Daily Times

President Donald Trump ordered strikes on Iranian targets but pulled back 10 minutes before the planned strikes. The decision shows that sanity still prevails in the White House. There are good chances therefore that America will avoid the purposeless war. The region was at the brink of war after an Iranian surface-to-air missile shot down a US spy drone, which, according to Iran violated its airspace. The US president had called it a big mistake by Iran, saying it was “hard to believe it was intentional”. Within hours, however, Mr Trump, has dialed down the threat, and once again called for talks. The extraordinary events, happening just across our neighbouring country, are bound to have an impact on our country and other regional powers. The US, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries might push Pakistan to become an indirect party in pressuring Iran to agree to Washington’s demands. Pakistan should not submit to such pressure. Instead, it should urge both sides to hold talks and try to revive the 2015 nuclear accord.

Since Mr Trump took over in 2016, the US has been squeezing Iran, much to the delight of Israel and Saudi Arabia. The US president first walked out of the nuclear deal unilaterally and then imposed the harshest sanctions ever on Iran. More recently, he has been threatening it with a military build-up in the strategic Strait of Hormuz pushing it to act irresponsibly, thereby providing him with excuses to strike Iran. Tehran has responded with diplomacy. What to talk of Europe, barring a few hawks in Pentagon, Trumps does not find many supporters for the war in the US Congress.

The good thing is that both sides are saying that they do not want war. What is stopping Trump from going to war is the heavy price it entails. He has called the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 “throwing a big fat brick into a hornet’s nest”. Despite his statements rejecting the war option, the recent military build-up in the region can only been blamed on his impulsive actions.

If it ends in a war, the conflict will have victims all over the world given the point of the clash is the Strait of Hormuz, which is the only route available to 30 per cent of the world’s oil supplies. The shooting of a US spy drone raised the oil prices by an average of $4 per barrel within hours of the strike. If a full-fledged clash breaks out it will affect several parts of the world.

Iran still wants to keep the nuclear accord intact. Considering other world powers trust its intentions, American public and Congress should push Trump to start inching towards peace. *