Iran Isn’t Begging for Negotiations. It’s Setting the Terms for Ending the War. |
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Negotiations between the United States and Iran to end the war are at an impasse as the conflict enters its third month. The Wall Street Journal reported late Tuesday that Trump has told aides to prepare for an extended blockade of Iranian ports to ramp up the pressure on Tehran.
Iran is saying it will enter into direct talks with the U.S. “when President Trump lifts what Iran considers to be the illegal military naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz,” says Drop Site News co-founder Jeremy Scahill. “Iran has maintained that it’s not shut down the strait, but that it’s just shut it down for any vessels that are linked to the U.S. war in any way.”
Scahill says a disorganized Trump administration is pushing a “total propaganda narrative” that it has the upper hand in negotiations, while Iran believes it has the “three M’s” on its side: munitions, markets and the midterms.
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Negotiations between the United States and Iran to end the war are at an impasse as the conflict reaches its 61st day. President Trump and his national security team are reportedly skeptical of Iran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for tabling nuclear talks. U.S. officials say President Trump expressed doubts Monday that Iran was acting in good faith. Iran has so far refused Trump’s key demand that it end all nuclear enrichment.
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The Wall Street Journal reported late Tuesday that Trump has told aides to prepare for an extended blockade of Iranian ports to ramp up the pressure on Tehran. In his latest post on Truth Social, Trump threatened Iran to, quote, “better get smart soon.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump wrote, quote, “Iran has just informed us that they are in a ‘State of Collapse.’ [unquote] They want us to ‘Open the Hormuz Strait,’ as soon as possible, as they try to figure out their leadership situation (Which I believe they will be able to do!),” President Trump said.
This is Brigadier General Mohammad Akraminia, a spokesperson for the Iranian army.
BRIG. GEN. MOHAMMAD AKRAMINIA: [translated] Regarding the current situation, we have not considered the war to be over. From the day the fighting stopped and, in effect, a ceasefire or silence took place on the battlefield, since there is no trust in the United States and our enemies, we have continued in the same way as during the war, making serious efforts to update our list of targets.
BRIG. GEN. MOHAMMAD AKRAMINIA: [translated] Regarding the current situation, we have not considered the war to be over. From the day the fighting stopped and, in effect, a ceasefire or silence took place on the battlefield, since there is no trust in the United States and our enemies, we have continued in the same way as during the war, making serious efforts to update our list of targets.
AMY GOODMAN: And this is U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaking at a Pentagon news conference last Friday.
DEFENSE SECRETARY PETE HEGSETH: Iran knows that they still have an open window to choose wisely, as we said previously, choose wisely at the negotiating table. All they have to do is abandon a nuclear weapon in meaningful and verifiable ways, or instead they can watch their regime’s fragile economic state collapse under the unrelenting pressure of American power.
DEFENSE SECRETARY PETE HEGSETH: Iran knows that they still have an open window to choose wisely, as we said previously, choose wisely at the negotiating table. All they have to do is abandon a nuclear weapon in meaningful and verifiable ways, or instead they can watch their regime’s fragile economic state collapse under the unrelenting pressure of American power.
AMY GOODMAN: For more on all of this, we’re joined now by Drop Site News co-founder Jeremy Scahill. His new piece is headlined “As Trump’s Narrative on Negotiations Flails, Iran Is Setting Its Own Terms for Ending the War.”
Hi, Jeremy. Can you start off by just explaining the thesis of your piece?
JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, you know, what I’ve been reporting over the past several weeks is that far from being in disarray, as Trump and his allies in the media have portrayed the Iranian government, it’s the Trump administration that is in a state of total chaos, erratic meltdowns, that culminated with Trump claiming that JD Vance was on an airplane en route to Islamabad to meet the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, then saying that Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, and special envoy Steve Witkoff, well, they’re actually on the airplane. And they were claiming, “Oh, the Iranians are begging us to talk, and we’re going to go and meet them in Islamabad when Foreign Minister Araghchi is there.” The Iranians were telling me, “We have no intention of meeting any Americans,” and that Iran is on its own tour now of Pakistan, Oman and Russia, where Araghchi met with President Vladimir Putin, and “We’re establishing our own terms for ending the war.” And so, what we’ve seen here is the construction of a total propaganda narrative, that is being repeated by almost every Western news organization, that somehow there are these negotiations going on, that the Iranians are putting proposals in front of the Americans. That’s not what’s happening at all.
What Iran has done is it has briefed Pakistan, which is currently the mediating country in the negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, and they’ve said to them, “Here are our conditions for ending the war.” And what Iran is saying is, “We will enter into direct talks with the United States when President Trump lifts” what Iran considers to be “the illegal military naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz. We will have an initial round of discussions about how to facilitate the expansion of commerce and transit through the Strait of Hormuz.” Iran has maintained that it’s not shut down the strait, but........