Pakistan’s pageant, Washington’s whim, Iran’s refusal

There is something almost admirable — artistically, if not morally — about a “breakthrough” engineered to last precisely as long as a news cycle and not a second more. It appears, it trends, it reassures, and then, like a stage prop after curtain call, it quietly disappears. In Islamabad, diplomacy has not failed; it has been rebranded as entertainment. A Field Marshal performs statesmanship with theatrical zeal, a prime minister delivers his lines with the solemnity of a man who knows improvisation is not in his job description, and in Washington, Donald Trump directs the whole production like a conductor who has misplaced both the score and the orchestra. Iran, inconveniently, declines to applaud. Let us retire the comforting myth […]