NEW YORK – One week into the ceasefire between the US and Iran and Donald Trump has again declared the conflict “close to over”, even though talks between Vice-president JD Vance and Iran in Pakistan ended without agreement.
Senior Iranian officials say the countries have continued to exchange messages through Pakistan, and Trump has said a second round of talks could happen in the coming days.
But what kind of deal does Trump need to show the American people that the war he launched was worth the estimated cost of $1bn per day?
With gas prices elevated, inflation rising, base fracturing over a foreign entanglement of the kind he swore he would never launch, Trump is under pressure to deliver before Republicans face voters in November’s crucial midterm elections.
It’s only 28 weeks until polling day – not a lot of time for the man who campaigned on bringing down prices to calm the energy markets.
Crucially, Trump must be able to tell the US that whatever deal he’s agreed is far superior to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal negotiated under President Barack Obama. Otherwise, what was the point of pulling out of the deal in 2018 and then launching an expensive war against Iran in 2026?
Among the tangled issues US negotiators must resolve is how to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Robert Malley, President Joe Biden’s Special Envoy for Iran, told me: “One of the inadvertent lessons of the war is that Iran has discovered that it has this power over the Strait of Hormuz that may be even greater than it suspected before the war started.”
Another issue is curbing Iran’s support for proxy groups like Hezbollah and Hamas. But the core dispute remains over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, which the US fears will lead to the Iranian regime developing a nuclear bomb. Iran has implausibly insisted it only wants nuclear fuel so it can generate electricity.
“They cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump declared again on Tuesday.
Iran has been badly damaged by US and Israeli air strikes since 28 February 2026 (Photo: Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)In his first term, Trump described the Obama nuclear deal, in which Iran received sanctions relief in return for capping its uranium enrichment, as “one of the worst deals in history”.
Now, Trump must emerge with something demonstrably more muscular, especially after months of insisting that Iran’s nuclear facilities had been completely obliterated by last summer’s US-Israeli bombing campaign.
Malley, a lead negotiator on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, told me that when Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff were negotiating with the Iranians in February, before the current conflict began: “Iran was open to the notion of a three, four, five-year suspension, freeze of uranium enrichment.” He said this was not something the earlier agreement achieved.
“If those negotiations had continued, it’s at least conceivable that President Trump could have achieved a deal that was stronger on the nuclear file,” he said.
In return, Malley believes Trump might have had to give the Iranians relief from sanctions, but the outcome in terms of nuclear activity could have been stronger “than what President Obama achieved and what President Biden could have achieved”.
The latest war has thrown those calculations out of the window and Trump seems to be after a much longer timeframe.
During the recent negotiations in Pakistan, it seems the US proposed a 20-year “suspension” of all Iran’s nuclear activity. The Iranians, in response, renewed their proposal of suspending nuclear activity for up to five years.
The fact that the two sides are haggling over time suggests an agreement is possible. Trump could then claim Iran has fully suspended its nuclear activity, which it never did under the Obama deal, justifying his unpopular and expensive war in the name of national security.
Trump needs to be able to claim Iran won’t build a nuclear bomb on his watch. But as Robert Malley says: “The Iranian regime has a level of mistrust of the US, which was always high, and now it’s stratospheric.”
He added: “Twice before they negotiated with the US under President Trump and during those negotiations, they were the victims of a military strike.”
Neither the US nor Iran want to see a resumption of out-and-out war. The White House says reports that Trump plans to extend the truce beyond 22 April, when the two-week ceasefire is due to end, are “not true at this moment”, which doesn’t rule out an extension.
The impact of Trump’s war of choice has spread far, but the President is more focused on US public opinion. If he can credibly claim to have vanquished the Iranian nuclear threat, he could help Republicans in November’s elections, where control of Congress is at stake.
However, trust between Iran and the US is in short supply, and the clock is ticking.
Hence then, the article about trump blew his chance to get a deal and now his enemies smell blood was published today ( ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Trump blew his chance to get a deal and now his enemies smell blood )
Also on site :