Columnist DoyleMcManus covered Iran as a reporter for years. Here's his take on President Trump's latest offer to negotiate with Tehran.
I learned that the hard way in 1980, when as a young reporter I was arrested by Revolutionary Guards in Isfahan for trying to find the 52 Americans who had been taken hostage at the U.S. Embassy the year before.
So I know a little about the distrust and suspicion between the Iranian regime and the United States. “I have a good feeling,” Trump said in Biarritz. “I think he is going to want to meet and get their situation straightened out.”“If I know that in meeting with somebody the problem of my country would be solved, I wouldn’t hesitate,” he said. “We have to negotiate.”“First, the U.S. should act by lifting all illegal, unjust and unfair sanctions imposed on Iran,” he said. Otherwise, he added, a meeting would be nothing but “a photo op.
At the moment, oddly, Trump appears more interested in negotiations than Rouhani does, even though Iran’s economy is being battered by U.S. sanctions. But Trump is heading into a reelection campaign, and wants a foreign policy win. Rouhani is a lame duck, although his party faces parliamentary elections in February.
The president’s decision to scrap the nuclear pact was unwise. But Trump deserves credit on at least one count: If his enthusiasm for negotiations is real, at least he’s looking for a way to use the sanctions to win diplomatic achievements — not merely to wreck Iran’s economy.Trump has been more flexible toward Iran than his hard-line lieutenants, especially national security advisor John Bolton and Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo.
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