Iran War Update: Peace Talks, US Missile Launch And 'Ceasefire'

As the U.S./Israeli war on Iran rages on, new updates reveal that, as far as information that is available to the public goes, not a whole lot has changed over the last few months, which is to say that President Donald Trump is still claiming a deal is being made while also continuing to threaten Iran with military strikes; the Iranian government is still contradicting what U.S. officials are saying, and, generally, everybody is still launching military strikes against everybody, as ceasefires continue to fall apart as fast as they are reported.

So, let’s get into it…

First, let’s start with how prominent Republican lawmakers, conservative analysts, and former Cabinet members aren’t too thrilled about the deal to end the war that Trump has claimed was already “largely negotiated,” because they believe the U.S. is getting the short end of the stick.

From PBS News:

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said the president’s decision to strike Iran was the “most consequential” of his second term and that he should not let up now.

“If the result of all that is to be an Iranian regime — still run by Islamists who chant ‘death to America’ — now receiving billions of dollars, being able to enrich uranium & develop nuclear weapons, and having effective control over the Strait of Hormuz, then that outcome would be a disastrous mistake,” Cruz wrote Saturday on the social media platform X. It was in reaction to Trump’s update after he had spoken with the leaders of Israel and other U.S. allies in the region.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who also is close to Trump, panned any deal that would leave Iran perceived as being a dominant force in the region and in which it would retain its ability to destroy oil infrastructure throughout the Gulf.

Sen. Roger Wicker, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, questioned the merit of a proposed 60-day ceasefire, saying it would be a “disaster.”

“Everything accomplished by Operation Epic Fury would be for naught!” said Wicker, R-Miss.

Meanwhile, Trump is defaulting to his usual shtick of promising that deals are being made, giving vague timelines on when the deal will be struck that are sure to be adjusted later, because, if we’re being honest, it’s clear that the president is largely making it all up as he goes along. And, of course, to emphasize his positive outlook on the war, he’s calling all his detractors “losers” and doubling down on his narrative that torching the deal already struck by former President Barack Obama was a good idea.

PBS noted that in Trump’s latest slate of rapid-fire social media posts, he dismissed objections to a deal he said was not “even fully negotiated yet.”

“So don’t listen to the losers, who are critical about something they know nothing about,” he wrote on Truth Social.

“Both sides must take their time and get it right. There can be no mistakes!” he went on to post while claiming his deal is “THE EXACT OPPOSITE” of the deal struck by “Barack HUSSEIN Obama,” which, lest we forget, was a deal reached by Iran, the European Union, and the P5+1 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S.), and one that allowed for continuous monitoring and inspections of Iran’s nuclear sites by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

In contrast, Trump still appears to be begging other countries to get involved in the war that he helped the Israeli government launch for no reason that he has been able to clearly communicate to us on the outside looking in.

From the New York Times:

President Trump reiterated on Monday his call for more nations in the Middle East to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel as part of a peace deal with Iran.

“If they don’t, they should not be part of this Deal in that it shows bad intention,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media, urging countries including Saudi Arabia and Qatar to join the Abraham Accords. Mr. Trump said Iran was invited, too, upon signing a deal with the president.

OK, but what does this deal entail exactly? Well, we still don’t have an answer to that, but we do know that Trump was assuring us on Monday that peace was on the horizon, only for that to prove a dubious claim at best by Tuesday.

The Times reported Monday that the U.S. military forces conducted what U.S. Central Command said were “self-defense strikes” in southern Iran, which aimed “to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces.” According to a Central Command spokesman, Capt. Tim Hawkins, the targets included missile launch sites and Iranian boats trying to place mines at locations he did not disclose.

“U.S. Central Command continues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire,” Hawkins said.

So, missile strikes during an “ongoing ceasefire” as a show of “restraint.” No, no — sounds like everything is going just fine.

I wonder what the Iranian government has to say about all of this.

More from the Times:

Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, said in a written statement on Tuesday that the war with the United States had shown that American military bases in the Middle East are no longer safe, while the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said it would respond forcefully to any U.S. strikes.

Iran’s foreign ministry has accused the United States of violating the fragile cease-fire agreement between the two sides, suggesting in a statement that the latest U.S. strikes also undermined their ongoing efforts to resolve the war diplomatically.

“Undoubtedly, the Islamic Republic of Iran will not leave any act of mischief unanswered and will not hesitate in defending the country’s integrity,” the ministry said in a statement, reiterating earlier threats by other Iranian officials to respond to Monday’s strikes with force.

OK, but certainly the Israeli government is doing its part to keep the peace, right? RIGHT???

*sigh*

Israel intensified its military campaign against Hezbollah on Tuesday, striking targets across Lebanon after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to “increase the blows” against the Iran-backed militant group.

The Israeli military said it had struck more than 100 Hezbollah sites overnight in southern and eastern Lebanon, including weapons storage facilities and command centers. It also issued an evacuation warning on Tuesday for the entire city of Nabatieh, one of the largest cities in southern Lebanon, signaling that airstrikes there were imminent.

As for the peace talks, according to the Times, both U.S. and Iranian officials have been downplaying any hopes that a breakthrough in negotiations would happen in the immediate future, although both nations have indicated that the negotiations are happening, and that they involve the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday, during a trip to India, was vital for peace in the Middle East to come to fruition.

“The straits have to be open, they’re going to be open,” he said. “What’s happening there is unlawful, it’s illegal, it’s unsustainable for the world, it’s unacceptable.”

So, to recap: Trump is still giving us vague promises that the war will end soon, while leaving us with no clue what “soon” even means. Meanwhile, the U.S. military is still launching strikes on Iran, prompting Iran to threaten retaliation, which countries in the Gulf region are now bracing themselves for, and Israel is still appearing to generally do whatever the hell it wants to do.

But detractors and critics had better not address concerns over all of the chaos, confusion and dissatisfaction over what the U.S. has or has not gained from it all, because that makes them “losers,” according to our commander in chief.

One could argue that this is better than no update at all, but more would probably argue that what we’re receiving is, at best, equal to no update at all.

Sad.

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