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A useful idiot
The Observer
|May 31, 2026
Donald Trump's adventure in Iran has been extraordinarily helpful to Vlaldimir Putin.
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Typically, when a US president convenes a meeting in the White House situation room, the purpose is to discuss a question of national importance on which a decision is needed. He hears options from senior staff and picks the best or least bad among them.
On Friday he spent two hours there talking about proposals to extend a fragile ceasefire in Iran, and decided nothing.
He had no good options. Even now, three months after the US and Israel started a war of choice with bombing raids across Iran, Washington and Tehran have incompatible sets of demands on sanctions, nuclear enrichment and the Strait of Hormuz. As a result, the strait remains all but closed and oil prices remain 30% to 40% higher than before the fighting started.
This story is from the May 31, 2026 edition of The Observer.
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