Beware diplomats bearing fact sheets; they rarely reveal the whole truth. The nuclear negotiations in Lausanne have already produced three separate fact sheets, issued by the United States, Iran and France, each highlighting different aspects of the emerging agreement. But under all three versions, Iran’s oil exports are likely to rise in 2016. The battle of the fact sheets confirms the first rule of analysis: never trust a summary produced by someone else, always go back to the original documents. In this instance, there is no final document setting out all the undertakings by the various parties because there are still significant areas of disagreement. By reading the fact sheets side by side, however, the outlines of an eventual deal between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) are now reasonably clear. The basic bargain allows Iran to […]