{"id":47430,"date":"2026-04-13T00:04:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T00:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=47430"},"modified":"2026-04-13T00:04:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T00:04:27","slug":"ex-obama-aide-not-surprised-by-talks-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=47430","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Obama aide ‘not surprised’ by talks collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"
A former adviser to ex-US President Barack Obama has said she was “not surprised but disappointed” by the outcome of rare, high-level talks between the United States and Iran, which concluded without a major breakthrough after approximately 21 hours of negotiations.<\/p>\n

Laurie A Watkins, a political strategist and former policy director in the Obama administration, made these remarks during an interview with Fahd Hussain, executive director of programming at Express 24\/7 and anchor of the programme Full Frame, while visiting Pakistan to observe the peace talks.<\/p>\n

In response to a question, Watkins said she had anticipated the outcome but hoped for more substantive progress. “I am not at all surprised, but I am disappointed because I thought that there would be more meat on the bones that would come out of these discussions,” she said.<\/p>\n

The talks marked the first formal engagement of this level between Washington and Tehran in 47 years, making the development diplomatically significant. Watkins underscored Pakistan’s role as host, describing it as both important and impactful on the global stage.<\/p>\n

“Pakistan, by the way, has been a very gracious, wonderful host to everybody and this certainly sets them on the global stage and this is a huge achievement on their part,” she said.<\/p>\n

Despite the conclusion of formal talks without a breakthrough, Watkins indicated that diplomatic engagement had not entirely ceased.<\/p>\n

She noted that informal discussions and back-channel communications were continuing in Islamabad, with some delegations remaining in the city to work through unresolved issues.<\/p>\n

Key points of contention included the reopening of the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz\u0097a vital global oil route\u0097as well as broader disputes related to Iran’s nuclear programme and regional security concerns.<\/p>\n

Watkins also questioned the rationale behind recent military escalation in the region, raising concerns about whether there had been a clearly defined imminent threat.<\/p>\n

“What was the imminent threat? What was it?” she asked. She further noted that military action appeared to follow shortly after diplomatic engagement seemed possible.<\/p>\n

“Within less than 48 hours, Israel and the United States started bombing Iran, killing, taking out and assassinating most of their leadership,” she said.<\/p>\n

According to Watkins, removing key Iranian leadership figures could complicate future negotiations by empowering more hardline elements within the country’s political and security establishment.<\/p>\n

The talks come at a time of increasing domestic pressure within the United States, including rising fuel prices and an evolving political environment ahead of upcoming elections.<\/p>\n

Watkins pointed to shifting public opinion as an additional factor influencing the broader geopolitical landscape. “A recent poll just came out saying that the support for Israel of the American public is at the worst place that it has been in 35 years,” she said.<\/p>\n

Despite the absence of a formal agreement, a temporary ceasefire remains in place. Watkins emphasized that continued diplomatic engagement would be essential moving forward. “We have to remain hopeful. We have to keep fighting the fight. We cannot give up. I refuse to give up,” she said.<\/p>\n

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A former adviser to ex-US President Barack Obama has said she was “not surprised but disappointed” by the outcome of rare, high-level talks between the United States and Iran, which concluded without a major breakthrough after approximately 21 hours of negotiations. Laurie A Watkins, a political strategist and former policy director in the Obama administration, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47430\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}