War and peace are becoming indistinguishable in the Persian Gulf. Both the Iranians and the Americans claim to want peace, but won’t conduct negotiations, at least directly and in the open. They agree to a ceasefire but constantly violate it. They condemn one another’s blockades, but refuse to lift them.
Bizarre propaganda videos are lobbed at each other – Lego figures from Tehran, video game images from the Pentagon – to the dismay of the rest of the world. Each side speaks with a forked tongue. As Donald Trump points out so often – the nearest he can get to nuance – Iran lacks a single strong man with whom he can do business (because the Americans, it’s worth noting, assassinated the last one, Ayatollah Khamenei).
