We now have an idea—sort of—of what the United States is aiming for in its ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran. Long story short: It’s not as bad as initial reports suggested, but it’s not great either.

Over the weekend, the United States presented Iran with the outline of a proposal authored by U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. As first reported by Axios on Monday, the deal looked horrific. The headline was that Washington was demanding neither an end to Iran’s uranium enrichment nor a full dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear facilities—notwithstanding repeated statements from Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio that both points represented U.S. redlines. Instead, the United States was allegedly calling on Iran to stop building new enrichment facilities, halt new research and development on centrifuges, and “dismantle critical infrastructure for conversion and processing of uranium,” all while allowing Iran to “temporarily” continue enriching uranium at the...