Trump is desperate. How can he resolve the Iran shitshow?

[TooBigForMyBoots]

He is flailing, desperate and increasingly unhinged. Weakening the USA, alienating allies and strengthening the enemies of democracy with every step.

How can he fix this?
Can he fix it at all?

• [Title edited to correct typo]

Is there any chance of Israelian people to turn against their government and overthrow them for what they are doing?

All I'm saying is that other countries have managed to keep their plates spinning whilst calling out injustice where they see it.

I amuses me how much British exceptionalism disappears when it's a chance to take a political poke at someone.

I thought the UK was unique, and able to plough it's own furrow on the world stage ? Only when it does, it's immediately criticised for not following the pack.

Whilst I can't say how much Starmer cares for you - or me - in any quantifiable way, I would feel confident that as part of his care for the entire UK, it surpasses all of the previous PMs by a mile. Their focus was the well being of the Tory party.

It would be tiresome to repeat that I am willing to accept that the UKs apparent limp position here is part of a wide picture that we cannot see. For a start the UK is in a unique position to utterly cripple the US military and intelligence capabilities, if it so chose. Maybe it's already hinted at it in a communication that (a) we'd never leak and (b) the US would be even less likely to leak.

It would explain why despite their being domestic brownie points in tough talking, Starmer has opted not to pursue them. Which for me is a credit, not a debit. And I would usually rail in frustration at how pisspoor Starmers leadership has been since 2024.

From CNN just now, we have a clear action from an unlikely European leader:

"Italy today suspended a defense agreement with Israel amid mounting criticism of Israeli strikes in the ongoing war in Lebanon.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced the suspension of the longstanding agreement, signed more than two decades ago to increase defense cooperation.
“Take into account the current situation we are experiencing, the government has decided to suspend the automatic renewal of the defense agreement with Israel,” Meloni said in Verona, Italy.
The Memorandum of Understanding was signed in 2003 by then-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and went into force in 2006. The agreement was subject to automatic renewal every five years.
In response to the suspension, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs minimized the importance of the agreement.
“We do not have a security agreement with Italy. We have had a memorandum of understanding for many years that never had any real substance,” said the Ministry in a statement. “This will not harm Israel’s security.”
Meloni’s government had previously maintained close ties with Israel, even after the beginning of the war in Gaza more than two years ago. But those relations have frayed with increasing Italian criticism of Israel over attacks in Lebanon, which have killed more than 2,000 people, according to Lebanon’s health ministry."

I think @AgingLikeGazpacho, irrespective on personal politics, different leaders will be rated by the individual differently according to how they act to specific authoritarian governments, and unjust governments. Spanish PM Sanchez appears to rate high against Israel. But the authoritarian Government I am interested in, not very well. I don't how he rates against Iran, but you likely do because that is your interest. Italian Meroni rates well against the authoritarian I am interested in, but I do not like her politics.

Starmer ? I rate him very low for the guv I am interested in. In fact, I think he rates low against them all, except for Russia.

And every government rates very low against Saudi Arabia, which is one of the most authoritarian about.

@AgingLikeGazpacho

I don't know about you, but there are brit MPs I massively respect because of their position on the country I am interested in. But they are in the wrong party. If I had a vote in their constituency I would vote for them on that single issue. But I would not vote for anyone else in their party.

Do you have that problem too ?

I'm aware I probably look single issue because of the context of these threads but my main criteria for who I vote for is whether I believe they have a moral conscience and critical thought. I do like my local MP and am happy to have voted for him. He does align quite strongly with issues I care about and has done quite a lot of good in the local community. I think you're right that I should just focus on that rather than on the vote for my MP laddering up to a PM I am largely unsatisfied with.

Voting - choosing who you think would represent you the best - has always been a delicate balancing act.

Or should have.

If people voted by brain rather than rosette, we'd have an immeasurbly better country. But until someone realises that "always voting <x>" means you are the last person on earth <x> would ever give a shit about, it won't change.

It;s not a joke that a lot of naice Germans voted National Socialist because they really liked their environmental policies.

I think Israel goes to the polls this year. They can vote Bibi out.

Why would they do that ?

Yup. I don't really agree with single issue voting. But there are certain MPs I would vote for on one issue. It's a difficult one aint it.

Well, no one is going to change Starmer anytime soon, plus we don't get a vote for another 3 years.
So i guess the point is moot.

Funnily enough, on polling, Starmer, Badenoch and Farage are quite similar 22, 27 and 27 respectively, none are stella.

Its just the complete lack of action by Labour atm.

This is like trying to drag an "EU ruling I don't like" out of a Brexiteer 😀

What exactly would you have "Labour" do, assuming you really mean the government ?

Harsh words ? - Aside from not really being how we have ever done diplomacy, what would it achieve ?

Some form of intervention in the UK-US military machine to prevent the US from achieving it's aims ? - Possible, I guess. However unless it actually stopped the US and forced it to bend to the UKs will you will have achieved nothing tactically and changed strategic direction in that pursuit. Not very bright.

Sanctions against the US ? - Sadly the US has the UK by the balls here. The faintest hint of that and Google, Amazon and MS could switch off our entire country. (If only I had spent the past 30 years warning about this)

Military action ? - Grow up, it's not 1812,

So with that quick speed date of the options, what would you have "Labour" do ?

The UK is set to be hit the hardest from the G7 countries, I think the government has better things to do than engage with Trump's madness.

Starmer and Macron
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/middle-east-crisis/article/2026/04/14/france-and-uk-to-co-host-strait-of-hormuz-talks-friday-reports-french-presidency_6752403_368.html

There’s a lot Labour could do to demonstrate the U.K. do not support Israel’s wars

They could

end arms sales (specifically F-35 components),
impose more economic sanctions, suspend trade deals,
cease military intelligence-sharing.

Do you think that would achieve anything ? In particular would it achieve anything for the average UK citizen ? Can you fuel your car with warm feelings ?

Weirdly I agree with all your points.

Great news from the talks today !
Lebanon and Israel.

It would demonstrate the U.K. do not agree with Israel’s actions in Gaza and now Iran and Lebanon

If it affects their military capabilities then that’s a positive too

Im not so selfish to want personal benefits

From my understanding they both agree Hezbollah needs to be disarmed
but We already knew that

Has something else been agreed as I haven’t found anything in the news.

Meanwhile Israel and Hezbollah won’t speak to each other.
Lebanon wanted a ceasefire for discussions, that hasn’t happened.
Lebanon can’t force Hezbollah to disarm.
Israel is taking southern Lebanese land

These talks, whilst momentous, seem performative to me

Stir that's a shame when they haven't spoken for a very long time at all and they did today.

I'm taking it as very positive.

Even if Israel stops bombing Lebanon, they're not going to give up a square inch of the land they've stolen to extend their borders.

Exactly
Another land grab

If Israel wanted to protect themselves Theyve had decades to create a no mans land within Israel’s borders

Israel need to ceasefire and retreat. They want peace they need to show they are prepared to stand by that themselves now and in the future.
The same goes for Gaza

I agree with performative.

I haven’t been called Stir before but I quite like that shortened version
sounds like sir
rather than being Irish porridge 🤣

Don't get me wrong It’s great They’ve met after so long
but Lebanon want a ceasefire at least for discussions to take place Israel havent even given them that.
The same scenario as Gaza ceasefires with Israel ramping it up in the West bank. Netanyahu just has to be bombing someone
Even during negotiations.

He just can’t stop himself atm

Ultimately I believe this is Netanyahu giving the minimum to appease Trump.
Nothing more

That’s really interesting that Italian government taken this approach as a prior staunch supporter of Israel.

There have also been concerns in Israeli press about Orbán loosing the Hungarian election as he was a strong advocate for Israel within the EU.

The new PM Magyar in Hungary is reversing the country’s withdrawal from the ICC. Netanyahu may be less welcome in Hungary now.

Israeli actions in the Lebanon are making things more difficult for its allies in the EU.

Magyar, who won a decisive victory after campaigning against Orban’s record, stressed on Monday the importance of maintaining close ties with Israel.

“Israel and Hungary — obviously there’s a special relationship, a lot of Hungarians live in Israel, a lot of Israeli citizens come here to Hungary,” he said.

“We have a very strong Jewish community living in Hungary, one of the largest, thankfully, in security, safety and peace and zero tolerance in Hungary to all forms of antisemitism,” Magyar added. “This is going to continue.”

The prime minister-elect said that “Israel is also an important economic partner. We strive for pragmatic relations.”

He suggested, however, that Hungary may not continue its default position under Orban of regularly vetoing EU moves against Israel: “We need to examine every decision, but I don’t want to run too far into the future. We will see what decisions the EU will make and to see what the truth is,” he said, noting that Hungary is likely to follow the lead of Germany, its closest ally and also a strong supporter of Israel.

www.timesofisrael.com/no-time-to-waste-pro-eu-magyar-vows-new-era-in-hungary-after-ousting-orban/