Even some conservatives are sounding the alarm after a report revealed that Donald Trump apparently threw away a "golden opportunity" to de-escalate a global conflict and bring an end to the Iran war.
It started with a report from Trita Parsi, an Iranian-Swedish writer and political analyst, who sought to reveal what happened with Iran issuing a reconciliation video to its neighboring nations. When that dropped, Trump seized on the opportunity to humiliate Iran, but Parsi shows how that could have been the wrong move.
"Speaking to several people involved on all sides, I believe I have gotten to the bottom of the story about Pezeshkian's video message - and how Trump blew up a golden opportunity to de-escalate the war," he wrote. "Here's what happened: Regional efforts at de-escalation in the war had convinced Iran to gradually adjust its regional retaliation conduct. In a first step, the Iranian President, as head of the interim leadership council, announced that attacks on neighboring countries would cease as long as their territories wouldn't be used to attack Iran. This is why Pezeshkian issued that video statement."
According to the analyst, "Regional states were then expected to respond in kind. This would, understandably, take a few hours, as they were monitoring whether Iran's attacks were being reduced."
Then Trump entered the situation.
"But before they could reciprocate the reconciliatory tone and take regional de-escalation to the next level, Trump issued his Truth Social post that declared victory, insulted and humiliated Iran, and even issued further threats of 'complete destruction and certain death'. To make matters worse, the US also crossed another red line shortly thereafter by attacking the water desalination plant at Qeshm Island. (This is incidentally a war crime according to Article 54 of the First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions)," according to the political expert.
He then added, "Trump's actions deliberately or inadvertently sabotaged the sensitive de-escalation talks in the region, which is why there was also an uptick by prominent GCC accounts blaming Trump for the war. Had Trump not done this, chances are that, at a minimum, the regional widening of this war would have been halted and reversed. With last night’s attacks by Israel on Iran‘s oil infrastructure, we can only assume how Iran may retaliate. We’ve entered a new phase of this high-intensity war."
Former Republican John Jackson shared that analysis and added, "Trump blew it, if this is correct." That post from Jackson was also shared by another former Republican, attorney George Conway.