Iran has issued new demands for the United States. In exchange for opening the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is asking the Trump administration for reparations, a pledge to never threaten Iran again and remove the naval blockade, according to NBC news. On The Drew Mariani Show, Drew recently discussed what’s next for the war with Dr. David Wurmser, a Senior Analyst for Middle East Affairs at the Center for Security Policy.
Wurmser thinks Iran’s demands will go nowhere. “This is just a ridiculous demand they know that will not be met,” Wurmser said. “I mean, if anybody’s paying reparations, it ought to be them,” he told Drew. “This is the nation that’s destroyed Lebanon, it’s blown up places all over the world, killed thousands of Americans, tens of thousands of Iraqis, [and] thousands of Israelis.
Iran’s actual intent, Wurmser thinks, is to humiliate the president. “They actually want him to lose in the midterms. And as a result, they’re trying to create a situation where the president is humiliated.”
Trump, on the other hand, is trying to squeeze the Iranian economy. “We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money,” the President told Axios in a recent interview. Wurmser said the President is trying to “slow-motion destroy the Iranian regime” through financial pain.
Trump also floated the idea of reparations himself. In a post on Truth Social he said he is “demanding compensation from Iran, for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts.”
Peace Coming?
According to recent comments by Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, the US and Iran are close to a peace deal. “The signals in the last two or three days are that we are close to some sort of an arrangement,” he told Bloomberg.
Pope Leo
In his young pontificate, the Holy Father has made peace a central part of his message to the world. Earlier this summer the Pope made headlines saying he didn’t think the war in Iran was just.
And, in recent days, Pope Leo condemned violence around the world. “War only breeds more war and causes immense suffering,” he said in a recent Angelus address.
Listen to The Drew Mariani Show weekdays 2-5pm CT. Download the Relevant Radio App here.