Amid escalating conflict in West Asia, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkianapologisedto the neighbouring countries for attacks launched during the past few days. He said that Tehran will not strike "unless they attack first". However, Iran soon backtracked and launched waves of missile and drone attacks on its neighbours, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE. A potential diplomatic off-ramp in the escalating Iran conflict may have collapsed just as it began to take shape, an expert said.
According to Trita Parsi, the former president of the Iranian-American Council and an analyst, said that Iran had begun signalling a limited de-escalation by indicating it would halt attacks on neighbouring states if their territories were not used to target Tehran. The move was expected to trigger reciprocal restraint from regional powers. But the effort may have unravelled after US President Donald Trump declared victory and issued fresh threats, complicating delicate attempts to calm the widening war. "Trump blew up a golden opportunity to de-escalate the war," he posted on X.
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"Regional efforts at de-escalation in the war had convinced Iran to gradually adjust its regional retaliation conduct. In a first step, the Iranian President, as head of the interim leadership council, announced that attacks on neighboring countries would cease as long as their territories wouldn't be used to attack Iran. This is why Pezeshkian issued that video statement (although he went further in his statement, but that's another matter)," Parsi said.
Parsi said that a restraint message would have invited similar response. "Regional states were then expected to respond in kind. This would, understandably, take a few hours, as they were monitoring whether Iran's attacks were being reduced. But before they could reciprocate the reconciliatory tone and take regional de-escalation to the next level, Trump issued his Truth Social post that declared victory, insulted and humiliated Iran, and even issued further threats of "complete destruction and certain death". "
"To make matters worse, the US also crossed another red line shortly thereafter by attacking the water desalination plant at Qeshm Island. (This is incidentally a war crime according to Article 54 of the First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions)" he said.
"Trump's actions deliberately or inadvertently sabotaged the sensitive de-escalation talks in the region, which is why there was also an uptick by prominent GCC accounts blaming Trump for the war. Had Trump not done this, chances are that, at a minimum, the regional widening of this war would have been halted and reversed. With last night’s attacks by Israel on Iran‘s oil infrastructure, we can only assume how Iran may retaliate. We’ve entered a new phase of this high-intensity war," he added.
After Pezeshkian's remarks, Trump labelled Tehran as the "loser of the Middle East" and warned that Iran "will be hit very hard". In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote, "Iran, which is being beat to HELL, has apologized and surrendered to its Middle East neighbors, and promised that it will not shoot at them anymore. This promise was only made because of the relentless U.S. and Israeli attack."
The Republican leader claimed in his social media post that Iran was "looking to take over and rule the Middle East". "Iran is no longer the "Bully of the middle east," they are, instead, "The loser of the middle east," and will be for many decades until they surrender or, more likely, completely collapse!", Trump said.
Apoorva Shukla is a journalist at Times Now, where she thrives on dissecting political developments both at home and abroad. A graduate of Delhi Univ...View More
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