Diplomatic spin

TO HEAR President Hassan Rohani in full charm offensive one would think that, barring a few trivial details, a deal to settle long-running concerns about Iran’s nuclear programme by the agreed deadline of November 24th is very nearly in the bag. “I think a final settlement can be achieved...the world is tired and wants it to end, resolved through negotiations,” he declared on Iranian television earlier this month; a nuclear settlement was “certain”.

The Americans are trying to rein in expectations. Wendy Sherman, who leads the American delegation at the so-called P5+1 talks with Iran (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany), noted last week that Iran had met its commitments under the interim agreement reached last year, known as the Joint Plan of Action. The discussions since July, when an extension was announced, were going better than some had expected, but not as well as might have been hoped. The problem remained Iran’s uranium-enrichment capacity: “Iran’s leaders would very much hope that the world would conclude that the status quo—at least on this pivotal subject—should be acceptable, but obviously, it is not”.