316. The Breakthrough

JD Vance traveled to Switzerland to meet with representatives of Iran and came back describing what he called a major breakthrough. The White House described it as historic. The word "historic" means it will be remembered, which is at least accurate, though the reason it will be remembered may not be the one the White House intends.

Iran also described the talks.

Iran's description did not use the word "breakthrough." Iran said that it had made no new nuclear commitments. Iran's Central Bank Governor said the signed documents do not force Tehran to buy American goods. Senior Iranian officials rejected parts of the American narrative entirely. One official said Trump's comments during the negotiations were inappropriate, which is a word that understates, the way "inconvenient" understates a building collapse.

Both accounts come from the same meeting.

Both delegations sat in the same room in Switzerland for the same amount of time on the same day. They agree on the room. They agree on Switzerland. They agree that both sides were there. Beyond that, the agreement is limited.

The question of what constitutes a diplomatic breakthrough is, it turns out, a question the two parties to a breakthrough are not required to answer the same way. Vance answered it one way. Iran answered it a different way. The White House pointed to falling oil prices as early evidence the deal was working. Oil prices have since risen.

This is what a breakthrough looks like from the outside.

From the inside, apparently, it looks like several different things at once.