Iran is unlikely to accept a deal that the U.S. can portray as victory

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Laura James, Deputy Director and Senior Middle East Analyst at Oxford Analytica says while Iran-US diplomacy could produce a near-term deal to ease tensions, a lasting settlement remains unlikely because Iran wants continued leverage over the Strait of Hormuz and cannot accept an outcome portrayed as a US victory. She adds that resource depletion is not an immediate constraint for now, but Washington does face a choice between ending strikes or expanding to riskier targets.