DOHA, July 3 -- The talks in Qatar ended Wednesday with a statement from mediators that "positive progress" had been made. President Donald Trump told reporters on the same day that "the denuclearization of Iran is moving along well." On that same day, Iran and the United States did not meet at any level.

Those three things are all simultaneously true.

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the two US envoys who traveled to Qatar for the July 1 technical talks, spent the day meeting with Qatar's prime minister, not with their Iranian counterparts. Tehran confirmed sending its own delegation to Doha but explicitly denied having agreed to meet American officials at any level. The discussions - covering implementation disputes under the memorand...