CNN’s Manu Raju spoke on Monday with Karim Sadjadpour, a foreign policy analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, about President Donald Trump’s emerging peace deal with Iran, which was signed electronically over the weekend.
“I want to ask you, President Trump, what did the president actually get from this war? Remember what he said a week into this. He said there will be no deal with Iran except, quote, unconditional surrender. That was the president’s statement, and it doesn’t seem to be what they are agreeing to. It doesn’t appear that Iran is simply going to surrender to the United States. So what was actually accomplished by this conflict that the president initiated more than two months ago?” Raju asked.
“Well, the night the war started, February 28th of this year, Manu, the president had four major objectives. He wanted to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program, destroy its missile program, dismantle its regional proxies, and potentially unseat the Iranian regime. None of those four objectives were achieved,” Sadjadpour replied.
And not only that, we lost control over the Strait of Hormuz, which was previously an international waterway. The Iranians took that and the global economy hostage. So what’s been announced right now in phase one of this agreement is the reopening of the strait. We still don’t know if that’s going to happen and whether Iran is willing to go back to the status quo ante on the strait. But for me, this is not a moment of celebration. This is a potential pause in a hot war, a return to cold war, but it’s a resolution which has not resolved any of the major sources of tension.
Raju agreed and noted, “And just to that point, there are a number of issues that have not been resolved. You mentioned the Strait of Hormuz, still questions about the ballistic missile program — just some examples on your screen that you can see there. How are they going to address Iran’s support for terrorist proxies? That’s a big question. We’ve been talking about the assets. And then the big question about the Israeli offensive in Lebanon. The president just said, quote, I want to stop the Lebanon thing. I’m sorry. Obviously referring to the hope that Benjamin Netanyahu does not engage in going after Hezbollah in Lebanon, but Israel is not on board with this agreement.”
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