The more one delves into the details of the Islamabad memorandum of understanding, the clearer it becomes that this is not the “unconditional surrender” of Iran that President Donald Trump has claimed. It is, however, close to an unconditional surrender, but not by Iran.

The details have now been fully mooted and need not all be sickeningly repeated here. It suffices to say that if American negotiators are dense enough to proceed for the entire 60 days of possible negotiations, all will have been lost because of upfront concessions, whether a final deal is reached in 60 days. Indeed, because of that unfortunate structure, Iran is not incentivized to reach an agreement anywhere near that which the administration touts.