New Delhi, July 2 -- TEHRAN - The 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity is the physical object at the center of every Iran nuclear argument. It exists. Its location is disputed. Its disposition is the one question that separates a genuine disarmament agreement from a managed pause. The Doha round did not touch it.

That 440 kilograms - enough, once enriched to weapons grade, for roughly nine nuclear devices - is what the phrase "denuclearization moving along well" has to eventually account for. JD Vance used that phrase after the Doha talks concluded on July 2. Nuclear discussions, he added, "would start soon." They have not started. The stockpile is not getting smaller.

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists reported in June...