Trump Considered Easing Sanctions On Iran To Encourage Talks

Golly, whoever leaked this to Bloomberg must have been pretty high up the food chain to know what the president was thinking on a matter as sensitive as Iran diplomacy.

And they must have a pretty sizable axe to grind with him if they’re willing to make him sound this weak, particularly in comparison to Bolton.

Any theories? Do any current or former disgruntled national security aides with a reputation for score-settling in the press present themselves as logical suspects?

The post-Bolton era will be a golden age of natsec leaking, my friends.

President Trump discussed easing sanctions on Iran to help secure a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani later this month, prompting then-National Security Advisor John Bolton to argue forcefully against such a step, according to three people familiar with the matter.
After an Oval Office meeting on Monday when the idea came up, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin voiced his support for the move as a way to restart negotiations with Iran, some of the people said. Later in the day, Trump decided to oust Bolton, whose departure was announced Tuesday.
The White House has started preparations for Trump to meet with Rouhani this month in New York on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly the week of Sept. 23, according to the people. It’s far from clear if the Iranians would agree to talks while tough American sanctions remain in place…
Easing any sanctions without major concessions from Iran would undercut the pressure campaign that not only Bolton, but also Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Trump have said is the only effective way to make Iran change its behavior.

Macron has discussed brokering a meeting between Trump and a top Iranian diplomat.

President Trump discussed easing sanctions on Iran to help secure a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani later this month, prompting then-National Security Advisor John Bolton to argue forcefully against such a step, according to three people familiar with the matter.

This would be a career-ending turn of events for Bolton. It would mean the odds of a U.S. military campaign against Iran are extremely low ... which defeats the whole purpose of him even getting out of bed in the morning.

I think that Trump knows that the Iranians are going to collapse under the weight of their own dictatorship pretty soon. The young woman setting fire to herself yesterday because she was kicked out of watching a soccer game because she was a woman… Well, it sounds trivial and definitely like an overreaction, but it indicates how unhappy Iranians are with the Islamic regime’s repression and near suppression of their daily lives.

IF, BIG IF, this report is true, it represents a major cave by POTUS.

Iran has been insisting on no talks, whatsoever, as long as the sanctions remain.

Besides, POTUS doesn’t need a deal with Iran, for any reason.

There is just no reason to believe this is true.

Trump is trying to get talks restarted because he sees a nuclear state, with the ICBMs to project them far into Europe, on the horizon.

If talks don’t resolve these problems, the United States will have to defang Iran. It will take a military campaign.

The thought of Iran with operational nukes is a real nightmare.

Bolton may be of the mind that we need to defang Iran now before it is too late, and they do have operations nukes.

Time till tell if he was right or not.

(It should be noted, I’m putting words into Bolton’s mouth here,... at these may not be his true thoughts)

See Post #17 in this thread:

Trump blasts 'Mr. Tough Guy' Bolton

As it turns out, the U.S. has apparently been winning battles in this stupid "War on Terror" by simply declaring that some terrorists aren't terrorists anymore.

And, yes -- that link has a reference to a clip of JOHN BOLTON addressing the "People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran" in 2017.

Delightful.

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