Abbas Aslani, senior researcher at the Tehran Center for Middle East Strategic
Studies, said the US publicly insists on an economic-suffocation strategy and
denies negotiating while privately sending informal messages to Tehran via
regional intermediaries. He said Washington appears intent on crediting any
small negotiation progress to its pressure. Aslani added Trump needs not only an
exit route but also to package the outcome as a domestic political victory, and
that Trump’s erratic negotiating style makes the timing of an end to the war
unclear — developments in the coming days or weeks remain uncertain because the
US president is neither stable nor predictable.
