As the Trump administration considers a military strike on the regime if Tehran does not come to the table for talks, senior Iranian leaders are warning to accelerate the nuclear program of their nation.
Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iran analyst and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said to AWN Digital, “The president should be making the regime sweat, pure and simple.”
Strict execution of maximum pressure sanctions and a focused campaign against regime assets in the area—Yemen being an excellent example right now—will help to achieve this. Washington will also have to provide a vital third component to its otherwise military and economic pressure strategy. Maximum support for the Iranian people.
Middle East expert and editor-in-chief at The Foreign Desk Lisa Daftari told AWN Digital that although diplomacy sometimes calls for negotiation, extending any offer to Iran’s regime, even symbolically, runs the risk of legitimizing a government that has spent decades terrorizing its own people and financing proxies like Hamas, the Houisis and Hezbollah.
Defiance, not conversation, is what this government lives on. That remains the case. The mullahs have known just one language for more for four decades: power, ” Daftari remarked.
On Thursday, President Donald Trump told Air Force One reporters that direct U.S.-Iran discussions would be preferable.
Trump remarked, “I believe it moves quicker and you can grasp the other side far better than if you go via intermediaries.” They preferred to work via middlemen. I don’t believe that’s still the case. I believe they are worried. I believe they feel exposed, and I don’t want them to feel that way.
Should Iran fail to negotiate on its nuclear program, Trump also warned of bombing and secondary penalties on Iranian oil. Though the president claimed he would rather negotiate, Trump did not discount a military choice.
President Trump said last weekend on NBC News, “It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.”
To strengthen defensive air-support capabilities, the United States increased its deterrent activities in the area by sending more squadrons of fighter planes, bombers, and predator drones. The U.S. is also deploying the USS Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group to the region to join USS Harry S. Truman, which has been in the Middle East against the Houthi’s in Yemen.
Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, answered with his own warnings and declared that Iran would react “decisively and immediately” to any U.S. threat. The government is said to be thinking of indirect discussions, which Iran is still suggesting.
Taleblu stated, “Tehran’s counteroffer of indirect talks is the regime’s way of rejecting Trump while leaving the door open for talks that can be used as a shield against a potential preemptive attack.”
The president wrote Khamenei a letter indicating want to negotiate on the nuclear concern. Reports say the Trump administration is thinking about indirect negotiations with Iran to limit the growth of its nuclear program and prevent a direct conflict even as it builds up military presence in the area.
Experts and watchers of the area caution that Iran has used negotiation as a delaying strategy in the past and advise the Trump administration against engaging in negotiations that may encourage Iran even more.
Given how weak the regime has been in the previous several years, “the Trump administration should put maximum pressure on the regime in Iran. The regime’s approach of buying time so it can survive to fight another day is indirect negotiations, Alireza Nader, an independent Iran researcher in Washington, D.C., told AWN Digital.
Nader advised Trump to assist the Iranian people and said the government is far more weaker than it seems.
President Trump truly wants a deal. Iran has an opportunity here to go back and negotiate, preserve its civilian nuclear program but make compromises over its scale and the length of an agreement, Alex Vatanka, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, told AWN Digital.
Trump is dominating. Republicans in Congress dread him. At least for now, nothing can stop him. Power, however, is capricious. The more vulnerable he could get the longer he spends in the White House. Iran should not wait for it, Vatanka said.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid stated in an interview with Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies podcast, “The Iran Breakdown,” that eventually, Israel will attack Iran’s nuclear site, with or without the United States, since there is no other option, Lapid stated.
Ali Larijani, a supreme leader adviser, stated in an interview that while Iran does not want a nuclear weapon, Tehran will have no choice but to create one if the U.S. or Israel attack Iran.
In February, the International Atomic Energy Agency stated Iran had enriched uranium toward weapons-grade levels and hastened its nuclear program.
Given the challenges the U.S. and its allies confront in the Middle East, Danielle Pletka, senior scholar in Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), told AWN Digital that having more military forces there is reasonable policy.
Pletka poses the question, “What does the Trump administration want?”
A agreement in which the Iranians do not completely eliminate their nuclear weapons program? The president puts the United States at danger of Barack Obama caused on our allies and ourselves if so; he only postpones the Iranian nuclear program to a later date.
Pletka called it odd that President Trump seemed to picture a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)-like agreement, which has drawn much criticism on Capitol Hill.
During his first term in 2018, Trump first left the JCPOA, also referred to as the Iran nuclear agreement, and imposed severe economic penalties. The Biden administration had first considered re-engaging with Iran on the nuclear issue upon assuming office, but on-again-off-again negotiations went nowhere, hampered by Iran’s domestic politics and its sponsorship of terror organizations in the area.
AEI’s Pletka said the president also runs the danger of being seen as a paper tiger.
He warned Hamas with unfulfilled bombings. He is now threatening Iran with military force. But does he actually mean it? Or is he only spouting hot air? her response
