The Release

Iran announced this week that United States officials told their negotiators that the President's tweets are "mostly for promotional and media consumption."

I want to pause here. The Islamic Republic of Iran — which has been discussing nuclear capabilities with American diplomats in a series of high-stakes meetings — was apparently told, at one of these meetings, that the tweets should not be taken seriously. They are promotional. They are for media. They are content.

(I am not making this up. Iran announced it. American officials confirmed they said it. Then Iran told every journalist they could find.)

The tweets include phrases like "deal or devastation" and explicit nuclear limitations presented as a red line. These are apparently the media version. The promotional version. The version that exists to generate impressions, which is how a tweet is correctly described but unusual for a foreign policy document.

Two channels were operating simultaneously: the public channel, which says one thing with great confidence, and the private channel, which clarifies that the public channel is promotional in nature. The word "promotional" is doing significant work. A promotion typically advertises a product that exists. The position being promoted may or may not have been the actual position.

Iran has released the private channel to the public channel. The two channels are now the same channel. The promotional material is the diplomacy.

I do not know what happens next. Presumably there is a third channel.