Talking to Iran, Trump-Style
Terry H. Schwadron
April 17, 2025
It’s more than uncomfortable to watch the Trump administration pursue what it thinks as peace talks.
Last weekend was the opening of negotiations with Iran over capping or eliminating Iran’s nuclear arsenal. These are negotiations launched amid belligerence, with unclear goals, in which the parties cannot even agree whether to be in the same room — something Donald Trump says he is insistent on.
Of course, the talks started in different rooms with mediation by Omanis, the first such talks since Trump killed the 2015 accord in his first term, and the whole discussion lasted two hours. The only direct talk between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, a Trump personal friend, came about “for a few minutes” as the two were leaving.
The Iranians focused solely on the lifting of international sanctions, not about blowing up underground uranium processing machinery. Trump thinks the talks are supposed to be focused on ending Iran’s ballistic missile program and support for the network of terrorist groups who attack Israel.
Iran, which avowedly seeks Israel’s destruction, has consistently denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. But Iran has been enriching uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, has obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities.
Just last night, we learned from The New York Times that Trump halted a plan by Israel to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities in coming weeks. The plan would have meant U.S. military involvement, and was contested within the White House.
Trump asked for the talks, basically by browbeating Iranian officials and threatening war unless talks could resolve outstanding issues. Tehran agreed despite balking at Trump’s threats, it said, to rid itself of sanctions.
As we see, “negotiations” these days start with threats, not talks.
Trump’s Track Record
Whatever the public descriptions of these talks, it is difficult not to see them as overly ambitious, boastful Trump promises about instantly resolving Russia-Ukrainian talks, the Israel-Hamas conflict, and problems with Yemeni Houthis. Israeli and American hostages are still held by Hamas in Gaza, the Russians have increased their attacks on civilian areas of Ukraine, the Houthis are still shelling ships in the Persian Gulf, and the undeclared war by Israeli settlers in the West Bank and surrounding territories is spreading.
Trump rewrites history to favor his preferred outcomes in each conflict. Over the weekend, he went out of his way to excuse Russian attacks on Ukraine civilians, including dead children, as a targeting error, and he lambasted a 60 Minute report for reporting that included Trump’s insistence that Ukraine started that war. In Trump’s Iran analysis, it is Democratic weakness that has prompted Iranian stealth in nuclear weapons development.
Consistently, Trump underestimates the hard work of diplomacy and creativity needed to resolve real-world clashes, whether military or economic, or even to keep coalitions with allies alive and effective. His America First strategy seems to depend on threats and slogans without the work of compromise.
Instead, on Sunday, for example, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on his way back from Florida, that he expects a decision what to do about Iran even this week, ahead of a second round of talks this Saturday in Rome.What some see as forthright and clear strike others as foolhardy, reckless, and ultimately ineffective.
And his White House so far has been consistent only in painting any emergent developments in the rosiest terms, and always with a slant that leads with the benefits to Trump and the United States rather than to the fighting participants. It’s a pattern proving equally true for the global tariff war as for military strife.
In any case, Trump’s White House has proposed cutting all funds to the State Department in half for foreign contacts, diplomacy, humanitarian aid, many United Nations programs. Because he relies on a belief in personal relations rather than government structure, It is not clear that Trump understands either the mechanics or the impact of dismantling the underpinnings of foreign policy.
Iran and Israel
Iran is reeling after Israel pummeled its two proxies, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, and is seeking relief from wide-ranging sanctions hobbling its economy. Israel went to war in retaliation for Hamas’ October 7, 2023, raids that killed 1,200 people took 251 hostages, where 59 are still held. Hezbollah began attacking northern Israel the next day, drawing an escalating Israeli response.
It remains a question of what Trump exactly wants from Iran or be willing to accept. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he will only accept the full dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
As a New York Times op-ed notes, since the Oct. 7 attacks, Israel, enabled by the United States and Arab treaty partners, have largely broken Hamas-Hezbollah opposition and degraded Iran’s air defenses and missile production. Israel has expanded its occupation of Syrian territory, taken control of areas of Lebanon just north of its border and undertaken aggressive tactics in the West Bank, leaving it relatively unwilling to compromises with neighbors, as Trump is seeking.
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