The New Iran-US Talks Look a Lot Like the Old Iran-US Talks
After six weeks of war, the path to an agreement will be rougher than it was when the two sides failed to resolve their differences in February.
A rally in Tehran to commemorate Iran’s slain supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Photographer: AFP/Getty ImagesAfter more than a month of bellicose rhetoric and escalating ultimatums from US President Donald Trump, culminating with his threat to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages,” the results are in. He managed to wind the clock back by about six weeks.
When the two sides meet in Islamabad on Saturday, they will face the same litany of disagreements they failed to resolve in the February negotiations preceding the war—as well as new, thornier ones. If Trump had expected his bombs to make Iran regret not taking a deal back then, the plan appears to have backfired. Tehran has suffered thousands of casualties, but its conditions for peace are even more maximalist than before. It wants lasting control over the Strait of Hormuz, all primary and secondary sanctions lifted, US forces to withdraw from the region and financial compensation for the damage it’s incurred during the war.