Nothing says "peace talks are going well" quite like the President of the United States having classified meetings about whether to just blow the whole thing up instead.
President Donald Trump is privately weighing whether to resume military action against Iran even while his administration is still technically negotiating with the regime, as Trending Politics reported. According to The Wall Street Journal, Trump has held discussions with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine about launching additional strikes. Administration officials have reportedly described the concept as "finishing the job," which is one of those phrases that sounds decisive in a boardroom and terrifying when applied to geopolitics.
The complication, as Trump apparently recognizes, is that dropping more ordnance on Iran might slightly complicate the diplomatic track aimed at dismantling Tehran's nuclear program. You know, just a minor speed bump. The president is reportedly willing to let negotiations continue past the current Aug. 18 deadline if there is meaningful progress, which is the diplomatic equivalent of saying "I'll give you five more minutes" before flipping the table.
Trump has been content with ordering limited strikes when Iran violates the ceasefire, a strategy that contributed to renewed fighting around the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend. Because nothing keeps a ceasefire alive like periodic bombing runs.
Vice President JD Vance offered a peek behind the curtain during an appearance on "The Michael Knowles Show" podcast, framing the immediate goal in terms of global energy markets. "I think what the President has told us to do is use this MOU to sort of refill the world's oil economy, to refill some stocks. And then to see where the hand is," Vance said.
Vance laid out two paths forward: negotiating a long-term deal requiring "a significant change in Iranian behavior" or "banking our wins" from previous strikes and potentially "doing things on top of that if the president feels that we have to." So the options are diplomacy or more explosions, with a side of maybe both.
The latest violence kicked off when Iran launched suicide drones at U.S.-backed cargo ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly one fifth of the world's oil supply flows. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt kept it simple: "Violence will be met with violence...there were attacks on commercial vessels that the United States of America, directed by the President, responded to."
Meanwhile, the negotiating positions could not be further apart. The U.S. wants Iran to abandon its nuclear program and hand over its enriched uranium stockpile. Iran wants joint control over the Strait of Hormuz and billions in frozen assets released. If those demands were any more incompatible, they would need couples therapy.
Iran has continued demonstrating it can threaten shipping through the strait using speedboats, drones, and sea mines, which is the kind of resume you build when your entire negotiating strategy is "nice oil supply chain you have there, would be a shame if something happened to it."
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