The Celebration of an Iranian Deal Is Premature
Tue 7:13 pm +00:00, 16 Jun 2026“Shortly after the announcement of a memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran, which included the end of the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, Israeli occupation forces pressed ahead with their assaults on the Arab country, violating the deal.”
By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts
The New York Times, Bloomberg, Bongino, and many other “news sources” have falsely reported a US-Iranian peace deal, and the oil market is pricing based on the mistake.
What are the real facts?
Next Friday on June 19, the US and Iran allegedly will sign a Memorandum of Understanding based on Iran’s 14-point proposal that requires the US to end its distant semi-blockade of oil flows that Iran allows through the Strait of Hormuz and Israel will stop its attacks on Lebanon, which are mainly war crime attacks on civilians, the only kind of war the IDF is capable of “fighting.”
Celebrating in the White House President Trump misrepresented the Memorandum of Understanding as a completed peace treaty and bragged on himself as the first leader to achieve peace with Iran. But the Memorandum is not a treaty. It merely initiates a 60-day negotiation to reach a comprehensive agreement on the disputed issues.
Meanwhile, Israel continues to violate the Memorandum with attacks on Lebanon. This morning Iran’s PressTV reports:
“Shortly after the announcement of a memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran, which included the end of the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, Israeli occupation forces pressed ahead with their assaults on the Arab country, violating the deal.”
The Times of Israel reports:
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir says in a statement:
“Trump’s agreement does not bind us. Israel is not subordinate to the United States. We are an independent and sovereign country.”
He adds:
“We are not partners to this agreement, which does not safeguard our security. We must not withdraw from any territory [in Lebanon] that our fighters have captured.”
Neither Trump nor the Iranian government understand that Israel will allow no deal that sidetracks the Zionist agenda of Greater Israel described again in this morning’s companion article.
With the seizure of Gaza and the Palestinian remains of the West Bank, Israel is incorporating all of Palestine into Greater Israel and is continuing its attempts to occupy more Lebanese and Syrian territory. Iran has to go, because Iran funds the Hezbollah and Houthi resistance to Greater Israel. Based on the known facts, my view is that the Iranian government has foolishly given away the initiative in war and involved itself in never-ending negotiations, such as the 79-year “two-state solution” that eventually devoured Palestine.
Map and composition of Greater Israel
Western leaders continue to parade their hypocrisy. The UK PM Starmer congratulated Trump for restoring freedom of navigation while simultaneously seizing a Russian oil tanker on the high seas, as John Helmer reports.
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration, associate editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Business Week’s first outside columnist, columnist for the Scripps Howard News Service, contributor to the editorial page of the Los Angeles Times, and columnist for the main French and Italian newspapers, and for Creators Syndicate in Los Angeles.
He served in numerous academic appointments in US universities and was appointed to the William E. Simon Chair for Political Economy at Georgetown University’s Center for Strategic and International Studies where his colleagues were Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, James R. Schlesinger (one of his former professors), and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Thomas Moorer. His article, “How the Law Was Lost,” was published in the January 1999 Cardozo Law Review.
He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/celebration-iranian-deal-premature/5930017
Global Research, June 16, 2026
Region: Middle East & North Africa, USA
