Laying the Groundwork for Talks With Iran?

Jim Arkedis has a provocative suggestion that the recent trend of administration officials talking down the prospects of talks with Iran is a kind of smokescreen designed to facilitate . . . talks with Iran:

Ross has been a staunch advocate of direct, secret back-channel diplomacy with Iran, and his addition to the equation may have something to do with this leak about Secretary Clinton’s “doubts”. Her remarks could have a one-two punch of lowering expectations for success with Iran while providing a bit of political cover to begin those hush-hush conversations that Ross is so fond of.

This could be right. But then again, the problem with this kind of speculation is that there’d be no way for an external observer to distinguish this approach from the approach of an administration that had just decided for some reason to abandon serious efforts at diplomacy with Iran.