Democrats are furious that President Donald Trump took action against Iran with Operation Epic Fury.
But one of the things that you wouldn't hear from them is how his action puts paid to one of their favorite fictions about Trump - the Russia collusion fiction, that Trump is somehow in the pocket of Russia. Well, he's pounding one of their principal allies, which he would not do if he were in Putin's pocket. So once again, the Democrat narrative gets blown up.
Trump said he was in talks with an Iranian leader that were productive, and for that reason, he said he held off on hitting one of their power plants. He said he would postpone that for five days to see what the talks brought. Iran denied they were in talks, but they would, since it would hurt one of their few points of leverage - the effect on the markets. Plus, any leader might hold off on saying anything until he brought a deal in, so he wasn't targeted by anyone who might not want to make a deal.
But now Russia has reportedly weighed in and is calling for a political settlement.
They apparently want this done and don't want their oil supply at risk. They also know ultimately that if the U.S. wins and in the process ends the regime in Iran, they could be up a creek without a paddle, just like what happened with Venezuela.
“We believe that the situation should have transitioned to a political and diplomatic settlement,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov tells journalists at a briefing.
“This is the only thing that can effectively contribute to defusing the catastrophically tense situation that has now developed in the region,” Peskov says.
In addition to what's going on with Iran, Russia is juggling its own issues, and the energy situation just got a little worse for them.
Russia’s largest oil port was crippled in a massive air attack by Ukrainian drones, officials said early Monday as images showed huge balls of fire.
Several strikes blew up huge swathes of the Baltic Sea port of Primorsk — which processes at least a million barrels of oil per day in a market already crippled with rising prices over the Iran war.
Drones struck fuel storage tanks at the port — home to Russia’s clandestine network of so-called “shadow ships” — with satellite pictures showing smoke rising from several areas of the key terminal.
So they're not going to want to be juggling Iran at the same time. That's going to add more pressure on Iran to settle if they're getting pressed by Russia. That may also be an indication that Russia knows Iran can't prevail.