February 19, 2026 | WSJ Letter to the Editor
Iran’s Upper Hand at the Negotiating Table
Tehran strings Washington along in diplomatic talks, but President Trump’s advantage is his willingness to use force.
February 19, 2026 | WSJ Letter to the Editor
Iran’s Upper Hand at the Negotiating Table
Tehran strings Washington along in diplomatic talks, but President Trump’s advantage is his willingness to use force.
Excerpt
Your editorial “Iran Wants Trump to Pull an Obama” (Review & Outlook, Feb. 18) rightly makes the case that Iran’s rulers hope they can buy President Trump’s silence to their massacre of Iranians in January. But they’re refusing to give Mr. Trump a diplomatic way out.
Tehran refuses full dismantlement of its nuclear program, including zero uranium enrichment and zero plutonium reprocessing. It rejects meaningful limits on long-range ballistic and cruise missiles—weapons it has fired at Israel in 2024 and 2025 and that could eventually threaten the U.S. homeland. Meanwhile, the regime refuses to stop rebuilding terror proxies weakened by Israel after Hamas’s Oct. 7 invasion and continues killing Iranians despite its claims to Mr. Trump that the repression has ended.
Mark Dubowitz is chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.