‘Iran never won a war, but never lost a negotiation!’ So tweeted Donald Trump in 2020. Like the man himself, it was blunt, slightly theatrical, but not empty. A Trumpian tweet that mocked the enemy but with just a hint of admiration. As he dismissed Iran militarily, he signalled a grudging respect for how it operates at the table. It was not a grand theory, more an instinct, from a dealmaker recognising another set of operators who know how to stretch, stall and extract.

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So Donald Trump went into this war and the subsequent negotiation, knowing Iran would play hard and play smart.

Back in February last year, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of Iran’s parliament, offered his own certainty. Speaking in Farsi, he explained that the now dead Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had ruled out negotiations with the United States, not least because President Trump had ordered the killing of Iran’s most powerful military commander Qasem Soleimani.

Yet President Trump sent his top team to Pakistan, including the Vice-President, to negotiate with an Iranian delegation led by none other than Ghalibaf himself. Both men had made their views clear; still both apparently disregarded them. Had they changed their minds? Probably not.

It should be no surprise that the talks in Pakistan, framed by both sides as a final opportunity, ended last night without agreement. The US delegation departed Islamabad after Vance confirmed negotiations had failed and no deal would be reached.

These were never ‘peace talks’. For........

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