After the midterm elections saw Trump’s Republican Party suffer a major defeat, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei warned in a message Wednesday against the “slightest inclination towards submission” – a caution hardliners believe was directed to Iran’s negotiators. ...

Extremeists always overplay their hand.

It’s the Jimmy Carter situation, except with the parties reversed. They thought they could make nice with Reagan if they gave nothing to Carter and let Reagan be the hero. And they were wrong. And they think that if they give nothing to Trump that the Democrats will become their buddies - and they are equally wrong this time.

Nobody wants to make nice with these hard-core extremists; if, on the other hand, there are some reasonable voices in the Iranian government (hard to imagine, but Trump managed to knock out most of the moderates and the new regime is far more radical) then perhaps a deal can be struck.

In any event, no deal is going to be as good as the one Obama got with them, where they agreed to give up enrichment, had international monitors including our own Pentagon experts, and a certain amount of oil was allowed to be traded. Trump the Magnificent blew that one out his ass.