The negotiations between Iran and the US already look like the US caving ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Tuesday, April 15, 2025

The negotiations between Iran and the US already look like the US caving

Elliott Abrams describes the problem perfectly:

First, the United States demanded direct negotiations while Iran wanted indirect talks. The talks in Oman were indirect, with the Omani foreign minister as go-between. It seems that there was a hello chat and handshake between U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Aragchi, but no more than that.

Second, the key critique of the JCPOA, the 2015 Obama-Iran agreement, noted that it dealt only with nuclear weapons and ignored both Iran’s support for terrorist proxies and Iran’s missile program. According to press reports, the talks in Oman dealt only with nuclear matters. That is exactly what Iran wants.

Third, the United States appears to be signaling weakness right from the start—abandoning the goal of ending Iran’s nuclear program. As The New York Times put it, “Mr. Trump and Mr. Witkoff indicated that their real bottom line is ensuring that Iran can never build a nuclear weapon—despite harsh demands from Trump officials before the talks that Iran dismantle its nuclear program entirely as well as abandon its missile program and its support for regional proxies.” (Let’s ignore for the moment that bit of Times editorializing in a news story, calling the demand that Iran stop supporting terror and building intercontinental ballistic missiles “harsh.”)

Mr. Witkoff’s negotiating practices are difficult to understand. He told The Wall Street Journal just before the talks that “I think our position begins with dismantlement of your program. That is our position today. That doesn’t mean, by the way, that at the margin we’re not going to find other ways to find compromise between our two countries. Where our red line will be, there can’t be weaponization of your nuclear capability.” This the definition of a pre-emptive concession: ‘Here’s my bottom line—but if you don’t like it, I’ll find another one.’

It is even worse than that.

All non-Hezbollah Lebanese are hoping that the negotiations would cut off Iranian weapons to Hezbollah, but there is no indication that Iranian military proxies like Hezbollah and the Houthis are even on the table.

The same goes for Iran's ballistic missile program.

In 2018, the first Trump administration described why the US is withdrawing from the JCPOA agreement and he listed all the reasons beyond Iran's violations:

President Trump is making clear that, in addition to never developing a nuclear weapon, the Iranian regime must:
Never have an ICBM, cease developing any nuclear-capable missiles, and stop proliferating ballistic missiles to others.
Cease its support for terrorists, extremists, and regional proxies, such as Hizballah, Hamas, the Taliban, and al-Qa’ida.
End its publicly declared quest to destroy Israel.
Stop its threats to freedom of navigation, especially in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea.
Cease escalating the Yemen conflict and destabilizing the region by proliferating weapons to the Houthis.
End its cyber-attacks against the United States and our allies, including Israel.
Stop its grievous human rights abuses, shown most recently in the regime’s crackdown against widespread protests by Iranian citizens.
Stop its unjust detention of foreigners, including United States citizens.

None of these demands are being publicly stated in any Trump administration announcements about the current negotiations.

Which indicates that these negotiations are pretty much to reinstate the JCPOA - the agreement that Trump repeatedly called one of the worst deals in history.