India, March 24 -- President Donald Trump's announcement that "very good and productive conversations" with Iran are underway has raised hopes that the long war that set the whole region on fire and sent the global economy into a tailspin could end soon. Notwithstanding the posturing by both sides about having won the war and having compelled the other to back down, the conflict has spiralled dangerously out of control, and a corrective course was imperative.

For Trump, the surge in the price of oil from around $73 per barrel when he launched the war along with Israeli Prime Minister (PM) Benjamin Netanyahu on February 28, to a high of $120 per barrel by late March, is unviable. The SOS call by the International Energy Agency (IEA) that ...