The new round of US-Iran negotiations in Geneva is already over. Military muscles were flexed. But despite the media fuss over naval drills by Iran's Revolutionary Guard, to prove they could close the Strait of Hormuz, the military strength is totally one-sided: the US sent the largest aircraft carrier in the world, USS General R Ford to the Arabian Sea, joining several destroyers and another aircraft carrier. No wonder Trump says a deal "will be struck"!
Of course, this show of US military might has nothing to do with any concern over the protestors killed in January, nor the many arrests - including of doctors and others who helped the wounded. Over 7,000 deaths have already been verified by Human Rights activists.
No, this build-up of force in the Gulf is ostensibly all about forcing the regime to abandon its uranium enrichment programme - and to destroy its armoury of ballistic missiles. The irony is that it was Trump who tore-up the EU/US/Iran 2015 Nuclear Treaty. Ever since then, tighter sanctions have been imposed on the country. It's obviously the lifting of these draconian sanctions which the Iranian regime desperately needs. But Trump is also now intercepting oil tankers bound for China, which buys 80% of Iran's oil.
Today Iran's economy is barely functional. Inflation has reached over 50%. Food prices were already up by 70% in December. It was the cost of living and the sudden devaluation of the currency/cuts to subsidies which drove the massive December/January protests which threatened to topple the regime.
For now, Trump says he prefers a negotiated agreement, rather than perpetrating another bombardment - although that's still the preferred option of his local henchman, Netanyahu. Anyway, the current regime has proven (once again) that it has the capacity to keep Iran's 93 million-strong population - and its huge and militant working class - under control.
However, in the long term, neither Trump, nor Ayatollah Khamenei's repressive Islamic forces will be able to keep a lid on the mobilisation of Iranian youth and workers, men and women alike. Every successive protest has proved this: "A luta continua"!