Iran and the US
The on-again, off-again talks with Iran alongside Trump’s abrupt about-turn on Operation Freedom to guide vessels out of the Strait of Hormuz has created unwelcome frenzy in the Gulf,” Burcu Ozcelik, a senior research fellow for Middle East security at the United Kingdom-based think tank Royal United Services Institute, told Al Jazeera. “It also reflects the highly fraught and almost frantic diplomatic backchannelling aimed to extract deep concessions from Tehran on the nuclear issue that will lock in commitments that exceed previous conditions and which will convince the US to lift the blockade on Iranian ports and unlock sanctions relief, thereby effectively ending the war.”
