The Guardian view on Donald Trump’s Iran deal: a pause is not a triumph | Editorial

The US-Iran ceasefire is welcome. But the US president is trying to disguise a failed war of choice as a diplomatic victory The US-Iran agreement to halt fighting for 60 days is welcome, because even cynical diplomacy is better than war. But Donald Trump should not be allowed to call this a triumph. He has bought a pause after an illegal war of choice that failed to secure its declared aims, devastated Iran, destabilised Lebanon and sent shocks through energy and fertiliser markets, leaving many people poorer and hungrier . A campaign launched to display US military strength is likely instead to be remembered for demonstrating its limits. A deal with Iran is better than war with Iran. But the US president is hailing as victory the partial easing of a crisis that he, and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu , helped create. The measure of success will not be the reopening of the strait of Hormuz, which war had closed, but whether the next two months produce a verifiable nuclear settlement and put out the flames fanned by the US-Israel attacks. Continue reading...