Power plays Trump's offer of talks won't ease the threat of escalation

The letter the US president, Donald Trump, says he sent to Iran's leadership last week, offering to reopen talks on the country's nuclear programme, comes at a point when Iranian domestic politics is at its most unstable for years.

- By Patrick Wintour

In the past month, the conservative-dominated parliament has asserted its power over the broadly reformist president elected last June by impeaching and sacking the experienced economy minister, Abdolnaser Hemmati, while Mohammad Javad Zarif, the vice-president and most prominent reformist, has also been forced out.

Both power plays were clearly made against the wishes of the president, Masoud Pezeshkian, but with the economy reeling under the pressure of US economic sanctions, the 85-year-old supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has clearly decided against rescuing Pezeshkian.