Why Gulf States Should Reject Zarif’s Terms for Ending Iran War

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Mohammad Javad Zarif’s new Foreign Affairs essay is being read as a peace overture. It is better understood as an attempt to convert Iran’s battlefield losses into a narrow U.S.-Iran bargain: nuclear limits and maritime access in exchange for sanctions relief and regional reintegration. Beneath the triumphalist framing lies an offer to cap enrichment below 3.67 percent, ratify the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Additional Protocol, transfer all enriched material to a multilateral consortium, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and accept a nonaggression pact with the United States. These are not the terms of a government pressing its advantage. They are…