Inside the US-Iran deal: Talmiz Ahmad on Trump, Israel, Iran, and a changing Middle East

Hello and welcome to Frontline Conversations.

My name is Bashir Abbas and today I am joined by Ambassador Talbiz Ahmed.

Ambassador Ahmed has had a distinguished career in the Indian Foreign Service.

He has served as India's ambassador to the UAE, to Oman and twice to Saudi Arabia.

He has also served as additional secretary for international cooperation in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

Apart from his distinguished career in the IFS, Ambassador Ahmed has also kept quite busy writing books.

He has written

several,

but his

latest is

actually a personal favourite of mine, which is West Asia at War, Repression, Resistance and Grey Power Games, which

was published

in 2022.

It's quite an exhaustive compendium, I would say, of the region's own evolution.

from the late 18th century to the modern era.

The latter part of the book also focuses quite intensely on U.S. interventions in the region, which is why I think there's few other people I would rather speak to today on recent developments in the region.

in the Middle East.

A quick crash course on context.

I doubt there's anybody in the world today who isn't aware of how things have progressed.

But nonetheless, the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28th.

The war continued until it broke into a ceasefire across April 17th and April 18th.

Since then, the world sort of settled into this moribund state of no war, no peace, but featuring intermittent attacks from all parties, usually the Americans attacking and the Iranians retaliating.

Until, of course, we had a decisive MOU signed again on the 17th and 18th of this month in June, signed virtually by the Americans and the Iranians until they met physically in Switzerland just one day ago while the technical talks are continuing.

While there are obviously several intricacies to discuss, even through all of these developments, especially with regard to the MOU itself and how both sides have sort of comprehended it and sort of voiced their own expectations from the other part.

But with that, Ambassador Ahmed, it's a pleasure to have you here.

With your permission, I'd like to get straight into the brass tacks and the first question.

Do you have anything you wish to say at the outset, sir?

No, thank you very much for the invitation.

Thank you, sir.