’ll have to re-write the deal that both sides had already agreed to. Pretty clearly, the Lebanon clause will have to be removed or greatly modified.