ABNA24 - Wendy Sherman, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, criticized the Trump administration’s handling of the war against Iran and emphasized that Washington lacks a clear strategy and a coherent decision‑making process. She stated that without a return to diplomacy, the current crisis will not be resolved.
Wendy Sherman had been a negotiating partner with the Islamic Republic of Iran for years, in talks that ultimately led to the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015. The agreement was described by Donald Trump during his first presidential term as the worst deal in history, and under pressure from Netanyahu and pro‑Israel lobbying groups, he withdrew from it in 2018.
Now, most experts in the United States and Europe acknowledge that the JCPOA was the best agreement for verification and monitoring of Iran’s nuclear program. They argue that had the JCPOA remained intact, West Asia would not be facing the current levels of crisis, instability, and the actions of the U.S. and Israel.
According to the commentary, Trump and Netanyahu’s main justification for actions against Iran has been Iran’s peaceful nuclear program. However, the text asserts that the nuclear program is only a pretext used to legitimize U.S. and Israeli hostility and attacks, and that their real objective is the overthrow of the Islamic Republic and the fragmentation of Iran.
However, Iran’s unexpected response to this aggression — targeting all U.S. bases in the region — has changed the region’s political and security equations.
Trump now believes that by imposing a naval blockade on Iran and exerting economic pressure alongside military threats, he can achieve what he failed to accomplish after forty days of war through intimidation and coercion.
He continually claims that he does not want Iran to possess nuclear weapons as a way to legitimize these aggressive actions.
This is while Iran has never sought nuclear weapons and, prior to the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA under Trump, was under the most extensive inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Wendy Sherman and many prominent American politicians and experts, such as Mearsheimer and Richard Haass, who are familiar with talks and negotiations with Iranians, consider Trump’s attack on Iran to be a failure and costly for the United States, and they continue to emphasize diplomacy as the best way for the U.S. to exit this crisis.
The former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, referring to the remarks of U.S. Secretary of War “Pete Hegseth” about the success of America’s military operation, said: “Hegseth says the military has performed extraordinarily and achieved its objectives, but in reality, what we now have is a stalemate between Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. naval blockade of Iran.”
Sherman also stressed that she does not believe a renewed U.S. attack on Iran could change Tehran’s calculations or break this deadlock. Comparing the current situation with the period of the JCPOA negotiations, she said: “During the JCPOA talks, the U.S. had good negotiators and experts, and the decision‑making process was reasonable, but such a situation does not exist now in the Trump administration.”
Wendy Sherman also criticized the Trump administration’s approach of trying to bring Iran to its knees, saying: “Trump thinks he can continuously punish Iran and that, in the end, the U.S. will endure more than Iran. But as many analysts have said, this assumption is not correct.”
During the ceasefire and a round of talks held between the U.S. and Iran in Islamabad, Trump has continued to seek Iran’s complete surrender. Figures such as Wendy Sherman, Mearsheimer, and Richard Haass have repeatedly acknowledged that Iran’s surrender to the United States is nothing more than an illusion.
The key point of Wendy Sherman’s critique, along with that of other politicians and experts critical of Trump, is that a war without a clear strategy, chaotic decision‑making, a lack of Iran‑related expertise, and insistence on humiliating conditions in negotiations demonstrate that the United States has not only failed to move closer to its objectives, but has instead become trapped in a deadlock. The only way out of this situation, they argue, is an immediate return to realistic diplomacy and the acceptance of reciprocal, tension‑reducing steps. Iran, for its part, has stated that as a confidence‑building measure for negotiations and an agreement, it first demands an end to the war and the establishment of a lasting peace.
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