Jomana Bersetchi

Now we're in a situation where Iran have discovered that they have a lot of leverage over this key chokehold for the global economy.

And they're not going to give it up without getting something in return.

And for them, the incentive is clearly economic.

The war started three months ago and I think you fast forward to today and it's really remarkable that one of the main sticking points has been the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which was not a problem before the war started.

So we are centralizing a lot of the discussions around a problem that didn't exist

before the U.S.

and Israel launched these military operations against Iran.

Now we're in a situation where Iran have discovered that they have a lot of leverage over this key chokehold for the global economy.

And they're not going to give it up without getting something in return.

And for them, the incentive is clearly economic.

I think the perception now in the region is that there needs to be a full cessation of hostilities.

And living in this frozen conflict with the straight still somewhat controlled by Iran was never going to be a solution that was going to be acceptable.

So at least you get short-term visibility.

Medium-term, long-term, I think there's still a lot of concern that this situation could once again flare up, especially if there's not a full resolution to some of the thornier topics that we spoke about, the proxies, the militia, and of course, the nuclear file.

I will say it's a big change in sentiment from where we were a few days ago, where reporting had emerged suggesting that the two sides were actually close to a deal.

You fast forward to today, and in fact, we are not very far from where we were shortly after those Islamabad talks about a month ago.

Essentially, while Iran's counterproposal has not been released to the public, what we do understand from Iranian media is that they too had separated the issue of phase one, the reopening of the straits from the nuclear filed and those discussions that were set to happen once phase one expired.

Many different names are being thrown out there.

Unclear at this point who it's going to be.

Some of the names include his son, so Mujtaba Khomeini, some of his close aides, Ali Larijani, Sadiq Larijani.