Interview with Mousavian
By Marc Champion, Bloomberg, March 27, 2026.
I asked Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a former Iranian diplomat and member of its nuclear negotiating team, how he thought the regime saw Trump’s overtures.
Mousavian breaks the broad view of regime officials into three clear statements.
First, that Trump’s talk of a negotiation and potential deal is nothing more than a “a new deception — larger than the previous two.” That’s a reference to the nuclear negotiations that were underway both times the US struck.
Second, that the Iranian leaders believe this US sleight of hand aims to obscure “the execution, within the coming days, of a major and decisive military operation against Iran in the Persian Gulf — an amphibious operation accompanied by heavy strikes on Iran’s infrastructure in the southern regions.”
And finally, that the US was pressured into this war by Israel and the Gulf states, which collectively seek the “complete destruction of Iran,” making this an existential fight for Tehran.
This matches my own reading, together with the added flavor that those in command have been preparing for it for decades and feel it validates their beliefs.