Reuel Marc Gerecht

2 weeks ago | fdd.org | Clifford D. May |Reuel Marc Gerecht |Ray Takeyh

Last week, Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, said that talks with the Trump administration appear to be going well. This tells host Cliff May that from an American perspective, the talks are going badly. President Trump has said that America’s goal is the “full dismantlement” of the regime’s nuclear weapons program, including its capacity to produce missiles that could deliver nuclear warheads to targets anywhere in the world.

3 weeks ago | politico.com | Reuel Marc Gerecht |Ray Takeyh

For too long, U.S. officials have fooled themselves about the nuclear-deterrent capacity of economic sanctions. Now that the Trump administration has decided to reopen negotiations, it’s important that they understand their adversary better, particularly the limits of sanctions to affect Iran’s behavior. To be sure, sanctions (along with chronic mismanagement and systemic corruption) have depleted Iran’s treasury and spurred inflation and unemployment.

1 month ago | wsj.com | Reuel Marc Gerecht |Ray Takeyh

If Mr. Trump is similarly fearful of conflict, then protracted talks seem inevitable. For now the president is deploying his usual escalate-to-de-escalate playbook: Tough-to-swallow demands, compressed timelines, and military menace, including the deployment of two aircraft-carrier groups and B-2 bombers to the region. But Mr. Khamenei doesn’t scare easily. He is a hardened revolutionary.

1 month ago | fdd.org | Reagan Easter |Reuel Marc Gerecht |Ray Takeyh

President Trump announced Monday that Iran had agreed to begin direct nuclear negotiations with the U.S. on April 12. “If they don’t make a deal,” Mr. Trump said last month, “there will be bombing. It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.” Soon after the president’s Monday remarks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi denied his claims, saying instead that “indirect high-level talks” would take place in Oman. “It is as much an opportunity as it is a test.

1 month ago | businessandamerica.com | Reuel Marc Gerecht |Ray Takeyh

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