Iran cannot afford to call Trump’s bluff |
The talks are still alive. Just. Iranian and US diplomats, engaging indirectly through Omani intermediaries, have yet to make any substantive progress towards a framework of understanding that governs further talks – as Kafkaesque as that might sound – but they are talking, and that is the best that the diplomats can hope for right now.
What separates Iran and America is a vast chasm between their respective red lines, and beyond that, the very substance of the talks themselves. The US is not willing to countenance an Iran that enriches uranium, has a ballistic missile programme and arms proxies throughout the region.
Iran, for its part, perhaps unwisely – as they may be about to find out, will simply never agree to neuter itself on the above trilogy of capitulations. They prefer to see the talks as narrowly defined discussions on enrichment levels permitted in a state that is a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and nothing more.
In Iran, the fear of war, massively amplified by Iranian state broadcasts, is real
In Iran, the fear of war, massively amplified by Iranian state broadcasts, is real
The problem Iran has is that Donald Trump is not one for the intricate niceties of Iranian patriotic sentiment. The problem Trump has is that the Iranians know only too well how much he........