Iran again dominated international diplomatic headlines on Thursday, after President Donald Trump said Tehran now wants to reach a deal with Washington, while making clear that any agreement would have to meet his own terms. « If the deal Iran wants isn’t the right one, I won’t even look at it, » Trump said, according to remarks widely relayed by international media on Thursday evening.
The comments come as the conflict between the two countries enters its 203rd day, with the memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran now in its 94th day of implementation, a timeline long enough to raise questions among Western diplomats about whether any lasting de-escalation is truly within reach.
Financially, the toll of the standoff keeps climbing. New estimates put the total cost of the war at more than 45 billion dollars, a sharp jump from earlier figures that pegged the American bill at roughly 38 billion dollars over the conflict’s first six months. The mounting price tag is fueling criticism at home, where recent polling already showed a majority of American voters believe Washington lacks a clear strategy for ending the confrontation.
Trump’s remarks capture the contradiction at the heart of the current U.S. approach: an openness to renewed dialogue with Tehran on one hand, and an unmistakable insistence on dictating the terms on the other. The posture echoes previous warnings from Washington about a possible resumption of large-scale military operations should negotiations collapse.
For regional analysts, the statement marks another turn in a standoff that has dragged on for months, with neither side showing much appetite for real concessions on substance. What remains unclear is whether Washington’s conditions leave genuine room for diplomacy, or whether they will simply prolong the uncertainty hanging over the Gulf and the wider region.
Until Tehran makes a concrete move, the international community is watching closely, well aware that the fallout from this standoff reaches far beyond the bilateral relationship, threatening energy and security stability across the entire Middle East.
