Führt Trump tatsächlich „sehr gute“ Gespräche mit Teheran?

Vivian Salama and Jonathan Lemire: “ Early [yesterday] morning, with Asian markets sharply down and oil tankers idling in the Strait of Hormuz, President Trump offered Iranian leaders a familiar mix of threats but also a reprieve. What had been, only days earlier, a 48-hour ultimatum—reopen the strait or face the destruction of energy infrastructure —softened into something more elastic: a five-day extension for what he described as ‘very good and productive’ talks with Tehran.

“The contours of the talks were not immediately clear, though Trump suggested while leaving Palm Beach this morning that both he and ‘the ayatollah, whoever the ayatollah is’ should control the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes. He boasted of ‘major points of agreement’ and assured reporters that Iran, like the United States, wants ‘very much to make a deal.’

“It was, by his telling, progress. By Tehran’s account, it was fiction.

“The gap between Trump’s claims and Iran’s categorical denials underscores how little control either side has over the conflict—or its narrative. The White House is attempting to manage a large-scale military confrontation with an undefined exit strategy—a confrontation that is unnerving markets. As military strikes fail to reopen the waterway and allies worry about the expanding conflict, the administration is facing the limits of unilateral action.

“Three foreign officials with knowledge of the U.S. efforts told us that Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, has communicated with the Iranian government through Pakistan and other regional intermediaries in an effort to get the embattled regime to agree to demands regarding its nuclear program and uranium-enrichment efforts. They said that the U.S. presented a 15-point plan—based on the 15-point proposal presented to the Iranian government last year—to give the weakened regime a chance to concede and spare itself further bombardment …

“White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told us in a statement that the situation is fluid and that any ‘speculation about meetings should not be deemed as final until they are formally announced by the White House.’ She added that the administration would not negotiate the conflict ‘through the press.’ Iranian officials insist that there are no negotiations. Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the Parliament speaker, dismissed Trump’s claims as market manipulation—they are an attempt, he said, to ‘escape the quagmire’ and to reassure oil traders rattled by the strait’s closure.

“The result is a war suspended between escalation and exit, its terms of victory as undefined now as they were at its outset.

Read more: [https://theatln.tc/90Fon7VW](https://theatln.tc/90Fon7VW) 

Thanks *Atlantic* for adding to the cacophony of „Turnip man bad“ content around here and further suppressing any chance of real geopolitical discussion going on

I’ll take great satisfaction in choosing not to cancel my subscription when the free trial ends in a few days

If Trump said it? Then, no.