Trump's Showing He's Not Fit to Serve at This Level Says Rep. Subramanyam

Representative Suhas Subramanyam, a Virginia Democrat, joined Balance of Power stating that President Trump's "outrageous" threats to hit civilian targets in Iran shows he's not fit to lead and it's damaging to US standing in the world.

As US President Donald Trump’s latest ultimatum to Iran to agree to a ceasefire deal approaches, hardliners now in charge in Tehran are relishing the idea of escalation and a region-wide conflict.

The US and Israel have taken out layers of senior commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps over the course of the nearly six-week war, but those who remain are girding for a protracted battle, with little fear of Trump’s threats to destroy civilian infrastructure. This could spark an upsurge in fighting that would further engulf Middle Eastern countries and exacerbate what has become a global energy crisis. he US and Iran said they are prepared to hold talks to end the war in the Middle East during a proposed two-week pause in hostilities, even as Israeli strikes on Lebanon threatened to derail the fragile truce.

Further adding uncertainty, sporadic fighting continued throughout the region and the Strait of Hormuz remained largely blocked. President Donald Trump has said that reopening the strait was a condition for halting the fighting.

Trump’s announced ceasefire Tuesday night was a retreat from threats to unleash massive devastation on Iran, easing fears of a protracted global energy crisis. Mediator Pakistan has floated negotiations later this week in Islamabad, and Trump said they could start very soon, according to the New York Post.

Yet there were already signs that the agreement was buckling. Iran said it would withdraw from the deal if Israel kept up attacks in Lebanon, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency. Passage of oil tankers through the strait were halted after Israel’s attacks, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the president views the war front in Lebanon as included in the ceasefire.

Trump made a series of dubious claims about the terms of the agreement in a social media post on Wednesday morning. He said the Islamic Republic has gone through a “regime change,” even though there have been no signs this week that new leadership had taken hold.

He also indicated the US would use its own 15-point plan as the basis of negotiations with Tehran, after saying Tuesday the sides would begin discussions off of Iran’s 10-point proposal. Nonetheless, he said the US was prepared to discuss with Iran much-desired sanctions relief. The shift to diplomacy came as countries including Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Israel, reported ongoing missile attacks into Wednesday, sewing confusion about when and how the ceasefire would be enforced. Saudi Arabia’s oil pipeline to the Red Sea was hit by a drone strike, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Further uncertainty surrounded whether the ceasefire includes Israel’s campaign in Lebanon, where the country is waging a parallel war against the Iran-aligned Hezbollah militia.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a key mediator, said the truce included Lebanon, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu disagreed. The Israeli military on Wednesday said it had carried out its largest operation against Hezbollah since the start of the Iran war, targeting more than 100 of the militia’s command centers and military sites within 10 minutes.

Still, oil and gas prices plummeted on news of the ceasefire, which paves the way for a potential resumption of energy supplies via the Strait of Hormuz — through which about fifth of oil and liquefied natural gas supplies typically flows.

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