‘Lack of trust’ threatens negotiations between US and Iran, analyst warns

An Iranian academic says a lack of trust could lead to the collapse of the negotiations between the US and Iran before the end of the 60-day “ceasefire” period.

Mostafa Khoshcheshm, professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Tehran, said he doubts there will be a deal at all because “it is clear that the [US] just wanted to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, nothing beyond that”.

Khoshcheshm says Iranian negotiators are wary about whether the US will keep up its end of the bargain, given past experience. “We've been in talks with them, and the result was the JCPOA, but Donald Trump tore it apart. We were in talks with them last year twice, and they bombed the negotiating table.”

He questioned the conduct of US President Trump. “Threatening Iranians very much and very badly, saying that he will obliterate Iran”, is not building trust, he said.

“As a matter of fact, top Iranian officials and negotiators have always stressed that they are in talks with the US with total distrust of the United States,” Khoshcheshm said.

The US has violated the ceasefire repeatedly, and it will be “very hard work, if not impossible”, to build Iranians' confidence in negotiations, he added.

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