Donald Trump has again postponed plans to start destroying Iranian energy plants

Donald Trump has again postponed plans to start destroying Iranian energy plants.

Siting what he claimed was progress in talks to end the war,

the US president said the new deadline was 10 days away.

This morning, the Iranian red crescent said that more than 1900 people have been killed over the

past month, at least 20,000 have been injured. Meanwhile, the price of a barrel of oil has risen

again, a short time ago, it stood at just over $110. For analysis of the latest developments,

we can talk to Farwa's gorgeous, whose professor of international relations at the London

School of Economics. Thanks for joining us this afternoon. It's four days now since Donald

Trump first said that the US was negotiating with Iran. How much is actually known about the

contact between the two countries? Not very much. And for your own listeners,

they should not really take seriously what Donald Trump says, because Donald Trump

engages in falsehood, contradictory statements. It's very difficult to really make sense

that President Trump's basically shifting positions on a daily basis. What we know so far

is that regional powers, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Oman and Qatar are rallying messages between

Iran and the United States. So there are no direct talks between the United States and Iran so far.

And what we know about the American position, the so-called peace plan, the 15-point peace plan,

is really Donald Trump is asking Iran to submit to surrender. And this tells you a great deal

that Donald Trump really does not understand. Neither the larger, if his own war, know how,

and, you know, Iran has responded to his submission demands in the past four weeks. My fear

is that the divide is so huge between the two sides. We could easily basically see more

military escalations on the part of the United States by launching

a ground operations in the next one week or so. Why would they want to do that, though,

when the outcome is far from certain? Well, I mean, I think you're asking a common

sensical question really. It's a very simple question. It's a very rational question and I'm not

patronizing. I mean, think the American Israeli war was basically based on a very false premise

that if you kill the top Iranian leaders, Iran will submit, Iran will surrender. It was

based on a very false premise that Iran is vulnerable. Iran was bleeding. Iran was on its

knees. On all you have to do is to basically deliver a kill for its leaders and Iran would collapse

like a ripen fruit. So what President Trump has been doing really is doubling down. He does not

have an exit plan. He entrapped himself in a very, very difficult strategic, I mean, situation

in the Gulf. I mean, think about it. The President on the first day, he basically boasted about his war

and called on the Iranian people to come out and take charge of their own government, meaning,

you know, regime change. Now we are talking about opening the straight of Hamus through which

more than one-third, actually one-fifth of all hangars and other chemicals pass on daily bases.

So in fact, what we have seen is that it tells you a great deal. Not only about the contradictory

messages of President Trump is that now President Trump has a weaker hand than he had before the

start of the war. And Iran is using, has used its weak hand in order to really basically

increase the economic pain to itself, to its neighbors, to the world economy, to the United States.

So the war really is no longer about military conflict. Now it's about economic pain. It's about

waterways. It's about alliances. It's about the price of energy. And Iran now is doing very well

because the war has shifted from the, I mean, military situation into the economic and strategic

reality that is facing Donald Trump in the face. So how then can this be brought to an end?

Again, you're asking too many common sensible questions. Truly, it's unfair.

No one knows. Even Donald Trump doesn't know. He wants out. He wants a face-saving formula.

My fear is that knowing what we know about Donald Trump, he might really basically double down.

And that's why the United States has been positioning tens of thousands of special operation forces

and commanders in order to carry out theoretically a ground operation. So again, Donald Trump believes

that basically more military might could really force Iran to surrender. In fact, his press secretary

two days ago, I mean, imagine his press secretary Caroline Levitt said,

Iran has to concede that is defeated. Imagine a nation of 100 million people. One of the greatest

civilizations in the world, one of the greatest old calling, I mean, his press secretary is asking

the Iranian government to concede defeat. This is tells you about the childishness and the lack of

strategy and the lack of viable strategy, how to get out of the war and that's why my fear is

that knowing what we know about President Trump and knowing what we know that American institutions

have been gutted out now. So you don't have, where's the State Department? Where's the National

Security Council? Where's the Defense Department? Is President Trump and his few inner circle of

advisors who may basically say, yes, man, what ever he says? So the reality is, without really

intervention by Europe, without basically Europe standing up and telling President Trump,

enough is enough. Let's find a way out. I doubted very much whether regional diplomacy

will produce any kind of, you know, a way out of this deadly embrace.

Professor Fowell was gargous. Thank you for talking to us this afternoon.