India, June 19 -- The US and Iran signed a 14-point memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Thursday, which is aimed at suspending the war and paving the way for further negotiations over the next 60 days. For the US, it is an exit deal to avoid another long-term military commitment in West Asia. For Tehran, it is simply victory through survival, with Iran's post-1979 Islamic Revolution polity managing to cling to power.

The US-Israel military campaign did yield tactical wins: Iranian military infrastructure is severely damaged and will take years to rebuild as it relied on numbers and not technological edge, and decapitation strikes against the Iranian clerical-political dispensation and military - including top-level leaders of the powerf...