Do you think that reading of Khamene'i is fair? The more charitable reading would seem to be that they have no trust in America's word, i.e. its intent to uphold any agreement, which is a bit different from general distrust. At face value it doesn't strike me as unreasonable to expect the U.S. to demonstrate some major goodwill before bothering to engage in negotiations (e.g. offering to relieve sanctions while negotiations are ongoing). Granted, I'm pretty clueless about International Relations!
Came in here to comment on exactly this. Over the past few decades the IRI has been repeatedly burned by the U.S. during various attempts to thaw relations between the two, and given the current mess I really can't blame Khamenei for having zero interest in further negotiations (at least while Trump occupies the White House).
Do you think that reading of Khamene'i is fair? The more charitable reading would seem to be that they have no trust in America's word, i.e. its intent to uphold any agreement, which is a bit different from general distrust. At face value it doesn't strike me as unreasonable to expect the U.S. to demonstrate some major goodwill before bothering to engage in negotiations (e.g. offering to relieve sanctions while negotiations are ongoing). Granted, I'm pretty clueless about International Relations!
Came in here to comment on exactly this. Over the past few decades the IRI has been repeatedly burned by the U.S. during various attempts to thaw relations between the two, and given the current mess I really can't blame Khamenei for having zero interest in further negotiations (at least while Trump occupies the White House).