'It'll take a lot to recover from higher prices:' false promises and confusion over end of war in Iran

**Christy Strawser** (0:01)
Welcome to On Deadline, your radio news from Odyssey newsrooms across the country. I'm Christy Strawser, Odyssey's managing editor of news. Let's talk about confusion. The kind that can come when every report about the peace agreement between Iran and the US seems to say something different. And when the promises about what the end of the war means here at home raise more questions than answers. And even when you can't decide which summer treat is the healthiest, we'll cover them all.
But we'll start with Iran.
Here's KCBS in the Bay Area.

**Steve Simpson** (0:34)
With more on the apparent disagreement between the US and Iran over which parts of the peace deal have actually been agreed upon. Mark Sandelo. Mark, good morning. You spotted some cracks here. Where are these cracks forming?

**Mark Sandelo** (0:48)
You know, both sides, Steve, would like to see the war end. I mean, the Iranians obviously don't want to be bombed anymore. They've had estimated over 3,000 deaths, you know, up to hundreds of billions, if not trillion dollars worth of damage to the country.
So they want that stopped, obviously. The United States, I mean, Donald Trump is under significant political pressure. The American public is very against this war. And the rising price of gasoline could doom his party in the midterm elections.
The problem is they also both face this problem of not wanting to wave a white flag of surrender in front of their own people. I mean, it's obvious that Trump is trying to claim this is a big victory, even though even people in his own party are suggesting that this was a big, big strategic blunder. And on the Iranian side, I mean, remember, there is a regime here that is trying to hold its country together. And if it says, hey, we've got a peace deal with the United States, we're never gonna have nuclear weapons, we're gonna let oil go through the country for free without us imposing any kind of fee on the straight of foreign moves. And we finally have stopped them. Well, that's not gonna sound good either. They want to be able to say that they have accomplished something by standing up to the world's biggest military superpower. So as a result, we get this back and forth with, again, Trump saying that, yes, inspectors are going in, Iran saying, no, they're not going in. And nobody at this point knows who to believe.

**Steve Simpson** (2:21)
Yeah, sometimes it's hard to know who to believe. I think we went through this, didn't we, with the US and Hamas in Gaza? Hamas doesn't trust President Trump and the president doesn't trust Hamas, and now we've got the same thing going with Iran.

**Mark Sandelo** (2:36)
This is the problem with having created such problems with our own allies. I mean, the nuclear deal that Barack Obama, the much maligned JCPOA or maligned by Donald Trump, one thing that going forward for sure is that Russia and China, let alone other European countries, were parties to the deal. So that when Iran says, we don't trust the United States, China and Russia could reassure them, don't worry, we're here to help if there's a problem. This has been unilateral, and so there is no credibility. And the fact that Donald Trump quickly, after coming to office the first time, tore up the original deal, makes Iran say, well, why are we going to trust any deal that you have at this point?
There used to be a point where, I'm not saying that the Vietnam War showed Americans, you cannot trust words that come out of the commander-in-chief's mouth necessarily, but I think at this point, people look at Iran and they look at Donald Trump, and they have no idea which one is more credible.

**Steve Simpson** (3:41)
Mark, we only have about 45 seconds left, but I wonder, with all of this said, does it appear that at least some progress is being made?

**Mark Sandelo** (3:51)
Yes, because again, there is this great motivation, economic on the United States side and survival-wise on Iran's side, to get something done. So yes, there is every reason to believe that this is coming to an end.
That said, Donald Trump wants to wave the victory flag, and Iran does too. And as long as they both insist on this, the deaths are continuing, let alone Israel attacking Lebanon, which only further complicates the matter.

**Steve Simpson** (4:21)
I'm Steve Simpson, the president of the Minnesota Farmers Union. He is skeptical about the president's promise that folks in the ag industry will be helped by current peace negotiations with Iran. Gary Wirdish telling our Vanita Sarkar on the morning news this morning that he'll believe it when he sees it.