Washington Post lowers the boom on Trump’s acolytes for declaring victory against Iran

In a piece published in The Washington Post's this Wednesday, the publication's Editorial Board said that claims of victory regarding President Trump's recent dust up with Iran are "shortsighted and premature."

"Iran’s strikes on U.S. interests and allies will almost certainly continue in the coming months," the Board writes. "Unless the Trump administration quickly steps up its diplomatic game, what Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called his ultimate aim — the removal of the United States from the Middle East — could soon be realized in Iraq and Syria."

The Board then mentioned Iran's nuclear program, which the regime announced it would ramp up in the wake of the targeted killing of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani. Although Trump recently declared he would "never" let Iran acquire a nuclear weapon, his abandoning of the Iran nuclear deal displayed his inability to construct a coherent strategy for stopping additional Iranian enrichment of uranium — "other than calling on European allies and Russia to give up their attempts to save the pact."

"Mr. Trump ought to embrace the pause in hostilities as an opportunity to begin serious negotiations with the Islamic republic," the Board continued. "That is the course favored not only by a majority of Americans but also by Mideast allies such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which have been pressing for restraint. Though he nodded to the idea, saying the United States was 'ready to embrace peace,' Mr. Trump also said he would intensify already-massive sanctions on Iran. That campaign of “maximum pressure” has failed to bring about the new nuclear negotiations Mr. Trump says he wants, much less the regime collapse or capitulation his more hawkish advisers hope for. But it virtually ensures that Iranian responses like last year’s attacks on Persian Gulf shipping and Saudi oil fields will continue."

Read the full op-ed over at The Washington Post.