Trita Parsi

Some of these issues are tough.

The positions of the two sides are still, from the opening position, they've been very far away from each other.

So any expectation that there would be a quick breakthrough is unrealistic.

But it appears that there's commitment from both sides to move forward and that it made some progress.

And then to your first point, they have shifted towards some direct talks between the two sides instead of this thing in which the Omanis are in the middle.

But that's just one out of many things that needs to get fixed in order to get this process right.

One thing I think is positive is that the president has said that he wants to hear the Iranians say clearly in a completely undeniable way that they will not pursue nuclear weapons.

They will not have it.

Now, they've said it several times, but now they're repeating it in a very clear way.

It is apparently in the proposal that they sent to the U.S.,

And they're doing it to show essentially this is what the president wants.

Well, it's not a problem.

It's given.

Now, when it comes to some of the more substantive things, of course, that's going to be much, much more tricky.

I don't think it is.

I think Trump finds it as such, and I think that's totally fine.

But bottom line is the Iranians have constantly said that they're not pursuing nuclear weapons.

So the negotiations have not been about them giving up nuclear weapons that they don't have.

It's about making sure that they don't have a pathway towards building one.

by restricting their program, making sure that there's certain things that they don't have, certain things that they don't do, that they don't amass too large of a stockpile of enriched uranium, for instance, which is the material that you need for a bomb, inspections that are as intrusive as possible, just to make sure that all of their pathways to a bomb are prevented.