Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s remarks were the second softening of U. S. policy to Iran recently, even as the U. S. ratchets up military and financial pressure.
BELLINZONA, Switzerland — In a second major softening of American policy toward Iran in recent days, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday that the Trump administration was ready to negotiate with the country’s clerical leaders with “no preconditions.”
The statement followed President Trump’s comment last week that he was ready to talk to Iranian leaders and was not seeking regime change, overruling a longtime goal of his national security adviser. Mr. Pompeo’s statement also recalibrated his earlier position that the United States would not lift sanctions on Iran unless it complied with a dozen sweeping demands, suggesting that those demands could be part of negotiations instead of preconditions.
Iran’s leaders consider the demands unacceptable.
Tensions between the United States and Iran have escalated sharply in recent weeks, raising fears that the two countries were edging toward war. The less combative language does not change the fact that the Trump administration has tightened economic sanctions on Iran, ordered 1,500 additional troops to the Persian Gulf and revised military plans against Iran.
Even in opening the door to talks, Mr. Pompeo said the United States would continue to try to counter Iran’s support of groups in the Middle East that undermine American interests.
“We’re prepared to engage in a conversation with no preconditions,” Mr. Pompeo said at a news conference in Switzerland, which acts as a conduit between Washington and Tehran. “We’re ready to sit down with them. But the American effort to fundamentally reverse the malign activity of the Islamic Republic, this revolutionary force, is going to continue.”
Mr. Trump appears to be trying to walk a tightrope on Iran policy. He has told aides he wants to avoid a war, yet his top foreign policy officials are pressing him to amplify a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran that relies on sanctions and shows of military force.
The talk of negotiations by Mr. Trump and now Mr. Pompeo play to Mr. Trump’s dealmaker image. It suggests that even as he ratchets up military and financial pressure against Iran that he is also seeking a new deal to keep Iran from building a nuclear weapon.
“I think the administration is trying to de-escalate tensions to accommodate the president’s recent statements that he’d like to negotiate with Iran,” said Dalia Dassa Kaye, a Middle East analyst at the RAND Corporation, a research group. “But the problem is Secretary Pompeo’s statement is still talking about negotiations only when Iran starts acting like a ‘normal’ country. That type of language is not likely to entice the Iranians to the table, especially as maximum pressure policies continue on the ground.”
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