{"id":1246,"date":"2026-06-04T22:39:50","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T22:39:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=1246"},"modified":"2026-06-04T22:39:50","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T22:39:50","slug":"iran-endgame-nears-as-trump-faces-two-stark-choices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=1246","title":{"rendered":"Iran endgame nears \u2014 as Trump faces two stark choices"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has bent over backward to negotiate an end to Iran\u2019s grand plans to develop nuclear weapons \u2014 before the June 2025 bombing, afterward, and again during the follow-up diplomacy of spring 2026.<\/p>\n

Read more California Rep\u2019s jaw-dropping reply when Scott Bessent asks question every 10th grader can answer<\/a><\/p>\n

Yet Iran is unlikely ever to abandon its pursuit of the bomb voluntarily.<\/p>\n

With nuclear weapons, Tehran hopes to become the de facto hegemon of the Middle East.<\/p>\n

And that is the charitable view, one that excludes the possibility of a messianic theocracy believing that eliminating Israel would forever ensure its Shiite minority permanent preeminence in the pantheon of Islamic jihadists.<\/p>\n

After three months of intermittent war, we are now better acquainted with Iran\u2019s intentions and the realities of the conflict.<\/p>\n

The Iranian regime has never viewed \u201cnegotiations\u201d as a path leading to an ultimate \u201cdeal.\u201d<\/p>\n

At best, the regime\u2019s supposedly \u201celected\u201d government plays good cop, while the bad cop theocratic henchmen periodically violate whatever understandings have been reached.<\/p>\n

The regime\u2019s art of \u201cdealing\u201d is not aimed at resolution but at gaining strategic advantage by postponing any military effort that leads to its demise.<\/p>\n

As a result, Iran does not necessarily regard overwhelming military defeat on the battlefield as a strategic loss.<\/p>\n

In terms of size, population, resources, wealth and military strength, Iran has been the most formidable adversary the United States has faced in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Yet our losses in this war so far have been historically low, while the damage to the Iranian industrial, nuclear and military infrastructure has been immense and unprecedented.<\/p>\n

And while the United States has clearly won the shooting war, it has yet to secure the peace.<\/p>\n

One problem is the scarcity of accurate information: We have only rumors and spotty regime-fed reports of what is actually going on inside Iran, given there are neither US ground troops nor embedded Western reporters there.<\/p>\n

No one yet knows the full extent of the damage to the regime or the viability of the Iranian resistance.<\/p>\n

The result is that Iran is likely to be in far worse shape than it lets on.<\/p>\n

Even so, a militarily weakened Iran seems to hope that escalating tensions in the Strait of Hormuz will raise gas prices at home and worldwide, costing Trump the midterm elections, before American sanctions, blockades and asset freezes will bankrupt the country.<\/p>\n

The United States now weighs two choices.<\/p>\n

One is to end the war and get some sort of deal, assured that it has already done close to a decade\u2019s worth of damage to Iran, and perhaps more if sanctions persist.<\/p>\n

Read more Graham Platner knew exact meaning behind Nazi-linked \u2018Totenkopf\u2019 tattoo, ex-girlfriend claims<\/a><\/p>\n

The United States could seek to negotiate an exit that lowers oil prices and staves off political catastrophe in November.<\/p>\n

America\u2019s anxious Gulf allies might support \u2014 or even now insist upon \u2014 such a negotiated settlement.<\/p>\n

Yet the long-term limitations of such a truncated and transitory victory are twofold.<\/p>\n

First, Iran\u2019s regime would likely consolidate its hold on power, claiming that its reputation abroad has grown, and that its mere survival should be seen as an incredible victory.<\/p>\n

Second, Iran would likely rebuild and wait to go nuclear until the arrival of a president akin to Obama or Biden, convinced that there would then be no danger of another American intervention.<\/p>\n

The regime has good reason, given the current socialist-Islamist Democratic Party, to expect a future Democratic president to revive Obama\u2019s bankrupt visions of empowering a Shiite crescent from Tehran to Yemen to \u201cbalance\u201d Israel and the Gulf monarchies.<\/p>\n

An alternative course is riskier \u2014 one that could involve greater casualties and Iranian missile and drone strikes against Israel and the Gulf states.<\/p>\n

It would begin with Trump issuing a final one-week deadline for Iran to concede to his demands to denuclearize, hand over all its enriched uranium, dismantle its remaining missile forces, cease subsidizing Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis, and stop interfering with international traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Otherwise, for a week or so, the United States would strike the remaining regime grandees who believe they\u2019re still in charge of Tehran\u2019s government, along with dual-use bridges, subterranean nuclear depots, power plants, island ports and docks, weapons arsenals and factories, and the remnants of the Iranian mosquito navy.<\/p>\n

Trump would then open the Strait of Hormuz, leave a guardian force to keep it navigable, declare victory, go home \u2014 and pivot to the economy.<\/p>\n

The point would be to inflict enough damage on the Iranian theocracy and its appendages to end the current off-and-on war.<\/p>\n

Whichever choice Tehran makes, either concessions or destruction, would humiliate the regime, neuter its military and halt its nuclear aspirations for decades, leaving it ripe for internal uprising \u2014 and reminding the world there is a limit to unpredictable America\u2019s patience and placidity.<\/p>\n

Victor Davis Hanson is a distinguished fellow of the Center for American Greatness.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Woman-hating Graham Platner made twisted rape comments and lied about Nazi tattoo, ex-girlfriends reveal<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After three months of intermittent war, we see the realities of the conflict: Iran does not regard overwhelming military defeat on the battlefield as a strategic loss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nIran endgame nears \u2014 as Trump faces two stark choices - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=1246\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Iran endgame nears \u2014 as Trump faces two stark choices - 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