Trump's Trials - U.S. military strikes Iran amid ongoing negotiations to end war

Episode Date: May 26, 2026

New U.S. strikes on Iran come as the two countries try to reach a deal to open the Strait of Hormuz. Israel thinks it will be a bad deal, and it's increasing attacks in Lebanon.Then, NPR'S Steve Inskeep talks to Iran expert Karim Sadjadpour, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, about the prospects for a deal to end the Iran war.Support NPR and hear every episode of Trump's Terms sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

It's Trump's terms from NPR. I'm Scott Detrow. Every episode, we bring you a story from NPR's recent coverage of the 47th president, with a focus on ways he's using power like no president before him. Here is the latest from NPR. I'm Steve Inskeep. And I'm Lel Faudil. The United States launched new attacks on Iran in the midst of a ceasefire.

The U.S. Central Commands, as it targeted missile launch sites and boats trying to lay mines. The U.S. describes this strike as self-defense while the U.S. tries to negotiate an end of the war with Iran. President Trump raised expectations for peace with a claim over the weekend that an agreement was largely negotiated. Trump and other officials have since said they need more negotiation. Israeli officials have insisted they will continue attacking in one of the fronts of the war in Lebanon, where there is also supposed to be a ceasefire. NPR's Daniel Estrin is following all of this from Tel Aviv and joins me now. Good morning, Daniel.

Good morning, Leila. So what were these U.S. attacks on Iran trying to achieve? U.S. Central Command says it attacked targets, including Iranian boats, trying to place mines. And Iran named at least four Navy officers killed. Iranian State TV also reported big explosions around a city on the Strait of Hormuz. We know that Iran laid mines in the Strait of Hormuz during the war, blocking oil and gas ships from passing through. And that's the main issue in these talks to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Phrmuz. That's where a fifth of the world's oil and gas exports passed through before the war.

So these new U.S. attacks may be an attempt to pressure Iran on that. Iran says it shot down a U.S. drone overnight. So we don't know how all of this will impact the talks, but we do know that trust between the U.S. and Iran is very low. Yeah. Where do the negotiation stand right now? The deal is being negotiated in Qatar, Iran's semi-official state media says that this would be a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within one month, and then within two months to try to reach an agreement on Iran's nuclear program. One main sticking point here is about U.S. sanctions. Iran wants a deal to unfreeze Iranian money that's being held abroad.

And also President Trump says Iran's enriched uranium should be destroyed. In Israel, Israeli officials think this is a bad deal. They say it would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but it would not not guarantee any progress on preventing Iran from creating a nuclear weapon. I want you to hear what the Israeli opposition leader, Yai'er Lepid, said on Monday to reporters. The deal is bad for Israel, bad for the region. This deal means two things. First, that this will not be the last round of war. Second, that Netanyahu has failed to achieve every single one of the war's objectives as he himself defined them. Prime Minister Benjamin, Benjamin Netanyahu had said the war would eliminate the Iranian threat against Israel,

but Iran still has missiles. It still has proxy militias like Hezbollah in Lebanon. And many people in Israel say they think it's just a matter of time before there's another round of war with Iran. You mentioned Lebanon. Iran wants that to be part of any deal. What is the latest there? Yeah, there's a ceasefire there, but fire has not ceased. It actually has increased. Netanyahu said yesterday Israel would increase a increase. its attacks against Hezbollah, because Hezbollah has been firing attack drones that have killed several Israeli soldiers in recent days and weeks. And so Israel last night attacked scores of targets throughout Lebanon. Lebanese state TV says one strike killed at least 12 people. Israel is

expected to increase its strikes despite this declared ceasefire and the U.S. is fully backing Israel. So the question is, will the U.S. restrain Israel so it doesn't spark a new war and jeopardize the Iran deal? NPR's Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv. Thank you, Daniel. You're welcome. Karim Sajitpour has been listening to Daniel with us. He has studied the U.S.-Iran relationship for decades and is at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Karim, welcome back.

Great to be with you, Steve. Okay, so President Trump said over the weekend that a deal was largely negotiated, and in fact, that deal seems so solid that a lot of Republicans were upset. But since then, the president has insisted nobody's seen this deal. Maybe there's not even a deal. Rubio says there's work to do. So when you listen to all of it, does it seem to you that there is some framework for an agreement here? I think, Steve, they have agreed to the topics of negotiation, which is the future of the Strait of Hormuz

and Iran's uranium enrichment stockpile and its ability to enrich uranium. But negotiations between America and Iran are always zero trust and zero sum. And what that means is that they never happen quickly. Daniel said in that report just now that they are talking of allowing two months to, quote, reach an agreement on Iran's nuclear program. I guess that means they do not have any agreement on Iran's nuclear program at this time.

So just for a point of comparison, when Obama's nuclear deal, the JCPUA was signed in 2015, that process took about two years of negotiations and the animosity between the United States and Iran and the mistrust is even worse now than it was then. So I expect this to be a long process. The Iranian government doesn't really want to give up control over the Strait of Hormuz because they see that

as a potential revenue stream and a potential deterrent to deter future attacks. Likewise, President Trump has to demand more from Iran than he did before the war in order to vindicate the enormous cost of this war, but Iran is feeling the same way. They say that they've sacrificed so much and so they're

demanding more. And so for those structural reasons, I expect this to be a long, much longer process than President Trump would like. You mentioned the Strait of Hormuz in Iran not wanting to give up control over the Strait of Hormuz. Is the reality that, so long as Iran's government remains in power, they have

the ability to close the strait because they're going to be sitting right there. You can't change that. That is unfortunately true, Steve, and it's cheap for them to do so. There's a huge economic asymmetry, and that the tankers that go through the Strait of Hormuz are, oftentimes a hundred million-dollar tankers carrying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of oil, and Iran can disrupt this global thoroughfare with $20,000 drones. And I think because they've proven they could do it once, it may be tempting for them to try it again. President Trump has repeatedly said it is hard to know who to negotiate with in Iran,

that they're disorganized, that a lot of their leaders were killed, of course, in the early phases of the war. Does it seem accurate to you that it's not clear who's in charge? Well, we don't know the health of Mostaba Khomeini, the new supreme leader, but despite that, the regime has shown a surprising amount of cohesion. It's a regime which believe that they've prevailed in this war and that the war intended to destroy the regime, destroy their missiles, destroy their proxies, and that hasn't happened. And they're negotiating from a position of strength. So I don't think the obstacle here is that we don't know who to negotiate with. I think the obstacle is that it's a regime which is demanding much more

now than it was three months ago. I'm interested in that phrase negotiating from a position of strength. Are you telling me what the Iranian leaders believe, or do you think that Iran is in fact in a position of strength here? Well, the metric for success for the Iranian regime was low and that all they needed to do was survive to prevail in this war. And they've done more than that, and that they have, unfortunately, been able to profoundly disrupt the global economy, disrupt the American economy,

and they realized that President Trump doesn't have any easy answers for that. And so for that reason, they feel they're negotiating. from strength. Is there a problem of timelines here? The President of the United States goes from news cycle to new cycle, and each new cycle is not even one day long, and you're telling me we're in a process that could take years. The Iranian regime has been an adversary of America for 47 years, and that hostility, that ideological war is going to continue, even if negotiations are concluded.

For President Trump, he telegraphed to Iran that this was meant to just to just, be a little excursion. And so there is a huge imbalance in timelines and that Iran's entire identity is to oppose America. Whereas for the Trump administration, for Trump himself, there's a lot of other things he wants to do in his presidency rather than just fight Iran. Kareem Sajitporth, the Carnegie Endowment. Thanks so much. Thank you, Steve. Before we wrap up a reminder, you can find more coverage of the Trump administration on the NPR politics podcast, where you can hear NPR's political reporters. break down the day's biggest political news

with new episodes every weekday afternoon. And thanks, as always, to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without sponsor messages. You can learn more at plus.npr.org. I'm Scott Detrow. Thanks for listening to Trump's terms from NPR.