Like many, I’ve been wondering if and when the U.S. (and Israel) will finish this war with Iran. Yes, it is (or at least was) a war and now, for several weeks, there’s been a ceasefire (of sorts) and a least an attempt to negotiate a peace in the region. Everyday, reporters question members of the administration as to the status of the negotiations and well, it’s becoming clear to anyone still paying attention that the Iranians appear to be giving us the finger (or whatever they do in Iran). So why is Trump being so patient with the situation as it stands?

Currently, president Trump is in China having talks with their president, Xi, on many isses including Trade, Taiwan (possibly) and Iran (most assuredly). Why Iran? Because China receives around 50% of its oil imports from Iran. The current blockade the U.S. has in. place prevents any ships, cargo or oil tankers, to or from Iran, from passing through the Hormuz Strait.The U.S. doesn’t have that problem as we’ve become anet exporter in oil (and natural gas). So we can probably be sure that somehow, Trump will use China’s dependency on oil from Iran to generate some beneficial trade as well as use China to influence Iran on accepting the U.S.’s terms for ending the war. That latter will probably not occur but it’s a strategy worth attempting.

I really think the war-hawks are going to be applying maximum pressure on president Trump to finish this war the way they intended: total destruction and unconditional surrender. There’s no way we can trust Iran to comply with any deal and unconditional surrender will never be ann option for them. It’s possible we just entered a period of an unending hot conflict where, just a few months ago it was safely cold.