Three months after President Trump launched war on Iran, his seemingly haphazard approach to the conflict is bewildering allies at home and abroad as he veers between diplomatic dealing, military strikes and increasingly far-fetched ideas.
It is possible that Mr. Trump is near a breakthrough in the form of what both sides call an interim agreement that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and begin detailed talks on Iran’s nuclear program. But U.S. officials said on Thursday that Mr. Trump had not yet signed off on the agreement, and several others like it have fallen apart.
The latest diplomatic crescendo comes just after a new round of clashes between the United States and Iran tested a fragile cease-fire that has held since early April. Mr. Trump has threatened to restart the war if Iran does not reopen the strait to commercial shipping. Last Friday, U.S. officials hinted that he was reviewing military options for potentially resuming the bombing campaign.
But neither saber rattling nor outright shooting has derailed diplomacy between Washington and Tehran, which has continued in fits and starts in the weeks since Mr. Trump canceled a round of planned talks with Iranian officials in Pakistan earlier this month.
A long post on Mr. Trump’s Truth Social account on Monday typified his mixed message, declaring at once that negotiations with Iran were “proceeding nicely!” before warning that anything short of a “great deal” would mean “Back to the Battlefront and shooting, but bigger and stronger than ever before — And nobody wants that!”
At the Defense Department, military officials expressed bewilderment over the stop-start nature of the conflict. A senior defense official said that the more than 50,000 U.S. troops assigned to Iran who are scattered throughout the Middle East, Europe and the United States were “in limbo” as Mr. Trump swings from option to option.
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