After a tense weekend of threats from the American administration, Iran’s negotiating delegation decided to take an unusual step: hiring an outside team of psychologists. The diplomats abandoned classical working methods and moved to close consultation with behavioral experts in an attempt to decode the “algorithm” and unpredictable behavior of U.S. President Donald Trump, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
3+The conflict in the negotiating rooms reached its peak last weekend. The U.S. president posted a threatening message against Iran even as the two sides were in talks in Switzerland. Mohammad Khalibaf, head of the Iranian delegation, had left his phone outside the meeting room. After receiving an update about the post, he decided to halt direct discussions in protest.
The Iranian delegation didn’t settle for regular political analysis to deal with Trump’s unconventional style. Several mediators in the talks confirmed that Iranian diplomats enlisted a team of psychologists to build a “profile” of the U.S. president. According to the mediators, the Iranians are working with the experts to predict Trump’s public reactions to Iranian proposals.
3+Still, the issue is controversial. A source familiar with the Iranian delegation’s work in Switzerland emphasized that no psychologists are present on the direct negotiating team. According to him, the country prefers, at least officially, to avoid psychological speculation about the president’s motives.
Meanwhile, Iranian diplomats are using more traditional tools to understand their adversary: rereading Trump’s 1987 book, “The Art of the Deal.” In that book, Trump outlines his negotiating tactics as a real estate tycoon and recommends using extreme and unexpected demands to create anxiety and force concessions.
3+Mohammad Amrasi, an Iran expert at the Wilson Center, explained that Trump is applying the book’s lessons and deploying extreme threats to test the other side’s resolve. However, he added that the Iranians are well aware of these tactics, which doesn’t change the dynamics in the talks.
Trump’s use of social media as a diplomatic tool has created a new reality that overshadows traditional communication channels. The president has told his people openly that he wants to appear unstable to push Iran to the negotiating table.
3+In recent months, Trump has threatened to destroy Iranian energy infrastructure and even made threats against the country’s cultural integrity. Iran’s response has sometimes been deliberate disregard of the threats, and at other times, using Trump’s posts to deepen internal rifts in Iran between the pragmatic establishment and extremist elements who oppose any concessions to the U.S.
It appears the Iranian effort to crack the president with the help of psychologists is an expression of diplomatic desperation in the face of a figure operating outside the accepted rules of the game. Will the psychological analysis lead to achievements in negotiations? Time will tell.