David E. Sanger

That he can try to speed along a capitulation process

But if the Iranians play it right, the economic impact just keeps snowballing.

Well, Michael, the outreach so far has pretty much been limited to a two-page document that had 15 items on it.

Twelve of them were demands on Iran and three of them were offers to Iran.

But the essence of them is this, Michael, that Iran gives up any hope of ever being able to enrich nuclear fuel, do any of the steps that could lead to a nuclear weapon, that it limit its arsenal of missiles to a very limited number that can't reach Israel.

And in return, the U.S.

has provided some incentives, starting with the lifting of sanctions that would give Iran a pathway to reentering the global international economy.

You know, the response was kind of a non-response, Michael.

It was five of their own points that basically started with, let's talk about compensation for all of the damage you've done to Iran's infrastructure and people over the past month.

And, oh, by the way—

We want you to recognize our sovereignty over the entire Strait of Hormuz, which we think is a pathway to expanding what the Iranians have been doing in recent days, which is charging a very large toll for any ships that want to make it through.

That's right.

And it might explain why you've heard the president move from making the case that the Iranians want to talk to making the case that if the Iranians don't talk, he's going to hit them even harder.

But behind the scenes, the U.S.

is thinking ahead toward what a negotiation would look like.

And in fact, they had hoped that one might begin as early as this weekend, but it didn't happen.

Well, they haven't said precisely who would participate in the negotiations.

But what they have dangled is that J.D.

Vance, the vice president, would lead the effort.

And administration officials have said to me that this is an effort to signal to the Iranians that this is a serious conversation, that we're sending the country's number two official.