A major operational and political divide has split the White House as the Trump administration struggles to find a unified strategy to exit the deadlocked war in the Persian Gulf. According to CNN, the administration is fractured internally over whether to pull the trigger on a highly destructive military escalation blueprint or preserve an increasingly fragile, stalled diplomatic track.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. The stalled Beijing breakthrough The internal policy debate reached a critical junction following US President Donald Trump’s return from a high-stakes state visit to Beijing. National security officials had delayed major decisions, hoping that Trump’s face-to-face negotiations with Chinese President Xi Jinping would secure a global breakthrough to defuse the conflict. However, the summit failed to produce any significant shift in reality. While Trump told reporters that Xi expressed a desire to see the blockaded Strait of Hormuz reopened and agreed that Tehran must never possess nuclear weapons, analysts noted that China has routinely issued these generic diplomatic statements for months without pulling its vital economic support from Iran. Consequently, Tehran’s negotiators have refused to alter their core demands since the temporary ceasefire framework was first implemented in April. Pentagon pushes for escalation Faced with an adversary that refuses to buckle, a powerful faction within the administration – predominantly situated within the Pentagon – is actively lobbying for a transition back to active combat operations.