I'm John Batchel. I'm joined by Janet Hsayah of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy, a research fellow who is a voice on understanding Tehran.

He's born in Tehran. He understands the Iranian mood right now perfectly.

And I read a cavalcade of contradictory headlines from Reuters

because the London reporting is widespreadly from positive to gloomy.

For example, Iran and U.S. to meet on Thursday for talks.

For example, Tehran is ready for nuclear concessions if the U.S. to meet on Thursday for talks. For example, Tehran is ready for nuclear concessions if

the U.S. meets demands. For example, Iranian students protest for second day at some

universities, and then this one from the F.T. London. Iran agreed secret shoulder-fired missile deal with Russia.

Jonathan, a very good evening to you.

It's supposed to be contradictory.

It's not supposed to tell me what's really going on.

However, I depend on your intuition here about this mixture of headlines.

Out of London, it's all Reuters.

Iran wants to talk if. Iran buys

shoulder-fired missiles if, and Iranian students protest if. Where are all the ifs pointing us?

Good evening to you, Jonathan. Good evening to you. I think the main first if that you mentioned

comes down to Tehran and Washington. This has been

their tactic for the longest time. They never flat out as have ever ruled out negotiations.

Even the Supreme Leader himself multiple times has said, we will negotiate, but I'm skeptical.

And now we're hearing the same thing coming from officials. So that is really a diplomatic

signal saying that they're still going to negotiate. So should there be another strike, at least from

their perspective, Tehran can claim that they never ruled out negotiations, hence the war is illegitimate.

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