Former C.I.A. analyst Ray McGovern and ex-U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter join The World This Week to discuss the latest developments in the Iran war as Trump’s realtors head back to Islamabad. 8 pm EDT, Saturday.
Guests: Ray McGovern and Scott Ritter. Interviewer: Joe Lauria. Producer: Cathy Vogan.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is already in Islamabad with a written proposal to end the war to present to the United States. The Iranian foreign ministry says the proposal will be transmitted through Pakistani mediators and not directly to Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the New York real estate agents that Donald Trump has sent to the Pakistani capital on Saturday.
Vice President J.D. Vance, who led the U.S. side in the failed talks earlier this month, is being held behind in Washington . He “is on standby and will be willing to dispatch to Pakistan if we feel it’s a necessary use of his time,” said Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary.
Huge differences remain in the standoff between the two sides in a war that has been on hold since Trump blinked and extended a ceasefire “indefinitely” last Tuesday. Iran wants sanctions lifted and assets unfrozen; an end to the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports; a vow of U.S. non-aggression and the removal of U.S. troops from the Middle East.
The U.S. wants the Strait of Hormuz opened, an end to nuclear enrichment by Iran and a hidden stockpile of 60 percent enriched uranium. It seems the U.S. is no longer demanding that Iran give up its ballistic missile defense.
There could be room for a deal on the enrichment issue. At the first round of talks, Iran proposed a five-year, monitored suspension of all nuclear enrichment, even though Iran is permitted to enrich under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT). The U.S. countered with a proposal for a 20-year suspension.
Before Trump had agreed to extend the ceasefire indefinitely, he threatened to destroy Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure. Iran has vowed to retaliate in kind against Gulf Arab states and Israel. A resumption of hostilities promises to bring about extensive regional destruction that would plunge the world into a long-term economic crisis of historic proportions.
1917 Again in Russia?
McGovern and Ritter will also discuss the battlefield in Ukraine and the domestic situation in Russia after the leader of the main opposition party, Russian Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, told the State Duma: “If you don’t quickly take measures – financial, economic and other measures -then by autumn what await us is what happened in 1917.”
