An hour and a half before the deadline, Trump announced via his social media platform that the US and Iran had reached an agreement resulting in a two-week ceasefire whilst direct negotiations take place to be hosted in Islamabad. Although grateful that Trump backed off from the brink of unleashing destruction on the people of Iran, US concessions to Tehran’s ten-point counteroffer mediated by Pakistani prime minister Shebaz Sharif seem to make void any justification for aggression, all for nothing with none of the vague and ill though out objectives achieved and hardly the work of a shrewd tactician as some laud the US president’s “victory” as—rather than the spin of someone in way over their head. 
Details still need to be hammered out but world markets rallied and oil prices plunged immediately in response to this prospective peace, and the terms that Iran has put forward would, if all parties ascent, put the Islamic Republic in a better position had Trump not withdrawn the US from the 2015 treaty negotiated by Obama with the lifting of all primary and secondary sanctions, unfreezing international assets, reparations for damage to infrastructure, control over shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, guarantees for further attacks on the country and its allies and the removal of US troop presence in the region. Draw one’s own conclusions but this misadventure leaves America diminished in the eyes of the world. An umbrella group of Iranian proxies have agreed to stick to the spirit of the truce but the ceasefire does not apply to Israeli fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon. There is no mention of regime change or a spare though for the protestors and Trump only mentions that the stocks of enriched uranium will be “perfectly taken care of” without elaboration.
synchronoptica
one year ago: a French surrealist digest (with synchronopticรฆ) plus remixing The Simpsons
twelve years ago: debating daylight savings, scanning and skimming plus intrigue at the Swatch factory
thirteen years ago: plutocrats plus passive radar
fifteen years ago: US insolvency
