At the Ron Paul Institute, former congressman and presidential candidate Dr. Ron Paul suggests that the entire peace negotiation between VP Vance and his Iranian counterparts in Pakistan was a ploy to give the United States and Israel time to “re-group and re-load.” Paul writes:

Unfortunately, after a month and a half of war, where tens of billions of dollars have been spent, every US base in the region is either damaged or destroyed, and dozens of military aircraft have been lost, President Trump did not take the off-ramp. He hit the accelerator.

After 21 hours of negotiations, the talks blew up, reportedly because the US side again insisted that Iran turn over its enriched uranium, destroy its nuclear facilities, and never enrich uranium again. This may be the “maximalist” approach favored by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but there is no reason for the US to make such demands.

So the Pakistan meeting was a waste of time – and likely the whole ceasefire was a ploy to buy time for the US and Israeli side to re-group and re-load.

Immediately after the talks ended in failure, an increasingly volatile Trump increased his threats against Iran. Over the past weeks he has alternated between insisting that the Strait of Hormuz is unimportant to the United States and demanding that the Strait be opened immediately.

Then yesterday he announced – via his social media account – that the United States military would start blockading Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Any ship departing from an Iranian port would risk being boarded, inspected, and possibly seized.

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