There is an old Roman formulation — vae victis, woe to the vanquished — that captures something Iran’s negotiators appear constitutionally incapable of internalizing. The three-stage proposal Tehran has submitted to Washington is not a serious attempt to end the war. It is an attempt to reassemble leverage that no longer exists.

The logic of Iran’s offer runs as follows: first, establish a guarantee against resumed hostilities and reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for lifting the U.S. naval blockade. Second, discuss — at some unspecified later point — a freeze on uranium enrichment for up to fifteen years. Third, initiate a “strategic dialogue” with the regional community to build a new security architecture. Read charitably, this is a sequencing preference. Read accurately, it is a request to surrender American leverage in exchange for promises about conversations that have not yet begun.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) pushed back sharply Monday on reports that Iran has floated a new offer to resolve the current crisis — one that would lift the blockade and reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for deferring the harder questions about its nuclear program and support for terrorism.

Graham said he didn’t know how accurate the reporting was, but found it entirely believable — and entirely unacceptable.

“I understand why Iran would make that offer,” Graham wrote, which is another way of saying: of course a cornered regime would try to trade the one card it’s holding for breathing room, while leaving its core assets intact. The strait is leverage. The nuclear program is the prize. Handing back the leverage while keeping the prize is not a deal — it’s a stall.