The curtains are rising in Islamabad, but the play is increasingly beginning to resemble a classic from the Theatre of the Absurd. Following a month that saw the decimation of Iranian infrastructure and the decapitation of its leadership, the world has been presented with a two-week ceasefire.

It is a fragile pause, a moment of "falling action" in a five-act tragedy where the lead actors (read aggressors) seem largely uninterested in the script of conventional diplomacy. The protagonist of this drama, Donald Trump, remains a character of profound transactional volatility.

Having spent the previous act hurling gutter epithets at the Iranians, threatening to take the ancient nation back to the Stone Age, he now presents himself as the architect of a big deal. Yet,........

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