Trump has called Rouhani a great negotiator.
Rouhani reply guarded
Rouhani did not dismiss Trump’s offer out of hand but he also said any talks depend upon the right circumstances, a position that Iran has also taken for some time. Any talks would represent a big breakthrough but the situation is such that it will be difficult for Iran to enter talks.
Iranian’s do not trust Trump
Many leading officials in Iran are wary of initiating any talks as they believe that they might not get anything out of the talks and that Trump cannot be trusted to keep his word. Trump himself has said that Iran will not get anything out of the talks except that he is willing to allow other countries to offer them credit, backed by oil, so that Iran could subsist by borrowing. This is hardly likely to be sufficient from Iran’s point of view. However, if it is refused by Iran it will suffice for the US to blame Iran for not negotiating.
Trump said the US would not provide Iran any compensation for the sanctions: “No we are not paying, we don’t pay..But they may need some money to get them over a very rough patch and if they do need money, and it would be secured by oil, which to me is great security, and they have a lot of oil, but it is secured by oil, so we are really talking about a letter of credit. It would be from numerous countries, numerous countries.”
One strong reason that the Iranians do not trust the US is that it unilaterally withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action signed by China, France, UK, Russia US and Germany plus the EU.
Wikipedia notes: “On 8 May 2018 Trump announced United States withdrawal from JCPOA.[13][14] Following the U.S.’s withdrawal, the EU enacted an updated blocking statute on 7 August 2018 to nullify US sanctions on countries trading with Iran.[15] In November 2018 U.S. sanctions came back into effect intended to force Iran to dramatically alter its policies, including its support for militant groups in the region and its development of ballistic missiles.” The US withdrew even though at the time the International Atomic Energy Agency had certified that Iran was in compliance with the agreement.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)
Wikipedia describes the plan: “The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA; Persian: برنامه جامع اقدام مشترک, romanized: barnāmeye jāme’e eqdāme moshtarak (برجام, BARJAM)),[4][5] known commonly as the Iran nuclear deal or Iran deal, is an agreement on the Iranian nuclear program reached in Vienna on July 14, 2015, between Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council—China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States—plus Germany)[a] together with the European Union.”
Iran would like to see the remaining signatories keep the terms of the agreement but European countries involved find this difficult to do since if they do not follow US sanctions they face US threats to cut off business with companies trading with Iran.
Rouhani wants the US to lift sanctions as a condition of talks, something the US is unlikely to do. To attempt to do so would bring out all the hawks in the Trump administration who would no doubt try to put a stop to any such action by Trump.
