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Opinion | US-Iran nuclear stand-off: Trump and Rowhani’s positions not as intractable as they seem
- Compromises could include a limited restriction on Iran’s ballistic missile programme and a rigorous inspection regime for its satellite launch programme
- Any renegotiation efforts are most likely to start with indirect approaches between the US and Iran through the European partners, to establish the parameters of what is possible
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Observers of the 74th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) this week who were hoping for a breakthrough in the United States-Iran nuclear deal stand-off would have been disappointed. In speeches to the assembled world leaders, Presidents Donald Trump and Hassan Rowhani staked out familiar positions.
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Trump called Iran one of the “greatest security threats facing peace-loving nations”, referred to the regime’s “record of death and destruction”, and called for an end to financing of Tehran’s “bloodlust”. Rowhani, who followed Trump a day later, charged that the US had engaged in “merciless economic terrorism” and “international piracy”, and warned that a single blunder in the region could ignite a “big fire”.
On the surface, these speeches suggest that both sides are holding fast to intractable positions, and that a solution to the current tensions in the Gulf remains elusive.
Sanctions remain at the heart of the matter: The US continues its “maximum pressure” campaign, with the latest round coming after it blamed the Islamic Republic for the recent attacks on Saudi Arabian oil facilities at Abqaiq and Khurais. Iran demands that sanctions be lifted before it will consider negotiations.
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But a closer look at the speeches offers hints that positions may not be as intractable as they seem.
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