The ceasefire that was reportedly just agreed between the United States and Iran reflects US President Donald Trump's desperation to escape the quagmire that he created. Gone is the muddled array of objectives he touted in the war's early days.
All the Trump administration has reportedly secured in the new agreement is a promise to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which was open before the war, and plans for new negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme, which was already under discussion. But even these pared-down goals might prove unattainable if Israel continues its fight against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Mr Trump is already fed up with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It was Mr Netanyahu who advised him in 2018 to abandon the nuclear deal then-US president Barack Obama had reached with Iran three years earlier, putting Mr Trump on the hook to deliver a better one.
