David Ignatius: U.S. Demand Has Shifted From “Unconditional Surrender” to Negotiating on Iran’s Terms
Washington Post columnist David Ignatius said Wednesday morning on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” that while a ceasefire between Iran and the US/Israel is welcome for world markets, but the possibility of a permanent deal remains ambiguous.
DAVID IGNATIUS, THE WASHINGTON POST: Without question, there is a sigh of relief around the world that we’ve moved from this extraordinary threat to wipe out a civilization to a process of discussion that’s set to begin Friday in Islamabad-and acceptance by both sides of basic terms. The problem, as always in negotiation, is the ambiguity of the two sides’ positions. President Donald Trump has said that the Iranian ten-point proposal for resolving this conflict-for a ceasefire-is a workable basis for negotiation. But when you look carefully at it, there are a number of items that the U.S. is going to have trouble with. And it’s striking-40 days into this conflict, the U.S. has gone from demanding unconditional surrender from Iran to basically working on the Iranian term sheet for a settlement. That’s going to lead to a lot of bumps in the road ahead. There’s also going to be so much discussion about whether Donald Trump’s rhetorical style-his wild threats-ended up harming the U.S. position in global opinion. Pope Leo XIV called it totally unacceptable in the last hours before Trump decided to accept negotiation, or whether-as I’m sure in Trump’s mind-it was part of forcing Iran into finally accepting a negotiated structure. And then lastly, what exactly has happened in terms of reopening the Strait of Hormuz? That’s the key issue in terms of the global economy. Iran is saying that it will work with Oman across the strait on a system to allow shipping in and out, but it also talks about the two of them collecting tolls and revenues. That’s going to be something very hard to negotiate. The details now are to be worked out. This is the kind of negotiation that could easily collapse because of the differences you can already see. But again, the financial markets are telling us there’s generally a sense of enormous relief.
