For weeks, there has been no diplomatic progress, but also no full-scale fighting, as each side seems to believe it can hold out longer than the other.
A butcher in Tehran in July. The United States appears to be betting that putting Iran in a tighter economic stranglehold will succeed where military strikes have not.
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei’s appointment of hard-line loyalists to top jobs suggests he is prepared to keep the country on a war footing and to quash domestic dissent.
A rally in Tehran in April, with posters of Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei. The ayatollah has not been seen in public since being named supreme leader of Iran.
President Trump said a cease-fire agreed in June would lead to limits on Iran’s nuclear program and finish the conflict, but the countries appear far apart.
Connexion
