This week, which will see Iran’s presidential elections, was also supposed to mark the finale of nuclear talks among Iran, Russia, China, France, Britain, Germany, and the European Union in Vienna.
But a new deal is unlikely to be reached by Friday. The question now is what to make of this delay. In the last six rounds of talks between Iran and the world powers, one reality has rarely been disputed: Both Washington and Tehran want a diplomatic resolution. The minimum bottom line for both sides is clear as well. The Americans want Tehran to roll back its nuclear program as it agreed to do in 2015; the Iranians want the United States and its partners to end many of their sanctions on Iran, which they pledged as part of the same deal. But what about the timing of the new deal’s announcement?
