But sometimes preconditions are acceptable:
Iran has said it will not back down in its nuclear row with the West, a day after the United States said it would accept Tehran's offer of wide-ranging talks with six world powers."
We cannot have any compromise with respect to the Iranian nation's inalienable right," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference, in language Iranian officials normally use to refer to its nuclear program.
Iran on September 9 handed over a five-page proposal to the major powers, including the United States, in which Tehran said it was willing to discuss global nuclear disarmament as well as other international issues.
Washington has said Iran's package was "not really responsive" to its concerns about the Islamic state's nuclear work, which the West suspects is aimed at making bombs.
But despite Iran's stated refusal to discuss the nuclear dispute, a U.S. State Department spokesman said Washington would "seek an early meeting and...test Iran's willingness to engage."
Smart diplomacy means our preconditions are bad but their preconditions are just fine. Truly, the nuance is blinding.
Iran has been unresponsive for years. But I'm sure it will work much better this time, right?
Actually, the only mystery remaining is whether Iran is willing to pretend to offer concessions and whether we would pretend to believe those false concessions. I'm pretty sure we'd do the latter. I'm pretty sure the Iranians will save us by being unwilling to do the former.
We're clearly on the path to letting Iran go nuclear.
