"Just remember, the Iranians never won a war, but never lost a negotiation!” - that is what US President Donald Trump said nearly six years ago, in a July 29, 2019, post on then-Twitter, as tensions with Tehran edged toward open conflict.
A year earlier, Trump had withdrawn the United States from the nuclear deal negotiated under then-president Barack Obama, and by mid-2019, Washington had reimposed sweeping sanctions. In the weeks before the tweet, Iran shot down a US drone and attacked oil tankers in the Gulf. The US surged forces to the region, and Trump approved – but then aborted – retaliatory strikes at the last minute.
Today, as US-Iranian tensions are again at a fever pitch and the two sides are poised to negotiate in Oman, Trump’s previous tweet hangs awkwardly in the air.
If the stated goal today is to change Iranian policy, and if Iran – by Trump’s own assessment – has “never lost a negotiation” but also “never won a war,” then wouldn’t military pressure, rather than negotiations, be the more logical path to follow to achieve that change?
Illustrative image of US President Donald Trump and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (credit: Curtis Means/Pool via REUTERS, Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA/Reuters, REUTERS/DADO RUVIC/ILLUSTRATION)
What are US-Iran talks really about?
That is a question many are now asking, alongside other questions that ref
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