BEIJING, April 13. /TASS/. A settlement of the Iran-US conflict in just one round of talks is impossible in principle due to contradictions accumulated over many years, Ding Long, a professor at the Middle East Studies Institute of Shanghai International Studies University, said.
"It would be unrealistic to expect a single round of negotiations to resolve the more than 40 years of accumulated contradictions between the US and Iran - especially after the recent conflict. The mere fact that the two sides were able to sit down for face-to-face talks represents a significant breakthrough in itself. We cannot expect one negotiation to solve all the problems at once," the Global Times newspaper quoted the expert as saying.
The professor noted that the key issues to be addressed by Tehran and Washington include ensuring safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s nuclear program, the ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, and the unfreezing of Iran’s overseas assets. "It will be extremely difficult for the two parties to reach a one-time agreement on these fundamental and principled differences," Ding Long said.
Complex contradictions
As Qin Tian, deputy director of the Middle East Studies Center at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, noted, despite the announced two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran, the situation remains unstable, while strategic mutual mistrust is "an important factor affecting the negotiation process."
According to him, the more fundamental issue of the dialogue lies in the fact that the negotiating leverage and demands of the two sides are "severely asymmetrical, with a huge gap in their opening positions."
Qin Tian believes that after the ceasefire expires, the risk of renewed hostilities between the United States and Iran will sharply increase. "If the thorny issues cannot be resolved at the negotiating table, it is very likely they will return to the battlefield to settle it, with the Hormuz Strait being a possible flashpoint as the US could seek to open the key channel with force," he said.
Another expert, Liu Zhongmin, a professor at the Middle East Studies Institute of Shanghai International Studies University, believes the current Iran-US dialogue was initiated under unfavorable conditions. "While the conflict had not yet fully subsided, the talks were rushed into motion, which led to major disagreements over the preconditions right from the very beginning of the negotiations," he said.
Iran and the United States held several rounds of talks in the Pakistani capital on April 11. The Iranian delegation was led by parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, while Vice President JD Vance headed the US delegation. Both Tehran and Washington said following the negotiations that no agreement on finding a long-term solution to the conflict had been reached due to a range of disagreements. The prospects of a potential new round of talks between Tehran and Washington are unclear.