"...There is a flurry of signaling by the US -- both positive and negative .......At the same time, Iran is sending some positive and negative signals of its own....Maybe nothing will come of all this, but I'm not ready to dismiss the current flurry of mixed and ambiguous signals as merely more of the same or to declare failure. Steady nerves - it's only six weeks (and in the meantime there happens to be a REAL threat to all of us -- world economic meltdown, not Iranian hypothetical nukes)!..."
"...Apparently, the British have one view on the merits of engaging with Iran before the election and the French have a different view. The Americans, meanwhile, disagree with themselves about this. On one level, this is a sort of minor thing to be disagreeing about relative to the big strategic picture. But on another level, it’s hard to get very far with Iran until you make a decision.
Another issue is that I don’t think western governments have had discussions amongst themselves about what to do if diplomacy can’t be made to work. It’s clear if you speak to people outside government that many analysts think a nuclear Iran is something we could live with. But nobody wants any high-level policymakers in any of the key countries to say that, lest it fatally undermine the bargaining posture. One result of that, however, is that there’s no real talk about how you respond if you give it your best shot with the Iranians and they just turn out to really want a nuclear weapon..."
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