The Iranians Know What They Want

After the failed talks in Doha about returning to the JCPOA are American diplomats bitterly complaining that the Iranians are seemingly unable to decide whether to resume or bury the JCPOA. This is a complete and utter misunderstanding of the Iranian position which is to have their cake and eat it too. Iran wants continued international legitimacy for advancing its nuclear weapons program and that it gets through participation in pro forma “negotiations”. For this reason are the Iranians interested in “negotiating” for as long as possible for a resumption of a JCPOA that they are evidently and manifestly not interested in and for good reasons from their perspective. Would they be interested in a new faux negotiation process ostensibly but not actually leading towards an entirely new agreement beyond the JCPOA? The Iranians say no because they want to extend the shelf-life of the JCPOA talks for as long as conceivably possible, yet it is not out question that this position will change when and if the United States decides to finally bury the JCPOA. However, the Iranian assumption is that America and Israel will not dare to destroy the Iranian nuclear weapons program for fear of the devastating consequences and that Washington will allow Tehran to play for time by extending the JCPOA talks up until the point when Iran is ostensibly allowed to join the nuclear club. The Iranians assume that the American and Israeli threats are empty postures that will never be put into action. For Tehran is the continuation of the faux JCPOA “negotiations” highly effective as a play for time which divides and confuses the Americans among themselves. For how long will the Americans allow themselves to be taken advantage of for the purpose legitimizing the acceleration of the Iranian nuclear weapons program? It is of course true that the Americans and the Israelis are using the time well by preparing the military options. However, there is no reason to legitimize the Iranian nuclear weapons program which is what the Americans are effectively doing by participating in faux negotiations with Tehran. Rather, the US should end negotiations with Iran altogether because Iran has no interest in any kind of agreement with Washington and the US should instead build an international coalition against Iran, including crucially concluding a defense pact with Saudi Arabia. The Iranians know precisely what they want and that is nuclear weapons.