Aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Donald Trump said he would rather make a deal than kill people, that talks were already the form of the negotiation, and that "it begins tomorrow afternoon." [1] He named no venue and no delegation. Monday is that tomorrow. The war he launched on February 28 as Operation Epic Fury is five months old; the Monday slot is the latest substitute for a document.

Iran's answer landed on the same clock. Baghaei said no U.S. talks were underway, no meetings were scheduled, and no foreign delegations were expected. [1] The pattern is now the story: announce massive attacks, cancel them, cite talks Tehran will not confirm.

AP carried Trump on Monday calling new talks Iran's "last chance." [2] Last chance is a threat dressed as a calendar. The only talks Tehran will name are Oman talks on the strait, not a White House afternoon. The August 1 record of continued Hormuz attacks on civilian vessels did not pause for the Sunday postponement. [3] France 24 called the same sequence a bluff Tehran declined to honor. [1] Status today or tomorrow is a presidential tense. It is not a signed hour in Muscat.

-- SAMUEL CRANE, Washington