'We have lost': Trump's Iran pact seen as a strategic defeat in Washington Submitted by Sean Mathews on Thu, 06/18/2026 - 20:56 Iran is reaping strategic and financial gains as a result of the agreement to end the war, pro- and anti-war voices agree US President Donald Trump, centre left, and French President Emmanuel Macron, centre right, during the signing of a deal with Iran to end the Middle East war, inside Château de Versailles, in Versailles, southwest of Paris, on 17 June 2026 (X account of President Emmanuel Macron/AFP) Off Imperial Germany famously signed a treaty under humiliating terms to end WWI at Versailles, codifying a surrender despite the fact that the war was overwhelmingly fought beyond its borders. Likewise, Iran never got close to US shores during the war, and did not need to. Its missile and drone attacks depleted the US’s stockpile of air defence interceptors to dangerous levels, while its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz drained Washington’s strategic oil reserve to a forty-year low and starved the global economy of fossil fuels. The world was facing an “economic catastrophe”, US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday.