Where’s the deal?

ON THE face of it, all that is needed at this stage of Iran’s nuclear diplomacy with the United States and other world powers is for the Iranians and the so-called P5+1 (the UN Security Council’s permanent members plus Germany) to agree on a time and a place for their next meeting. Instead, each side has been blaming the other for refusing to make any commitment. A European official has spoken of Iranian “delaying tactics”, while the press in Tehran denounces the “unpreparedness” of Iran’s Western interlocutors.

“If the two sides can’t agree on details of this kind,” rues a seasoned Iran-watcher in Washington, “it doesn’t bode well for the negotiations themselves.” Indeed, for all the conciliatory instincts of America’s re-elected president and his nomination of relative doves to run important parts of foreign policy, even advocates of detente are sceptical about the prospect of improved relations in Barack Obama’s second term.