Page A3From§Eachthe coffee break edition — 28 September 2026
As it ran on the front
On September 1st, at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kyrgyzstan, Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country would return to the ceasefire reached with Washington in June if the United States did the same. He said it after accusing the United States of having broken that ceasefire already.
Three weeks later, on September 23rd, at the United Nations, the president told the chamber he could either annihilate Iran or make a deal once the country's politics settled — reported as a choice between annihilation and a post-election deal. Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad was asked for her reaction; the network reported only that she shared her thoughts, not what they were. The choice framed at the UN as the president's to make had already been named as his by Tehran three weeks earlier.…
…(cont) Four days after that, on September 27th, Tehran put a number on the table: seven days, a phased reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, talks to follow. The president rejected it.
That is where this edition picks up. On Sunday, September 28th, Pezeshkian went on Face the Nation and told Margaret Brennan the same thing he'd said in Kyrgyzstan, this time on camera: the choice between war and diplomacy sits with the president now, and Iran would return to the ceasefire the moment Washington does. Within hours, the president told Axios he expects talks to resume this week anyway — not because the offer he rejected got better, but regardless of it. Neither government has moved off what it's demanding. The war has run seven months.
Say the sequence back in order: an offer to return to a ceasefire in September, an annihilation-or-deal line at the UN three weeks later, a seven-day proposal rejected four days after that, and the same offer restated on American television the following Sunday, answered not with acceptance or a counter but with a prediction that talks will happen anyway. Each step narrows to the same fact: the government being asked to choose has not chosen, and the government making the offer keeps making it in public, on camera, to an American audience, because the private channel has produced nothing to report.
The president gets to say he expects talks. Iran gets to say the choice was his from the start. Both statements can be true at the same time, and the war continues under both of them.
“He gets to reject the offer and predict the outcome of the offer he rejected, and nobody in that room makes him pick one. Iran's president said the same thing on American television this week that he said in Kyrgyzstan three weeks back — the choice is Trump's — and Trump's answer is to expect talks regardless of what he just turned down. That's not diplomacy, that's a coin flip where only one guy holds the coin.”
“The president rejected a seven-day proposal because seven days isn't a deal, it's a stall tactic, and he's not negotiating on Tehran's clock. Now, is it a little strange that he then told Axios he expects talks to resume this week anyway, on basically nobody's clock but his own? Did I say that? Look — being tough on the offer and open to the talks are two separate things, and I'm sticking with that.”
Earlier in this story
The receipts
Trump promised he'd settle the Russia-Ukraine war within 24 hours - CNN counted 53 separate times he said it CNN fact check, 25 April 2025 (all 53 instances)
Trump says he expects Iran talks to continuePresident Trump told Axios he expects talks with Iran to continue this week, after rejecting its most recent ceasefire proposal that included a phased reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Ed O'Keefe has the latest.
Trump promised Ukraine war would be settled within 24 hours - CNN counted 53 separate such promises CNN fact check, 25 April 2025 (all 53 instances)
Iran says it's up to Trump to choose between war and diplomacyAs the war with Iran hits the 7-month mark, Trump tells Axios he expects talks to resume despite neither side signaling willingness to change demands.
Trump promised he'd settle the Russia-Ukraine war within 24 hours - CNN counted 53 separate times he said it CNN fact check, 25 April 2025 (all 53 instances)
Trump says he expects Iran talks to resume this week, President Pezeshkian speaks outPresident Trump says he expects talks with Tehran to resume this week. This comes after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian spoke to "Face The Nation" moderator Margaret Brennan about a potential peace deal with the U.S. Courtney Kealy has more.
Trump promised on 53 separate occasions that a war would be settled within 24 hours of him meeting the leaders involved CNN fact check, 25 April 2025 (all 53 instances)
Trump expects more talks after rejecting latest Iranian proposalPresident Trump said Sunday he expects U.S. officials to negotiate further with their Iranian counterparts this week, after he rejected a seven-day ceasefire proposal from Tehran. "I expect more talks with Iran [this week].
· Iran’s president says Iran would return to ceasefire deal if the US does from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026
· Iranian dissident reacts to Trump's promise to either annihilate Iran or make a post-election deal from the morgue, 23 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.