Mohamad Elmasry of the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies says US-Iran talks remain in a “holding pattern” because Washington is misjudging the pain it is inflicting on the Iranian regime.

“Trump keeps talking about how everything’s just going to explode within a matter of days. My sense is that that’s not accurate, that Iran could actually hold out for some time, and they believe at least that they have time on their side,” he told Al Jazeera.

Elmasry said Iran is pushing for a short-term agreement to start with because it has a more realistic view of how difficult negotiations over its nuclear programme can be.

“The reasons why the Iranians are saying, let’s make this sort of patchwork agreement and then we’ll hold off on the nuclear file, is because I think they recognise that the nuclear negotiation is going to be very time-consuming and very complicated,” he was quoted as saying.

“The Iranians have a lot of experience in this arena, unlike the Trump administration, which is very inexperienced on the nuclear file. It’s not something that can come together in just a few hours or just a few days.”