What does the US-Iran agreement reveal about the true winners and losers of the war?
LONDON: When President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018, Barack Obama, who as his predecessor had forged the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, warned that doing so “without any Iranian violation of the deal is a serious mistake.”
The US, Obama added, “could eventually be left with a losing choice between a nuclear-armed Iran or another war in the Middle East.”
Eight years on, that predicted war, triggered by the surprise joint attack on Iran by the US and Israel on February 28, has now been fought and — temporarily, at least — halted.
But following the publication on Thursday of the 1,050-word memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran, analysts say the war has ended in a strategic defeat for the US that has left Iran, and its nuclear ambitions, in a far stronger position than before.
