Speaking in Isfahan on Thursday, Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, announced that Iran’s nuclear program had crossed another important threshold and now Iran could rightfully claim to have mastered the nuclear cycle. In addition to the usual boasting about more centrifuges, there is something significant in this latest step taken by Iran. Ahmadinejad was in Isfahan to open a new nuclear fuel plant, which could produce uranium pellets to feed Iran’s heavy water reactor in Arak — a facility which Iran to this day refuses to open to inspections.

According to Secretary of state, Hilary Clinton, Iran’s latest announcement of progress is not a rebuff of U.S. overtures toward the Islamic Republic.

We could not agree more. Iran does not rebuff overtures. It never does. It uses them to improve its position in a never-ending diplomatic dance. The point is not to reach a compromise, but to keep its adversaries talking while Iran nears the finish line.