Trump's Willingness to Use Diplomacy With Tehran a Pleasant Surprise

But he threatens to bomb Iran should the high-level nuclear arms talks in Oman fail

- Jonathan Eyal

Designed to stop Iran's attempt to become a nuclear power, talks between American and Iranian officials are due to take place in the Gulf state of Oman on April 12.

"We have a very important meeting on Saturday, at almost the highest level." That is how US President Donald Trump has described the talks.

"I think everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious. The obvious is not something that I want to be involved with, or frankly that Israel wants to be involved with if they can avoid it," Mr Trump told reporters on April 7 in the Oval Office after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

There is no question that the April 12 meeting comes at a crucially significant moment for the Middle East.

Nor is there much doubt about what Mr Trump meant by mentioning the "obvious" alternative should the talks fail: Significant US military capabilities, including two aircraft carrier groups and strategic bombers, are now converging on Iran, ready to inflict a significant blow on the country.

Yet, almost everything else about this diplomatic encounter remains fuzzy, including how the talks will be handled and what is on the agenda.

There is also no clarity on what the Trump administration regards as an acceptable compromise sufficient to avert a military confrontation.

Back in May 2018, during his first term, Mr Trump unilaterally pulled the US out of a deal signed with Iran by the previous administration of President Barack Obama, which sought to restrict Iran's ability to stockpile enriched uranium as a prelude to producing a nuclear bomb.

Even the authors of that deal named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA acknowledged that it was riddled with loopholes and that it failed to stop Iran's nuclear programme altogether.