Is Iran Defiantly Looking Toward a Deal?

By Steven Ward

Steven R. Ward is a retired intelligence officer and former member of CIA’s senior analytic service who specializes in Iran and the surrounding region. A retired U.S. Army Reserve lieutenant colonel and graduate of the United State Military Academy at West Point, he currently is a contract historian for the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joint History Office. Between 2010 and 2012, he was a CIA Visiting Professor to the US Naval Academy at Annapolis. From 2005 to 2006 he served as the Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East on the National Intelligence Council, and he was a Director for Intelligence Programs on the National Security Council from 1998 to 1999.

President Donald Trump announced Monday that he would meet Iran’s leaders “anytime they want.” The President adding that he would meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani without preconditions, and after high-profile meetings with North Korean President Kim Jung Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin, reiterating that he believes meeting with adversaries is the best path to resolving conflicts. With specific regard to Iran, however, the question remains whether such an offer in the current environment will tempt the Iranians, who believe that they have been repeatedly burned by U.S. bad faith. 

Whether talks between the U.S. and Iran happen or not, Cipher Brief Expert Steven Ward writes on the possible long-term implications of a U.S.-Iran ‘war of words’ and the faint hope of realistic negotiations.

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