The first round of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran concluded Monday morning in Switzerland with both sides agreeing to “a road map” to reach a final deal within 60 days.
By Zack Linly
Get Up Mornings with Erica Campbell
https://getuperica.com/
At this point, it feels like all world leaders involved in negotiations regarding the war in Iran, especially those of the United States government, are treating the war like it’s some TV drama we’re all binging, and every update is actually a cliffhanger to keep us in suspense before the next episode. While cliffhangers are fine for fiction, this is a real war with real bombs and missiles, real deaths, and a reeeeaaally inflated military budget. This is real life, not Game of Thrones. (Actually, this is a little like the last season of GOT, but y’all know what I mean.)
According to a statement by mediators from Qatar and Pakistan, the first round of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran concluded Monday morning in Switzerland with both sides agreeing to “a road map” to reach a final deal within 60 days and establish a communication line “to avoid incidents” in the Strait of Hormuz.
See what I mean? I feel like I’m going to have to start every new Iran war update report with a “previously on Trump’s Iran Debacle…” recap.
Just last week, we reported that U.S. officials dictated the 14 points of the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran to reporters over the phone, and that the MOU included a $3 billion payout to Iran, a ceasefire, a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the same agreement by Iran not to develop a nuclear weapon that we had under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015, minus the regular monitoring of Iranian facilities, and, if both parties can agree to it all, the signing of an actual peace deal within, you guessed it, 60 days. (Actually, you might have guessed “two weeks,” since that’s the president’s usual go-to time frame, but that was last season of this poorly written drama. I know, it’s pretty hard to follow.)
The week before the 14 points were read out by U.S. officials, President Donald Trump had lashed out at the Iranian government for reportedly leaking details of the MOU, likely because it just seems like Trump caved to Iranian demands to end his increasingly unpopular war.
Also, as the peace negotiations in Switzerland began over the weekend, Iran, once again, closed the Strait because a provisional ceasefire was, once again, violated, leading to Trump, once again, threatening to obliterate Iran.
From the Guardian:
Also overshadowing negotiations in Bürgenstock was Tehran’s announcement it had again closed the strait of Hormuz, a threat made because of ongoing Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon.
In apparent reference to the Tehran-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, Trump on Sunday posted on his Truth Social platform: “Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble. If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!”
Speaking to Fox News, the US president also threatened to take over the Hormuz strait and appeared to threaten to kidnap the Iranian negotiators, saying: “You close it and you won’t have a country. You won’t even make it back to your fucking country.”
Trump’s threats prompted the negotiators to walk out of the high-stakes discussions in protest.
So, once again, possibly the biggest threat to peace negotiations in the Middle East is Trump’s big, bloated, butthole-shaped mouth.
Anyway, moderators seem really confident that this time, things are going swimmingly.
From NPR:
The statement added that “encouraging progress” had been made and announced an “immediate commencement of technical talks.” It was unclear who would lead the technical talks.
At the end of Monday’s talks, Vice President JD Vance told reporters that Tehran agreed to invite International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors back into the country, which, he said, “a major milestone for the American people and the first step in permanently denuclearising or permanently ending a nuclear weapons program in Iran.”
On Iran’s nuclear program, one of the key issues in these talks, a U.S. diplomat who was not authorized to speak publicly, said there were “robust discussions on all elements of the nuclear deal.” The joint statement by Qatar and Pakistan said the U.S. and Iran agreed to establish a committee that will focus on issues such as nuclear monitoring and sanctions.
“We plan to continue working through each of these issues and using today’s work as a starting point for ongoing technical talks going forward,” the U.S. diplomat said.
Negotiators also agreed on a framework to end the military operations in Lebanon, according to the statement. Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said “major progress” had been made to end the war in Lebanon. He also added that “oil and petrol exports are waived, blockade lifted, some frozen assets released, and major reconstruction & development plan launched for Iran.”
Araghchi called the creation of “a de-confliction cell,” the framework meant to end the fighting in Lebanon, the “1st real test” of the negotiating process.
Ahhh, so the monitoring of Iranian facilities is back on the table. Sounds like we might be on our way to a more expensive version of the same deal we had with the JCPOA, which, of course, went into effect under President Barack Obama.
