Saudis 'furious': Trump ‘flips & flops’ between deals with Iran and ‘attacks in devastating fashion’
François Picard is pleased to welcome Barbara Slavin, Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Center. She describes the US-Iran conflict as a dangerous combination of military escalation, diplomatic ambiguity and political calculation. Slavin sees an absence of true diplomacy: The recent indirect contacts between Washington and Tehran, mediated by Qatar, has been too limited and too fragile to produce any serious breakthrough. For her, this amounts to “kabuki diplomacy”: they half engage while posit
François Picard is pleased to welcome Barbara Slavin, Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Center. She describes the US-Iran conflict as a dangerous combination of military escalation, diplomatic ambiguity and political calculation. Slavin sees an absence of true diplomacy: The recent indirect contacts between Washington and Tehran, mediated by Qatar, has been too limited and too fragile to produce any serious breakthrough. For her, this amounts to “kabuki diplomacy”: they half engage while positioning themselves against any appearance of compromise.
Follow the story
About this article
- Length
- 79 words · 1 min read
- Published
- September 28, 2026
- Byline
- François PICARD
- Source
- France 24 French