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Zaidoun El-Khanafi

Middle East political analyst and Founding Director of the Arab Perspectives Institute; PhD Politics & International Relations (University of Aberdeen)

Jun 22, 2026

4:34
But Mr. El-Khanafi, can you talk to me then about your perspective on this? If the US is in such a poor position to offer trust, what can the two sides then do together in such a short timeframe when a requirement is a final deal to actually get that level of trust required?
4:52
Well, the, the honest answer is not yet, but both sides have enough fear to keep talking, right? The, the MOU is a, is a ceasefire management tool as of now based on many observations and not really a trust-building exercise.
5:06
It's a fourteen-point framework that extends the ceasefire and sets perhaps the stage for the talks, uh, particularly the technical talks as we know of it today.
5:16
Um, Iran commits not to acquire a nuclear weapon, but no enforcement mechanism has yet been decided.
5:23
Now, these s- structural, uh, frameworks can be viewed through three structural trust problems that would stand out.
5:30
Firstly would be that Iran's hardliners, where we have to consider the internal diversities, are already undermining their own negotiators.
5:39
You've got Tasnim News Agency, aligned with the IRGC, have warned the Foreign Minister Araqchi, who is putting, uh, some efforts into these talks, against going to Switzerland empty-handed and said Iran had no obligation to keep the Strait of Hormuz open since, um, the MOU had been violated in Lebanon.

8 MINS LATER

13:51
Zadan, what do you make of that suggestion?

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