US Envoy: Prospects for Iran Deal Tenuous at Best

Talks remain a 'huge question mark'

US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley continued the trend of US officials being very gloomy about the chances of the ongoing Iran nuclear talks, saying that the prospects for a deal are “at best, tenuous.

Malley sought to explain the administration’s position to the Senate foreign Relations Committee, with the real focus being trying to explain to them what “plan B” is.

The US already walked away from the talks once, and it took an EU delegation visit to Tehran to salvage them. Now, it’s becoming unclear why the EU bothered, as the US seems to have just gone back to the position of reluctant non-partner waiting for the talks to be over.

“Plan B” largely appears to be the status quo, more and more sanctions with the narrative pretext that they’re punishing Iran for not making a deal, when in reality the deal was there to be had, and the US got cold feet.

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.