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Hello. President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding bringing an end to the fighting in Iran. The 14-point plan calls for the U.S. to end its blockade of Iranian ports, for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz and not charge tolls for 60 days, and for the U.S. to lift all sanctions on Iran and restore frozen funds. In addition, Iran will be eligible to receive $300 billion for reconstruction and economic development (from a private fund that is being established). So the fighting ends, the U.S. leaves, and Iran gets loaded up with cash.
Contributing writer Mike Nelson has one word to describe the deal: “surrender.” He notes that Iran successfully played Trump by taking over the strait, writing, “While a return to the free flow of global commerce is inherently good and necessary, we shouldn’t chalk this up as a win. Like a magician using distraction to pull off a trick, Iran made the war about the strait and the economic woes its disruption caused, getting the administration to take its eye off the causes for initiating the war and any of the goals it said we would achieve through it.”
