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This morning, as the US-Israel war against Iran approaches its sixth week, Vice President Vance headed to Pakistan, where he plans to sit down with Iranian leaders. With a two-week ceasefire in jeopardy since Tuesday, both sides are at least ready to reach a resolution—but we shouldn’t expect any immediate results.
The temporary ceasefire has already broken down: On Wednesday, Israel carried out a major attack in Lebanon, killing more than 300 people and injuring more than 1,000. Iran says that Lebanon was part of the deal; The US and Israel disagree. In Pakistan, Vance is likely to push for an outright end to Iran’s nuclear program. The Iranians want to end the strikes, assert their right to nuclear enrichment, retain control of the Strait of Hormuz, and collect reparations for war damage, among other concessions. Today, an Iranian official he suggested that the government would delay negotiations until two new demands were met: an end to Israel’s attack on Lebanon, and the release of unspecified “blocked assets”. “If the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we’re certainly willing to extend an open hand,” Vance told reporters as he prepared to board the Second Air Force Base. “If they try to play us, then they will find that the negotiating team is not that acceptable.”
When the United States stayed with Iran in February to discuss ending the country’s nuclear program, did not go well: At the end of the month, the United States and Israel bombed Iran and killed its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. My colleague Nancy Youssef, a staff writer who covers the Pentagon and has been reporting on the talks, told me that this time, Iran has an open hand. Despite President Trump’s repeated claims of victory in the war, Iran is entering negotiations with a new step in the control of global energy markets, due to its blockade of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and thanks to the apparent courage of the country. “They were able to launch ballistic missiles despite the American attacks,” Nancy said. “They have shown that they can withstand the campaign, even the one that ended their leadership.” Despite suffering heavy losses, administration it remains the same.
Israel’s hostility is another complicating factor. The country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has continued to order strikes in Lebanon throughout the week; this morning, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said that an Israeli attack on a government building killed 13 people. Meanwhile, some American officials have begun to act as if the war is over. At a press conference on Wednesday, General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, presented a complete reading of the targets hit during the war, as well as other important statistics of the operation (among them: gallons of coffee consumed). The meeting was the last, Nancy said: It is more likely to get a complete statistical calculation at the end of a military operation than in the middle.
The Israelis may not share that view, because their interests in the region are ultimately different from those of the United States. “For Israel, the increase in gas prices was a small price to pay to eliminate what it saw as an existential threat,” Nancy explained—but, as the White House’s stated goals are, we know that “gas price volatility was a threat to U.S. interests, and the collapse of the government could lead to regional instability that could threaten its allies in the region.” Israel’s goals for war go beyond the destruction of Iran’s nuclear program—they are also about the collapse of the Islamic Republic. Netanyahu has said that the attacks against Lebanon are aimed at Hezbollah, one of the allies of the Iranian government. It is because the war with Iran has not ended the regime that is why Israel continues its attacks.
Nancy said that because the United States and Iran have very different views on what would end the war, the talks may not be concluded this weekend. Trump has said that US military assets will remain in the Middle East until an agreement is reached, but he is also beginning to think more broadly about cooperation. Earlier this week, he he told it ABC that he is considering a type of “partnership” with Iran: a tariff system to charge ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. “I think he was bringing a kind of proactive approach to it, because the war is over in his mind, and now there’s an opportunity to make a deal,” Nancy said. “I don’t know that the Iranians are coming that way.”
What would it take to make the fighting permanent? The tension between US and Israeli views on the war has already somehow jeopardized this temporary peace. Even if America and Iran somehow find a way to resolve their conflicting claims, the real obstacle, like Arash Azizi. he wrote yesterday, it is “less in practical details than if the two sides have enough political will to reconcile.” Both sides have reasons to come to the table, but a long-term resolution is not guaranteed.
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- According to the latest consumer price index report, the inflation per year it rose to 3.3 percent last month, mainly due to the impact of the Iran war on energy costs.
- At the meeting of the National Action Network, Kamala Harris he said he was “thinking” about running for president again in 2028.
- The American Commission on Fine Arts issued a 12 page plan for President Trump’s new triumphal arch, in Washington, DC The arch is expected to be 250 feet tall.
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Evening Read
Is Schoolwork Optional Now?
By Lila Shroff
William Liu is grateful that he finished high school when he graduated. If the latest AI tools had been around then, he told me, he might have been tempted to use them to do his homework. Liu, now a sophomore at Stanford, graduated high school in 2024. “I have a younger sister who is just graduating high school,” she said. “Our educational experiences have been very different, even though we are two years apart.”
By the time Liu graduated, ChatGPT was already causing a stir in the classroom. But school automation is increasing. If at first teachers were worried about students using chatbots to write essays, now new agent tools like Claude Code allow students to outsource more of their work to machines. Need to take an online math test? Want to write a biology lab report? Want to create a PowerPoint presentation for a history class? AI can do all this and more. A high school student recently told me that he was struggling to think of a single job that AI couldn’t do for him.
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Isabel Fattal contributed to this journal.
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