Norwegian News Media (NTB)’s Nils-Inge Kruhaug has interviewed State Secretary Andreas Kravik following his return from Tehran. It makes for peculiar reading. Both NTB and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs position themselves in the middle, but when one is dealing with a regime with many faces and does not know who is in charge, diplomacy becomes a joke. Kravik has no reservations. He takes the regime at face value. We know that to be a major falsehood.
What, then, was the point of the visit? Both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and NTB have now revealed that they stand on the side of the regime. Not that we have been in any doubt.
Kravik is passively accommodating: – Iran believes it holds strong cards.
This is the premise for the conversation that Kravik attempts to legitimise by repeating Tehran’s point of view. The fact that these diverge is not mentioned.
– My clear impression is that both parties want an agreement, even though there was a real setback when President Donald Trump rejected the latest Iranian proposal, Kravik tells NTB.
The fact that the rejection was so categorical probably hit the Iranians rather hard, he believes.
– The negotiations continue, but I think the Iranians are frustrated that their proposal was met with such a clear rejection. But it is a good sign that the parties continue to negotiate via Pakistan, says Kravik.
Was Kravik sent out on a rescue mission?
Kruhaug/Kravik do not mention that the Iranian demands were so far-fetched that Trump did not even bother to read them in full.
That can hardly have come as any surprise to the Iranians, unless they are dreaming of capitulation.
Their tactic is to drag out time until the opposing side grows tired. But this does not work with the current President of the United States.
Kravik treats the United States and Iran as parties with equal premises and much in common. On what planet is he living?
– Both parties need to show their own side that they have succeeded. The most important thing is that they realise they have not fully won, and that a compromise is therefore necessary, he says.
– It is also important that they do not present their own victory as the other side’s defeat, because then things become difficult, he adds.
Trump is unlikely to take the ayatollahs’ self-image into consideration. That is what the negotiators from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs do.
American media are doing everything possible to sabotage the war. They quote “American intelligence” as saying that the Iranians still have most of their missiles and launchers intact. Kruhaug can therefore quote Iran as saying that they are ready for war.
– It is entirely clear that they are not willing to agree to a compromise at any price. If the United States chooses war, then they say they are ready for war, and I believe they mean it as well, says Kravik.
But the claim regarding Iran’s arsenal seems highly implausible.
The Strait of Hormuz also concerns Norway. Kravik was willing to discuss everything – including tolls through the strait. In that case Iran wins. If you give Iran a finger, they take the whole hand.
– We had a good discussion about this, and we were very clear that they cannot control the Strait of Hormuz in a manner that deviates from fundamental principles of the law of the sea, and they agreed with that. Then we shall see whether they follow up in practice, says Kravik.
Iran and Oman have advanced demands for payment from ships wishing to pass through the strategically important strait, through which around 20 per cent of the world’s oil and gas deliveries passed before the war.
– It is not entirely inconceivable that this could be done in a manner consistent with the law of the sea, but there are very strict limits. We are now going to have a follow-up process on expert level with them regarding this, says Kravik.
Kravik will not state the United States’ non-negotiable demands: The nuclear programme must be dismantled and the enriched uranium handed over.
Iran’s nuclear programme and stockpiles of uranium were also topics during Kravik’s talks in Tehran.
– Iran is clear that they have the right to enrich uranium, and they want this enshrined in some form of agreement with the Americans, he says.
The Americans’ starting point is that Iran hands over its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium in their entirety to the United States, while the Iranians believe the uranium can instead be diluted down to a lower level.
Kravik does not believe agreement on this will be reached any time soon.
He is unable to convey the United States’ conditions. They are either/or. For the Ministry of Foreign Affairs it is always both–and. That is why they have drifted into the arms of Hamas.
Neither the Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the media are capable of recognising what kind of regime Iran is.
– What they are talking about now is phase one, where they first reopen the Strait of Hormuz and agree to end the hostilities. Thereafter comes phase two, where they negotiate over the nuclear programme and sanctions relief, he says.
– A bridge must also be built between phase one and phase two, and I think it will be difficult for the United States to agree to a permanent ceasefire and lift sanctions without having received any concessions concerning the nuclear programme, he says. (NTB)
That bridge exists only inside the heads of Kravik and Kruhaug.