President Trump on Monday suggested that Iran was slow-walking talks with the US and repeated his threat of military action if a deal on Tehran’s nuclear program isn’t reached.
The US and Iran held indirect negotiations in Oman over the weekend and are set to hold another round in Rome this coming Saturday.
“Iran wants to deal with us, but they don’t know how. They really don’t know how. We had a meeting with them on Saturday. We have another meeting scheduled next Saturday, I said, ‘that’s a long time,’ so I think they might be tapping us along,” Trump told reporters at the Oval Office while meeting with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele.
Trump said that Iran has to “get rid of the concept of a nuclear weapon, they cannot have a nuclear weapon.” Iran has made clear that it’s willing to reaffirm its pledge that it doesn’t seek nuclear weapons, and US intelligence agencies recently said in their annual threat assessment there’s no evidence that Tehran is building a nuclear bomb or that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has reversed his 2003 fatwah that banned the production of weapons of mass destruction.
Despite the conclusion from US intelligence agencies, Trump has repeatedly threatened to bomb Iran if a deal isn’t reached on its nuclear program. “If we have to do something very harsh, we’ll do it,” he said. “And I’m not doing it for us. I’m doing it for the world. These are radicalized people, and they cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
When asked if the options include a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the president said, “Of course.”
Trita Parsi, an Iran expert and Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute, believes that a deal could be reached if it is narrow and the US doesn’t demand the total dismantlement of Iran’s civilian nuclear program. Iran hawks in the US and Israel could try to sabotage the process, and there’s a chance the US could add more demands related to Iran’s ballistic missiles and its support for its allies in the region, issues Iran doesn’t want to include in any deal with the US.
If Iran is smart, they will immediately cancel talks based on his continued and illegal threats to bomb the country. They have to make it clear to Trump that he cannot keep making threats and expect Iran to bend the knee. Not going to happen.
The best course of action is to force Trump into a corner, because if he even tries to attack Iran without Congressional approval, his regime is doomed and he will be successfully impeached. And if Congress somehow approves any attack against Iran, then US hegemony in West Asia will end as soon as every US base in the region is destroyed and tens of thousands of American service people are slaughtered. There will be no MAGA movement in existence after that bloodbath.
Iranians have clearly said they cannot negotiate against threats.
if he even tries to attack Iran without Congressional approval, his regime is doomed and he will be successfully impeached.
I have my doubts. The democrats love this shit since they're just as anti-Iran as the republicans. Trumps approval ratings will skyrocket and all the braindead sheeple will be in the streets chanting USA! USA!
Unfortunately you are right on that.
Both parties say that Iran and China are our main enemies. And our arrogant war departments says that they have enough fire power to fight on multiple fronts.
Our war departments don't even have enough fire power to fight on a single front. They will learn this very quickly if the US attempts to bomb Iran…
"…he will be successfully impeached…"
Pfft, that assumes a) Congress or Senate are relevant in Trump Admin 2 and b) that Trump would respect, notice, care about, or otherwise be slightly bothered by this "weird peach-mint thing the Fake News is talking about. Is that a new Diet Coke flavor ? Sounds delicious."
I think so. The US is about as likely to get rid of Trump as a two-dollar whore from her Herpes.
The US will absolutely get rid of Trump. The only questions are when and how.
Yes well, he is mortal. He might not think so and his MAGA supporters might not think that. But then the death of a dictator is not exactly a guarantee of the end of dictatorship.
The US might be not just yet be a full blown dictatorship, but it is definitely on autocratic terroritory and the dismantling of possible obstacles on the path to dictatorship, for those that actually offer some token resistance, is going fast. The institutions have been broken down or are crumbling. The final stage of this process, that looks to me to be all but unstoppable by now, is that all executive power will be concentrated into one person: Trump. There is no big red no go sign on the boundary where the dark grey turns to pitch black. It is more like drowning in a vortex of vaseline.
I will not be surprised in the slightest if 10-15 years from now Americans will be required from then on to go on a pilgrimage to the embalmed body of Trump and show fealty to Dear Leader by prostrating themselves in front of the cadaver.
”As a man thinketh?…. Therefor he is…”
Arrogance and hubris does not make a man!
Not a man, for all seasons!…
I ( naively) thought Witkoff was going to succeed in Gaza too..especially when he made Bibi, (that well known pious "man of God") rouse and meet him on the sabbath, ….
Then the Israeli lobby crushed Witkoff and any hope of a cease fire.
Same thing is going to happen here…Witkoff is already being portrayed as an "agent of Qatar".
And as for those people who comment that USA would never attack Iran, because it would mean the end of the USA—well the USA will willingly sacrifice itself on that Israeli altar.
I might not have said "willingly" but I would have said "stupidly."
"I ( naively) thought Witkoff was going to succeed in Gaza too…Then the Israeli lobby crushed Witkoff and any hope of a cease fire….Same thing is going to happen here."
Perhaps – and yes, Witkoff is being attacked…but the Trump-ian right does not necessarily see itself as 'standing to profit' by war w/Iran as w/enabling the Israeli genocide.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4f82eaff8cffcf1405934ae224240781f9305017785f96e0b03f6a14b4bed3b8.png
Lying, denying and alibiing!….!….!… …. …. …..
Trump is almost funny; “Iran wants to deal with us, but they don’t know how. They really don’t know how."
Grade B checkers player in a chess match with the oldest empire on Earth is explaining how the chess master doesn't get it.
If Iran doesn't do exactly as told, the US dynasty of brave billionaire bombers will obliterate women and children while they sleep just like Israel does.
Didn't the Persians INVENT chess ?
Yes and No. They did start the game, but not the current version. For example their game did not have En Passant, the queen was limited to move only one space at a time and they did not have castling.
Ah, okay – thanks ! I wasn’t sure if they originated it, or just popularised a “modern” version based off an older Assyrian game or something.
A lot of people are relaying the famous Antonio Gramsci quote these day but it's because it's so appropriate: ‘The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters."
And Pogo "we have met the enemy and he is us" …
That second dude made good corndogs.
"people are relaying the famous Antonio Gramsci quote these days…so appropriate: 'The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.'"
And there's another – "Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will."
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ba69bc1867009d718238005719d00baa69eebbba0a2f8d86438355424c31d155.png
Fools, the Americans. Don't they know the Persians have been practicing politics and diplomacy for thousands of years.
You can't win a chess game from a monkey. You could be a chess genius thinking 100 moves in advance. The monkey would chew on the pieces and shit on the board.
Lol, you're so right. If nothing else the Middle East has patience to clean up their mess long after they've gone –and taken the Zionist entity with them.
What difference does how old a country is on how well their current leaders can negotiate? Heck trump is in his 70s and he acts like a freshman bully in high school.
Because even Iran's current leadership is diverse. All Iranians are not of one mindset but they share a collective historical memory that outdates Islam. It's what makes then uniquely Persian.
"“Iran wants to deal with us, but they don’t know how. They really don’t know how…” Trump told reporters"
News flash, Emperor Don you magnificent pinecone, NOBODY knows how to deal with your erratic pinball Administration.
""These are radicalized people, and they cannot have a nuclear weapon…""
Interesting that Trump will apply this racist assertion to the Persians but not to the Apartheid State of Israel where the accusation ACTUALLY fits.
Who is complaining that citizens have nothing to do with this?
Why don't journalists become alarmed that the US is not a democracy?
. . .in 2008: in the US, four out of five Americans or 79 per cent support direct talks between the two governments
"President Trump…suggested that Iran was slow-walking talks with the US and repeated his threat of military action…"
Obviously, this flies in the face of post-meeting statements by both Witkoff and Iran.
So: reasonably assuming Witkoff met w/Trump and briefed him AND agreed on how Witkoff would publicly characterize the results of the meeting…then what to make of the 'morning after' Trump statement?
Face-saving bellicose theatrics in advance of a deal not too different from the Obama-Europe deal he made such a big show of destroying?
Or the flush noise of all 'peace president' rhetoric going down the crapper?
O the excitement & anticipation – since w/erratic sociopaths, you never know.
Regardless, no point second guessing – hope we're all resisting however we can.
Tipping my uneasily balanced 'let's-not-resign-ourselves-to-another-war-as-a-done-deal' applecart in a bad direction…
"Witkoff in Apparent Reversal Says Iran Must Halt Nuclear Enrichment" (Wall Street Journal, 4/15/25)