Name: Iran’s leaders see US demands as ‘complete capitulation’, says analyst| DW News
Uploaded: 2026-01-31T11:57:20.000Z
Duration: 4 min 41 s
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Iranian President Masoud Bezechkin has accused the U.S.

europe and Israel of stirring tensions that, quote, provoked recent protests across Iran.

His accusations come as US President Donald Trump pushes Iran to negotiate a deal on its nuclear and missile programs or else face US Military action.

Trump says Iran's decision to halt the executions of protesters is evidence to show Tehran was ready to negotiate.

Iran has warned against any attack and has said its arsenal of missiles would never be up for discussion.

Sarah Basabandi is an Iran analyst and non resident research fellow at the Institute for Security Policy at Keel University here in Germany and she joins us from Hamburg.

Sarah, we heard yesterday the Iranian regime is willing to talk to the US but only about its nuclear program.

Will, will that be enough to keep President Trump from using the military force he has built up near Iran?

Good morning and thank you for having me.

Nobody really knows the content of the conditions for these conversations from the US Side.

And one thing for sure we observe is that they keep changing.

At the beginning of this round of pressure by the United States, the violence against the protesters was put as one of the preconditions and one of the key demands of the United States.

Now we're seeing that there is more focus on the nuclear program, which wasn't really a priority prior to this round of unrest and this extreme violence used by the government in Iran.

So it is quite difficult to navigate what exactly these demands are.

But one thing for sure is that the demands of the United States are, are perceived in Tehran as complete capitulation.

And the Iranian government doesn't want to accept a complete capitulation.

And if we focus on and assume that those four conditions that we keep hearing through the media, that is nuclear program, missile program, proxy support and violation against human rights domestically are on the table by the United States.

Accepting these and complying by the US Demand really means a complete change of the current system in Iran.

Republic would not be the same institution, the same state, the same organization, the same mentality, the same vision, the same ideology if they were to accept these four conditions.

So I would say that these are sort of existential questions that the Islamic Republic is facing.

And that's the reason that they want to continue signaling that we are open to discussion, we're open to negotiation.

What they really don't want to commit to anything meaningful level, we're seeing massive military buildup by the US in the region, of course, and

Iran announcing it will carry out military drills in the state of Hormuz.

Give us some perspective how precarious a situation are we in could be, you know, as.

As bad as we are anticipating, or it could be not as bad as we are anticipating, but

definitely it can't be worse than we are what we are anticipating.

So it really depends on the real cap that the Islamic Republic has, especially maritime capacities.

Looking at the track record of the Islamic Republic, they don't really have physical assets like aircraft carriers like Abraham Lincoln and so on and so forth, but

they do have a sort of and practice and exercise their capacities in the Red Sea through the Houthis and support, you know, supplying Houthis with drones and missiles and so on to be able to create enough destruction and conflict, enough pain on everybody around that body of water to make it very difficult for the decision makers to really press the button.

And I think that's partly the reason why the United States is hesitating so in asymmetric war and creating real destruction.

in really, in terms of military assets and naval assets, Iran is really short, by far short than any other nations and specifically the United States, which is now present in that region.

Sarah Bazubandi from Keele University, our thanks to you.