Iran Remains Hopeful on Nuclear Talks

Trades blame with US after Qatar failure

The Qatar-hosted Iran nuclear talks lasted only part of a day, and fell apart with the US is pessimistic as ever, and EU officials saying it might not be possible to make a deal at all.

Iranian officials say that the talks fell apart because the US insisted on sticking to a draft which explicitly did not include any assurance of Iran getting any benefit from sanctions relief.

This once again convinced many Iranians that the US doesn’t want a deal, but Iranian officials still aren’t totally resigned to the talks failing, saying that a deal is still there to be had and all it would take is some realism from the US side.

That’s plenty of reason for pessimism, but Iran continues to very much want a deal even if it takes some serious efforts. With the US trying to slap together an anti-Iran NATO, Iran seems to see this as one of the last chances for a deal.

US officials remain eternally pessimistic, saying Iran “isn’t ready” to make a deal with them, though offering little substantive commentary on what happened.

There will be more opportunities, with Iran wanting a deal and the EU, if coming out of Qatar somewhat pessimistic, is not yet at the point of giving up.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.