Iran is weak. Will Trump be strong?
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. President Trump says he’s written to Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose regime insists sanctions relief precede any nuclear talks. But Iran is in no position to dictate preconditions.
As Mr. Trump might say, it doesn’t have the cards. Speaking on Thursday to Fox Business, Mr.
Trump revealed that he sent a letter Wednesday to Iran’s Supreme Leader “saying I hope you’re going to negotiate, because if we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing for them." On Friday Mr. Trump reiterated that the military option is viable. “I would rather have a peace deal than the other option, but the other option will solve the problem," he said.
“We are down to the final moments. We can’t let them have a nuclear weapon," Mr. Trump added.
“Something is going to happen very soon." As veteran nuclear expert David Albright wrote last week, “Iran is undertaking the near-final step of breaking out, now converting its 20 percent stock of enriched uranium into 60 percent enriched uranium." That can become weapons-grade in days. No wonder Iran has been stalling Mr. Trump.
President Masoud Pezeshkian says he wants to negotiate but is held back by his boss, Mr. Khamenei, who doesn’t. They’d like to play good-cop-bad-cop on another U.S.
President, raise the asking price to negotiate, and then talk until America loses the ability to “snap-back" United Nations sanctions in October. Thanks to Israel, Iran is at its weakest point in decades. But the regime has been weak before and always manages to recover as it strings along the U.S.
with negotiations or presentable front men promising peaceful intentions. It worked on President Obama, who wrote letters to Mr. Khamenei all the way to a bad deal
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