Iran, Lebanon and the U.S.-Israeli “Ceasefire” Matrix

About this episode

The episode discusses the failed U.S.-Iran negotiations and the ongoing conflict between Israel and Lebanon amidst ceasefire talks.

Negotiations in Islamabad between Iran and the United States this past weekend ran for 21 hours from Saturday into Sunday and failed to produce a deal. When Vice President JD Vance emerged from the talks, he said that the U.S. had presented Iran with its “final and best offer,” framing the impasse around nuclear specifically—a framing Iran rejected. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who helped lead the Iranian delegation, said Iran and the U.S. were “inches away” from an “Islamabad MoU” following “intensive talks at highest level in 47 years,” but the talks fell through because of U.S. “maximalism, shifting goalposts and blockade.” Meanwhile, as Israel continued to bombard Lebanon on Tuesday and Hezbollah conducted retaliatory attacks, Israeli and Lebanese government officials met in Washington, DC, for their highest-level direct talks in decades. In the run-up to the meeting, Lebanon’s presidency said the talks would focus on announcing a ceasefire and setting a start date for bilateral talks. However, Israel has said it would not discuss a ceasefire during the talks and instead would focus on disarming Hezbollah and establishing peaceful relations between Israel and…

People in this episode

Hosts: Jeremy Scahill, Sharif Abdel Kouddous

Topics covered

• U.S.-Iran negotiations
• Middle East conflict
• Israel-Lebanon relations
• Hezbollah
• Ceasefire discussions
• Nuclear talks

Keywords

• Iran
• United States
• Israel
• Lebanon
• Hezbollah
• ceasefire
• nuclear negotiations
• JD Vance
• Abbas Araghchi

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Hezbollah

Places: Iran, United States, Lebanon, Israel, Islamabad, Washington, DC

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