Iran Rope-A-Doping US In Oman

Rope-a-dope is the Iranian negotiating strategy. Agree to nothing other than their“peaceful” intentions, and do that over weeks of“bargaining,” and then tell the Americans to go home. That's why the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, called the talks in Oman“a good start.”

Indeed, they were. First off, the Iranians made it clear they would not discuss anything other than the nuclear issue. There could be no talks about missiles, or about internal matters (that is, the protestors and the regime crack down that has killed tens of thousands).

Moreover, the Iranians told the American delegation they would not discuss their right to enrich uranium or talk about transferring already-enriched uranium out of the country. (Russian President Vladimir Putin had already told Araghchi that Moscow would accept Iranian uranium if that was part of any deal, though it would still belong to Iran.)

So what was there to discuss about Iran's nuclear program? Probably some revival of an even weaker version of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The JCPOA agreement was negotiated by the Obama administration and P5+1 powers to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Iran agreed to curb its uranium enrichment and allowed monitoring in exchange for sanctions relief. P5+1 was the five permanent UN Security Council members (P5)-the United States, China, Russia, France and the United Kingdom-plus Germany (+1)

As the record shows unambiguously, Iran continued to enrich uranium, made important enrichment and bomb development sites off limits to inspectors and led the IAEA inspectors around by the nose. All military sites and missile-related facilities were off limits to inspectors.

If Iran gets around to tabling anything, it will be a JCPOA-like deal that does not include uranium enrichment or uranium stockpiles, rendering any deal meaningless.