What if the US-Iran talks fail?

Published by Al Majalla Offering both carrots and sticks is standard procedure in diplomatic negotiations, but US President Donald Trump takes it to new heights. Whatever else he might prevaricate on, he has always been consistent on Iran, giving it two options: Either agree to a deal that assures the world you are not building …

Iran Wants to Talk

Published by the Atlantic Donald Trump loves letters. We know this from his first term, when he exchanged 27 letters with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in the course of 16 months and wrote a particularly memorable missive to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. In his second term, he has already found an unlikely new pen pal: Iranian Supreme …

عن تنازلات إيران المحتملة لترمب

Published in Al Majalla إن التساؤل عما إذا كانت إيران وإدارة ترمب ستجريان حوارا هو أمر مضلل بطبيعته، لأن الحوار جارٍ بالفعل بين الطرفين، وإنْ لم يكن علنيا أو مباشرا. فقد كشف ترمب مطلع الشهر الجاري عن إرساله رسالة إلى القيادة الإيرانية، حملها إلى طهران دبلوماسي إماراتي رفيع، هو أنور قرقاش. وكانت المرة الأخيرة التي جرى فيها …

Iran’s coming concessions to Trump

Published in Al Majalla Although Iran and the US are not directly talking to each other, indirect talks have been ongoing. Earlier this month, Trump revealed that he had sent a letter to the Iranian leadership. It was delivered to Iran by a leading Emirati diplomat, Anwar Gargash. The last time this happened was in 2019 when Japan’s then-prime …

Iran’s reformists have a lot to feel despondent about

Published in the National With a reputation for making dramatic pronouncements, Mohammad Javad Zarif’s resignation as Iran’s vice president for strategic affairs earlier this month – his second in seven months – didn’t raise many eyebrows. One expert even joked about it, saying: “Life is what happens between two Zarif resignations.” Many expected the veteran career diplomat …

A Battle for the Soul of the West

Published by the Atlantic For President Donald Trump, last month’s spat at the White House with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky was “great television.” To the rest of us, it was a horrifying realization of our worst fears: a real-time crumbling of the Euro-American alliance, which has been the bedrock of the international order since 1945. …