Shayan Semei’i, a national security expert, said Donald Trump, by combining a military threat and a proposal for negotiations, is trying to push the Islamic Republic into making concessions without entering a fresh war. According to him, Trump’s reference to dispatching aircraft carrier warships and possible attack targets shows that the military option is still on the table.

Semei’i added that the Islamic Republic is trying to reduce Washington’s pressures by prolonging the talks and pinning its hopes on the results of the U.S. midterm elections. He described this approach as a miscalculation by Tehran and emphasized that making Trump’s political position harder does not necessarily mean that the United States will back down.