The declaration of a two-week ceasefire in the US-Israeli war with Iran, announced minutes before Donald Trump’s threat of devastating strikes was due to come into effect, is of course welcome. But the regime shows no sign of collapse, one of the objectives occasionally asserted by the increasingly erratic US president. Others – the ending of Iran’s nuclear programme, the elimination of its arsenal of ballistic missiles – have clearly not been achieved. Perhaps most disturbing for governments from Beijing and New Delhi to Berlin and London is the grim spectacle unfolding in Washington. Trump’s profanity-laced threats of apocalypse in recent days represent a degradation of the American presidency that would have been unimaginable a few years ago.

Source: The Irish Times April 09, 2026 06:01 UTC