Pure cope! This article is just an unofficial way of begging Iran to stop.

The americans just want everything to calm down because they know they cant win. They are using the nyt to try to tell everyone that all the exchanges are just "face saving" because if this goes on much longer america will be unable to hide that is it a paper tiger. What they don't seem to get is that Iran is no longer willing to let anyone "save face." They tried that and they got fucked over. trump bragged about tricking Iran with negotiations. So now Iran will not stop until it's message is clear, "fuck around and find out"