President Donald Trump is taking a big risk by overselling what he describes as an agreement to end his war in Iran, according to a veteran of the State Department.
The 80-year-old president and Iran’s lead negotiator have signed an agreement to open the Strait of Hormuz, but the specific terms of the deal have not been publicized and Israel does not seems to be supportive, and former State Department official Joel Rubin told "CNN This Morning" that Trump may be setting the U.S. up for a major diplomatic failure.
"Thepresident is still haunted bythe shadow of Barack Obama'snuclear deal," said Rubin, who served during the Obama administration. "Clearly, he spentmost of the time obsessing overhow he did a better deal than Obama when we don't even havea deal right now on the nuclearprogram. So with whom he'sspeaking, I don't know exactly.He says that the supreme leaderand those around him are goingto see the foreign ministerpotentially on Friday, signingthe agreement with the vicepresident, and, of course, theIRGC, the the the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. They're theones really controlling Iranright now, it's basically the same people."
"I think that'sthe key thing to understand isthat where President Trump isthinking things are is notactually where they are when itcomes to the Iranian leadership, and he needs to be a little moreclear-eyed and a little morepatient," Rubin added.
Vice President JD Vance cautioned that the deal as it currently exists is "a very general document" that's only a page and a half long, and Rubin said that Trump might be getting ahead of himself by hyping the agreement as something more substantial.
"His rhetoric rightnow is getting so far ahead ofwhere the paper is that he runsthe risk of not just humiliatingthe United States, but alsoundermining our relationshipsacross the region," Rubin said. "We may verywell find ourselves with no newagreement. But the presidentsaying he has an agreement, andthen the region, of course, endsup in this sort of uncertainty, and that's why you see the Israelis reacting so cautiouslyas they are."