US reaches preliminary ceasefire deal with Iran after military escalation
Article excerpt
The United States and Iran have agreed to a preliminary ceasefire halting armed conflict, marking a significant shift after weeks of military tension. The deal has immediately become a flashpoint for competing interpretations of who secured the better outcome. Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a prominent Democratic voice, criticized the agreement as a strategic loss for the US, arguing Trump was outmaneuvered in negotiations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had coordinated closely with the Trump administration on Iran policy, found himself isolated by the deal, with his closest allies now questioning his judgment. The agreement leaves multiple constituencies unsatisfied: those who see it as premature and disadvantageous to American interests, and those who view any negotiated end to hostilities as preferable to open conflict. The preliminary nature of the deal suggests further negotiations ahead.
What has the Israeli PM’s whirlwind of violence achieved? His closest ally now turning against him, and an emboldened Iran
Benjamin Netanyahu, the biggest loser in last week’s preliminary deal to halt the US-Israel-Iran war, will be remembered, and reviled, as the man who put the Middle East to the sword. Whether the “problem” was Hamas in Gaza, illegal West Bank land seizures, supposed Israeli-Arab fifth columnists, peace campaigners’ aid flotillas, Hezbollah in Lebanon, hostile militias in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, or Tehran’s hardline Islamic regime, the Israeli leader’s “solution” was always the same: extreme, often lawless violence that invariably made matters worse.
The unprovoked, illegal war against Iran was the ultimate expression of the Netanyahu doctrine, the disproportionate application of brute force. Predictably, it too, has failed. Donald Trump is desperately arguing that the ceasefire memorandum he signed in Versailles (of all places!) is not the lame capitulation it so self-evidently is. But while the US president may survive this humiliation, despite global scepticism and mockery, the likely consequences of the debacle for Netanyahu, his brother-in-harms, are career-ending serious. In many respects, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister is already yesterday’s man.
Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator
Continue reading...