{"id":1644,"date":"2026-06-20T10:07:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T10:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interstatelogisticshubs.com\/?p=1644"},"modified":"2026-06-20T10:07:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T10:07:19","slug":"the-us-iran-mou-is-worse-than-we-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/interstatelogisticshubs.com\/?p=1644","title":{"rendered":"The US-Iran MOU is worse than we thought"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In recent days, we\u2019ve been exposed to claims from parties sympathetic to the Islamic regime regarding the provisions of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) reached after many months of negotiations.\u00a0\u00a0Those reports have raised concerns in many quarters but have been denied as \u201cfake news\u201d by the administration, which as of this writing has not released the text.<\/p>

Read more The Four Jokers of the Apocalypse: Carney, Starmer, Macron, and Merz<\/a><\/p>\n

But now that the text has been leaked, and confirmed as legitimate, we see that the terms are even more egregious than feared.\u00a0\u00a0Many of us who have supported this administration are left dumbfounded that Trump, who laid out both the justification for war and its objectives in the opening days, has cast it all aside in what can only be seen as a craven submission to Iranian demands.<\/p>\n

Trump insists that this agreement is a great victory, one laying the foundation for a peaceful and prosperous Middle East.\u00a0\u00a0But this is gaslighting.<\/p>\n

V.P. Vance has taken the lead role in portraying a capitulation as a great accomplishment.\u00a0\u00a0There has been no \u201cunconditional surrender\u201d to U.S. terms \u2014 rather, the opposite.\u00a0\u00a0In failing to translate military achievements into strategic wins for the U.S., Trump has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.<\/p>\n

Trump certainly saw Iran as a vague threat down the line, whereas our ally in the fight, Israel, saw Iran as an existential threat that would remain so as long as the regime remained in place.\u00a0\u00a0So for Trump, it was more transactional, even as his internal \u201cpeacemaker\u201d made promises he was not prepared to keep.\u00a0\u00a0Whether from a lack of patience or a determination that the cost exceeded the potential gain, we witnessed a continuous abandonment of objectives down to the bare minimum of a reopening of the Strait and limitations on Iran\u2019s nuclear ambitions.\u00a0\u00a0Trump no longer discussed the missile threat or the proxies \u2014 never mind the Iranian people\u2019s quest for freedom.<\/p>\n

How did this play out?<\/p>\n

First, Trump entered the fray assuming that a vast show of military might would so frighten the Iranian leadership and that they would quickly come to terms.\u00a0\u00a0One carrier group, then two, then three.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWhy won\u2019t they give in?\u201d he was asking, clearly not understanding the religious and cultural motivations of the Iranian regime.\u00a0\u00a0Shia Islam is all about resilience, perseverance against a stronger foe, and the willingness to bring chaos on the way to the End Times.\u00a0\u00a0Neither Trump nor his team of negotiators (including two prominent real estate developers) understand this in the least.\u00a0\u00a0Since the U.S. side, from the beginning, disregarded Israeli efforts at regime change, it fell to Israel to conduct the \u201cdecapitation\u201d operations that took out much of the top-tier leadership, and target the Basij militia enforcing Iranian checkpoints.\u00a0\u00a0But when Trump ordered an end to offensive operations, those activities ended.\u00a0\u00a0Trump needed people with whom to \u201cmake a deal.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0But despite the claims, this was not a \u201cnew regime,\u201d nor one more rational or more interested in a deal \u2014 except on its own terms.<\/p>

Read more Your Freedom Vs. Democrat Control: The 2026 Midterms Will Decide America\u2019s Future<\/a><\/p>\n

Second, despite the extensive war planning, it\u2019s clear there was insufficient planning for Iranian attacks on uninvolved Arab Gulf states, while efforts to maintain the flow of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz were seriously lacking.\u00a0\u00a0Even the touted Operation Epic Freedom was abandoned after barely a day.\u00a0\u00a0So the economic impact was intense and mostly unaddressed.\u00a0\u00a0One might wonder if the downing of the U.S. F-15 and the associated cost of recovery brought home to Trump the potential cost of war, and he was simply unwilling to accept it.<\/p>\n

Third, Trump and his team fell into the same negotiation trap as Obama and Kerry more than a decade earlier.\u00a0\u00a0The US and Iran entered these talks with very distinct motivations.\u00a0\u00a0As then, Iran sought an end to the sanctions regime, and additionally this time an end to war.\u00a0\u00a0Trump, having lost faith in kinetic action as a means of bringing Iran to heel, and feeling both the political and economic pressure, chose to \u201cgive diplomacy a chance,\u201d meaning he wanted a \u201cdeal.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Though Trump years earlier had noted how Iran had \u201cnever lost a negotiation,\u201d he nonetheless chose that path.\u00a0\u00a0And as anyone who\u2019s ever experienced a Middle Eastern bazaar knows, the merchant quickly recognizes a customer too eager for a deal and bargains accordingly.\u00a0\u00a0The desperation for a deal meant the concessions were almost entirely by the U.S. side.<\/p>\n

And so we ended up with a 14-point plan paralleling the early demands of the Iranian regime.\u00a0\u00a0As with the JCPOA, Iran gets many benefits \u201cup front,\u201d including a lifting of the blockade and the ability to sell oil \u2014 surrendering our economic leverage \u2014 while our demands are relegated to months of further negotiation.\u00a0\u00a0The White House makes claims for what we will get on the nuclear front; the MOU confirms only that Iran will discuss them.<\/p>\n

And what of the fallout from this deal on U.S. interests if allies conclude they can\u2019t count on the U.S.?\u00a0\u00a0(Enemies, too, take note of this.)\u00a0\u00a0The Iranian protesters have been abandoned, while Israel \u2014 which fought and flew shoulder to shoulder with the U.S. \u2014 is disrespected, its interests dismissed, seen as less reliable than Syria<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0Trump allowed Iran to tie the fate of its forces in Lebanon to the deal, but Israel insists it is not party to this agreement and is not bound to its \u201cunderstandings,\u201d however much it displeases the president, as it clearly does.\u00a0\u00a0Going forward, Israel will have to address its security threats even as it contends with a less supportive U.S.\u00a0\u00a0As for the Gulf states, they will seek new arrangements with a newly empowered Iran.\u00a0\u00a0There will be no expansion of the Abraham Accords.<\/p>\n

Trump claimed he was tackling a problem his predecessors had failed to address.\u00a0\u00a0He promised peace through strength.\u00a0\u00a0But the terms of the agreement as published ensure that Iran remains an ongoing threat to the region and beyond.<\/p>

Read more Is The Iran Deal A \u2018Breather?\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"<p><em>Image:<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In recent days, we\u2019ve been exposed to claims from parties sympathetic to the Islamic regime regarding the provisions of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) reached after many months of negotiations.\u00a0\u00a0Those reports have raised concerns in many quarters but have been denied as \u201cfake news\u201d by the administration, which as of this writing has not released […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foreign-policy","category-iran"],"yoast_head":"\nThe US-Iran MOU is worse than we thought - Interstate Logistics Hub<\/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:\/\/interstatelogisticshubs.com\/?p=1644\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The US-Iran MOU is worse than we thought - 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