Trump’s Endless War on Iran

I think it is a reasonable framework for ongoing talks because I think it reflected serious negotiations between both sides and sort of reflected the comparative power that each side had.

In the lead up to the negotiations that produced the MOU, I think there was a desire on behalf of both countries to move away from war and shift to diplomacy.

I think things have changed since that time.

And we can talk about, I think, what's changed.

In terms of the current status of these talks, there are no talks of substance.

There are intermediaries passing messages back and forth from Pakistan and Qatar.

On Tuesday, Trump told Fox News that, you know, I think an agreement with Iran isn't worth the paper that it's written on.

We've given them a lot of chances.

This is to be contrasted with the remarks made by Iran's President Massoud Pazeshian, who said that Iran would respond immediately and positively if the United States returned to its commitments under the June agreement.

So that's where we are.

I'm reading this as sort of a new belief in Washington, D.C., based on a broad consensus that the United States now is in a stronger position and it can wait out the Iranian regime and every passing month.

Iran's position gets weaker and the US position grows stronger.

And they just have to sort of wait until these economic sanctions and the critical blockade produce some sort of change in Iran's position.

I think that's the thinking in Washington DC.

I don't think it's going to work out that way.

But because there's this belief that now time is on the side of the Americans, there's no desire to return.

to these negotiations.

Of course, you know, as we get closer to the congressional elections, I suspect that Iran, knowing that its leverage is weakened, will try to escalate and try to force the Trump administration to pay a price.

After November, I think we're in a completely new terrain, and it remains to be seen how this conflict will unfold.

But that's my reading of where things

stand right

now.

Thanks, Nader.

That's fascinating also because, you know, I think a lot of the conventional wisdom has been the opposite, that Iran benefits by time going on.

But it's fascinating to hear about that and also the November sort of marker.