The real reason Iran and the US cannot end the war: Money
Before Donald Trump became president, he honed his hawkishness on Iran, complaining about the “plane loads of cash” it received under the 2015 nuclear deal. Now, his ability to end the war in the Middle East hinges, in large part, on how much money he gives Tehran.
“Money is a big part of this. It’s a key to any compromise from Iran’s point of view,” Alex Vatanka, a senior fellow and Iran expert at the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC, told Middle East Eye.
Some US and Arab officials tell MEE that Trump’s unwillingness to loosen the purse strings is the real reason talks between the two sides are deadlocked and potentially doomed to fail.
Iran has reportedly floated a proposal for the two sides to bypass the issue of its nuclear programme and enriched uranium in order to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but the nuclear issue is not the biggest sticking point, some people familiar with the talks say.
“Everyone has ideas about a compromise on enrichment [of uranium], but the hardest circle to square for Trump is lifting sanctions. My understanding is that this is more sensitive than the nuclear file,” a former US official who has spoken with Gulf and US officials following the talks, told MEE.
It’s not hard to see why.
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Street money changers hold US banknotes while standing on a sidewalk in the historical city of Tabriz, in Iran's Eastern Azerbaijan Province, on 17 October 2024 (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto/Reuters)