US and Iran Agree Two-Week Ceasefire After Pakistan-Led Mediation

1 minute ago, HappyExpat57 said:

I suggest you block trolls/numbskulls. They're just a waste of time and electrons, no real interest in honest dialog. This is a common thread amongst a certain political party.

I don’t block anyone, their trolling is a symptom of their desperation.

1 minute ago, Chomper Higgot said:

The leadership was replaced

The regime remains in place and have set the terms for thus cease fire.

It's interesting. The IRGC leadership has been decimated but the actual army leadership has been left in tact. As for setting the terms why do you assume it's the IRGC that set the terms. They've agreed to a ceasefire at the 11th hour.

27 minutes ago, Rockyroad said:

So you want Trump to continue fighting for months? It is great news if the war ends soon. Lower fuel prices for all.

He shouldn't be there in the first place. Regarding fuel price, here is the bad news. It will take months if not years from the war end to bring fuel price back to pre-war status. Oil price will remain elevated due to supply limitation and re-routing of tankers. Some of the major oil producing infrastructures will need years to repair and back on stream.

2 minutes ago, Patong2021 said:

The Iranian regime has been publicly humiliated before the Arab world.

You now speak for the Arab world.

Early start or late finish?

4 minutes ago, Patong2021 said:

Russia has lost the goodwill of the Arab world. It started with its support of Assad during the Syrian war, and continued with its lukewarm support of Iran. Russia now has as much influence as the UK does in the Arab world, which is not much.

It's easy to demonise when you have a tendency to only look at one side of the equation.

Paid thugs on one side, pretending to be the world's police, whilst committing atrocities of their own. When there are no checks and balances, absolute power corrupts.

1 minute ago, dinsdale said:

It's interesting. The IRGC leadership has been decimated but the actual army leadership has been left in tact. As for setting the terms why do you assume it's the IRGC that set the terms. They've agreed to a ceasefire at the 11th hour.

It’s more interesting that the IRYGV distribute their command structure as demonstrated by Trumps claims to have destroyed the regime and its military capability, only to to then have to lie about Iran’s resilient command and military capabilities.

45 minutes ago, Rockyroad said:

How did he lose the war?

You want the first ten ways, or the next ten?

37 minutes ago, Rockyroad said:

So you want Trump to continue fighting for months? It is great news if the war ends soon. Lower fuel prices for all.

While we agree on that point, that does not in any way indicate that America has gained anything from this ridiculous war, and it is nothing more than egg on that ugly face of Trump's.

4 minutes ago, Patong2021 said:

The regime leadership has been replaced.

The military senior commanders are gone.

Many of the senior nuclear scientists and their research facilities are gone.

Two of the largest dual purpose biochemical R&D facilities have been degraded.

There is no longer an Iranian Navy or Airforce with a capability of striking outide its own territory.

The Iranian regime has been publicly humiliated before the Arab world.

Or the USA has murdered civilians, including nuclear scientists to their own ends. Their families feel the same pain as yours would.

Destroyed infrastructure and worsened the lives of the Iranians.

But yet, they did not back down. Humiliated? Doesn't seem so from where I am sitting. It's the bullies that became more and more deranged at each step.

If you see two people arguing, but one of them is screaming like a madman, whilst the other stays cool calm and collected, do you count the one who stays calm as humiliated or is it the one who loses his cool and make himself look a madman to all and sundry? Take your pick.

11 minutes ago, Patong2021 said:

The regime leadership has been replaced.

The military senior commanders are gone.

Many of the senior nuclear scientists and their research facilities are gone.

Two of the largest dual purpose biochemical R&D facilities have been degraded.

There is no longer an Iranian Navy or Airforce with a capability of striking outide its own territory.

The Iranian regime has been publicly humiliated before the Arab world.

The regime leadership was replaced by a man who is far more hardline than the Ayatollah, so don't even attempt to try to put a happy face on this. This is a dismal failure on the part of America and nothing has been gained from this, except enormous amounts of economic decimation and huge waves of inflation.

If you call that a victory go for it, but it's a pretty desperate attempt, and a complete abandonment of independent and objective thought.

I am left wondering if this ceasefire applies to Israel and if whoever made any agreement involved Netanyahu?

Or is it only a ceasefire on US assets and aggression ?

Ending this "excursion" will not help oil/fuel or fertilizer prices much in short term because the Gulf infrastructure has been majorly damaged thanks to Trump.

14 minutes ago, IsmeUno said:

He's already claiming a regime change...

he can claim all he wants, last I heard was that Khamenei's son was the new Ayatollah, that his father wife and family were killed and that he is less tolerant than his father!

31 minutes ago, Patong2021 said:

Disappointed that there is a 2 weak truce, that will most likely become a full truce?

The USA has not agreed to any of Iran's demands. Iran backed down when it accepted the truce, which it had previously refused multiple times. The US terms have not changed. Iran must agree to cease its funding and support of terrorism in the region and give up its nuclear and biochemical weapons program.

Let's see if any of that happens...

20 minutes ago, Patong2021 said:

Russia has lost the goodwill of the Arab world. It started with its support of Assad during the Syrian war, and continued with its lukewarm support of Iran. Russia now has as much influence as the UK does in the Arab world, which is not much.

America has lost the goodwill of the entire planet. It took 81 years to earn, and one year to lose.

29 minutes ago, MIke B Bad said:

Won in seven days?

No regime change (regardless of Trump's spin)

Iran still have their enriched uranium

They are still firing missiles and drones

They have a strangle hold on the strait and will be charging a toll earning extra money

Kharg Island is still fully intact, so oil exports will continue unabated.

In what way was the war won in seven days?......are you referring to the 165 school children blown to bits, the $1,500,000,000 the war cost each day or the eight aircraft lost during the rescue?

Plus the 13 US soldiers killed and hundreds wounded, and not even counting the number of innocent civilians also killed!

20 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

He shouldn't be there in the first place. Regarding fuel price, here is the bad news. It will take months if not years from the war end to bring fuel price back to pre-war status. Oil price will remain elevated due to supply limitation and re-routing of tankers. Some of the major oil producing infrastructures will need years to repair and back on stream.

So you are predicting that Trump will accept the 10 demands of the Iranians?

52 minutes ago, IsmeUno said:

We'll see the with outcome...

Whether the terms on which they settle are better or worse than before they attacked.

The regimes navy has been sunk, missiles, missile launchers and drones capacity massively depleted, top tier leaders killed, military industrial capacity heavily damaged, no air force to speak of etc. Something tells me at this point the Islamic terrorist regime is not better off now than they were four and a half weeks ago.

1 hour ago, Rockyroad said:

How did he lose the war?

Well he is not really "winning" if the following is true.......

Left unresolved, at least for now, is the fate of 970 pounds of near-bomb-grade uranium buried primarily at a site in Isfahan, or Trump’s demand that Iran limit the size and range of its now-depleted arsenal of missiles. And by reaching even a temporary ceasefire with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and its new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, he is essentially endorsing the legitimacy of its new Government, five weeks after urging the Iranian people to overthrow it.

The temporary ceasefire does nothing to address the fundamental issues that led to the outbreak of the war on February 28: Iran’s refusal to give up its stockpile of nuclear fuel; US and Israeli demands that it limit the size and range of its missile arsenal; and Iranian demands that it retain the right to enrich uranium and, more recently, for war reparations.

2 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

The regimes navy has been sunk, missiles, missile launchers and drones capacity massively depleted, top tier leaders killed, military industrial capacity heavily damaged, no air force to speak of etc. Something tells me at this point the Islamic terrorist regime is not better off now than they were four and a half weeks ago.

I didn't state they were better off. What I am suggesting is that the USA and allies are not better off. It's worse for everyone concerned.

1 minute ago, IsmeUno said:

I didn't state they were better off. What I am suggesting is that the USA and allies are not better off. It's worse for everyone concerned.

The world is better off if the fundamentalist regime can no longer project offensively be it through missile or drone attacks or their terrorist proxies and have been stopped from developing nukes.

4 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

The world is better off if the fundamentalist regime can no longer project offensively be it through missile or drone attacks or their terrorist proxies and have been stopped from developing nukes.

The fundamentalist regime in the USA?

Better off that the USA threatened to use it's military power to take Greenland? It all depends on where you live...

Winning??? LOL.......Iran could come out of this with a healthy "bank balance".

Oil tankers used to sail down the middle of the Strait of Hormuz.

But since February 28, any seeking to cross the 33.8km-wide waterway have had to take a detour.

In what has become known as the “Tehran Tollbooth”, vessels must now head closer to the Iranian coastline, nosing themselves between the islands of Qeshm and Larak.

Ship owners then go through a complex – and expensive – process of negotiation.

First, according to Bloomberg, they are required to inform intermediary companies linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) of the ship’s cargo, destination and ultimate owner.

Iran then charges a “toll” of at least US$1 ($1.74) per barrel, with the rate rising according to the perceived friendliness of the national operator.

Fees must be paid in Chinese yuan, or a cryptocurrency. The average rate for a single oil tanker is US$2 million ($3.4m). If everything is approved, IRGC boats will finally provide an escort into and out of the “tollbooth”.

Some analysts believe it could make as much as US$500 billion ($871 billion) in five years.

This system – informal and illegal for now – represents Iran’s biggest win from the war with the United States.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/tehrans-871-billion-tollbooth-would-change-shape-of-middle-east-forever/T23DDBRJBRACJCXJOE5KYQJVWI/

Huge win for Trump.

Yuge.

6 minutes ago, Presnock said:

So you are predicting that Trump will accept the 10 demands of the Iranians?

The United States and Iran agreed to ceasefire proposal to allow for negotiation and for marine traffic through the strait for that period. The 10 points proposal was put forward by the Islamic regime and Trump has called the plan "a workable basis to negotiate". To me, it seem that Trump has relented his tough stance and he is feeling the pressure politically and economically. The 10 pts proposal are tough to be accepted wholesale and I am sure that the regime does not expect that they will get all their points accepted. The GCC countries will have a big role to play in the negotiation and so is Israel post Netanyahu. My 2 cents worth of opinion.

51 minutes ago, Patong2021 said:

There has been a regime change. The senior leadership has been replaced. The enriched uranium is reportedly buried under ground. It may take Iran 1-2 years to retrieve Yes, Iran was firing missiles and drones. The missiles were mounted on rail cars, hence the need to bomb the rail lines. The passage fees were already planned as the Iranian economy was in a free fall for years. it is one of the rasons why the GCC was opposed to Iranian control. Vessels may likley circumvent the. toll if they transit closer to Oman.

There has been a change of regime personnel.

52 minutes ago, Rockyroad said:

They killed the leaders and hit thousands of military targets. Big win and makes Russia look bad.

And new leaders replaced them hours later....no regime change (might even be worse)........doubt Russia gives a monkey's

6 minutes ago, IsmeUno said:

The fundamentalist regime in the USA?

Better off that the USA threatened to use it's military power to take Greenland? It all depends on where you live...

You obviously don't know the definition of fundamentalist.

1 minute ago, MIke B Bad said:

There has been a change of regime personnel.

In name only with a "junior" as khamenie was killed but his son who reportedly is even worse than his father! so the regime is still in power.

46 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

I don’t block anyone, their trolling is a symptom of their desperation.

My all time favorite phrase I learned in Thailand - Up to you.

44 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

He shouldn't be there in the first place. Regarding fuel price, here is the bad news. It will take months if not years from the war end to bring fuel price back to pre-war status. Oil price will remain elevated due to supply limitation and re-routing of tankers. Some of the major oil producing infrastructures will need years to repair and back on stream.

Agree....on top of that, the oil companies and companies down stream will make effort to price gouge for the foreseeable.