There are phrases that are repeated so much that they end up losing weight. They wear out. They become an echo that is no longer surprising, even if it speaks of something as serious as a war. he said it again. Erre que erre. That the end is near. That Iran wants to negotiate. That everything can be resolved soon. Yes, but no.
Again.
said the president of the United States, Donald Trump, in an interview on Fox News. He said it with the same confidence with which he has been drawing that imminent end for weeks, as if the conflict had already entered its final stretch.
But the war is still there.
The end that is always about to come
It is not the first time that Trump talks about the end as something immediate. Neither does the second. Not the third. , that horizon has appeared again and again in his speech, like a promise that is never fully fulfilled.
First was the operation “Epic Fury”, the initial blow that, according to the White House, It prevented Iran from moving towards nuclear weapons. Then came the partial truces, the ceasefire announcements, the extensions of deadlines. And now, again, the feeling that everything is about to close. Or that’s what Trump says, of course.
“Iran desperately seeks an agreement”he insists with a message that we almost know by heart.
The problem is that “desperately“It has been embedded in the story for weeks… without translating into a real agreement. And many times being denied by the Iranian country itself. That’s where we are.
Two more days… again
The novelty, this time, is in the form of a deadline. Trump has opened the door to resuming negotiations “in two days”in what would be a new attempt to unblock a dialogue that, for now, has not produced results.
Talk about “slow progress.” Of a second chance. Of a path that remains open.
But even there, the message is again ambiguous. Because if the first contact was held in Islamabad, now the American president is letting it slip that the next one might not be there. Maybe something else. Whatever comes to mind at that moment.
Everything in the air. Many promises, no reality. Everything, again, in that area where the announcement outweighs the result.
Islamabad: negotiate without agreement
In parallel with words, diplomacy advances – or at least attempts to – on a much more slippery slope. headed by the vice president have been the most important between both countries in almost half a century.
There have been more than 20 hours of negotiation. Zero agreement.
Iran came with a proposal: the United States considered it insufficient. Washington now demands a minimum of two decades of suspension of uranium enrichmenta much harder line that continues to distance any understanding.
And that’s where everything gets stuck.
What is really negotiated
Behind the political noise, what is at stake is not just the end of a war, but something much more structural: Iran’s role on the global board and control over its nuclear capacity.
The United States wants long-term guarantees. Iran seeks to ease economic pressure without completely giving up its strategic margin.
Two objectives that, for now, do not fit. That is why each agreement announcement sounds more like a wish than a reality.
Oil, Hormuz and the invisible pressure
There is a key piece that hovers over all this negotiation and that rarely appears in the foreground, but that conditions everything: the oil.
one of the most important energy arteries on the planet, has become one of the points of greatest tension since the beginning of the conflict. About a fifth of the world’s crude oil passes through there, and any alteration in its traffic has an immediate impact on the markets.
The United States has avoided completely closing that route, But it has increased pressure in the area, while Iran has played with the threat of blocking it as a response measure. It does not need to happen: it is enough that the possibility exists for the global balance to tremble.
Because this war is not only fought on the ground. It is also waged in prices, in supplies, in uncertainty. And on that board, each move weighs much more than it seems.
The total blockade: more pressure in the midst of negotiations
While he talks about agreements and imminent endings, The United States has taken one of the most forceful steps since the beginning of the conflict: completely blocking Iran’s ports.
The announcement, made by Admiral Brad Cooper from Central Commanddoesn’t leave much room for interpretation. Washington claims to have “completely stopped” Iranian maritime trade, a route through which nearly 90% of its foreign economic activity circulates.
It’s not a nuance. It’s a direct hit.
The measure comes just two days after the failed negotiations in Islamabad and is part of the strategy of maximum pressure that Donald Trump’s Administration has been deploying for weeks. A pressure that seeks to force Tehran to give in at the negotiating table… but that, at the same time, makes it difficult for that agreement to reach.
Because negotiating under suffocation is not negotiating on equality. And that is where the story becomes tense again.
Trump insists that “the war is about to end.” That Iran wants to agree. That the agreement is close, but as we see, the pressure does not stop increasing and the game board continues to complicate instead of simplify.
Seven weeks of war (and counting)
Weeks have passed since February 28 when it all began. Since then, The war has gone through different phases: initial offensive, escalation, strategic blockades, intermittent negotiations and truces. partial ones that never fully consolidate.
The story, however, has been simpler. Always towards the end. Always towards that moment that, according to Trump, is about to arrive, but never arrives. But the calendar doesn’t match.
The president who promises the end… and is left alone
While insisting that the war is approaching its end, Trump has also been accumulating friction on the international stage. The last one, with the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, until now one of his closest allies.
But it hasn’t been the only one.
He has also been involved in a public clash with the Pope, in an exchange that shows the extent to which the management of the conflict has strained even the most unexpected relationships. The pontiff’s message, calling for containment and dialogue, clashed directly with American strategy.
Trump responded. And the disagreement was exposed.
In a war where the story is key, running out of allies also counts.
The American president’s speech moves in a constant paradox. He talks about the end while maintaining the pressure. Aim for deal while tightening conditions. It describes a war that dies down… while negotiations remain blocked.
Even when it opens the door to new conversations in a matter of days, the scenario remains uncertain, changing, almost improvised. It’s a fragile balance and, furthermore, it is becoming more and more evident.
The truce that never ends
In the midst of everything, truces have appeared as small parentheses that fail to consolidate. Ceasefire announcements, tactical pauses, last minute extensions.
Moments that seem to open a door… but that are never crossed. The war does not escalate completely but, on the other hand, it does not stop either.
Trump has constructed a clear narrative: the war was necessary, the coup was decisive and the end is near. It is a coherent discourse in its internal logic, but increasingly tense by the facts. And with more and more detractors, outside its borders, within its borders and even in its own party.
Because reality moves at a different pace: one slower, more uncertain and more contradictory.
And that’s where the story starts to squeak.
Will it be true this time?
The question appears again. Not as novelty, but as repetition. ¿Will it be true this time? Is the end of the war really near? Or is it, once again, a promise ahead of the facts?
Trump talks about days. Of agreements. Of progress.
But the war continues. And as long as it continues, each ad will look too similar to the last.
Again.
