Trump claims a ‘forever’ peace in land of forever wars

So much for the quagmire. Donald Trump seems to have emerged from the worst crisis in America's estrangement with Iran's Islamic Republic with a win.

The president leaped on Tehran's modest missile response Monday to the US pounding of its nuclear sites as a sign it wants to end escalations. "CONGRATULATIONS WORLD, ITS TIME FOR PEACE!" he posted on Truth Social.

Trump's exuberance was a sign that he sees the US involvement in the conflict as over, at least for now.

And he followed up by announcing a ceasefire between Iran and Israel due to come into force later yesterday. Ceasefires in the Middle East are often fragile and fleeting, as was underscored by attacks by both Israel and Iran in the hours before the truce was due to be established.

But the president was already trumpeting his chosen image as a peacemaker and consummate deal maker, only 48 hours after US stealth bombers slammed Iran.

"I think the ceasefire is unlimited. It's going to go forever," Trump told NBC News on Monday night, predicting that Israel and Iran will never "be shooting at each other again."

That's a bold claim given the Middle East's reputation as a graveyard of American presidencies.

And for all Trump's marketing skills, events will decide whether his breakthrough is for real or just another illusion, say analysts.

Has the United States, as Trump claimed, really ensured the "obliteration" of Iran's nuclear program, an existential threat to Israel? Or is it all a classic Trump mirage, and does the glaring unfinished business of this conflict — an apparently missing stockpile of highly enriched uranium that can be quickly made into a bomb — mean a deeper crisis looms?

A quick end to the fighting would shape Trump's presidency and legacy and boost a foreign policy previously marked by failures like the stalled peace effort in Ukraine.