The agreed upon Memorandum of Understanding coming out of the latest US-Iran negotiations is a validation of progress, but each signatory will interpret its requisite obligations in a way that advances its national interest. This will impact the speed and nature of the deal’s implementation and even threaten its ultimate viability....

The agreement Washington and Tehran signed electronically this week is being characterized as the end of the war, but that assessment is likely an overstatement. The document is a sixty-day interim memorandum which gives both sides a way to pause the fighting, but structural disagreements remain which could derail the diplomatic track....

The Middle East is erupting again this week, with kinetic attacks ranging from Iranian missiles launched at Israel to US strikes on petrochemical plants in Iran—but the military escalation is likely aimed to prompt a quicker diplomatic solution, not derail one. Neither side wants to continue full-scale fighting, but if Iran remains firm in its...

Washington and Tehran both want a deal, but not the same one. For the White House, the priority is reducing tensions in the Gulf, securing freedom of navigation through Hormuz, and preserving space for a longer diplomatic process on the nuclear issue. Iran, by contrast, appears to be seeking an arrangement that demonstrates the limits...

Washington and Tehran are edging toward an agreement neither side fully trusts, and neither side can afford to abandon. Reports that a draft framework had been largely negotiated briefly sent oil prices tumbling this week on expectations that the Strait of Hormuz could stabilize and sanctions relief might follow. But on the same day, US...

Less than a week after President Trump’s departure from Beijing, Russian President Vladimir Putin touched down in China in a summit that will inevitably be viewed through the lens of Washington's recent diplomatic engagement with President Xi. Officially, the meeting is about strengthening the Sino-Russian relationship—something Beijing insists is not mutually exclusive to a stable...