Georgetown University professor Mehran Kamrava says US–Iran negotiations are
progressing very slowly. Tehran is trying to exert economic pressure on regional
neighbors—Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait—to push Washington to
negotiate, while the US is simultaneously tightening economic pressure on Iran.
Both sides are unwilling to initiate talks. Kamrava is skeptical that US
economic pressure will succeed: although Iran faces severe economic strain, its
repressive political system prioritizes regime survival over middle‑class
hardship, and decades of US pressure have neither toppled the government nor
materially changed Tehran’s behavior, so the strategy’s effectiveness is
uncertain.
