Iran Will Expand Nuclear Program, Ayatollah Says

[essentialsaltes]

Iran Will Expand Nuclear Program and Won’t Talk to U.S., Ayatollah Says
In a televised speech, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, said that negotiating with Washington over his country’s nuclear program would only help President Trump get re-elected.

“He is going to benefit from negotiations,” Ayatollah Khamenei said. “This old man who is in charge in America apparently used negotiations with North Korea as propaganda,” he added — a reference to Mr. Trump’s high-profile nuclear diplomacy on another front, which to date has been mostly fruitless.

The Iranian leader was not the first to connect the possibility of talks with the United States to the presidential election. Last month, Mr. Trump said on Twitter that Iran could make a better deal if it did so before November. “Don’t wait until after U.S. Election to make the Big deal,” he wrote. “I’m going to win. You’ll make a better deal now!”

 

[variant]

I wonder why Trump is so set on making a deal with Iran given that he tore up the last one himself.

 

[lasthero]

I wonder why Trump is so set on making a deal with Iran given that he tore up the last one himself.

He wants it to be his deal, so he can have something to brag about on the campaign trail. One of his big promises was how he’d bring countries like Iran and North Korea to heel, but he’s utterly failed at that.

 

[variant]

He wants it to be his deal, so he can have something to brag about on the campaign trail. One of his big promises was how he’d bring countries like Iran and North Korea to heel, but he’s utterly failed at that.

Then I have to question Trumps political acumen and whether he understands leverage.

On what planet would the Iranians want to sit down and do a deal with you when you basically just tore up an agreement they were abiding by?

How does Trump think he has leverage here? The guy running against Trump was part of the administration that agreed to the last deal Iran agreed to. Why would they ever humiliate themselves by dealing with the guy who is using them like a political football?

All Trump has accomplished here is convincing the Iranians that they absolutely do need to have Nuclear weapons, and that the U.S. isn't going to treat them with anything but disdain until they get them.