DUBAI, July 3 -- The day after the Islamabad Memorandum was signed, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters in Dubai that the war had not fully come to an end. Not while Israeli forces remained on Lebanese soil.

"Without the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories they occupied during this war, the war has not fully come to an end," Araghchi said on June 16. A US official, separately briefing reporters, said the MoU with Iran contained no requirement for Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. Both statements described the same agreement.

That contradiction - Iran's stated condition and the US's description of what the deal actually covers - is the structural obstacle waiting for negotiators when talks resume after Kha...