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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://thegrayzone.com/2025/05/21/iranian-diplomats-trump-sabotage/">thegrayzone.com</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Iranian diplomats suspect Trump using talks as instrument of sabotage <br></h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Max Blumenthal</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time">May 21, 2025</div>
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<img src="cid:ii_mb2dt68j0" alt="Screenshot-2025-05-21-at-3.02.19 PM.png" width="425" height="227"><br><h3>In Tehran,
bewildered diplomats told me they suspect the Trump administration is
exploiting nuclear negotiations as a instrument for generating
instability to weaken Iran\u2019s economy and foment social strife</h3>
<p>With nuclear negotiations between the Trump
administration and Iran\u2019s Reformist government at a standstill, I held
two separate, lengthy background conversations in Tehran this past week
with a pair of seasoned Iranian diplomats with detailed knowledge of the
talks in Muscat, Oman.</p>
<p>Like most Iranians, the diplomats were eager
for a durable deal that would provide sanctions relief. But they said
their side could not seem to break through to a Trump team they
described as dithering, divided, distracted by other conflicts, and
incapable of holding to a consistent position. Worse, as the
negotiations drag on, the Trump administration is defaulting toward the
hardline Israeli position which rejects all uranium enrichment, even for
civilian purposes, violating a right Tehran considers sacrosanct.</p>
<p>The Iranian diplomats have now begun to
suspect the Trump administration held an ulterior motive for engaging in
talks, and is exploiting the meetings in Oman as a instrument for
generating instability to weaken Iran\u2019s economy and foment social
strife.</p>
<p>Their comments to me echoed a warning issued
by the Leader of Iran\u2019s Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khamenei, as Tehran
considered a request from Trump for nuclear talks last March.
\u201cNegotiating with this US administration won\u2019t result in the sanctions
being removed,\u201d Khamenei <a href="https://x.com/khamenei_ir/status/1899865973806502309">declared</a>. \u201cIt will cause the knot of sanctions to become tighter and pressure to increase.\u201d</p>
<p>Following two months of political confusion
and a significant escalation of US financial warfare, the Ayatollah\u2019s
words have proven prescient. Iran\u2019s Reformist government now risks
repeating the folly of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action, or
JCPOA, which failed to deliver meaningful sanctions relief in the brief
period before Trump shredded the deal, and ultimately led to a regime of
\u201cmaximum pressure\u201d culminating with the US assassination of Iranian
Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani.</p>
<p>Iran\u2019s government entered the latest round of
talks under heavy pressure, with Trump dispatching a B-2 bomber strike
force to the Diego Garcia Airbase to enforce his demands. The
negotiations also took place in the shadow of the post-October 7 wars,
in which Iran\u2019s regional allies had suffered serious setbacks and with
the last retaliation it vowed against Israel, True Promise III, still
unfulfilled. Iranian public opinion researcher Ebrahim Moehseni told me
his polling at the time showed that a majority of Iranians from all
social sectors supported the talks.</p>
<p>According to the two diplomats I spoke to in Tehran, Iran\u2019s
negotiating team arrived in Oman with a sense of pessimism, but quickly
grew more positive as they realized the Americans were not introducing
demands for Iran to sever relations with its allies in Lebanon and
Yemen, scrap its long range ballistic missiles, or destroy its reactors
in Natanz and Fordow. But after each encouraging exchange, they watched
key Trump negotiators issue bellicose statements to media immediately
after returning to Washington, essentially reversing the positions they
had taken in Muscat. The Iranians suspected Trump\u2019s team, led by real
estate lawyer Steve Witkoff, was kowtowing to Israeli assets like the
Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and its top donor, Miriam
Adelson.</p>
<p>During each round of talks, the Iranian team introduced concrete
proposals to bridge disagreements and maintain momentum. But according
to the diplomats I spoke to, they found themselves waiting for a week or
more to receive a reply from the Americans. They described Witkoff as
distracted by other diplomatic assignments and said he often put Iran on
the back burner while he tended to Ukraine-Russia negotiations or the
Gaza war.</p>
<p>The diplomats were especially concerned by the <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/rubio-slams-cnn-report-frustrated-190920339.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">apparent power struggle</a>
between Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. They suspected that
Rubio was exploiting US media appearances to project control over the
negotiations, and worried that his apparent rivalry with Witkoff would
prevent Trump\u2019s team from reaching a consensus on the nuclear issue.</p>
<p>One Iranian diplomat referenced historian Robert Dallek\u2019s book, The
American Style of Foreign Policy, to elucidate his view that the Trump
administration\u2019s counter-productive approach reflected a deeper crisis
in the US establishment. The 1983 book argued that domestic pressures
and social shifts at home have placed US foreign policy makers on a
persistently irrational trajectory. The diplomat pointed to former
Secretary of State Tony Blinken as a case study in Dallek\u2019s thesis,
recalling how Blinken routinely moved the goalposts on previous
agreements with Iran in order to prevent negotiations from taking
concrete form during the Biden years. His implication, as I read it, was
the preponderance of pressure from the Israel lobby and military
industry had been too overwhelming to allow either the Biden or Trump
administration to execute a lasting deal.</p>
<p>Both diplomats I spoke to brought up <a href="https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/witkoff-hamas-trump-deal-edan-alexander-lift-blockade-israel">recent reports</a>
revealing that Witkoff had promised Hamas he would force Israel to lift
the starvation siege on the Gaza Strip if they released the US-Israeli
captive Edan Alexander. They were dismayed that Witkoff had reneged on
his promise and allowed Israel to slaughter hundreds of civilians in an
apocalyptic frenzy throughout the week. Trump\u2019s bad faith tactics with
Hamas have cast a pall over the negotiations in Oman, fueling Iranian
pessimism about a workable deal.</p>
<p>But perhaps no statement was more damaging to the prospect of a deal than Witkoff\u2019s <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/trump-envoy-witkoff-cites-us-red-line-with-iran-against-uranium-enrichment-2025-05-18/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">proclamation</a>
on ABC\u2019s \u2018This Week\u2019: \u201cWe have one very, very clear red line, and that
is enrichment. We cannot allow even 1% of an enrichment capability.\u201d</p>
<p>The comments fit the pattern of Trump negotiators sabotaging progress
in Oman by issuing onerous demands and threats immediately after
returning to Washington. And few issues are more central to the Islamic
Republic\u2019s sense of independence than its civilian nuclear program.</p>
<h3>A tour of Tehran\u2019s nuclear reactor illustrates the \u2018battle of wills\u2019</h3>
<p>While in Tehran, Iran\u2019s Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI)
invited me and a small group of journalists and academics to tour the
city\u2019s Nuclear Research Center, an active reactor originally constructed
with US assistance under the Shah.</p>
<p>Once inside the vast facility (without our phones, as recording
devices were strictly forbidden), we were treated to an exhibition
touting the many lifesaving products of Iran\u2019s nuclear program, from
advancements in radiotherapy to the production of anti-cancer drugs to
the sterilization of medical devices and protection of agriculture.</p>
<p>The visit was clearly designed to illustrate the importance of
nuclear energy to Iran\u2019s national development, and the absolute
commitment of its leadership to continuing the project despite the
continuous threat of assassination, sabotage and all-out war.</p>
<img src="https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/44.jpg?resize=1024%2C644&ssl=1" alt="" width="425" height="267" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;">Touring the Tehran Nuclear Research Center this May 2025
<p>Following our tour, we met with Beyrouz Kamalvandi, a veteran Iranian
diplomat now serving as spokesman for the AEOI. Like the other Iranian
diplomats I spoke to, Kamalvandi volunteered his country\u2019s desire to
abide by all its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty. But he
viewed Iran\u2019s civilian nuclear program as the key to consolidating its
technological edge, and an absolute right under international law.</p>
<p>\u201cThey want to do with us what they did with Gaza, where the entire
society is besieged,\u201d Kamalvandi proclaimed. \u201cBut we have a great
civilization, and it\u2019s only a matter of time before they realize we
won\u2019t submit. This is not just a battle over enrichment, it\u2019s a battle
of wills.\u201d</p>
<img src="https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/A16I7766.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1" alt="" width="425" height="283" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;">Atomic Energy Organization of Iran spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi during our tour of the Tehran Nuclear Research Center
<p>At one point during the meeting, Kamalvandi pointed to a young man
seated in the back row of the conference room, asked him to stand, and
identified him as the son of the Iranian quantum field theorist Massoud
Ali-Mohammadi, who was assassinated by a Mossad asset in 2010. Ten years
later, Iran lost the godfather of its nuclear program, Mohsen
Fakrizadeh, when the Mossad smuggled a machine gun drone into the
country and stationed it along a road to attack Fakrizadeh\u2019s convoy.
Kamalvandi, for his part, was <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-says-natanz-was-hit-by-small-explosion-claims-damage-quickly-repairable/">injured and hospitalized</a> in 2021 while inspecting a part of the Natanz reactor that had been damaged by an Israeli attack.</p>
<p>In the eyes of Iran\u2019s leadership, Witkoff\u2019s demand to end enrichment
was not only a recipe for squandering decades of technological
advancement, it was an insult to the top tier scientists cut down by
Israeli assassins. If this is the new baseline for a deal, negotiations
are an exercise in futility. And yet the show goes on.</p>
<h3>Economic sabotage behind the guise of negotiations</h3>
<p>Since negotiations began, the value of the Iranian rial has
fluctuated wildly against the dollar, improving in value after the first
round of positive exchanges, then depreciating following each wave of
bellicose threats from Trump and his team. I personally witnessed Iran\u2019s
financial chaos each time I attempted to exchange dollars for rials, as
business owners consulted their phones for the new rate, which seemed
to shift from day to day depending on the US president\u2019s rhetoric. A
friend joked that I would have paid a substantially lower rate to book a
hotel room for my family if negotiations were not currently taking
place.</p>
<p>Trump\u2019s statements about the negotiations have also roiled oil
markets. On May 16, when Trump claimed he was \u201cgetting close to maybe a
deal\u201d with Iran, the <a href="https://www.barrons.com/livecoverage/stock-market-today-050515/card/oil-prices-fall-on-weaker-demand-possible-u-s-iran-deal-bwt3y8AaT1mVdBqO62uA">price of oil plummeted</a>
by 3.4%. Then came Witkoff\u2019s call to cease enrichment, and on May 20,
US intelligence leaked a warning that Israel was planning to attack
Iran\u2019s oil facilities, causing a <a href="https://oilprice.com/Energy/Oil-Prices/Oil-Jumps-on-Possibility-of-Israeli-Attack-on-Iran.html">sudden surge</a> in oil prices.</p>
<p>The American president\u2019s ability to manipulate financial markets both
inside and outside Iran with his bluster has contributed to a sense
that entering the negotiations have weakened Iran\u2019s political position.
Meanwhile, Trump\u2019s crude insults to Iran\u2019s sense of national honor and
sovereignty have disrupted whatever goodwill existed when talks began.</p>
<p>The president\u2019s <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-persian-gulf-saudi-arabia-ce30874c27bc01426d93ad3c65a18844">announcement</a>
on May 7 that he was considering renaming the Persian Gulf to \u201cthe
Arabian Gulf\u201d fueled outrage across Iran \u2014 uniting everyone from
pro-government principlists, to reformists, to pro-regime change
monarchists in opposition to the insult to their national pride. Tehran
responded with a billboard campaign condemning the change and a <a href="https://nournews.ir/en/news/224042/Iran-to-take-legal-action-against-Google-over-distortion-of-the-Persian-Gulf%E2%80%99s-name">lawsuit</a> against Google for abiding by the name change on its Maps applications.</p>
<p>Trump\u2019s <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/full-text-of-trumps-speech-in-riyadh-dawn-of-the-bright-new-day-for-the-great-people-of-the-middle-east/?__cf_chl_rt_tk=j8dQKOUuHDcZ.3eEUHGWe1dCt7aJsqw7Xk3QiVs_E_o-1747861712-1.0.1.1-PMTEClYnHmJzionQocqlutcrEYTHmcZZcCmzYq5ZBIo">speech in Riyadh</a>
deepened the enmity, as he attempted to pit the Iranian public against
its leadership, praising his unelected, monarchic hosts for supposedly
having \u201cturned dry deserts into fertile farmland,\u201d while accusing Iran\u2019s
leaders of \u201cturn[ing] green farmland into dry deserts, as their corrupt
water mafia\u2026causes droughts and empty riverbeds. They get rich, but
they don\u2019t let the people have any of it.\u201d</p>
<p>Two days after Trump\u2019s address in Riyadh, dust storms from the growing deserts of Saudi Arabia <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/dust-storm-blankets-tehran-after-hitting-iraq/ar-AA1EQAF0">gusted into Iran</a>,
clouding the skies over Tehran and keeping many residents indoors. The
irony did not escape those who heard Trump\u2019s praise for the House of
Saud\u2019s supposed green miracle. Meanwhile, there is a growing sense that
war clouds are gathering as well.</p>
<p>One well-connected Iranian academic in Tehran told me he expected his
country to be on the receiving end of Israeli sabotage and
confrontation throughout the summer. Both diplomats I spoke to insisted
that in such a scenario, True Promise III was an option on the table.</p>
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