On Thursday, during his first Cabinet meeting since the commencement of the Iran war, President Donald Trump acknowledged peace talks with Iran are difficult because their "sinister, sick" replacement leaders are hiding.
But despite the difficulty to find a diplomatic off-ramp, he is pleased with the progress of the "military operation," saying the conflict with Iran may end after four to six weeks of fighting.
"The Iranian regime is now admitting to itself that they have been decisively defeated," Trump said. "They're saying to people, this is a disaster. They know it. That's why they're talking to us."
Still, as Tehran tightens its grip on the crucial Strait of Hormuz, thousands more U.S. troops are heading to the region. Trump has vowed to strike Iran's power plants if it does not fully reopen the strait — and his new deadline for that looms this weekend, when the war will also mark a month.
Bob Maginnis, president of Maginnis Strategies, LLC., thinks Trump is willing to make a deal with the current regime, though he says that is arguably not in the best interest of the Iranian people.
"They've been celebrating certainly the diaspora," he notes. "But even inside, they've been celebrating the demise of the ayatollah and a lot of the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps)."
Over the long haul, the defense analyst asserts Iran cannot be trusted.
"Do I anticipate that they'll pick up their lying and their cheating and so forth? Of course," Maginnis tells AFN. "It's hard to keep them from returning to their old ways without people on the ground."
So, he believes this conflict could go either way.
"What Trump has done could either trigger escalation, or it could prevent it," Maginnis summarizes. "It really comes down to this dual-track strategy that we're on. Whether or not the 15-point plan is going to end the hostilities or it's going to kick it up into the next phase, it's hard to tell."
The "15-point plan" is not a publicly detailed checklist; it is a broad, hardline negotiation framework centered on Iran giving up nuclear and missile capabilities and the U.S. lifting sanctions and offering economic/nuclear cooperation.
