Maximum Pressure, Minimum Progress: Iran’s Nuclear Gamble

Want to request an episode topic? Go to https://assumedrationality.com/ Sources: Al Jazeera Staff, “Iran Responds to Trump Letter on Nuclear Talks, State Media Reports,” Al Jazeera, March 27, 2025, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/27/iran-responds-to-trump-letter-on-restarting-nuclear-talks-state-media; Alex Plitsas, “After Proxies and Nuclear Program Threats, Iran May Turn to Terror Abroad,” Atlantic Council (blog), March 25, 2025, https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/increasing-threat-iran-transnational-terrorism/; Doina Chiacu and David Ljunggren, “Trump Threatens Bombing If Iran Does Not Make Nuclear Deal,” Reuters, March 30, 2025, sec. World, https://www.reuters.com/world/trump-says-there-will-be-bombing-if-iran-does-not-make-nuclear-deal-2025-03-30/; Farnaz Fassihi, “What to Know About Iran’s Response to Trump’s Letter Urging Talks,” The New York Times, March 28, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/28/world/middleeast/iran-negotiations-trump-letter.html; Kali Robinson, “What Is the Iran Nuclear Deal?,” Council on Foreign Relations, October 27, 2023, https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-iran-nuclear-deal; Nadeen Ebrahim, “As Trump Offers New Nuclear Talks, Iran Weighs the Cost of Losing Its Final Leverage,” CNN, March 26, 2025, https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/26/middleeast/trump-offers-new-nuclear-talks-iran-weighs-cost-mime-intl/index.html; Offive of the Director of National Intelligence, “Annual Threat Assessment Ofthe US Intelligence Community” (Office of the Director of National Intelligence, March 2025), https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/ATA-2025-Unclassified-Report.pdf; STEPHANIE LIECHTENSTEIN, “Iran Accelerates Production of near Weapons-Grade Uranium, IAEA Says, as Tensions with US Ratchet Up,” AP News, February 26, 2025, https://apnews.com/article/iran-nuclear-iaea-weapons-grade-uranium-trump-0b11a99a7364f9a43e1c83b220114d45; The Tactics Institute, “Tactics Institute Raises Alarm Over Covert Uranium Deal Between Niger and Iran,” The Tactics Institute for Security and Counterterrorism, October 7, 2024, https://tacticsinstitute.com/press-releases/tactics-institute-raises-alarm-over-covert-uranium-deal-between-niger-and-iran/; Unshin Lee Harpley, “B-2 Bombers Arrive on Diego Garcia in Unusual Show of Force,” Air & Space Forces Magazine, March 27, 2025, https://www.airandspaceforces.com/b-2-bombers-diego-garcia/. Music: "Super Power Cool Dude" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/