Comment by lenkite
20 hours ago
Then the US can formally state that it is ceasing all negotiations. But it will never do that - it always wants to retain the ability to execute a surprise backstab. Done so several times now.
20 hours ago
Then the US can formally state that it is ceasing all negotiations. But it will never do that - it always wants to retain the ability to execute a surprise backstab. Done so several times now.
> the US can formally state that it is ceasing all negotiations
Nobody has done this since before WWII.
> it always wants the ability to backstab
Yes. Geopolitics is anarchic. Pretty much every country has "backstabbed", and has legitimate claims to having been "backstabbed".
"If the diplomats' job is to stall and never make any actual concessions, that's germane."
As we have now learnt, this statement is utterly invalid.
Oman's top diplomat reported that negotiations were progressing quite well. They were dismayed at the American strikes. I am guessing Trump really wanted the negotiations to fail and was pissed off when Iran actually agreed to his major terms. So he launched the strikes, before the news could spread.
“Significant progress” had been made during talks in Geneva, Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi said on Friday. His country mediated negotiations between the United States and Iran, with the latter offering assurances that it would not seek to acquire nuclear material for the production of an atomic bomb. This commitment was a “very important breakthrough” that had “never been achieved any time before,” al-Busaidi told US broadcaster CBS News, in addition to making a similar statement on X.