‘Very little pathway forward’ for a deal ‘if what we saw publicly took place privately’

Ross Harrison, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, has warned that if the ultimatum the US issued publicly to Iran also characterised their tone behind closed doors, the chances of reaching a deal are slim. “If that’s the case, the Iranians are convinced they’re in no better position to make a deal than they were before the war when there were talks on the nuclear file,” he told Al Jazeera. The Iranians have been “the real loser here”, Harrison said. “Not in terms of capability. Not in terms of leverage – they’ve come out fairly well in terms of the balance of leverage here – but in terms of raw destruction,” he said.