- The US-Iran standoff may continue beyond Trump's presidency due to no compromise from either side
- Trump rejected Iran's seven-day pause proposal as too short for effective sanctions relief
- Trump maintains pressure on Iran but keeps diplomatic channels open, including UN talks
The standoff between the United States and Iran could continue beyond Donald Trump's presidency, with neither side willing to compromise, Khinvraj Jangid, professor and director of the Jindal Centre for Israel Studies, told NDTV Profit.
"My conservative sense is that this will go on for more than Trump's term," Jangid said. "I don't think there would be any resolution of the Iranian issue with Donald Trump. Donald Trump will not compromise, Iranians will not compromise, and they will keep on playing this game."
Jangid said Trump's rejection of an Iranian proposal for a seven-day pause did not mean Washington had closed the door to diplomacy. He described the proposed period as too short to address the restrictions currently in place. "It wasn't a serious proposal to start with," he said. "In seven days we can't even reorder all kinds of blockades that are there right now."
Trump, in Jangid's view, is maintaining pressure on Tehran while leaving room for negotiations. He pointed to the Iranian delegation's attendance and participation at the United Nations General Assembly as a sign that Washington had kept a channel open. "He is not ending the diplomatic negotiations," Jangid said. "It's also the carrot-and-stick kind of a policy." He added that Trump "will use coercion" but had not said he would deal with Iran only "on the battlefields".
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Asked whether oil prices could rise again if talks collapse, Jangid said markets should expect repeated shifts between tension and relative calm. "We will live through these ups and downs, escalations, de-escalations, some kind of a pause in hostilities, but then restart of the pause, some new threats," he said.
He argued that countries had already begun adjusting to the uncertainty, citing changes in where India obtains its liquefied natural gas. "More or less, all allies are prepared for this kind of an unpredictable long-term geopolitical situation in the Middle East," he said.
Jangid also said Trump may seek to isolate Iran as he revises his approach. He suggested that Washington could ask China, which he said had been assisting Tehran, to avoid undermining US actions in the Middle East. "Whether Chinese will consider his request, we need to see in the coming month," he said.
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