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We're starting to get an idea of what the Administration has proposed as the outcome to the Iran war. Reports are that their demand was a 20-year suspension of activity:

The U.S. proposed a 20-year halt to Iran’s nuclear program in recent talks in Pakistan, according to multiple reports.

Sources close to the talks told The New York Times that a two-decade “suspension” of Iranian nuclear activity was suggested by the U.S. in the weekend negotiations. Iran responded with their own plan of stopping nuclear activity for, at most, five years, U.S. and Iranian officials told the Times.

https://thehill.com/policy/international/5830180-u...

If the concept of having a set time frame for the duration of this kind of nuclear agreement seems familiar, it's a similar structure to the JCPOA that we were talking about in the other thread. No surprise, one of the leading voices in criticizing the JCPOA is immediately disparaging the proposal for having the same type of "sunset" provision as that earlier deal:

Foundation for Defense of Democracies CEO Mark Dubowitz responded to the reported two-decade proposal by stating that “a 20-year moratorium is a sunset provision.”

“The ban on enrichment must be permanent,” Dubowitz continued in a post on the social platform X on Monday. “The dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program must be comprehensive and permanent.”

If the Administration's initial proposal includes a sunset provision, that does make it pretty likely that we'll end up with one at the end. If that ends up being the case, it will be interesting if folks like Dubowitz that regarded the sunset provision as an unacceptable fatal flaw in the JCPOA are just as unsparing in their criticism of this new deal as the old one.

If the Administration's initial proposal includes a sunset provision, that does make it pretty likely that we'll end up with one at the end. If that ends up being the case, it will be interesting if folks like Dubowitz that regarded the sunset provision as an unacceptable fatal flaw in the JCPOA are just as unsparing in their criticism of this new deal as the old one.

Man, I should know better than to underestimate how much the Administration deviates from "normal" practice. In any normal diplomatic negotiations, the negotiating team would have a solid understanding of what the parameters of their "deal space" were, and the principles on whose behalf they were negotiating would maintain their credibility. In that context, it would be absurd to think that the initial offer from a negotiating team was one that the country in question didn't actually want.

But, hey man, it's Trump baby. So we hear today from Himself that he doesn't support what his lead negotiator and his own Vice President was offering as an initial position:

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that U.S.-Iran peace talks may resume “over the next two days” in Pakistan, but that he was not pleased with the offer of a 20-year suspension of Tehran’s nuclear enrichment program made last weekend by his chief negotiator, Vice President JD Vance.

https://archive.ph/i8ktG

Crazy stuff!

In any normal diplomatic negotiations, the negotiating team would have a solid understanding of what the parameters of their "deal space" were,

Reports say Vance was calling "Bibi", a lot.

How a Netanyahu phone call to JD Vance 'shifted focus' in Iran-US negotiations

Iran, however, pointed to alleged external interference as a key reason for the breakdown. According to Iranian media, Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi claimed that a phone call from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Vance during the negotiations derailed progress.

Read more at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/130...

Normally, I would take anything claimed by the Iranians with a big grain of salt. However, "Bibi" says that his supplicant, Trump the Manly and Virile, reports to him every day.

Netanyahu Reveals Trump Reports to Him Every Day on Iran

In a meeting with Israel’s Cabinet ministers, Netanyahu said, “I spoke yesterday with Vice President JD Vance. He called me from his plane on his way back from Islamabad. He reported to me in detail, as this administration does every day, about the development of the negotiations. In this case, the explosion in the negotiations.”

https://newrepublic.com/post/208997/netanyahu-trum...

As Israel's objective is destruction of the Iranian regime, and Trump the Great and Powerful is taking orders from "Bibi", seems all his "peace negotiations" are nothing but a kabuki dance for public consumption.

Steve

Reports say Vance was calling "Bibi", a lot.

That would cut the other way.

Trump appears to dislike that Vance's offer was too lenient, which is almost certainly the message that "Bibi" would have sent as well. Bibi would also advocate for permanence, not a sunset. If Vance was taking notes from Bibi during the negotiations, he would have been more in line with the position Trump is talking about now.

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