Gregg Carlstrom

There are places where Trump's agreement could be inferior.

I think that's part of why, over the weekend, we saw Trump seem to backtrack, where on Saturday he was saying, we're very close to a deal, it's going to be announced soon.

Within a couple of days, he was saying, actually, there's no rush and the deal is still being discussed and it's not done yet.

I think part of the reason he did that is because he came in for a lot of criticism.

from hawkish Republicans who think he's giving away too much to the Iranians and not getting enough in return.

I think that's exactly what he's doing.

I mean, it was remarkable to read how that post of his on social media was worded.

He was calling on Saudi Arabia and Qatar to join the Abraham Accords first as part of this campaign.

broader agreement.

Never mind that Saudi Arabia and Qatar are not actually meant to be signatories to the agreement between the United States and Iran.

But nonetheless, he's saying they need to recognize Israel as part of this.

And then he even lumped in Pakistan.

And you can imagine the reaction of the Pakistani government, which has spent the past two months

trying to mediate between the United States and Iran, hoping that this would improve their standing in Washington, only for Trump to turn around at the last minute and tell them, well, you need to recognize Israel as part of this, something that would be deeply unpopular, I think.

in Pakistan.

It's a non-starter with most of these countries.

And they have told him very clearly in private that they're not going to do it.

They're not going to join the Abraham Accords right now.

But that's why he's doing it.

The hawks in Washington are unhappy about what he's negotiating with Iran.