“A good start.” Three little words. They sound nice, don't they? They sound hopeful. But in the high-stakes arena of **US-Iran diplomatic talks**, they are usually code for “we stared at each other for three hours and nobody flipped a table.” **Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi** has walked out of a meeting with the United States and declared victory. Not a victory of substance, mind you. Not a victory where problems are solved, **international sanctions** are lifted, or the world becomes a safer place. No, this is a victory of manners. He is telling us that the conversation was polite. In the grand, tragic comedy of global affairs, we are supposed to applaud because two groups of people managed to sit in a room without starting a fistfight. This is how low the bar has fallen for our so-called leaders.

Let’s look at the player on the stage. Araghchi comes out with a smile, or at least the diplomatic version of one. He wants the world to see Iran as the reasonable adult in the room. By calling it a “good start,” he is painting a picture. He is the artist of optics in **Middle East foreign policy**. He wants you to believe that progress is happening. But let’s be honest with ourselves. We have seen this play before. We know the script by heart. A diplomat says things are going well just to keep the markets calm and the cameras flashing. It is a performance. He is acting like a man who has just laid the foundation for a house, but in reality, he has just agreed to maybe, possibly, buy a shovel next year. It is a game of appearances, and he is playing his part perfectly.

Then there is the other side of the table. The United States. Notice the silence? It is loud, isn't it? While Araghchi is giving quotes and setting the narrative regarding these **strategic negotiations**, the American delegation is hiding in the bushes. They have yet to comment. This is classic behavior from a superpower that doesn't seem to know what it wants. They are terrified. If they admit the talks were good, they look soft to their critics back home. If they say the talks were bad, they look like failures. So, they choose option C: say absolutely nothing. They act like a teenager who stayed out past curfew and is trying to sneak back into the house without waking up their parents. It is cowardly. It shows a lack of conviction that is frankly embarrassing for a nation that claims to lead the free world.

The most laughable part of this whole charade is the result. What did they actually achieve? What was the fruit of this “good start”? They agreed to “continue negotiations at a later date.” Marvelous. Stunning. Groundbreaking. They had a meeting to agree to have another meeting. This is the definition of bureaucracy. It is a snake eating its own tail. In the real world, if you told your boss that you spent all day planning to do work next month, you would be fired. But in the world of high diplomacy, this is considered a success. It buys them time. It allows them to keep their jobs, stay in nice hotels, and pretend they are saving the planet.

Think about what “later date” really means. It is a black hole. It is a magical place where all the difficult decisions go to die. By pushing things to a “later date,” both sides can go home and tell their people whatever they want. Iran can say they stood strong. The U.S. can say they were tough. And the can gets kicked down the road, clattering over the same bumps it has hit for forty years. It is a delay tactic, pure and simple. They are buying time because they have no actual solutions. They are stalling because the truth—that they likely hate each other and have no common ground—is too ugly to speak out loud.

We need to ask ourselves why we keep falling for this. Why do we read these headlines and feel a tiny spark of hope? It is because we are desperate. We want to believe that the people in charge know what they are doing. We want to believe that there is a plan. But there isn't a plan. There is only the process. The process is the point. The meetings, the handshakes, the vague statements—that is the job. Solving the problem would put them out of business. If they actually fixed the relationship between the U.S. and Iran, what would all these experts and diplomats do with their time? They need the conflict. They need the tension.

So, Araghchi says it was a “good start.” Fine. Let him say it. But do not let them fool you. A “start” is easy. Anyone can start something. I can start writing a novel today, but that doesn't mean I will ever finish it. The road between a “good start” and an actual result is littered with the wrecks of a thousand other diplomatic missions that failed. Until ink is on paper, until actions change, until the silence from the U.S. turns into something real, this is just noise. It is just two groups of men in suits justifying their existence while the rest of us watch from the cheap seats, waiting for a climax that never comes.

***

### References & Fact-Check * **Event Date**: February 2026 * **Primary Source**: [Talks With U.S. Were ‘Good Start,’ Iran’s Foreign Minister Says (The New York Times)](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/world/europe/us-iran-talks-oman.html) * **Key Figures**: Abbas Araghchi (Iran Foreign Minister), U.S. Delegation. * **Context**: Ongoing indirect and direct diplomatic efforts in Oman regarding US-Iran relations.