With neither side agreeing to a peace deal, Ali Vaez, director of the Iran Project at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera that “no amount of economic coercion or military force will compel Iran to capitulate to maximalist US demands”.

“Trump is therefore left with two bad options: escalate a war he cannot win, or accept a compromise he cannot sell,” he said.

Mark Pfeifle, a former US national security adviser, pointed out that Tehran and Washington remain in the same position they were in before the negotiations even began.
However, he argued that Trump is unlikely to resume the war.

“One of the things that Mr Trump and his secretary of state did recently is they said that Operation Epic Fury is over, which takes off the table, at least, from a rhetorical standpoint, the possibility of re-engaging in some heavy military operation,” Pfeifle told Al Jazeera.
“Trump is now likely to ramp up the economic pressure on Iran through the US blockade and ‘do a military action, maybe around the coast of the Strait of Hormuz’.