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Topic:Unrest, Conflict and War
Mon 22 Jun 2026 at 6:33am
Abbas Araghchi (centre) is in Switzerland for talks with the US. (AP: Urs Flueeler)
Hello, ABC Middle East correspondent Matthew Doran in Jerusalem here.
It's now 114 days since the war between the US, Israel and Iran began, and four days since the US and Iran signed their interim deal to halt the hostilities ahead of more detailed negotiations.
We're back in the "Donald Trump Social Media Threat Spiral" after a couple of days of relative calm.
It's an unsettlingly familiar place the world finds itself in, even as Mr Trump's 2IC says talks with Iran at the luxurious Bürgenstock resort may begin a process of fundamentally changing the dynamic between the two nations.
"What the president has asked us to do is turn over a new leaf to transform our relationship with the people of Iran and to extend an outstretched hand," Mr Vance said.
The US vice-president might be talking up the idea of a "new leaf", but his boss is already using the old tactics which have been witnessed multiple times since this war began on February 28.
Clearly frustrated that not everything is going as swimmingly as he assumed it would when he signed the deal last week, the president is back to threatening to bomb Iran if it does not stick to the deal.
"You close [the Strait of Hormuz] and you won't have a country," Mr Trump said he'd told Iranian officials, during a phone interview with Fox News. "You won't even make it back to your f***ing country."
All the while, Iran is threatening retaliation if the US does not pull Israel into line in Lebanon.
Mr Trump has made fiery threats of violence before and failed to follow through. So, anything he says along these lines needs to be viewed in that context.
But it paints a picture of just how difficult this next negotiating period will be. The interim deal does not even really deal with the more prickly issues around the future of Iran's nuclear aspirations.
"We will not submit to force, oppression and humiliation," Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in remarks broadcast on state television.
"We will not give up the right to [nuclear] enrichment either. And they have to accept that."
Analysis by Matthew Doran
Analysis by Matthew Doran
Topic:World Politics
Topic:Unrest, Conflict and War
Topic:Unrest, Conflict and War
As I've been saying for the last few weeks now, what happens in Lebanon is going to be crucial.
This is the front line in the war, and it's now at the heart of the negotiations between the US and Iran on maintaining a lasting peace.
At the same time, the White House is trying to run a separate peace process between Israel and Lebanon, not including Hezbollah.
Further talks are expected in the US in the middle of this week, and there's speculation Lebanese President Joseph Aoun may visit Washington in coming weeks. Certainly that's what Mr Trump thinks will happen.
The withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon will be crucial to any peace process, be it the negotiations between Iran and the US or the talks between Israel and Lebanon.
If Mr Trump does pressure Mr Netanyahu to pull out of Lebanon it will put the Israeli prime minister in a very difficult position.
Mr Netanyahu will face an election in coming months, with a poll required before the end of October. He's already facing the dual accusations of mismanaging the war in Lebanon and mismanaging Israel's relationship with the United States, which his political opponents are having a field day with.
His supporters in the Israeli media are railing against the Iran deal and urging him to dismiss it.
One commentator on the right-wing Channel 14, often seen as a mouthpiece for the Netanyahu government, posted an AI image on X last week showing Mr Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, on bended knee, kissing the hand of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamanei.
"This is a complete surrender," Shimon Riklin said on X. "To the Prime Minister, we say: be strong and courageous. Do not fear and do not be dismayed."
Another presenter used the moniker "Donald Hussein Trump", taking on the president's loaded criticism of his predecessor Barack Obama, who negotiated the last Iran deal, and applying it to the current occupant of the White House. It's this sort of rhetoric that prompted Mr Vance to warn Israelis that the US was Israel's only ally left in the world.
As the longest-serving prime minister in his country's history, Mr Netanyahu has an uncanny survival ability. But balancing the demands at home and in Washington could test even his powers of strategy, negotiation and influence.
All the while, the real-world consequences of this deadly war continue to play out.
Given we are now in an extended ceasefire for the next 60 days, this will be our last weekly wrap-up of what's going down in the Middle East, at least for the time being.
But of course, we'll be updating you on the latest news as and when it happens.
Mon 22 Jun 2026 at 6:33am
Mon 22 Jun 2026 at 2:04pm
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