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Posted on 04/13/2026 8:50:23 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The US and Iran have failed to reach an agreement after 21 hours of talks in Pakistan. I can’t say I’m surprised. After all, we didn’t have to wait for the negotiations to finish to make an informed guess of the outcome. We needed merely to consider the shape of things beforehand to know that Donald Trump’s hoped-for new world order would fall into new world chaos.
America and Iran agreed on a ceasefire conditional on the Islamic Republic’s complete opening of the Strait of Hormuz. It has so far refused to honour that condition. Earlier this week, President Trump responded with fulminations: Iran ‘better stop now’ if it’s charging tankers to pass through; the regime’s only ‘alive today’ so it can negotiate with the US. But, in practice, all he has done is applied more pressure on Nato allies and sent Vice-President J.D. Vance to head the delegation in Islamabad. Hardly the actions of a diplomatic mastermind who really knows the art of this deal.
The ceasefire agreement did not apparently include Lebanon – where Israel is battling to finally destroy or at least neuter Hezbollah. However, Iran is now insisting on that as a condition of the truce. Trump’s response has been to insist that Israel negotiate with Lebanon in Washington ‘as soon as possible’ – even though the Lebanese government (if there is such a body) has no control of Hezbollah.
As Brendan O’Neill pointed out on Coffee House, this is the terror group raining missiles and rockets on Northern Israel, creating ‘Jew-free swathes of territory – just as the anti-Semites of Hezbollah like it’ and, as friends with relatives there tell me, forcing Israelis into bomb shelters every day.
Little wonder then that negotiations stuttered to a halt overnight. Summarising the talks, Vance told reporters: ‘We’ve had a number of substantive discussions with the Iranians, that’s the good news. The bad news is that we have not reached an agreement and I think that’s bad news for Iran much more than it’s bad news for the United States of America.’ Is it, though? Even the Pakistani government – whom Vance thanked for their role in mediating – has not been as impartial as we would like to believe, its foreign minister having declared in a since-deleted post: ‘Israel is a curse for humanity. I hope and pray people who created this cancerous state on Palestinian land to get rid of European jews (sic) burn in hell.’ China is also preparing to ship new air defence systems to Iran during the ceasefire, destroying the US’s control of Iranian skies – if indeed such control exists. Any semblance of ‘victory’ America once hoped it could claim grows only weaker.
Vance has insisted that Washington’s terms are their ‘best and final offer’. But to assume that Iran will ever agree to these terms strains even Gottfried Leibniz’s optimism. It is to assume that Iran will agree to restore international waterway status to the Strait of Hormuz, transfer its nuclear stockpile to a safe depository and help bring peace to northern Israel. It is to assume that Iran – flushed with daily millions in tanker toll fees – will not use those funds to rebuild its military. It is to assume that the Shia-majority regime – which dubs its Sunni neighbours ‘dogs’ – will not use control of the strait to disadvantage those ‘dogs’ and threaten them with dire consequences unless they close US military installations. It is to assume that the Europeans will find the will and the way to help America heal and unify the fractured region.
I would rather assume I am wrong.
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American warships have been able to renter the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and have taken control of the shipping. Many ships have sailed unmolested. Iran’s oil exports have been stopped. Nor are they able to import critical foodstuffs, weapons and materials. So what is the endpoint? When will the “people of Iran” arise against the horrid mullah regime? Put another way . What is the wooden stake that will kill this regime that sucks the blood of its own people?
All peace talks that involve the end of the IRGC will always fail.
There should be a one-time offer for exile for the IRGC and then kill them if they dont agree to terms on the spot.
If I remember correctly, that is almost exactly what Trump told them he would do when we first went in. Surrender or die.
Your concern is noted, shill.
There is a thing about bravado and actual action.
Russians and Chinese have recently demonstrated
that their weapons systems SUX,
when put up against a near peer
opponent.
American trained Ukrainian’s.
American supplied and trained Taiwanese.
You really don’t want to take on America.
What people spend the most on self defense
than anybody else in the world and we do
it voluntarily? Just Americans.
We are not conquers, we are business
people.
Let peace be on Earth.
War is bad.
Fixed it.
They have not failed yet.
This is all still part of the game.
Another week from what I remember.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1346133645/peace-through-superior-firepower-classic
For those all up in arms now:
Who supported the war in Ukraine that is now in its 4+ year?
Who was quiet when we bombed Libya in 2011 and armed militia groups there?
Who was quiet in 2014 when we bombed, invaded and actually backed HTS in Syria?
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