We watched the sun go down in Islamabad and then come up again as these marathon talks went on. To end without a deal marks a fundamental blow to nascent hopes of finding an off-ramp to this crisis.
These were meetings of huge consequence –– the highest-level talks between US and Iranian officials since the formation of the Islamic Republic in 1979 –– and it’s hard to underestimate just how complex the discussions have been.
Beyond what was said in the room, technical papers were exchanged and reviewed repeatedly. But the two sides were simply too far apart, not just in substance, but in style and temperament. The respective delegations went into these talks with vastly different approaches: US…