There are diplomatic agreements that produce alignment and there are diplomatic agreements that produce a 16-day-old ceasefire, a drone strike on a Singapore-flagged cargo ship, a clash with NATO allies, and military options that remain on the table for the country the ceasefire was signed with. The U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding is the second kind.
Per Fox News, Trump is now clashing with NATO allies over the Iran nuclear deal and military spending, a development that has arrived alongside continued U.S.-Iran indirect talks in which Trump is simultaneously projecting confidence in the negotiations and keeping military options available, which is the diplomatic position of a man who wants a deal and a bomb in the same sentence. The 60-day roadmap signed at Versailles has 44 days remaining. In the 16 days it has existed, Iran’s IRGC struck a Singapore-flagged cargo vessel in the Strait, the ceasefire’s deconfliction mechanism did not deconflict it, and Trump’s own Breitbart is running the negotiations as encouraging while his Washington Examiner is comparing the deal to Munich. The internal disagreement is no longer limited to different publications. It has reached NATO.
The allies’ specific objections, per Fox News coverage, center on military spending commitments and the terms of the deal itself. NATO members who are not party to the MOU are watching the United States negotiate a nuclear agreement with Iran independently, keep military options available for the country it just agreed to negotiate with, and absorb a cargo ship attack on a neutral vessel inside the Strait the ceasefire was supposed to reopen. Their concern is that the deal’s 44 remaining days produce an outcome they did not shape and cannot predict.
Trump, for his part, told a dinner of American farmers last week that he has Iran “on the ropes” negotiating from “pure strength.” Iran’s parliament was told the same week they got more from talking than from fighting. The deconfliction mechanism was in place when the cargo ship was struck. The military options remain available. The 44 days continue.
Vance called the birthright citizenship ruling “hanging by a thread” on Tuesday and vowed to keep fighting. The Iran deal has 44 days and a drone strike already on its record, which is a different kind of thread.
When the ceasefire is 16 days old, a ship has already been struck, NATO allies are clashing with the administration over the terms, and military options remain on the table for the signatory, what exactly has been agreed to?
Sources
Fox News: Trump, NATO allies clash over Iran nuclear deal, military spending
Fox News: Deal or strike? Trump weighs military options as Iran talks continue
Raw Story: Opinion | Trump sparked war the moment he botched this ironclad deal
