Because the U.S. and Iran put together for talks this weekend in Oman to debate Iran’s nuclear weapons program, we converse to journalist Negar Mortazavi in regards to the Trump administration’s negotiation technique of “threats and stress” and his diplomatic doctrine of “peace by way of energy.” Mortazavi is skeptical that the talks will end in Iran giving up its nuclear weapons program, as Trump’s group is demanding, and feedback on the impacts of extreme sanctions on Iran, which have devastated the nation’s fragile financial system.
TRANSCRIPT
This can be a rush transcript. Copy might not be in its ultimate kind.
AMY GOODMAN: That is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The Struggle and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: The U.S. and Iran are planning to carry talks this weekend in Oman. President Trump made the announcement on Monday. He stated direct talks can be held, whereas Iran stated they might be oblique talks. Presidential envoy Steve Witkoff will head the U.S. delegation. Iran is sending its international minister, Abbas Araghchi.
In 2018, Trump withdrew the USA from the landmark Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA, the Joint Complete Plan of Motion. On Monday, Trump immediately threatened Iran when he was requested what’s going to occur if a brand new nuclear deal will not be reached.
REPORTER: If diplomacy fails, is the USA, below your management, able to take navy motion to destroy the Iranian nuclear program and take away this risk?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I believe if the talks aren’t profitable with Iran, I believe Iran goes to be in nice hazard — and I hate to say it — nice hazard, as a result of they’ll’t have a nuclear weapon.
REPORTER: So, is {that a} “sure”?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You realize, it’s not an advanced system. Iran can not have a nuclear weapon. That’s all there’s.
AMY GOODMAN: President Trump was sitting within the Oval Workplace on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he stated that. Trump stated Israel — yesterday, he stated Israel would take a number one position if the U.S. went forward with hanging Iran.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: With Iran, yeah, if it requires navy, we’re going to have navy. Israel will clearly be very a lot concerned in that. It will likely be the chief of that. However no person leads us. We do what we need to do.
AMY GOODMAN: The Trump administration has additionally levied new sanctions in opposition to Iran, focusing on its uranium enrichment program.
We’re joined proper now by Negar Mortazavi, the Iranian American journalist, host of The Iran Podcast, senior fellow on the Middle for Worldwide Coverage.
Negar, welcome again to Democracy Now! Should you may —
NEGAR MORTAZAVI: Thanks for having me.
AMY GOODMAN: Should you may begin off by responding to what President Trump is threatening and what you realize of those talks happening in Oman on Saturday?
NEGAR MORTAZAVI: Positive. So, Amy, it looks as if President Trump is sort of utilizing his common and particularly first-term playbook of what they’ve themselves coined “peace by way of energy,” or attempting to get to the negotiating desk or to diplomacy by way of threats, which on this case is navy threats. We noticed him do the identical in his first time period in opposition to Iran, with North Korea, with different events that he desires to get to the negotiating desk and seems like the opposite facet doesn’t come to the desk, and so, with threats and with stress, he thinks he can pressure them.
I believe, although, the expertise of the primary Trump time period, when it was most stress on the opposite facet, didn’t actually work with the Iranians and backfired. And there could have been some classes discovered. We see that he has fired among the primary figures of the maximum-pressure Iran marketing campaign: Mike Pompeo, John Bolton, Brian Hook. They’re not with him. He’s publicly disassociated with them. And so, it looks as if this would possibly — this time he’s actually intent on diplomacy, on a cope with Iran, on a deal that he’s been attempting to say goes to be a greater deal, that the Obama-era deal was a foul one, and his goes to be higher. And doubtlessly, I assume, a Nobel Peace Prize is one thing that he has his eyes on, if he can get this nuclear cope with Iran, which he’s known as a nuclear peace deal.
However on the similar time, we’ve seen that it’s tough for him to get to the negotiating desk with the Iranians, and so the stress and these threats are additionally coming with it parallel. So, it’s an odd methodology to attempt to persuade the opposite facet with threats and stress. And that’s one of many causes the Iranians aren’t prepared to take a seat down immediately and negotiate immediately.
And this emphasis on oblique negotiations is as a result of they’re additionally saying, “Look, you need to negotiate and have diplomacy, which is one thing Tehran has indicated they need, as nicely. However on the similar time, you’re rising most stress.” Simply yesterday, as you stated, Amy, they placed on extra sanctions on Iran. Since he got here into workplace, he signed a memorandum of most stress to tighten sanctions and stress on Iran, and there have been periodic sanctions imposed on the Iranians. So, it’s not precisely the easiest way to get to the negotiating desk. However nonetheless, that is his fashion, and the Iranians have performed ball to fulfill with them on Saturday in Oman. However that’s one of many primary causes it’s going to be oblique, as a result of the Iranian facet is principally signaling that they need to see some goodwill.
Additionally they need to perceive the framework and the U.S.’s backside line of what it’s that they need, as a result of when you take heed to President Trump and, for instance, Steve Witkoff, the construction or the framework they’ve talked about is Iran not having nuclear weapons, simply not having nuclear weapons, which is one thing Tehran has agreed to earlier than, they usually’ve really stated they don’t need nuclear weapons. However when you pay attention, for instance, to nationwide safety adviser Michael Waltz or Benjamin Netanyahu going out of the White Home and another individuals in that orbit, they’re saying a dismantlement, a complete dismantlement, of Iran’s nuclear program. Principally, no, Iran can’t have a nuclear program, interval. So, which is it? I believe that can also be going to type of present the best way on Saturday to the Iranians.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, Negar, additionally, when you may discuss what the scenario is, the financial context wherein these negotiations are happening in Iran, the large financial stress that’s been dropped at bear on Iran over all these years of sanctions, now exponentially multiplied, and the truth that in an unprecedented transfer, the Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has stated that if a deal is reached, American corporations may come and spend money on Iran?
NEGAR MORTAZAVI: Positive. So, let me begin with the most recent, Nermeen. The Iranian president, once more, precisely as you stated, unprecedented, has stated that the supreme chief himself is open to American corporations coming to Iran and investing. And this can be a, once more, sign to President Trump, as a result of his criticism — considered one of his primary criticisms of the JCPOA, President Obama’s legacy nuclear cope with Iran, was that the Europeans have been reaping all the advantages, and never Individuals. And that is primarily — it’s not one thing that Iran has began. It’s one thing that American corporations can’t do due to very strict U.S. sanctions. American corporations can’t have commerce with Iran or any type of funding due to the punishment that the U.S. authorities will impose on them within the type of sanctions. The truth is, secondary sanctions now have prevented different corporations all over the world, Europeans, Asians, many others — to those sanctions in the event that they do commerce with Iran. So, if that’s one thing that President Trump desires, he can change that. Iran had a deal to purchase airplanes, passenger airplanes, from Boeing, and even that was stopped from occurring, which primarily Boeing took an financial hit for that.
So far as the financial scenario in Iran, nicely, the financial system is in fairly unhealthy form, declining, as a direct results of these harsh financial sanctions. Iran is among the most — if not probably the most, one of the crucial — sanctioned nations on the planet proper now by the U.S., as I stated, these main and secondary sanctions, which even punish non-American corporations who do commerce with Iran, when you purchase Iranian oil, fuel. Because of that, Iran has a variety of its property sitting in reserves, principally blocked outdoors the nation. For instance, the Iraqis purchase a variety of power from Iran, however they owe the cash in billions to Iran as a result of the U.S. doesn’t permit them to pay Iran again. And so, it’s a mixture of this cutoff, Iran’s being reduce off from the world financial system, or most of it, that has actually impacted the state of affairs and the dwelling scenario for the Iranians, working-class, middle-class Iranians. Their life, principally, their —
AMY GOODMAN: Now we have 30 seconds.
NEGAR MORTAZAVI: — buying energy has shrunk.
AMY GOODMAN: Negar, we need to thanks a lot for being with us. Negar Mortazavi is an Iranian American journalist, host of The Iran Podcast, senior fellow on the Middle for Worldwide Coverage. After all, we’ll cowl this extra following the talks in Oman on Saturday.
Indignant, shocked, overwhelmed? Take motion: Help impartial media.
We’ve borne witness to a chaotic first few months in Trump’s presidency.
Over the past months, every government order has delivered shock and bewilderment — a core a part of a method to make the right-wing flip really feel inevitable and overwhelming. However, as organizer Sandra Avalos implored us to recollect in Truthout final November, “Collectively, we’re extra highly effective than Trump.”
Certainly, the Trump administration is pushing by way of government orders, however — as we’ve reported at Truthout — many are in authorized limbo and face courtroom challenges from unions and civil rights teams. Efforts to quash anti-racist educating and DEI packages are stalled by schooling college, employees, and college students refusing to conform. And communities throughout the nation are coming collectively to boost the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and defend one another in shifting exhibits of solidarity.
It will likely be an extended struggle forward. And as nonprofit motion media, Truthout plans to be there documenting and uplifting resistance.
As we undertake this life-sustaining work, we enchantment on your help. Please, when you discover worth in what we do, be part of our neighborhood of sustainers by making a month-to-month or one-time reward.
Source link