India, Sept. 15 -- The contradiction arrived in two posts. On Sunday night, Donald Trump described Iran as "the failing Nation of Iran" that "wants to make a deal, quickly and badly." By Monday afternoon, he had added that the United States would "determine whether or not" it would "choose to engage." By Tuesday morning, Tehran had answered both.

"Don't get distracted by the U.S. president's mixed signals," Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, wrote on X early Tuesday. His framing was deliberate: He quoted the two positions back at Washington, throwing the contradiction between "no negotiations" on one day and "we're ready to talk" on another back at the United States, then closed the door on both. "The ...