The US has outlined a number of demands to Iran but the NYT reports that there is no indication from Iran that they're giving into any of them, or even willing to negotiate them.
US President Donald Trump is once again threatening that the United States is ready to launch a military attack against Iran as he demands Tehran make a deal over its nuclear programme
The NYT reports that the US and EU officials have put three demands in front of Iran
1) Permanent end to all enrichment of uranium
2) Limits on the range/number of ballistic missiles
3) An end to all support for proxy groups in the Middle East
The details of these requests matter as earlier reports said Iran would also be required to hand over all uranium already enriched.
The report says:
“…In the past week, negotiations have made no progress, officials say, and there are no indications that the Iranians are preparing to give in to Trump’s demands.”
It would be tough for any country to agree to limits on traditional weapons like ballistic missiles. This whole thing sounds like it's going to end in more military strikes.
Iran is out talking tough saying that any strikes will be considered the start of war and that they will attack the US and Israel but we've heard that kind of talk before and they don't back it up.
There has been a persistent bid in the price of oil despite a supply glut and I strongly suspect that a big part of that is the market pricing in the chance of a US-Iran war. Trump's easy win in Venezuela likely gave him a taste for regime change and Marco Rubio and Netanyahu are no doubt pressing for action.
I think the market is underpricing the risks here.
