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Welcome to The Logoff: When will Donald Trump’s battle with Iran finish?
What’s occurring? The US and Israel have now spent 11 days placing targets in Iran, killing the nation’s supreme chief and destroying Iranian missile launchers and naval belongings. But it surely’s not clear the place they go from right here, and also you’ll get completely different solutions relying on who you ask.
Trump, on Monday: “I feel the battle could be very full, just about.”
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt, in the present day: “When [Trump] determines the navy targets have been met…and that Iran is ready of full and unconditional give up.”
US particular envoy to the Center East Steve Witkoff, additionally in the present day: “I don’t know.”
What are the choices, actually? As my colleague Zack Beauchamp has reported, “unconditional give up” — and the extra US-friendly management Trump has stated he needs — isn’t seemingly underneath present circumstances. As an alternative, the almost certainly outcomes are a negotiated settlement, or Trump merely deciding to assert victory and go house.
Why does this matter? This isn’t a brand new drawback for the Trump administration, which has been unable to elucidate why it took the US to battle. But it surely’s solely going to get extra acute because the battle drags on and fuel — adopted by nearly all the pieces else — will get dearer. US casualties are additionally mounting: Eight service members have died, and about 140 have been wounded, in response to the Pentagon.
Within the meantime, the US and Israel are bombarding Tehran, a metropolis of greater than 9 million folks. Israeli strikes on oil amenities over the weekend have precipitated harmful acid rain to fall from the skies, and strikes have additionally precipitated widespread energy outages. On Tuesday, Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth introduced “our most intense day of strikes inside Iran.”
“In the event that they maintain hitting Tehran like this for one more 10 days,” one resident advised the New York Occasions, “nothing will stay of Tehran.”
And with that, it’s time to sign off…
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