Richard Miniter

So it's just unthinkable.

And they are surrounded to the north by their ally, Russia, by Pakistan, which is sort of an ally of the United States, but sort of an ally of theirs.

Bear in mind that the Iranian interest section, which is their version of an embassy under current diplomatic law, is inside the Pakistan embassy.

So if you want a visa to go to Iran, if you have family there, you go to the Pakistan embassy to do it here in Washington.

So the idea that Pakistan would be all that helpful to the US is,

Yes, but you have a professional class bias.

You're expecting him to act like a professional that announces a big vision.

Well, rationality is whether the means lead you to your stated goals.

Which we don't know.

I'm not predicting a deal.

I am definitely not predicting a deal.

What I described earlier is how Trump's negotiation strategy works.

understood it's ultimately going to be forced into a situation where he has to take a large amount of kinetic military action uh because ultimately the iranians do not want a deal and you know no matter how warm the bowl becomes it can't make the soup warm right that's why that iranian proverb it's true you did say that at the beginning and i agreed with it you know i think

They're not crazy.

They're just not us.

If honor and Islamic ideology are the two most important things in your life, they're not irrational.

We're arguing from a set of premises that we don't share.

They are highly intelligent.

They are capable of long-term planning.

They should not be underestimated.