No Return to Vienna

Tehran has no intention of returning to the indirect Vienna negotiations. It is somewhat hard to see what Tehran fears in the negotiations as the Iranians could simply stall but they apparently do they fear that Rob Malley will make too many concessions to them as they might be fearful that Beijing and Moscow would rightly blame Tehran for stalling in the negotiations. Either way will there be no Iranian return to Vienna. The international community too often seems to forget that Tehran is a strategic player that makes strategic decisions and sticks to them. Iran decided to ditch the JCPOA and stuck to its decision. Iran decided to ditch Vienna and is apparently sticking to its guns. These decisions are made by the Supreme Leader himself (who is pathologically suspicious of Washington’s intentions) and that is why these decisions can not be overturned by the government. The die is cast.