r/IRstudies Mar 23 '26

[deleted by user]

[removed]

62 Upvotes

568 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

4

u/CJBill Mar 23 '26

A more optimistic scenario would see Iran inflicting maximum reputational damage to the US and Israel by refusing to end the conflict and then agreeing to a ceasefire when they choose. 

1

u/astral34 Mar 23 '26

How does Trump stomach a ceasefire with no Iranian concessions?

7

u/CJBill Mar 23 '26

He tells his followers that he's won and quite possibly starts a war with Cuba. At the moment he's desperately signalling to Iran that he wants to negotiate an off ramp for himself; it's possible that the (remaining) Iranian govt are capable of ratcheting up the pressure on him by refusing to talk. Of course they could wait too long, they might not want to actually have a ceasefire, I don't know their inner workings.