Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Vice-President JD Vance have landed in Switzerland for direct talks to implement the MOU signed by President Donald Trump at the Versailles Palace and coordinate the release of frozen Iranian funds. The talks are taking place at Bürgenstock, near Lake Lucerne, with Pakistan and Qatar acting as mediators.
Initial press reports indicate that Iran is trying to secure access to its frozen assets and restart oil exports through US-issued waivers. Iran is estimated to have around $100 billion to $120 billion in frozen assets abroad, but the first release being discussed is reportedly a $6 billion account in Qatar, which Iran would be allowed to use only for humanitarian purchases.
Iran is expected to make a formal commitment not to build a nuclear weapon and to take verified steps to eliminate its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. The United States is also pushing for UN inspectors to return to Iranian nuclear sites, many of which were bombed by the US and Israel before the current negotiations began.
The deal being negotiated by the Iranian regime and the US is extremely favourable to the Iranian regime. It gives Tehran economic relief, access to frozen funds and a path back to oil sales, while asking the regime to make commitments it has already claimed to support in principle. The Iranian President, Masoud Pezeshkian, has openly said that the provisions of the memorandum are in Iran’s favour.
What the deal does not address is the plight of the Iranian people. The regime has been massacring protesters, carrying out mass arrests and executing political prisoners since the January protests. Western governments are now preparing to reward the same regime with financial relief and diplomatic rehabilitation, while its victims are buried, imprisoned or silenced under torture and internet blackouts.
Meanwhile, Israel is trying to sabotage the deal by continuing its war across Gaza and Lebanon. Israeli airstrikes were launched yesterday on multiple targets in Gaza, including the Bureij refugee camp, where Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmed Wishah was killed in an Israeli strike. Israel claimed Wishah was a Hamas member and has also issued video footage proving their claims.
Israel has also continued its attacks on Lebanon despite the ceasefire framework attached to the US-Iran deal. The renewed strikes in southern Lebanon have already threatened the negotiations, giving Iran a pretext to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed and accusing Washington of failing to restrain Israel.
Israel also killed Mona Khalil, the Lebanese marine ecologist and turtle conservationist who spent more than two decades protecting endangered loggerhead and green sea turtles on Lebanon’s southern coast. Khalil was severely wounded when an Israeli strike hit her home near Tyre, and later died of her injuries. Her death is another example of the indiscriminate violence Israel is exporting across the region while Washington pretends that it can negotiate peace with Tehran and leave Netanyahu free to burn everything around him.
Newsroom
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