MOSCOW, April 23. /TASS/. Washington’s ceasefire extension may be aimed at buying time; the EU approves a 90-billion-euro loan to Ukraine and the 20th package of sanctions on Russia; and France denies plans to deploy nuclear weapons to other European countries. These stories topped Thursday’s newspaper headlines across Russia.
Even if the United States and Iran resume talks, they will still be far from reaching a compromise, political scientists point out. Washington’s move to extend the ceasefire does not resolve key contradictions and only delays the next round of violence, the risk of which remains high, Izvestia writes.
Roman Yanushevsky, editor-in-chief of Israel’s Channel 9 website, believes that the US decision to extend the ceasefire with Iran is likely aimed at buying time. Washington is interested in delaying a new phase of escalation in order to create an interval between the two rounds of conflict and depict them as two separate crises.
US President Donald Trump extended the ceasefire in order to persuade Tehran to make concessions regarding the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s missile and nuclear program, Kamran Gasanov, doctor of Political Science at the University of Salzburg, told Vedomosti. It is another thing, however, that the US leader may run out of patience at any moment, resuming military operations, because the parties disagree on many issues.
