The latest US-Iran deal, announced on Sunday evening, looks less like peace than a pause before the next crisis
By Oleg Akulinichev, Orientalist and Deputy Chair of the Russian-Iranian Business Council under the Russian Federation Chamber of Commerce and Industry
The news, which pushed oil prices down by 4%, appeared at first glance like a triumph of diplomacy. The US and Iran have agreed to end the latest phase of their confrontation and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Donald Trump, never one to miss a dramatic flourish, immediately declared on Truth Social: “Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!”
But anyone looking beyond the market reaction can see that the barrels of black gold still have to pass through a minefield.
Yes, this is the most significant diplomatic breakthrough since joint US and Israeli strikes on Iran in February triggered a conflict that killed thousands and shook global energy markets. Yes, the Strait of Hormuz, blocked by Iran for months, is expected to reopen on Friday. But this agreement is not a final peace deal.
The central problem remains Iran’s nuclear program. Its future has been deferred for a 60-day period of “further negotiations.” While Tehran has already accumulated more than 400kg of uranium close to weapons-grade, Trump, having abandoned the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated under Barack Obama, is now being forced back to the table under worse conditions.
That creates an obvious political trap because Republican hawks have already warned that any nuclear agreement will have to be put before Congress. Trump therefore risks either being accused of weakness or seeing the whole arrangement collapse before November’s mid-term elections.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: rt.com
