‘It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.’ — Dr Henry Kissinger.

The USA President Donald Trump and his Iranian counterpart, President Masood Pezeshkian, finally put their electronic signatures on the Islamabad MoU on Thursday, 18 June 2026, clearing the way for the technical talks to be held between the USA Vice President, J.D. Vance, and the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. The inaugural session of the talks could not be held on Friday, 19 June, owing to a great deal of airstrikes on southern Lebanon by Israel, to the dismay of the USA officials.

The timeline of 60 days will be a significant test for the capabilities of diplomats, weighing and vetting every word, phrase and sentence, and reading the minds and assessing the thought processes of their interlocutors through mood, body language and gestures to prioritise their plans and strategies for the conduct of the talks.

The past few months have demonstrated that Iranians are patient, tough and skilful negotiators, while the USA officials are the opposite of their Persian interlocutors. Throughout the war, Iranian leaders exhibited patience, fortitude, steadfastness, resoluteness and dignity, rarely responding to the profanity-laden statements of President Donald Trump despite the enormous loss of their senior political and military leadership. The expletives from their foe never provoked them into angry, rash or undignified behaviour.

The war demonstrated that Donald Trump is not a leader of war. He has neither the courage nor the patience for war, particularly a long........

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