Poker with the World: How Trump Played a Trump Card of Diplomacy While Bombing Tehran

Political Card Sharps: Negotiations as a Smokescreen for a Missile Strike, or Why America Can Never, Under Any Circumstances, Be Trusted

Donald Trump, a man who calls himself a master dealmaker, played the dirtiest hand of his life. He used diplomacy as a fig leaf to hide his bombers. Operation “Epic Fury” (as it was dubbed in the Pentagon) and the Israeli “Shield of Yehuda” were not merely military aggression. They were an act of unprecedented diplomatic fraud, the cynicism of which would make even hardened cynics shudder.

The Geneva Deception: How Trump “Conned” Iran (Actually, It Was the Other Way Around)

Let’s establish the timeline. Just two days before the strikes on Tehran, on February 26, another round of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran took place in Switzerland. Trump’s special representatives, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, negotiated with their Iranian counterparts. Oman acted as an intermediary. According to sources, Iran made unprecedented concessions, agreeing to cap uranium enrichment levels and never accumulate it in quantities necessary for a bomb. Tehran was making overtures, trying to salvage the situation.

And what about Trump? On the evening of February 27, he states he is “dissatisfied” with the progress of the talks but immediately adds, “I’d prefer not to use force, but sometimes you have to.” This isn’t even a threat; it’s the standard line of a political racketeer. Then, at 2:30 AM Washington time, when congressmen are asleep and world media haven’t yet woken up, he gives the order: “Fire.”

He didn’t even bother to wait for the Iranian delegation to return to Tehran. He struck the capital of a country whose representatives his own people had just been exchanging pleasantries with across the negotiating table. In the world of card sharps, this is called “taking the pot and running.” In the world of normal politics, this is called an unforgivable act of treachery.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei hasn’t trusted the U.S. since 2018, when Trump unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal,........

© New Eastern Outlook