The US delusion ...

An apartment shattered by an airstrike in Tehran on Monday.
Credit...Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times

Interesting pix from the Times as the above pix shows Iran to be a modern country. Japanese backhoe, emergency guys dressed with precision and modern apartment building, which means Iran is a real nation with real resources and resolve and ... they are not going anywhere as indigenous parties, as often stated before in BRT, don't have to win, just outlast.

The US delusion ... 

Iran may have trouble delivering a quick response to American outreach. Senior Iranian officials have been struggling to communicate internally and they worry that Israel could bomb them if they meet in person, the officials added.

On the first day of the war, Israel struck an Iranian leadership compound in Tehran, killing Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and many other top officials. Who now holds the power to make decisions on diplomacy, war and peace remains to be seen.

But the eagerness of the White House to negotiate suggests that Mr. Trump would be willing to leave the current regime in place, at least for now, albeit in a weakened and more pliant state. He and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel have vacillated on whether their demands for the war included regime change.

Ah, no. Analysts have stated 40 -50% of Iran's ordinance remains intact
and ready to be launched as needs warrant. 

And this. 

Iran says it has no plans for negotiations with the U.S.
President Trump said this week his administration was engaged in productive
discussions with Tehran, but regime officials countered that account.

If Iran was so desperate, why the rejection?

At the beginning of the conflict with Israel and the US, Iran had about 2,500 ballistic missiles that could be fired either from the back of trucks or from underground silos, according to the Alma Research Centre, an Israeli think tank.

That has been reduced to about 1,000 missiles, the centre estimates in a new report.

Mussa Qawasma/Reuters

Missiles now routinely hit Israel as the interceptors are in critically short supply and Israel must ration what's left to protect it's citizens. As proof, Dimona, Israel's nuclear facility, has been successfully struck twice. Dimona, previously, had the most heavily protected air space in the country. 

Israel's health ministry says 180 people were injured - some seriously - in Iranian missile strikes on two southern Israeli towns close to a nuclear facility.

The ministry says 116 people were injured in Arad and another 64 in Dimona, after ballistic missiles hit the towns on Saturday evening.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says it is not aware of any damage to the nuclear research facility located about 13km (eight miles) outside Dimona.

Iranian state TV earlier said the strikes were in response to an attack on Iran's Natanz nuclear facility on Saturday.

It's not the damage or lack thereof that counts, it's the fact Iran can hit the facility.

The fog of war continues ...