Meeting between Iranian FM and European diplomats fails to find breakthrough as conflict enters its second week.
aje.io
20m ago
(19:00 GMT)
Iran running out of options as it can’t rely on Trump to restrain Israel
Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, says he does not think US President Donald Trump will pressure Israel to pull back from strikes on Iran.
“On the contrary, I think in Trump’s mind Israel’s strikes against Iran are part of the coercive diplomacy that he sees as getting to an acceptable end game,” he told Al Jazeera from Washington, DC.
“This two-week [deadline announced by Trump] is an opportunity to show force – we hear they’re sending more aircraft, more naval vessels to the region – and to open the door to negotiations, both Iran-Europe and Iran with Witkoff, to see if we can’t get a diplomatic solution here.
“But I see no real prospect of Washington asking the Israelis to hold back. I think, if anything, they’re going to encourage them to keep up the pressure.”
He said Iran does not have a lot of good options as Israel has effective control of Iranian airspace and is largely defending effectively against Iranian strikes.
“I don’t think Iran really has the ability to say, ‘We’re not going to talk as long as we’re getting hit.’ I think in many respects the Iranian regime has its back up against the wall, militarily,” he said.
“The key question is: Is Iran going to blink? Is Iran going to use coercive pressure to try to make a deal before it faces even more military pressure, that is to say a potential American use of force?”
