Talks over Iran's nuclear programme might be extended if disagreement over remaining issues cannot be resolved by a November deadline, Iran's top negotiator was quoted as saying on Friday, in the first hint an extension was being contemplated.
 

Iran’s President, Hassan Rouhani, did not shake hands with Barack Obama at the United Nations this week, a year after their celebrated cell-phone chat. The two men didn’t even pass each other in the hallway. But Rouhani did give a quiet dinner at his hotel on Tuesday for twenty former American officials—including a secretary of state, three national-security advisers, and a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—from all six Administrations since the 1979 revolution.

North Korea's use of captured or detained Americans to score propaganda points and extract political concessions from Washington has a long history stretching back to the Cold War, but analysts say the tactic may be wearing thin. The isolated state currently has three American citizens in detention -- Kenneth Bae, Matthew Miller and Jeffrey Fowle.

The same diplomatic maneuvering is practiced in any series of international negotiations, but in this case, the fog of diplomacy was more dense than usual. One reason is that the Obama administration felt that it had to manage the public discourse about the negotiations in the United States to avoid losing control of public opinion to the pro-Israeli right in Congress.

The lines between the World Cup and diplomacy have always been blurry. On Tuesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry wrote an opinion piecein the Washington Post about the need to reach a comprehensive nuclear deal with Iran, as the 20 July deadline to reach a final agreement rapidly draws near. Perhaps with sport on his mind, he wrote: "There may be pressure to put more time on the clock."