NY Times takes loose talk of war to Sunday's A1

Here's the first paragraph of the Sunday's NYT's big Iran exclusive:

WASHINGTON — The United States and Iran have agreed in principle for the first time to one-on-one negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, according to Obama administration officials, setting the stage for what could be a last-ditch diplomatic effort to avert a military strike on Iran.

This language -- "setting the stage for what could be a last-ditch diplomatic effort to avert a military strike on Iran" -- is the kind of nonsense that neoconservatives have pushed for a long time. They had a big breakthrough on this in early March, when suddenly a range of media outlets became convinced there was a "crisis" over Iran. President Obama rightly criticized the "loose talk of war" at the time; at some point it died down (the end of the Republican presidential primary may have helped).

Now the New York Times is putting it on its front page.

Note that the Times is careful to use "Iran's nuclear program" as opposed to "Iran's nuclear weapons program" -- they've gotten burned previously on stating that Iran has a nuclear weapons program. But the distinction is likely to be lost and confused on the Sunday shows and going forward.