US-Israeli strikes continue across Iran, with pharmaceutical companies and steel plants in Isfahan and Farokhshahr hit.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi tells Al Jazeera he has no faith in talks with the US, and says that while he has had messages from Washington, no negotiations are under way.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz says homes in southern Lebanon will be demolished and hundreds of thousands of displaced Lebanese won’t be allowed to return.
We haven’t heard anything yet [from the Iranians] by way of reaction to these latest statements by the US president.
But when we look at the statements from the Iranian leaders over the last several weeks and last few days, the likelihood is that they will consider the US ending of the war without a deal a kind of triumph and victory for Iran.
This is because they don’t want any conditions to be imposed on them, and they don’t see the prospects for conditions that will be good for Iran in the 15 points proposed by the US.
If the US leaves, Iran will also consider it an open ended situation, and Iran will be preparing itself again for a resumption of these escalations.
Israel though is the elephant in the room here.The Israelis haven’t really made their intentions very clear, except when they talk about the need to continue the war.
And we have Lebanon. We have the Israeli invasion of south Lebanon, and that front is very much linked with the war here. The Iranians are saying they can’t abandon their Lebanese allies, and they will not stop if the Israelis continue that invasion in south Lebanon.
