After President Donald Trump issued stern military threats to Iran in order to get Tehran to the diplomatic negotiating table, “positive, constructive, compelling” discussions took place over the weekend in Oman between the Iranian foreign minister and the President’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff. Following these talks, a second meeting has been scheduled to take place. The main U.S. goal of these negotiations is to get Iran to sign a new nuclear deal, part of Trump’s greater nuclear-nonproliferation agenda.
President Trump is keeping the pressure on Tehran, however. On Tuesday a second U.S. aircraft carrier entered Mideast waters, according to The AP. The USS Carl Vinson and its strike group now back up the existing U.S. military force which has been conducting operations in Yemen against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. On Monday evening U.S. forces are suspected to have carried out airstrikes around Yemen’s rebel-held capital.
The U.S. operations against the Houthis began nearly a month ago in response to the rebel’s attacks on shipping vessels in Mideast waters, attacks which were in response to Israel’s genocide of Gaza. The U.S. strikes appear to have a dual use however – the second being the applying of pressure on Iran as Trump seeks a new Iranian nuclear deal.
While the next round of negotiations between Washington and Tehran were reportedly going to take place in Rome, Italy, the Iranians insisted that the talks remain in Oman.
Notably, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is set to visit Russia before the second round of talks with the U.S.
Iran and Russia maintain a comprehensive strategic partnership which is effectively a mutual defense treaty. Currently the U.S. is negotiating the end of the Ukraine war with Moscow. While the Iranian / Russian meeting’s topics are currently unknown, it should be noted that the Kremlin has not issued a policy statement regarding it’s potential involvement or lack thereof in relation to Trump’s new Iranian nuclear deal.
“The Kremlin on Tuesday declined to comment when asked if Russia was ready to take control of Iran’s stocks of enriched uranium as part of a possible future nuclear deal between Iran and the United States,” Reuters said Tuesday.
For the Houthi’s, the battle they’re embroiled in is not directly tied to Iran or Russia as much as it is tied to their Islamic neighbors, the Palestinians. Due to the greater alliances on the geopolitical chessboard however, their position has taken on a greater significance. This dynamic has been witnessed numerous times in various proxy wars around the globe.
“A senior leader of Ansar Allah, commonly known as the Houthis, told Drop Site News that if the U.S. ends its campaign of air strikes against Yemen, Houthi forces will commit to halting all attacks on U.S. ships in the region. ‘We do not consider ourselves at war with the American people,” said Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of Ansar Allah’s political bureau and a longtime spokesperson for the Houthis. “If the U.S. stops targeting Yemen, we will cease our military operations against it’,” Drop Site News said Thursday. “Since November 2023, in response to Israel’s war on Gaza, the Houthis have maintained a formidable naval blockade on the Red Sea, preventing commercial ships from traveling to Israel. The Houthis have also launched military attacks on Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities throughout the course of the war, saying their naval and military operations would continue in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance.”
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged direct negotiations for a new nuclear deal. Iran however rejected the proposal due to a breakdown in trust stemming from Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal and his subsequent ‘maximum pressure’ policy, characterized by stiff financial sanctions.
The 2015 ‘Iran nuclear deal’ involved President Barack Obama shipping $400 million in cash on pallets to Tehran.
“No other transaction in U.S. history has involved a planeload of bills, say diplomatic historians, raising questions about payment timed to help free prisoners,” the Times of Israel said in 2016.
“Iran state TV announced an $80 million bounty for President Trump’s head on Sunday following the targeting strike of Qassam Soleimani despite the fact the nation is suffering under crippling sanctions,” Jamie White said in an article on Infowars in 2020. “Given the crushing U.S. economic sanctions bearing down on Iran, how is the Islamic nation able to offer such a large reward for Trump’s assassination? The answer may lie in the $1.7 billion payment former President Obama sent to Iran, including $400 million delivered on pallets in a C-130 as part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) in 2015. The ‘compromise’ payment was made as part of the $150 billion sanction relief to Iran for the nuclear deal despite the fact both Obama and former Secretary of State John Kerry outright admitted some of that money would be used to fund terrorism.”