Iran’s Game

When Iran asked to negotiate with the US they did so with the understanding that US president Donald J. Trump is fundamentally capricious and rapidly changes his stance over time. The Iranian regime was extremely frightened by the US threat to take out Iran’s bridges and power plants which it rightly saw as an existential threat and a precursor to an Israeli-organized mass revolt. The regime gambled that if they played for time, the threat against the bridges and power plants would essentially go away and it appears that they were right to assume this considering that the threat has now basically been removed by Trump himself. The current regime assumption is that Trump really does not want to take out the bridges and power plants because then he would lose all leverage in negotiations which Trump desperately want to see successful. The world is on a clock considering the global energy crisis and wasting time on negotiations with no potential to be successful means losing valuable time that ought to be invested in enabling the Iranian people to unseat the nefarious regime.