Episode Details

President Trump has rejected Iran’s seven-day plan proposal for a seven-day ceasefire and has told aides he expects to resume bombing Iran after the November midterms. 

Tehran’s proposal would have reopened the Strait of Hormuz within a week and resumed nuclear talks in return for the US easing oil sanctions and lifting its blockade of Iranian ports, which is causing deep damage to the country’s economy. Trump says openly that Tehran is begging for a deal after the midterms that dismantles its nuclear program.

So is US economic pressure producing Iranian concessions?

Patrick Cockburn is Middle East correspondent with the I newspaper in London and author of War in the Age of Trump. 

John Mearsheimer is professor of political science at the University of Chicago and author of The Tragedy of Great Power Politics.