Telling terrorists that you want a deal is dumb. It allows them to set the terms of negotiations and whether it’s in Israel, Afghanistan, or Iran, it always backfires badly. So instead of just being able to “restore the deal,” Iran has dragged out the process.

Biden has arranged with other countries, like South Korea, to funnel cash as sanctions relief to the terrorists, but he can’t get the overall deal done. So his administration is proposing sanctions relief in exchange for an “interim freeze” that would be even more worthless than the previous deal.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan raised with his Israeli counterpart the idea of an interim agreement with Iran to buy more time for nuclear negotiations, three Israeli and U.S. sources tell me.

Why it matters: The idea is only preliminary, and the Biden administration continues to insist that the full 2015 nuclear deal be restored. But with nuclear talks set to resume in Vienna on Nov. 29, it provides a window into at least some of the thinking inside the administration.

The thinking here is pretty clear.

According to the U.S. sources, the idea was that in exchange for a freeze from Iran (for example, on enriching uranium to 60%), the U.S. and its allies could release some frozen Iranian funds or provide sanctions waivers on humanitarian goods.

More the former than the latter.

You can bet that the freeze would not be enforceable and not subject to any real monitoring. And that it would become the basis for the next deal… which is what Iran really wants.

Hulata told Sullivan he thought it wasn’t a good idea and stressed the Israeli concern that any interim deal will become a permanent agreement that allows Iran to maintain its nuclear infrastructure and uranium stockpile, an Israeli official said.

No, it won’t. It may even last long enough until Iran detonates a nuke.