Washington Examiner defense reporter Mike Brest said the Iranians understand President Donald Trump has “domestic concerns” he has to factor in when coming to a decision to end the Iran war.
Brest said on C-SPAN Wednesday that the Iranians might not be interested in a deal Trump would be “willing” to agree to at this moment, explaining Iran is trying to “drag out” the conflict.
“The Iranians are smart,” Brest said. “They know that for the president, he has domestic concerns that he has to factor into his decision-making as well, so it does seem like the Iranians are trying to drag out this process.”
Brest said the Iranians believe dragging out a deal closer to the midterm elections might make the president “less likely” to carry out a military operation.
“If we were to get closer to the midterm elections, [the Iranians] believe it may make Trump less likely to carry out such a dramatic operation against them.”
Trump said on Friday in the Oval Office that the United States will be attacking Iran “very hard,” after Iranian forces shot down an Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday.
The U.S. carried out retaliatory strikes against Iran on Tuesday.
“We hit them hard yesterday, and we’re going to hit them hard again today, in case you miss it, in case you don’t turn on your television set,” Trump said on Wednesday.
Trump remains unsure about the timeline for a deal to end the war, saying they were “really close” to reaching one.
“We’ll see what happens with a deal. We were really close to a deal, but they keep tapping us along, they keep playing us for suckers because, you know what, they dealt with some very stupid presidents. I have to say that, I’m embarrassed to say that, some very stupid people were sitting here.”
