US, Iran take a leap forward in trust building

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian (C) at an exhibition “National Day of Nuclear Technology”, Tehran, April 9, 2025 With the foreplay over and US-Iranian talks commencing in Muscat on Saturday, a constructive engagement has begun in right earnestness. The sure sign of it is that Iran’s currency rose nearly 6 percent on Sunday. The Tehran bazaar, …

Steve Witkoff’s Iran mission holds seamless possibilities

Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s senior aide on Russia negotiations, is expected to kickstart talks with Tehran (File photo) The rubric of the US-Iranian talks slated for Saturday in Muscat turned into a vanity fair of sorts — whether the talks should be called ‘indirect’ or ‘direct’. The US President Donald Trump sought direct talks and …

Israel’s ‘zugzwang’ moment with Iran

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei , Tehran (Undated file photo) A senior US official told Washington Post that the toned-down early morning Israeli strike Saturday on military targets in Iran was a “proportional strike,” which “was moderate enough to quiet the conflict without provoking Iran into a counterattack.”  However, …