AA Edit | Stop The Foolish Iran War, Let’s Find A Way To Peace

After one hundred days of war and a kind of peace in a fitful ceasefire which was sporadically breached, the realisation is yet to dawn on the combatants that modern wars are unwinnable. No one, save the military-industrial complex, can expect to profit from this senseless bombardment of military and civilian infrastructure even as Iran, emboldened by its resilience in withstanding attacks, decided to test its strength in enlarging the war over the weekend.

Endless missile and drone exchanges over three months have rendered populations across West Asia, including in Iran, fearful. And far from subsiding after the ceasefire declaration of April 8, the West Asia war was threatening to spiral again after Iran, in the mistaken belief that it must stand up for its proxy Hezbollah after Israel bombed the outskirts of the Lebanese capital Beirut, fired missiles at northern Israel on Sunday. That was enough excuse for Israel, the original initiator of the Iran war, to rain projectiles over Iran, including on a petrochemical complex.

It appears the hold of the US President on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not total as Mr Trump may still believe. Having convinced Mr Trump to go to war with Iran, much against military advice that had pointed to Iran holding a counter ace in possible control of the Strait of Hormuz, Mr Netanyahu may have realised his goal of staying on in power. But, Mr Trump, who played along with Israel from February 28, is now at his wit’s end as to how to bring his misguided war action to a close and seal a deal that would bring back peace.

After 100 days, the US administration knows well that none of its war aims has been accomplished and it has been forced to negotiate with a regime that Mr Trump claimed he had already changed, to reopen the strait to shipping traffic that is the route for over a fifth of the world’s supply of oil and gas and which was totally open before the war.

There is no word on the Iran nuclear programme that the US was said to have obliterated a year ago and further reduced to dust in the 2026 war just as Mr Trump is claiming the Iranians are ready to hand over their partly enriched uranium.

Such a dream scenario could even swing some way towards reality if not for the fact that the war was never as one-sided as the Americans and the world were led to believe. Mr Trump, who was ready with periodically increasing numbers for aircraft lost in the India-Pakistan exchanges in May 2025, might not wish to reveal that the US air force may have lost as many as 42 manned and unmanned aircraft in Iranian attacks both in the air and on its Middle Eastern bases. Today, the USA is not negotiating from a position of strength as Mr Trump would like the world to believe.

The only way out for the contending parties is to put a stop to all hostilities, including by Israel in Lebanon and Gaza, and get down to talking of a way out of the impasse, prioritise the opening of the Strait of Hormuz because of which the rest of the world is suffering and which might happen if the USA lifts its counter blockade of Iranian ports, and find a genuine path to peace.

To do that the USA and Mr Trump may have to accept that they waded foolishly into an unwinnable war.