The next round of negotiations with the Iranians will take place on Monday in Vienna. It will be interesting to see if the same Iranians show up, or if the mullahs are treating this as a tag-team match. Either way, we can expect them to insult us and declare victory.

Ayatollah Jannati, the effective supreme leader with Khamenei incapacitated, gave a public account (at his Friday sermon) of his debrief of Saeed Talili, the chief Iranian negotiator at Geneva (and Secretary of the National Security Council). On Jannati’s account, chief American negotiator William Burns three times asked for private talks, but Talili declined each time. Then in the last session Burns came and sat next to Talili. Burns asked “What about uranium?” Talili said “This case is closed; there is nothing to talk about.” Burns then replied, “What about human rights?” And Talili said “I am glad to see that President Obama has stopped torture in America.”

Some White House or State Department correspondent should ask if this account bears any resemblance to the truth. If it does, the much-ballyhooed “deal” with Iran doesn’t look good.