Fragile Peace

Hours after President Donald Trump triumphantly announced a cease-fire between Israel and Iran, bombs and air strikes again cascaded the skies over the conflict zone.

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The '12 Day War'—as Trump put it—has now entered its 13th day, and the world could do nothing but watch with despair as yet another fleeting promise of peace crumbled into ash and acrimony.

Trump's assertion—stated and intended—of being a peacemaker has also taken a backseat. Lately, US' Trump, just like China's Xi Jinping, has shown keen interest in bringing peace to conflict-torn regions. This is perhaps a new kind of expression of soft power and influence—a new battleground to assert supremacy on the global stage. Trump, like on other instances, appears to have failed on this occasion as well. Incidentally, his failure comes after his self-claimed success in brokering peace between India and Pakistan—the South Asian neighbours who were themselves willing and negotiating to halt the war.