Donald Trump is in an advantageous position in dealings with Iran, a State Department official told The National on Tuesday, after the US President announced new negotiations had taken place.
Mr Trump’s remarks that his son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff had negotiated with the Iranian delegation at the UN took many by surprise, as no talks are known to have happened since July, when an interim deal that was supposed to be a road map to peace broke down.
State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said the Trump administration is compounding pressure on Iran through the Treasury Department’s Economic Outcast campaign and the US military’s efforts to block Iranian oil shipments.
“The President holds all of the cards here, and is continuing to ramp up the pressure,” he said. “We’re seeing [the Trump administration’s policies] have real impacts here. So the choice of the Iranian regime is very clear.”
