"Now, with Israel heading to elections on September 17, and as America has its own major election gearing up, former US diplomats and experts on the region say that Trump’s proposal may not see the light of day any time soon. 'Obviously, it means putting off until after the government is formed,' said Ambassador Dennis Ross, a veteran American diplomat who has worked on the Israeli-Palestinian portfolio for decades. "'That means, given the timing of the election and the holidays, you’re [...]

"...'It strikes me that we are in the middle of an unprecedented and multifaceted experiment in the application of brute force,' said Daniel Russel, who was assistant secretary of state on Asian affairs in the Obama administration. 'President Trump has been extraordinarily effective at generating leverage... but it has yet to be shown that he has the ability to translate that leverage into results that are advantageous to the United States or are durable.'" Read the full article here: Full Article

"Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, has long maintained that the U.S. will never be satisfied with Iranian concessions until the Islamic Republic itself is conceded. This view informs the long-standing position of Iranian officials that they will not negotiate with the U.S. under pressure. "Unsurprisingly, the Iranian response to the recent intensification of the Trump administration’s 'maximum pressure' campaign has been to test and expose the limits of American resolve, by triggering a series of sabotage and proxy attacks, against [...]