Just in time for the debate between President Obama and Governor Romney on foreign policy, the New York Times is reporting that the White House and the mullahs in Iran have “agreed” to what the Times says would be “one-on-one negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.” Fox News is reporting that the White House is denying the report. The Times calls the agreement a “last ditch diplomatic effort to avert a military strike on Iran.” It looks to us like a last-ditch diplomatic effort to avert the election of Governor Romney as the 45th president.

We’ve said it before, but let us say it again — the Sun is opposed to a diplomatic settlement with Iran’s regime. Such a settlement would leave the mullahs free to try to evade whatever limits they might, ostensibly, accept. It would leave them free to back Hezbollah and Hamas and other enemies of Israel. It would leave them free to deny democracy to their own citizens. And it would leave them free to threaten not only Israel but the rest of the Middle East and to work on an entente with Egypt, among others, to encircle the Jewish state.

Even discounting for our own view, the agreement to talk being reported by the Times this evening is troubling on its face. One could call it a kind of diplomatic October surprise, save that it’s not all that surprising. It seems just like the desperate kind of politics over to which this administration has given itself. It is a mark of cynicism that the administration is prepared to unveil this kind of demarche on the eve of the one formal presidential debate in respect of foreign policy.

This is a moment for Mr. Romney to remember the lessons of Munich. It is not necessary to liken the mullahs to Hitler to keep in mind that the big mistake at Munich turned out to be not simply the deal that was made there, though that was mistake enough. The mistake was going to Munich in the first place. The mistake was in the delusion on the part of Prime Minister Chamberlain and Premier Daladier that there was no danger in simply talking with Hitler. In the end the talking was the appeasement.

We’ve made that point before in these columns. But it was never so timely as it is this evening. The betting is that in the debate at Boca Raton, Mr. Obama is going to try to paint Mr. Romney as trigger happy and bent on yet another war. This is what Vice President Biden attempted in his debate with Congressman Ryan. This is a moment to remember that being too hardline is rarely the route to war. The more traveled road to war is being too eager to appease.

To say that we’re against a diplomatic settlement is not the same as saying the only solution to the Iranian threat lies in war. The ideal way to resolve this standoff is for the democratic factions in Iran to defeat the mullahs at home. That is a point President Reagan made a part of his global strategy. President Bush grasped the point, as well. If the Obama administration is supporting a strategy, it is doing so with such secretly that it has not been picked up the press in the West. That would be understandable and even admirable, but it can only be undercut by sitting down and trying to cut a deal with the very mullahs who need to be overthrown.