On CNN on Wednesday, CNN host and Washington Post columnist Fareed Zakaria stated that “the blockade on Iran is working well. The Iranians are squeezed.
They’ve been coming forward with proposals, and Trump seems to be reluctant.” And both sides keep trying to press the advantage when they get it.
Zakaria said that the reasoning for starting the war after saying Iran’s nuclear program had been obliterated less than a year prior doesn’t make sense.
He added, “I think Trump has actually been searching for a way to settle it. He wants to be able to claim he won, and it’s a hard thing to do, because that wouldn’t be an accurate statement. But he did do the memorandum of understanding. He’s threatened a lot of force in the last several weeks, but he hasn’t actually used it. I think, in this case, Anderson, both sides overplayed their hand. When the Iranians felt they had the advantage, they started to make demands — their demands kept escalating, and you couldn’t get to a deal.”
Zakaria continued, “Now, frankly, the blockade on Iran is working well. The Iranians are squeezed. They’ve been coming forward with proposals, and Trump seems to be reluctant. Each time one of the two sides has an advantage, they’re reluctant to close the deal because they feel they can press that advantage. But I suspect we will actually resolve this, because, look, if the midterms showed anything, this is not a war to escalate. This is a war to settle.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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