Freddy Gray
Donald Trump’s 80th birthday is this weekend, and what better present for a struggling octogenarian Commander-in-Chief than a peace deal with Iran, signed if not quite yet sealed and delivered.
There is, I’m told, some late scrambling over “semantics” in the so-called “memorandum of understanding” between America and Iran, and lingering issues over the language concerning the “nuclear dust” – i.e., Iran’s enriched uranium. But the rest is all but agreed. J.D. Vance could fly to Europe to sign a deal tomorrow – or if not it will be Trump as he attends the G7 in Evian near the Swiss Alps on Monday.
Trump really wanted to stage a peace photo-op with Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei but had to be told that would not be possible. Nobody outside a very small circle of Iranian officials seems to know if Mojtaba is able to walk or talk or is actually alive. And even if he were able, he would hardly shake hands with the man who four months ago ordered the strikes that killed his father, wife, son, daughter, niece and grandchild.
I understand the American delegation, led by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, were slow to grasp this point. But the memorandum of understanding progressed nonetheless. The markets are already responding positively to the news, but there are bound to be more bumps along the way. A memorandum is not a peace treaty, and nobody outside Iran can be quite sure that the Iranian regime, such as it still is, will be able to control the piratical forces who now threaten the Strait of Hormuz.
