Walking the Tightrope Between Tehran and Riyadh

Donald Trump threatened Iran with another strike, then called it off within hours — at the request, he said, of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar. He now says talks resume today. Tehran says the opposite: no negotiations are under way, and it isn’t even Iran that asked for the pause, whatever Trump claims. Yet Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has spoken twice in the past 24 hours with Pakistan’s Field Marshal Asim Munir and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan. So the real diplomacy is clearly happening, just not where either government wants it seen. Neither Washington nor Tehran can afford to look like it needs the other, so both are working through intermediaries instead — a way […]