Will Trump Use Force to Stop Iran’s Nuclear Development?

Excerpt

President Trump announced Monday that Iran had agreed to begin direct nuclear negotiations with the U.S. on April 12. “If they don’t make a deal,” Mr. Trump said last month, “there will be bombing. It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.” Soon after the president’s Monday remarks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi denied his claims, saying instead that “indirect high-level talks” would take place in Oman. “It is as much an opportunity as it is a test. The ball is in America’s court,” Mr. Araghchi added, suggesting that U.S. concessions needed to be forthcoming.

It’s not clear whether Mr. Trump will accept an offer of third-party “proximity talks,” to which the Biden administration agreed in 2023 when Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected direct discussions with Washington. Nothing came of those talks, and throughout his presidency Mr. Biden significantly relaxed sanctions enforcement to induce Iran not to continue nuclear development. He and his senior aides worried that provocative actions—too much sanctions pressure or U.S. military action—might lead Mr. Khamenei to build an atomic bomb.

Mr. Gerecht is a resident scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Mr. Takeyh is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.