New Delhi, May 20 -- Well over three months since the launch of hostilities, which keep threatening to flare up in West Asia, the world is watching how those who fuelled the aggression appear to be caught in an impasse from which there is no easy way out and which their egos, perhaps even more than their strategic imperatives, refuse to let go.

US President Donald Trump has, during this period, repeatedly swayed from diabolical threats to ceasing active hostilities to holding out hopes for a peaceful settlement of the crisis, and back again, while Iran's new leadership has chosen to remain in the shadows while making clear that they do not trust the United States and will accept a settlement primarily on their own terms. The rest of the ...