Drop Site's Jeremy Scahill on Stalled U.S.-Iran Talks

This is Democracy Now!, democracynow .org, The War and Peace Report.I'm Amy Goodman, on the road to Rochester, New York.Negotiations between the United States and Iran to end the war are at an impasse as the conflict reaches its 61st day.President Trump and his national security team are reportedly skeptical of Iran's proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for tabling nuclear talks.U .

S.officials say President Trump expressed doubts Monday that Iran was acting in good faith.Iran has so far refused Trump's key demand that it end all nuclear enrichment.The Wall Street Journal reported late Tuesday Tuesday, that Trump has told aides to prepare for an extended blockade of Iranian ports to ramp up the pressure on Tehran.In his latest post on Truth Social, Trump threatened Iran to, quote, better get smart soon.Earlier on Tuesday, Trump wrote, quote, "'Iran has just informed us that they're in a state of collapse,' unquote. They want us to open the Hormuz Strait as soon as possible as they try to figure out their leadership situation, which I believe they will be able to do,' President Trump said."

This is Brigadier General Mohammad Akraminiah, a spokesperson for the Iranian army.

Regarding the current situation, we have not considered the war to be over.From the day the fighting stopped and, in effect, a ceasefire or silence took place on the battlefield, since there is no trust in the United States and our enemies, we have continued in the same way as during the war, making serious efforts to update our list of targets.

And this is U .S.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaking at a Pentagon news conference last Friday.

Iran knows that they still have an open window to choose wisely, as we said previously, choose wisely at the negotiating table.All they have to do is abandon a nuclear weapon immediately.and verifiable ways, or instead they can watch their regime's fragile economic state collapse under the unrelenting pressure of American power.

For more on all of this, we're joined now by DropSite News co -founder Jeremy Scahill.His new piece is headlined, As Trump's Narrative on Negotiations Flails, Iran Is Setting Its Own Terms for Ending the War.Hi, Jeremy.Can you start off by just explaining the thesis of your piece?

Well, you know, what I've been reporting over the past several weeks is that, far from being in disarray, as Trump and his allies in the media have portrayed the Iranian government.It's the Trump administration that is in a state of total chaos, erratic meltdowns, that culminated with Trump claiming that J .D.Vance was on an airplane en route to Islamabad to meet the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Arrachi, then saying that Jared Kushner, his son -in -law and special envoy Steve Whitcoff, oh, they're actually on the airplane.And they were claiming, oh, the Iranians are begging us to talk, and we're going to go and meet them in Islamabad.when Foreign Minister Arachi is there.

The Iranians were telling me, we have no intention of meeting any Americans, and that Iran is on its own tour now of Pakistan, Oman and Russia, where Arachi met with President Vladimir Putin, and we're establishing our own terms for ending the war.And so what we've seen here is the construction of a total propaganda narrative that is being repeated by almost every Western news organization, that somehow there are these negotiations going on, that the Iranians are putting proposals in front of the Americans.That's not what's happening at all.What Iran has done is it has briefed Pakistan, which is currently the mediating country in the negotiations.between the U .S.S.

and Iran, and they've said to them, here are our conditions for ending the war.And what Iran is saying is, we will enter into direct talks with the United States when President Trump lifts what Iran considers to be the illegal military -naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.We will have an initial round of discussions about how to facilitate the expansion of commerce and transit through the Strait of Hormuz.of that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are total ignoramuses when it comes to the technical issues in terms of nuclear or other issues, that having Kushner at the table might as well be having Benjamin Netanyahu at the table.That's part of why they pushed for J .D.

Vance.Iranians told me that they witnessed during the last round of direct talks a division between J .D.Vance on the one hand and Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff on the other hand.Trump has painted himself into a corner.He's certainly in a quagmire.

The administration is desperate to find some form of an off -ramp, and they have been pushing a lie -filled propaganda narrative that has been picked up by media across the board, that somehow the Iranians are kind of adjusting their position and coming back to Trump, but it's not good enough yet.The reality is that Trump has no idea how he's going to end this, because the Iranians know, or they believe, that they have the three M's on their side, munitions, markets and the midterms.They think that they have done unprecedented damage to U .S.defensive capabilities in the Persian Gulf.They caused the evacuation of 13 American military bases.

They committed widespread damage against American aircraft that only now is starting to come to light.undersea Internet cables, which would massively disrupt commerce and Internet.And the final thing is the midterms coming up.This is a political disaster for Donald Trump.And the Iranians feel like they're in a position that Trump is not holding the cards.And so what they're saying is, if you don't meet our initial demands to lift your illegal naval blockade, we're not going to have any talks with you anytime soon, because you've painted yourself into a corner and we're going to sit back and let you continue to have less and less space in that corner.

Jeremy, you note that the Iranian Foreign Minister, Basarabji, has been on a strategic three -nation tour, where he's unequivocally laying out Tehran's position to mediators and key strategic players who may influence future negotiations.You write, quote, I want to ask you about Russia's role in this, but first let's go to a clip.This is Russian President Vladimir Putin, followed by the Iranian Foreign Minister, Basaraghi, in St. Petersburg Monday.

I would like to convey my most sincere words of gratitude and confirm that Russia, same as Iran, intends to continue our strategic relations.We see how courageously and heroically the Iranian people are acting.are fighting for their independence and sovereignty.Of course, we very much hope that, based on this courage and will for independence, the Iranian people will, under the leadership of a new leader, make it through this difficult period of trials and peace will follow.From our side, we will do everything that is in your interest, in the interests of all nations in the region, so that peace is reached as soon as possible.You know our position very well.

I was asked to confirm during this visit that Russian -Iranian relations is a strategic partnership and will remain that way moving forward.It was proven that Iran has friends and allies such as Russia who stand by Iran during difficult times and support Iran.We thank you for your firm position in support of Iran.

So that was the Iranian Foreign Minister Rajiv before that Russian President Putin.Jeremy, talk about what Putin's position is now and back in 2015.It may surprise people.

Right.So back in 2015, when the U .S., with a delegation led by John Kerry, the secretary of state at the time, spent a year and a half negotiating with the Iranians, and that deal ended with 25 ,000 pounds of enriched uranium being transferred from Iran to Russia.Now, at that point, the Iranians only had a relatively small quantity of what's called highly enriched uranium, and it was only enriched to a 20 percent level, and 98 percent of that highly enriched uranium was shipped to Russia.It's astonishing to think back on it and those numbers, given what we're talking about now, which is roughly 1 ,000 pounds, the Iranians are believed to have, of highly enriched uranium, potentially to as high as 2 ,000 pounds.

percent.And so the Iranians, because of Trump's threatening, kind of menacing tone and actions, and certainly because of the six weeks of bombing, have said, we're not going to transfer any uranium outside of the country, that it's as sacred to us as our soil, and that we would agree to dilute it so that it could be used for medical and non -military purposes.But transferring is out of the equation.What's interesting is that I've heard from Iranian sources that if the Iranians felt like they were dealing with normal people on the other end of the table, technical experts and not real estate buddies and the son -in -law of the president, but if they were dealing with like an actual technical team, as they did back in 2015, that a lot of issues could be on the table.And so part of what may be happening is that the Iranians, on the one hand, want to strengthen their military and political relationship with the Russians.The Iranians also provide the Russians with drones that are used in the war in Ukraine.

The Russians almost certainly have been providing the Iranians with intelligence during the course of the U .S.-Israeli war.But on the other hand, the Iranians are planning a kind of other scenario, where, if there is a sane set of discussions on the nuclear issue, would there be some flexibility?I have heard that there are possibilities that they could consider Russia or even China if they did shift their position, which, officially, they have given no indication they will.But if that becomes a sort of sticking point, and Iran feels that it's getting more and its own concessions in the form of a widespread lifting of sanctions, a backing off or some kind of non -aggression pact that would certify that the U .

S.isn't going to continue this pattern of launching wars in between pretending to be in negotiations with Iran, then the sense that I get is that a lot would be on the table.So I think that the Iranians are also looking at an alternative universe where Donald Trump fabricates some declaration of victory, that he tries to entice peoplethe economic war against Iran in the hopes that they can spark a domestic uprising to bring down the government, and that Trump essentially just panics himself into a state of saying, like, I'm not going to do this anymore.That's one scenario that could happen.Joe Kent, who resigned as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, early on after he resigned weeks ago, he came out and said that Trump should essentially do that, kind of walk away.

I was told by a senior Iranian official that they think the most likely long -term scenario is that there isn't any major agreement reached, and that there is kind of a low -intensity tension that continues to boil.And so the Iranians feel, though, that time is on their side, and that it's Donald Trump who has the clock, and that he's watching it with sweat increasingly pouring down his face, because Iran has no intention of capitulating.There's dual tracks that the Iranians are operating on.And I just want to emphasize again that when you read these reports about the Iranians have put a new proposal forward, et cetera, much of what the Iranians have been doing is reiterating their position.They feel that the United States did not understand the significance of what they put on the table back in February, that it would have gone beyond the 2015 nuclear agreement.And I think it's pretty clear at this point that Israel has thoroughly contaminated the the what the U .

S.believes is intelligence on Iran.And it seems quite clear that throughout this war and actually before it, the Israelis were presenting completely cooked intelligence, that it was going to be easy, that it's going to be a cakewalk, that you just assassinate the leadership and the people are going to rise up.It's not just that Israel has political influence.It's clear that Israel has contaminated the intelligence gathering and presentation to the president of the United States by constantly injecting politicized fake intel to try to keep this war going or to start it in the first place.

On Monday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he had become disillusioned with the U .S.and Israel over the war in Iran, and said the Trump administration is being outwitted and humiliated.

This is Merz.The Americans clearly have no strategy.And the problem with conflicts like this is always that you don't just have to go in.You also have to get out again.We saw that all too painfully in Afghanistan for 20 years.We saw it in Iraq.

An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian state leadership.

Jeremy Scahill, your response?

I mean, on just a factual level, what Chancellor Mertz is saying is 100 percent true.But in real political terms, Mertz was a supporter of Donald Trump's actions.Germany, perhaps second only to the United States, has passionately supported and defended the Israeli genocidal operations in Palestine, specifically in Gaza, and these broader wars.And Mertz kissed the ring of Donald Trump from the very beginning.He bowed to him and allowed himself to be walked around the block by the Trump world like a poodle.So Mertz has no credibility whatsoever.

But the fact that even the poodles of the United States, like Friedrich Mertz of Germany, the fact that they are saying this openly and saying that the U .S.is being humiliated is a strong indicator of how the sort of game is up.The world realizes that Trump has been lying to manipulate markets to try to resurrect the oil market situationthis attempt at manipulation, they didn't even react to the bald -faced lie that Trump told yesterday, where he said the Iranians are saying that they're on the verge of collapse and they want Trump to open up the Strait of Hormuz.That didn't happen.

And the markets did not react in the way that they typically have to Trump's manipulation every Monday morning.So I think the world is realizing what Mertz, who often is a poodle of the United States, particularly Trump, Mertz is saying the quiet part out loud because it's so obvious that to deny it would make you look like an absolute idiot.

On Saturday, the Iranian Red Crescent Society said it submitted evidence to the International Criminal Court documenting U .S.-Israeli war crimes.The IRCS estimates more than 132 ,000 civilian structures were bombed across Iran, including hospitals, apartment buildings, universities, research facilities and bridges.How is Iran dealing with its own reconstruction and economic crisis?

It's very difficult.I mean, I think we don't fully understand.the extent of the damage and destruction that has been wrought inside of Iran.And, you know, the Iranians, of course, do have a difficult time in importing goods.But I will note something quite significant.After Abbas Arrachi left Pakistan last weekend, when Trump claimed that they were going to be meeting with the Americans and then it didn't happen, just as the Iranians said it wouldn't, Pakistan announced that it was going to effective immediately implement a directive that would facilitate the dramatic expansion of transit across Pakistan for third -country goods delivering to Iran.

What that is part of is the bilateral relationship between Iran and Pakistan, and its direct answer to Trump saying that he's strangling Iran.So this meeting with the Russians, this trade deal that now has been put into force with the Pakistanis to give free passage to third nation goods coming into Iran, the deepening relationship between Iran and China, which has largely unfolded in secret, away from cameras, and then Iran's now outreach in the Persian Gulf is very clearly Iran imagining a world where this doesn't get resolved right away, and that Iran certainly survives intact with its state, its government, its power structure very much in control of Iran, and they're looking for an alternative to a full solution or resolution with the United States.That's going to be a key thing to watch.Iran is not just operating on some desperate track to try to make a deal with the United States.You know, this is a real nation state.This isn't just some, you know, paper tiger that the U .

S.can assassinate some people and do heavy bombing and then they collapse.This is a country of institutions.Whatever anyone thinks about Iran, they've spent 47 years building institutions that have parallel infrastructure.I don't think there is a historical precedent for having basically the entire upper echelons of political, military and religious leadership assassinated and then turn around and do six to seven weeks of retaliatory strikes that fought the world's superpower to a standstill, there isn't a historical precedent for what we're seeing.And I think now the United States and Trump's advisers understand they have to take this seriously.

And Iran is operating on a totally different path that presumes that they aren't going to have a political resolution to this crisis or conflict with the United States.

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