By David A. Wemer
Iran is unlikely (click here) to agree to negotiations with the United States in the absence of US concessions, according to Barbara Slavin, director of the Atlantic Council’s Future of Iran Initiative.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has offered to serve as a mediator between Washington and Tehran, traveled to Iran this week—the first Japanese prime minister to visit Iran in nearly forty years—in an attempt to facilitate negotiations. However, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei rebuffed Abe’s effort.
“I do not see Trump as worthy of any message exchange, and I do not have any reply for him, now or in future,” Iranian state media quoted Khamenei as telling Abe on June 13.
“What Khamenei is saying to President Trump,” Slavin explained, is that “‘you say you want negotiations but you have made no concessions and no offer of concessions and we will not respond to pressure.’” It is unlikely that Tehran would want to start negotiations, she said, unless there is “some sort of gesture from the United States. Otherwise it would be too huge a loss of face at this point to agree to talk to Trump.”...
Call me crazy, but, it doesn't appear Iran is succumbing to pressure.
