Iran has proposed a deal with the United States to reach an agreement on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and ending the war, while delaying negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear program to a later stage, according to a report Sunday, after hoped-for talks in Pakistan over the weekend failed to materialize.
After calling off a planned delegation to Pakistan at the last minute the previous day, US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the Iranian team could reach Washington by phone if they wished to speak.
But resolving the standoff over the Strait of Hormuz, lifting the US blockade and allowing Iran’s oil exports to flow again would leave Trump and Washington without much leverage for future negotiations.
It is also unclear whether Trump would agree to push off the nuclear talks to an unspecified later date, given that he has repeatedly insisted that he will settle for nothing less than Tehran’s commitment to ending its nuclear activities.
AFSI’s take:
The extent of the economic distress caused by the closure of Hormuz on a global scale, as well as whether Trump perceives a deal as politically beneficial in the short term, is yet to be determined. What remains unequivocal is that Iran must not possess nuclear weapons, and it is difficult to envision Trump permitting his primary demand to be postponed to an unspecified future date. The adage ‘better late than never’ does not hold in this context. It is merely a stalling tactic employed by Iran, and President Trump who now “holds all the cards” undoubtedly will not accept anything less than Iran’s commitment to a full halt of its nuclear ambitions.