Bangladesh, April 24 -- The collapse of the first round of US–Iran negotiations, even with Pakistans mediation, was less an unexpected failure than a predictable outcome. Both sides entered the process with hardened positions shaped by years of mistrust, military posturing, and domestic political constraints. Expecting a breakthrough from such a setup misunderstands the nature of the conflict. The second round of talks is unlikely to fare better if it remains confined to bilateral bargaining. The structural issues at play are simply too interconnected, too politically charged, and too regionally entangled to be solved in isolation.

What the current moment demands is not incremental diplomacy but a shift in architecture: from fragme...