ISRAEL-IRAN WAR UNEASY TRUCE

WHY DONALD TRUMP'S BUNKER-BUSTING STRATEGY WILL NOT DEFUSE NUCLEAR TENSIONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

- By RAJ CHENGAPPA

DONALD TRUMP HAS MADE QUITE A HABIT OF PULLING RABBITS OUT OF HIS HAT, especially while dealing with international conflicts. Just when the 12-day Israel-Iran war threatened to engulf the Middle East and along with it his own presidency, Trump bullied the two countries into agreeing to a seemingly impossible truce on June 24. It was reminiscent of the US president's claims of having got India and Pakistan to call off their four-day war on May 10 just when a major escalation seemed imminent. The Indian government, though, continues to deny that Trump had any role to play, maintaining it was Pakistan that capitulated.

So even though Trump has so far failed to keep his campaign promises of ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict within 24 hours of being sworn in or of swiftly ending the war in Gaza, he has shaken off the image that he is all bluster and no bite. Before he brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, Trump sardonically wrote in his social media post, "No, I will not get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do, including Russia/Ukraine and Israel/Iran, whatever those outcomes may be, but the people know, and that's all that matters to me." He was obliquely referring to his predecessor Barack Obama winning the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize just eight months into his first term based on his election promise to reduce the salience of nuclear weapons across the world.