Following the failure of the weekend peace talks, the U.S. began to impose a blockade of Iranian ports on Monday, targeting shipping vessels entering or departing Iranian ports, particularly around the Strait of Hormuz.
Pakistan responded by proposing a second round of talks between the U.S. and Iran.
"We've been called by the other side," President Donald Trump reported. "They want to work a deal."
He told the New York Post the second round of talks could happen "over the next two days," again in the capital of Pakistan.
But Bob Maginnis, president of Maginnis Strategies, LLC., does not see victory on the horizon.
"It's possible, I suppose," he tells AFN. "Trump's pulled off some pretty spectacular victories. I would hope that we could get through this one, but I'm not seeing the indicators of that as yet."
Noting that the war could spiral into a prolonged conflict, hurt the economy, and politically backfire on his party, Maginnis points out that this entire operation in Iran has been high risk for the president.
"Trump was risking his own presidency in launching this war," he asserts. "I'd never have believed that Iran was close to having a nuclear weapon. When they said they'd destroyed it, and I said, 'No, you didn't.'"
In short, the threat may have been overstated, and the supposed solution did not actually finish the job.
Meanwhile, Maginnis thinks Trump has underestimated the enemy.
"We can kill off the top tier, but there are a very significant number of layers underneath that believe the same radicals," he says.
"President Trump was betting his presidency and the future of America on taking down Iran," Maginnis adds. But he does not think he took into account the resilience of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the mullahs.
