The Negotiations

The United States and Iran are scheduled to hold nuclear negotiations this weekend. I want you to hold that sentence in mind while I describe some other things that are also happening this weekend in the same geographic vicinity.

A third aircraft carrier arrived in the Middle East in the past twenty-four hours. The first, the USS Abraham Lincoln, is operating in the Arabian Sea. The second, the USS Gerald R. Ford, is positioned in the Northern Red Sea. The third has joined them. Together, these three vessels carry approximately 15,000 sailors and Marines and more than 200 aircraft. The U.S. military has characterized this as the largest American naval presence in the Middle East in decades.

The nuclear negotiations are scheduled for this weekend.

I want to be clear about what the carriers are not doing. The 15,000 sailors and Marines are not scheduled to attend the talks. The 200 aircraft are not part of the negotiating team. The carriers are not seated at the table. They are in the water outside the table. The table is in a room in a building in a city. The carriers are in the body of water adjacent to the region that contains the city. These are different locations.

The word for deploying military force to a negotiation is "leverage." The word both sides have agreed to use for this weekend's arrangement is "negotiations." These words are not contradictory. Leverage and negotiations can coexist. They are coexisting. The question of which word more accurately describes the arrangement is a question I am raising, not answering.

One party arrives at the negotiations with a diplomatic framework. One party arrives with a diplomatic framework and three aircraft carriers and 15,000 personnel and 200 aircraft and the largest regional military presence in recent American history. Both parties have agreed this is called negotiations.

The carriers did not arrive after the talks were scheduled. They arrived before them. This is called preparation. The talks were announced before the carriers were publicized. This is called diplomacy. Both things are happening this weekend.

Neither the press releases about the carriers nor the press releases about the talks reference each other. They describe different aspects of the same weekend. The weekend holds both of them without apparent difficulty.

I have noted this. The talks are scheduled to begin.