The game here seems to be that America says they'll negotiate terms with Iran, but only clarifies those terms to Iranian negotiators. Then Iran goes to the press saying what America outlined, then America denies all of it and then launches another attack.

I truly do not understand what America's game is here. It's gotta be something like instigating Iran into doing something egregious out of frustration, then claiming Iran is an unreliable bad actor? And negotiations can't be concluded? It probably doesn't help that the American admin doesn't seem to be in full agreement about what the war is even for. There are some camps that want a full counter revolution, some that want Iran's military destroyed, some that only want to secure oil shipping lanes, etc. It probably doesn't help that the Zionist Entity doesn't give a shit and simply wants America and Iran fighting with no plausible end or negotiation. The Zionists simply want global exhaustion and constant warfare.

The problem here is that Iran doesn't seem to be run by complete dipshits. They know exactly how much leeway they have and how much pressure they can exert, which so far seems to be quite a bit. Furthermore, Iran simply has one goal, which is existential self-defense, not some mismanaged scattering of contradictory goals. So that probably makes their war effort much more straightforward.