Reports surfaced Monday that Iran has offered to halt its obstruction of the Strait of Hormuz in return for the U.S. ending its blockade of Iranian ships from exiting the Strait and ceasing further attacks on the regime. The proposed deal is unlikely to be accepted by the Trump administration, as Tehran has also asked for the U.S. to delay negotiations over its nuclear program.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi put forward the proposal during a trip to Pakistan over the weekend. At the same time, President Trump announced that a planned trip by senior U.S. officials to Pakistan for a second round of direct talks with the Islamist regime had been canceled due to unacceptable terms. “We’re not gonna spend 15 hours in airplanes all the time going back and forth to be given a document that was not good enough,” the president explained to reporters. “We’ll deal by telephone, and they can call us anytime they want.”

Trump further underscored why his administration is continuing to play hardball with Tehran. “They will not have a nuclear weapon. It’s very simple. Look, that whole deal is not complicated. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”

The continued impasse comes as oil remains at unusually high prices around the globe due to a virtual standstill in shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, in which approximately 20% of the world’s oil supply travels. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, stood at $108 per barrel Monday, “nearly 50% higher than when the war began.”

Meanwhile, Araghchi arrived in Moscow Monday for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, with The Wall Street Journal reporting that Putin “praised Iran as heroic in resisting the U.S. and Israeli military campaign and pledged Moscow’s help in resolving the conflict.” Being the closest ally of Russia in the Middle East, Iran relies on Moscow for military supplies, while also providing Russia with drones for its war against Ukraine.

With negotiations between Washington and Tehran appearing to be deadlocked, lawmakers like Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) are beginning to worry that the conflict may be turning into another Middle East quagmire.

“[We’ve] been dealing with this for a quarter of a century with Iran,” he observed during Saturday’s “This Week on Capitol Hill.” “Since 1979, the dark shroud or veil [has] descended upon the Middle East, and it’s been the reign of terror. I don’t really trust the Iranians a whole lot. I think they always have dilatory tactics when they come to the negotiating table. As we saw with the JCPoA, the only agreement they did enter into was very much to their advantage, which would have legalized a nuclear bomb, actually, by the present day. … I want to believe that this can work. But as Reagan said, trust but verify.”

McCaul went on to argue that the Islamist regime in Tehran will likely carry on the fight for the long haul, which will test the patience of the American people and continue to threaten national security.

“[W]hen you kick a hornet’s nest, you get the nest down, but what happens [is] all the hornets come out of the nest, and they start stinging a lot of people,” he argued. “And that’s what you’re seeing, I think, in the Strait of Hormuz right now. And the Iranians now know that they have a way to hold the entire world hostage over their nuclear program. And so, I think they look long-term. We look more short-term. I think the president wants to get out of this situation and declare victory. And I think they, in their mind, see it to their advantage to try to drag this thing out. That is what I’m concerned about is the mind of the Islamist radicalists who will not stop at anything.”

As for the so far unfulfilled hope of the Iranian people overthrowing the weakened Ayatollah regime, McCaul detailed what an opposition force would need in order to take power.

“[T]here [are] three things you really need to have an effective overthrow of the regime,” he contended. “I think you need leadership, which I don’t see an heir apparent to the ayatollah. You need weapons, and I don’t really see any weapons coming to Iran to arm the resistance movement. And you need communications [such as] Starlink [for] an effective internet connection that the regime can’t shut down and then crack down on their population. I don’t really see any of those three very strongly right now, which is kind of what you need.”

McCaul further emphasized that the Trump administration miscalculated on their expectation for regime change in Iran as a result of Operation Epic Fury. “I think the thinking was, ‘Look, we have an opportunity to take out the ayatollah and his cabinet in the bunker,’ which they did. Then I think the thinking was … the regime would topple and there would be an uprising. But the fact is, it didn’t happen, and they have a line of succession now that’s taking place there. So, this regime change game is very difficult.”

“This is the first president in my lifetime to take a bold, courageous step to try to topple it,” McCaul added. “I think a lot of people are worried, though. They don’t want to get bogged down in a long-term struggle in the Middle East again. I think that’s the issue right now.”