Peloni
Screengrab via X
Representatives from the US, Iran, Pakistan, and Qatar met in Switzerland on Sunday for a new round of discussions aimed at advancing what would be only the beginning of the implementation of the recently signed memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran. The talks were held at the Bürgenstock mountain resort in Switzerland and they were intended to follow up on commitments outlined in the agreement signed earlier this week.
The Iranian delegation arrived in Switzerland on Saturday ahead of the talks. It included Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf. U.S. Vice President JD Vance arrived on Sunday morning, while U.S. Special Envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff were also reported to be in Switzerland for the negotiations. Pakistan’s delegation, including Sharif and the country’s chief of staff, arrived in Zurich on Sunday.
Naturally as water being wet, the first point of discussion in the talks was the topic of Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, even as neither Israel, Hezbollah nor Lebanon are present to address their own interests as they understand them. Instead the Iranians are working with the Pakistanis and the Qataris to convince VP Vance to corner Israel, to ignore Lebanon and to save Hezbollah. What is frightening in all of this is that the reality of Vance succumbing to the demands made by these nations, none of which recognize Israel’ existence, remains at the forefront of the onlookers of this International conference which raises Iran to a position of dominance which they do not deserve and which only emboldens them to maintain what Trump and Vance have described as bad behavior. Indeed, take note of the scheme by which Iran manipulates America to pressure Israel by directing Hezbollah so as to create further crises which serially increase delays and limit Israel’s freedom of action in Lebanon.
To this point, while claiming that Israel has full freedom of action, while Israel responds to approaching imminent threats, the IDF is restrained from responding to any of the supporting networks or infrastructure which make these threats both possible and inevitable.
Notably, amid the morning discussions, and likely in response to this scheme being played out one more time, Trump issued the following statement while talks in Switzerland were taking place:
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!!! President DONALD J. TRUMP
This is an obvious corollary which should have been made clear to Iran when Trump foolishly agreed to the linkage between Israel’s war with Hezbollah and the US negotiations with Iran weeks ago.
This comes on the heels of Fox News reporting overnight that if the negotiations fail, Trump would seize the Strait of Hormuz and charge fees for having needed to do so.
The result of all of this is that the Iranians have walked away from the talks currently, while describing it as only a pause in the discussions and demanding that Israel withdraw from Lebanon.
While Israel is not a party to the negotiations in Switzerland, it has been used as a point of manipulation by its American ally to barter away Israeli interests to keep Iran active in its negotiations with Vance. This must not be continued, and Trump’s statement regarding the warning to Iran about Hezbollah could represent an important first step towards turning the fiction of Israel’s freedom of action into reality. Israel must seek out and destroy Hezbollah’s infrastructure which has been used to achieve deadly successes in recent days, and America should support her towards achieving this goal. What is more, Trump should instead follow thru on one or two of the many threats he has made to Iran for their bad behavior, and I would argue that ‘pausing’ the negotiations would be a ripe example of what should comprise any assessment of bad behavior in this context. So instead of restraining Israel, or chastising the tactics of using precision bombing, something that Trump did not pursue in dealing with Mosul, Trump should show the Iranians that his threats are more than paper promises, which seems to be the weight which they are being given by the representatives of the Cardboard Khomeini and his radical, yes radical, IRGC leadership who are not impressed with unfulfilled promises, be they be made by Trump, Bibi or anyone else.
Sources:
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-899990
The only point to be made here is that they are trying to reach an agreement o behalf of the victims without even asking them if this is what they want. Why didn’t they ask Germany and Japan after WW2? Instead, they made themselves the veto powers in the UN where Israel never gets a temporary seat on the UNSC, but a permanent seat in the dock.
Trump’s Shocking Turnaround
https://open.substack.com/pub/lel817/p/trumps-shocking-turnaround?r=1q2uiq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
How many times is he going to cry wolf?