India, March 23 -- When US President Donald Trump claimed on Monday that US and Iran have been holding "direct" and "productive" talks over the past two days, he also announced that he was postponing by five days his threat to hit energy sites. Iran mocked him in turn, saying he's "backed down"; and denied any such talks.

Yet, Trump continued to say Iran "wants to make a deal badly". He even gave a timeline: "within five days or less".

After Iran said no such talks were on, Trump spoke again of extracting its enriched uranium to stop it from making a nuclear bomb: "It's very easy. If we have a deal with them, we're going down and we'll take it ourselves."

He has made it difficult to keep track of what he says, or means, at different po...