The U.S. and Iran reached a memorandum of understanding on Sunday extending the ceasefire by 60 days. It is set to be formally signed in Geneva on Friday. The text of the agreement has not yet been released, but Iran has agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, while the U.S. will lift its naval blockade. According to Iran, the deal calls for a permanent and immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts, including in Lebanon. But Israel, which is not a party to the agreement, says it plans to keep troops in parts of southern Lebanon. “The Israelis are trying to destroy this deal, and they will continue to try,” says Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. “It will require persistent, consistent pressure by Trump on the Israelis in order to hold them back.”
We also discuss how The Free Press, founded by Bari Weiss, published an article last week claiming the State Department had opened a probe into Parsi that could lead to his deportation. The State Department issued a statement just hours later claiming that it had “no plans to revoke the green card of Mr. Parsi at this time.”
“I do believe that there were elements inside the State Department that wanted to move in this direction,” says Parsi. “They thought that this hit piece would help move things forward, but I think, frankly, it backfired.”
Israel’s Netanyahu Says He Won’t Withdraw from Lebanon, Defying Terms of U.S. Deal with Iran, Israeli Attacks on Gaza Kill Four, Including Paramedic and His Son, Israeli Settlers Try to Burn Palestinians Alive in West Bank Arson Spree, Israel Jails Palestinian American Student Sama Safi Without Charges, Ukraine Strikes Moscow Oil Refinery as Kyiv Begins EU Accession Process, Haitian Immigrant’s Death Ruled a Homicide After ICE Abandons Her at Pittsburgh Bus Stop, U.S. Deports Belizean Immigrant Who Led Hunger Strike at Adelanto ICE Jail, Activists Demand Release of Milwaukee Muslim Leader Salah Sarsour from Indiana ICE Jail, NYT: White House Debated Suspending Habeas Corpus and Invoking Insurrection Act, U.K. to Ban Children Under 16 from Accessing Social Media, British Appeals Court Upholds Government Ban on Palestine Action Under Terrorism Act, South African Pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, Who Wrote Anti-Apartheid Anthem, Dies at 91
A US dronemaker is partnering with a Taiwanese tech firm to build scalable systems for the country’s military, as the rush to augment autonomous defense capabilities intensifies on both sides of the strait.
Moscow regularly recruits young men of various nationalities — the Starmer arsonists were Ukrainian-born — as proxies in its shadowy hybrid warfare campaigns,