Photo: Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA/via REUTERS
Photo: Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA/via REUTERS

National Security

The Forever Negotiation

Trump and Iran might keep talking. Or they might keep bombing. Or both.

First published in The Atlantic on July 15, 2026.

by Vivian Salama, The Atlantic
July 16, 2026 | reading time: 8 Min.

The U.S.-Iran war was supposed to be over when President Trump signed a memorandum of understanding last month at a dinner table in the Lower Gallery of Versailles. But Trump has a famously flexible definition of what constitutes a binding contract, Iran feels that it has little to lose from further hostilities, and the two nations have essentially remained at war ever since.

© SZ - You can acquire rights to the article here.