"Recent months have seen deadly anti-government protests spread across Iran as Trump repeatedly threatened more US military intervention and tightened crippling sanctions. The US president has since surged a multibillion-dollar armada of US military assets off the coast of Iran, following a playbook that preceded both the previous strikes on Iran as well as the US abduction of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro on January 3."
"I think that the US thinks that Iran is weakened, so this is the opportune time for going in with maximalist demands to get the most concessions that they can get, Sina Azodi, the director of Middle East Studies at George Washington University in Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera. Those demands include not only staunching Iran's nuclear programme, but seeking limits on its ballistic missile programme and ending support for so-called regional proxies."
United States entered talks with Iran in Muscat pressing maximalist demands that seek limits on Iran's nuclear programme, its ballistic missile programme, and an end to support for regional proxies. The Muscat session was the first since US attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities in June and followed an earlier derailment after Israel's 12-day war and subsequent US strikes. Recent months saw deadly anti-government protests in Iran, tighter US sanctions, and a US surge of military assets off Iran's coast. The expanded US agenda risked derailing negotiations and raised questions about the clarity of broader US strategy.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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