With just a day and a half to go before Thursday's meeting in Geneva, US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner received a new Iranian position paper that was expected to signal greater flexibility from Tehran on uranium enrichment and other key issues.
Instead, according to diplomatic sources familiar with the negotiations, the document showed almost no change from the proposal Iran presented at the previous round. While Tehran expressed willingness to allow increased international oversight of its nuclear facilities, it offered no flexibility on the central US demand for a complete halt to uranium enrichment on Iranian soil.
That backdrop helps explain President Donald Trump's recent remarks in Congress, in which he referred to the "magic words" he expects to hear from Iran, words that did not appear in the latest position paper. Iranian leaders have long insisted that their country has never sought to build a nuclear weapon and has no intention of doing so. US officials, however, consider that claim false, citing intelligence assessments indicating that Iran was racing toward a nuclear bomb, was slowed somewhat by the 2015 nuclear agreement, and accelerated its efforts again after the deal collapsed.
Trump does not believe Iran
In one closed-door conversation, Trump reportedly described the Iranian leadership as "bluffers" who do not grasp what awaits them if they persist in their refusal to meet US demands.
Evidence of the apparent lack of American confidence in the talks is the decision by Witkoff and Kushner to also focus on another diplomatic track, the war between Ukraine and Russia. The implication, according to sources, is that Washington is not devoting the full resources typically required for intensive negotiations with Tehran.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, which is involved in the discussions, has also signaled skepticism, the sources said, pointing to a lack of technical preparations and the absence of detailed position papers on its part ahead of the talks.
Meanwhile, a senior Israeli security official assessed that a broad American military strike would likely trigger a chain of events culminating in the fall of the ayatollah regime. Despite the regime's efforts to project strength, the official said, it is militarily weak, and a US blow would cripple most of Iran's capabilities. Such an attack, the official added, would also mobilize significant segments of the Iranian public in favor of regime change.
