President Trump says new negotiations with Iran will begin on Monday, a dramatic shift after threatening to hit Iran “very hard” just 24 hours earlier. The reversal came right after a phone call with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, prompting questions about whether Riyadh swayed Trump’s decision.
Our guest, Sina Azodi, Program Director of Middle East Studies at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, argues the real driver wasn’t the phone call itself: Trump’s decision to not continue up the escalation ladder was shaped by regional pressure and the risk of the conflict spiraling out of control across the Middle East.
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