Patrick Wintour: Iran is betting that Trump does not have a plan for regime change
Source: The Guardian
Iran is betting that Trump does not have a plan for regime change
Although weakened by airstrikes, sanctions and domestic unrest, Tehran is surprisingly bullish before talks with US
Patrick Wintour
Diplomatic editor
Thu 5 Feb 2026 19.01 GMT
Last modified on Thu 5 Feb 2026 19.45 GMT
When it comes to Iran and Donald Trump, there is so much bluff, backed by military hardware, that the truth rarely makes an appearance.
It appears that a bullish Iran is going into negotiations with the US on Friday adopting maximalist positions that do not seem greatly different to those it adopted in the five rounds of talks before the negotiations were abruptly halted by the surprise Israeli attack on Iran last June.
Given how much Iran has been weakened in the intervening eight months, Tehran’s refusal to change its negotiating position is at one level surprising.
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Iran’s diplomats are hardly behaving as if the government was last month on the brink of collapse, or even now fears a return to a conflict with the US that might bring the protesters back on to the streets for the final battle. Instead it acts as if it can dictate the parameters of the talks with the US, their venue and their main topic.
Iran’s negotiators are hugely experienced and never show a trace of weakness. ...
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/05/iran-is-betting-that-trump-does-not-have-a-plan-for-regime-change