Trump stuck in impossible negotiations as Iran 'refuses' his rules: ex-colonel

President Donald Trump returns to the White House, after Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran, in Washington, D.C., March 1, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

President Donald Trump has found himself in an unwinnable scenario with his Iran peace negotiations, according to one retired army colonel, as he is stuck dealing with hardline leadership that "refuses" to accept his own rules.

Jonathan Sweet is a retired lieutenant colonel who had three decades of service as a military intelligence officer. Alongside his frequent collaborations, national security reporter Mark Toth, published a new op-ed for The Hill on Thursday outlining the circumstances that have led Trump into the intractable quagmire he now finds himself stuck in with Iran.

"A stubbornly determined Trump insists that 'Iran really wants to make a deal' with the U.S.," the pair wrote. "At least that is what they tell his negotiating team of Steve Witkoffand Jared Kushner behind closed doors. Iran’s actions — especially those of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, under the leadership of Ahmad Vahidi — suggest otherwise. And this led Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to submit his resignation to the Office of the Supreme Leader last weekend."

As Sweet and Toth argued, Pezeshkian understood the situation better than Trump when he admitted that the IRGC was fully in control of Iran and preventing him from taking part in its governance. With "armed hard-liners" now in charge, "a deal that compromises their power in the Middle East is not in the cards," meaning that any eventual deal will almost certainly not be the one Trump is demanding.

"Trump is now demanding that Tehran put specific nuclear concessions down in writing as part of a preliminary agreement aimed at pushing past the drawn-out deadlock between the two countries," the pair continued. "Iran responded in part by firing missiles and drones Tuesday evening at Kuwait, the U.S. Fifth Fleet Headquarters at Bahrain, and a U.S. air base in the region."

They added later: "The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that the retaliatory strikes' should serve as a lesson' for the U.S. Esmail Kowsari, a hardline member of the Iranian Parliament, called for Iran’s armed forces to confront the U.S. 'much more strongly,' saying Americans' understand nothing except the language of force and power.'”

Those attacks from Iran, they argued, should make it clear to Trump and his allies that "an emboldened Iran is not going to back down," and that their only meaningful response left would be to end the ceasefire and resume active strikes, a move that would inevitably go down poorly with voters in the U.S.

"The White House is going to have to follow through on its threats to resume Operation Epic Fury — only this time, it must finish the job and defeat the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s center of gravity," they concluded. "Unconditional surrender is now the only acceptable outcome for the White House to obtain the objectives the President laid out on March 2, which will lead to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz."

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