David E. Sanger

So the idea that foreign actors are

are coming in to attack the core of the society, terrorize ordinary Iranians who are just trying to get by.

The surviving Iranian leadership may see that as a way to go unify a populace that otherwise hates them.

Well, that's right.

And there's another thing that time buys the Iranians, the ability to hurt Donald Trump where it counts the most.

Watching markets slide, watching oil prices go up, watching international anxiety increase, watching the Western alliance fracture.

Hmm.

And all of that takes time.

So take a look at what happened just at the end of last week.

The president, late on Thursday, said that he was going to allow another 10 days for negotiations to take place.

And you might expect the markets to jump the next day, saying, oh.

There's an ending to this coming.

Instead, the markets kept their meltdown underway.

The president is now presiding over what people are going to begin to call the Trump slump or the Iran slump.

And the Iranians understand that if the markets continue to melt down, if the price of oil continues to go up, that only gives them more leverage whenever negotiations begin.

I can't crawl inside their heads, but I can just take a guess from having covered negotiations with Iran before.

One of the big hang-ups has been this question of whether Iran –

will permanently give up its right to enrich nuclear fuel.

And the U.S.

has insisted, no, this time the Iranians have to agree they'll never again make nuclear fuel.