Iran Sticks to Its Guns as Trump’s Threats Begin to Lose Power

 https://www.newsweek.com/iran-sticks-to-its-guns-as-trumps-threats-begin-to-lose-power-11967826

Almost three months into the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran and nearly five weeks since President Donald Trump announced a blockade of the Islamic Republic, a defiant Tehran shows little sign of budging in the face of the White House's fiery threats.

Rather, the conflict appears thus far to be emboldening Iranian leadership. Despite the loss of their supreme leader, the killing of other key commanders and decision-makers and the destruction of considerable firepower, Iranian officials have largely put domestic divisions aside and closed ranks to maintain a hefty set of demands to end the war on their own terms.

It's a costly bet. Yet the price for the White House, the region and the world is adding up as well.

"I think that the Trump administration has led itself into a very tight corner," Saikal said. "It has kept changing its goalposts and doesn’t really know how to end the war. President Trump has pathologically never been able to accept defeat. He has now narrowed his objective to ‘no nuclear weapons’, despite the fact that Tehran has always said that it won’t produce nuclear weapons."