TOI correspondent from Washington: Amid expected taunts of TACO – Trump Always Chickens Out – US President Donald Trump on Tuesday extended the ceasefire with Iran indefinitely, hours after threatening fresh bombardment and predicting an imminent deal with Teheran. The decision, presented by the White House as a strategic pause to facilitate diplomacy, has instead deepened a perception in Washington that the administration’s Iran policy is less a doctrine and more of a mood swing, and it is being improvised in real time.
Trump’s public rationale has been characteristically expansive -- and evasive. He has argued that Tehran needs time to present a “unified proposal,” that economic pressure is steadily eroding Iran’s position, and that backchannel diplomacy via Pakistan deserves more runway. He has also suggested that Iran’s leadership is divided and that extending the ceasefire allows those internal fissures to widen, potentially yielding a more favorable negotiating outcome for the United States.
