It came as no surprise that Vice President JD Vance left the weekend talks with the Iranian regime empty-handed. The Iranians still demand total sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, the right to enrich uranium, no limits on their ballistic missiles program and reparations for infrastructure damaged in the war.
The regime refused to agree to not develop a nuclear weapon or not seek the tools to build one, insisting the U.S. needed an "affirmative commitment" on the issue. So, President Trump ordered the U.S. Navy to blockade the strait.
Retired Navy Commander Kirk Lippold, who is now an adjunct professor at the United States Naval Academy, takes issue with European countries like France and the United Kingdom backing the U.S. but sitting on the sidelines.
"The fact that you have a number of nations who do not want to participate, who agreed that [Iran] shouldn't have nuclear weapons and yet are doing nothing to prevent it, ought to tell you everything," Lippold submits. "We are once again taking a leadership role and bearing the burden for the world to have freedom of navigation, to have the world safe from nuclear weapons being threatened unnecessarily by countries that are irresponsible with them."
According to Reuters, U.S. and Iranian delegations led the weekend's negotiations because the current format is narrow. The core issues of U.S. sanctions relief and Iran's nuclear program and enrichment are not considered things a wider coalition can directly negotiate at this point.
After 21 hours of negotiations in Pakistan, Vance reported that meaningful discussions were held with Iran, but none that brokered a deal on terms laid out by the U.S.
Bob Maginnis, a West Point graduate and president of Maginnis Strategies, LLC., says the problem is there is no evidence that anyone inside Iran can topple the regime.
"We have what we have," he comments. "Trump is seizing the strait; he's going to strangle Iran economically. As Vance said when he left Islamabad, he left on the table the final and best offer. But their 10 points and our 15 points had nothing in common for the most part, so, we're kind of escalating rather than de-escalating at this point."
It remains unclear whether the two-week ceasefire is still on and whether fighting in the Middle East, which began on Feb. 28, will resume.
