Trump’s New Gamble: Peace Talks with Iran Amid West Asia’s Nuclear Dilemma

• President Trump believes that the only way to bring peace in the region of West Asia is to curtail the presence of Iranian proxies.
• Iran and the United States of America concluded their first renewed talks under the mediation of Oman.
• It’s highly unlikely that the Iranian proposal of complete denuclearisation of West Asia would be agreed to by Israel.

Since President Trump returned to the Oval Office, he has been involved in revolutionary changes domestically and internationally. Even in foreign policy, he has been very vocal about his claims over Greenland, Canada, and the Panama Canal. He is also interested in solving the Ukrainian and West Asian crises. Mainly in the crisis of West Asia, he is very critical of Iran, as he says that it was the sanction relief that the previous president granted to Iran, because of which Iran has been able to finance its proxies.

President Trump believes that the only way to bring peace in the region of West Asia is to curtail the presence of Iranian proxies. To do this, President Trump has written a letter to the Iranian leadership in which he expresses the opinion that Iran should not acquire a nuclear weapon and should not pursue nuclear enrichment. He wants to address the current challenges in the relationship. However, the Iranian side is not enthusiastic about responding to the letter by President Trump, as the Iranian President himself has said that they do not have a good impression of the Americans because it was President Trump who withdrew from the Iranian nuclear talks in 2018. Therefore, they do not have confidence that the United States of America will fulfil its promises.

The letter sent by President Trump also talks about solving the Iranian nuclear issue through the JCPOA. The JCPOA has an interesting history between Iran and the United States of America. It was first signed in 2015. It is a nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 countries—the USA, UK, France, Russia, China, plus Germany—along with the European Union. It aims to curb the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for lifting economic sanctions.

There were many commitments put forward. Iran’s commitments in the agreement included reducing uranium enrichment to 3.67%, cutting the stockpile of enriched uranium by 98%, limiting the number of centrifuges, and allowing IAEA inspections. Meanwhile, the commitments from the P5+1 countries were to lift nuclear-related economic and financial sanctions, unfreeze Iranian assets abroad, and facilitate Iran’s re-entry into the global economy.

However, it was President Trump who, in 2018, withdrew from the deal, saying it was a bad deal and that it helped Iran more than the United States of America and its allies. Since then, the JCPOA has been completely frozen. President Biden tried to restart the dialogue in 2021, but the attempt was unsuccessful. Currently, there has been renewed interest and discussion around the nuclear talks, and reports suggest that the United States of America wants an indirect diplomatic dialogue with Iran, with Oman ready to facilitate the dialogue.

For this new dialogue, Iran has presented new provisions, which are as follows:

Iranian Demands for a New Nuclear Deal with the U.S.:

1. The deal must be an official treaty, ratified by the U.S. Congress, so that a future American President cannot unilaterally withdraw (as Trump did).
2. Before any negotiations begin, the U.S. must remove sanctions on Iran’s medical sector and others. After the deal is signed, there must be full sanctions relief—meaning all sanctions must be removed, not just a few.
3. In case of a U.S. withdrawal from the deal, Iran must have the right to engage a snap-back clause—installing advanced centrifuges and beginning rapid enrichment of uranium.
4. Iran must be allowed to reconnect to the SWIFT payment system to perform international transactions.
5. Iran will be allowed to keep its nuclear program, including advanced enrichment for ‘research purposes’.
6. There will be no negotiations or limitations on Iran’s ballistic missile program or its support for regional groups.
7. Iran’s financial assets that have been frozen abroad must be released.
8. The U.S. must pay financial compensation for its withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal.

The Muscat talks

Iran and the United States of America concluded their first renewed talks under the mediation of Oman. USA was represented by President Trump’s west asian envoy, Steve Witzke, who is also heading the Ukrainian peace negotiations, where Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi headed the Iranian side. It was an indirect conversation, with messages exchanged between the Iranian and American counterparts through Oman’s Foreign Minister. The talks went up to almost 45 minutes, while no specific breakthrough was achieved during the talks, except the Iranian proposal according to which they want a complete denuclearisation of West Asia, including Israel, in exchange for abandoning their nuclear enrichment programme, except the civilian nuclear facilities. There have been no American official remarks made about the Iranian proposal, but both Israel and the USA remain very firm that Iran, by any means, must not possess nuclear weapons. Other than this, the overall tone was positive, and there is optimism that some progress may result from this dialogue. Both parties agreed on the need for continuous engagement. As a result, they are scheduled to meet again this coming Saturday in Rome.

Conclusion 

It’s highly unlikely that the Iranian proposal of complete denuclearisation of West Asia would be agreed by Israel, and it’s also certain that both the USA and Israel are ready to opt for military measures against Iran in case of the failure of the talks as evident from the recent warning by President Trump to Iran. Looking to this the talks between the two parties is very important and timely, and it’s needed for regional and international world that both the parties reach a common ground, however there is great conundrum for Iran because the results of this talk is important to it as it can solve there economic worries but said so the talks doesn’t necessarily address there fundamental security challenge as even if they get any sanctions relief, there adversaries Isreal would continue to have a nuclear weapons which would always be the security threat for Iran, hence the best opportunity to any long lasting peace between Iran and Isreal and for the region is a common compromise and a fair deal to both of them avoiding any future casualties and keeping the balance of power in the region.

References:

• _{https://www.ndtv.com/opinion/trump-the-ayatollah-its-a-pity-both-cant-lose-8067975}
• _{https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/us-iran-nuclear-talks-oman-live-updates-khamenei-april-12-2025/article69442008.ece}

Aayush Pal

Aayush Pal is a freelance writer on contemporary geopolitical developments. The views expressed in his work are entirely his own.