Gulf States Brace for Trump to Declare Victory and Leave Them to Face Iran Alone

The seizure of Kharg Island has become U.S. President Donald Trump’s last hope for a decisive victory. Regardless of the number of nuclear facilities and missile launchers destroyed, or senior officials assassinated – including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib, Basij commander Gholam Reza Soleimani, and much of the military and political leadership – the objective has now shifted to imposing “maximum economic pressure” on Iran to force it back to the negotiations that Trump abandoned on the eve of the war. Of all his ambitious goals, the president of the United States has ended up right back at square one.