Negotiating by Airstrike: The US and Iran Are Fighting Their Way Back to a Table Where No One May Be Able to Sign
The US and Iran are trading their heaviest fire since their peace deal collapsed — and yet both sides insist diplomacy isn't dead. That's not a contradiction; it's the actual strategy. What matters most right now isn't the strikes themselves, but what they reveal: two governments using violence as a bargaining tool while one of them may have no one at the top empowered to make a deal.
Bottom Line
This isn't a war spiraling out of control — it's two sides deliberately using force as leverage while keeping the diplomatic door cracked open. The genuinely dangerous variable is Iran's leadership vacuum: coercive diplomacy only works when someone on the other side can actually say yes, and right now it's unclear anyone in Tehran can. Until Iran's chain of command clarifies, expect the strikes-and-signals cycle to continue, with each round making an eventual deal harder to trust.