Is the deal blowing up? "Planned U.S.-Iran talks in Switzerland on Friday were cancelled as fighting flared in Lebanon, creating new uncertainty about the timing of negotiations on turning an interim agreement into a more permanent Middle East peace deal," reports Reuters. "The flareup in Lebanon, in which 18 people were killed in airstrikes and four Israeli soldiers were killed by Hezbollah militants, could weigh heavily on negotiations because ending fighting there is a condition for the broader U.S.-Iran accord."
"Trump's agreement does not bind us. Israel is not subject to the United States, and we are an independent and sovereign nation!" wrote Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel's far-right national security minister, on X yesterday, referring to the memorandum of understanding that the U.S. and Iran just signed to end the war. "Every time we succumbed to international pressure at the expense of Israel's security, we paid a blood price with interest. It was true in the Oslo Accords, it was true in the Lebanon agreement in 2006, and it was true in every period of containment in Gaza that exploded in our faces. We emphasize: We love the USA and are grateful to President Trump. And yet, the State of Israel is not a banana republic."
