Why Did Trump Team Give Up on Negotiation with Iran?

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns safety and security in the world. One reason for lack of peace in the Middle East for many years is the unwillingness of Iran leaders to want peace. They have been at war with the United States since 1979 when they took Americans hostage for more than a year. They continue to proclaim, “Death to America!” It was obvious to all honest observers that Iran did not want peace.

President Donald Trump and his administration tried hard to negotiate with Iran negotiators. However, they determined that Iran “was not acting in good faith,” according to an article by Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell published at The Daily Signal. 

In a call with reporters on Tuesday, an administration official said that Iran had attempted to drag out negotiations over its nuclear program and delayed the Americans’ request for a detailed proposal before the U.S. decided to act with Israel and strike Iranian military and political targets this weekend.

During several rounds of talks between representatives of the two countries, Iran had maintained it did not intend to build a nuclear weapon, but it had enriched uranium far beyond the level needed for civilian energy use and close to the level needed for a bomb, Reuters reported.

Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi, one of the diplomats involved in the talks, told CBS News last week following the third round of talks that the Iranians were willing to minimize enrichment, forgo stockpiling nuclear material, and allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspections.

However, the administration said it learned that Iranians were hiding their nuclear enrichment program underground. The regime claimed it used its Tehran Research Reactor for civil purposes, but negotiators determined Iran was stockpiling fuel to later use to create a weapon….

The U.S. offered the Iranians free nuclear fuel to use for their civilian nuclear program, but the Iranians declined, saying enrichment is a national, “inalienable” right, an administration official said Tuesday.

“We said to them that you may deem that to be your right,” the official said. “We deem our right the ability to stop that, and we’re going to stop it, and we’re not going to allow it.”

Negotiators demanded that the Iranians have their facility above ground, and the Iranians shot back that it could then be bombed.

“If there’s nothing nefarious being done there, then, then you shouldn’t be worried about a bomb,” an official said. “So, it was one of these things where just everything was just trying to create a construct that would give them the capabilities and materials they needed in the future to produce nuclear weapons.” …

“It was very clear they were just trying to buy time in order to preserve whatever they could, to get past the term of President [Donald] Trump, in order to get a nuclear weapon,” the official said, “and if they wanted to do a peaceful nuclear program, or kind of a real deal, we offered them many ample opportunities to do that, and they kept getting in their own way, probably intentionally, in order not to do that.” …

It was the role of the negotiators to determine if a deal could be made. They came back and reported to the president that Iran was “basically playing games,” so a deal would be difficult….

Obviously, President Trump was not willing to play games with the Iranians, so he gave approval for the military operation against Iran. Iran is certainly seeing the consequences of trying to play games with Trump.