- Says he spoke with Trump
- Says Trump believes war achievements can be leveraged into a deal with Iran
- Says any deal will preserve 'our vital interests'
I'm sort of at the point in this conflict where I don't trust any of the 'sources' reports coming out of anywhere. But at least with comments directly from Trump and Netanyahu, you can get a sense of how things are changing. Bibi was really hammering the war drums early last week but he's eased up and now he's talking about a deal and not in maximalist terms either.
From Trump's early-morning statement, a couple things also stand out:
I AM PLEASED TO REPORT THAT THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND THE COUNTRY OF IRAN, HAVE HAD, OVER THE LAST TWO DAYS, VERY GOOD AND PRODUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS REGARDING A COMPLETE AND TOTAL RESOLUTION OF OUR HOSTILITIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST. BASED ON THE TENOR AND TONE OF THESE IN DEPTH, DETAILED, AND CONSTRUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS, WHICH WILL CONTINUE THROUGHOUT THE WEEK, I HAVE INSTRUCTED THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR TO POSTPONE ANY AND ALL MILITARY STRIKES AGAINST IRANIAN POWER PLANTS AND ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A FIVE DAY PERIOD, SUBJECT TO THE SUCCESS OF THE ONGOING MEETINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP
1) The country of Iran is almost-certainly a deliberate change in tone to show some respect, rather than 'regime' and all the rhetoric from before. That suggests a real effort at compromise, not a smoke screen.
2) He overplays the 'constructive conversationss' angle and all the adjectives he added but it does look like a carefully crafted statement, even if it's in all caps.
There are so many leaks hitting twitter and the newswires at the moment that it's impossible to trust any of it but the comments here from Natanyahu here indicate that Trump told him a deal is coming.
What's hard for me to imagine is how Iran is going to deal with this and communicate it. The country has been hit by something like 5000 missile strikes [Update: The US alone says it has struck 9000 targets] and its leaders have been killed. It's not like they can exactly accept onerous terms and claim victory. I can understand why they wouldn't want to announce discussions but they're in a very tough spot internally and externally.
For now, I'll take the Netanyahu comments as incremental progress.
