He’s got to understand he can’t dictate terms to war-hardened Iran. Tehran’s new leaders should know their strategy – endure & hope Trump gets fed up – is high-risk. No one can figure out how this impasse will end
Trump’s latest attempt at a peace plan was a list of demands tantamount to Iran’s unconditional surrender. It requires Tehran to dismantle not only its nuclear enrichment programme, but also its ballistic missile arsenal, and network of regional alliances. For a country whose air force is obsolete, and whose supreme leader was just killed by Washington’s ally Tel Aviv, ballistic missiles are the last line of conventional deterrence.