Description: After US President Donald Trump stated that he directly addressed Iran’s Supreme leader Ali Khamenei by way of a letter and urged him to begin nuclear talks, Khamenei denounced the claims as unfounded. He also stated that the US was trying to subdue Iran into obedience and continued with sanctions which considerably depleted Iran’s national economy. The announcement came after several months of public back and forth between the countries, where Trump threatened a maximum pressure strategy to deter Iran from its nuclear ambitions, while Khamenei’s mixed signals regarding nuclear talks with the US were mostly conservative and politically negative.
Impact: Iran’s decades long nuclear ambitions are slowly entering preparation phases, as multiple recent reports have indicated on increased levels of enriched uranium entering the country. The US wouldn’t risk a direct military confrontation with Iran, or through proxies, as it would considerably escalate regional tensions, while Iran would use its newest replenishment of strategic partnerships with Russia and China as some sort of a deterrent against US – Israel led offensives. With political dialogue as a foreign concept at the moment in light of recent events, tensions between the US and Iran are expected to rise in the upcoming period, with bolstering of global and regional alliances, conduction of military exercises and reasserting regional presence by both sides.