Scott Lucas

There was the possibility they might have to discuss their ballistic missiles, their ties with groups in the Middle East, such as Hezbollah.

And the Trump folks threw that away.

They threw away their leverage in the negotiations by going into a war that ultimately did not succeed.

And as you quite rightly mentioned, the deal that's on the table

and it's easy to see where it lands is, is that the Iranians take this 60% enriched uranium and say, okay, we're not going to enrich it further to military grade.

We'll reduce it to 20% or even 3.67%, which was the limit in 2015.

But why can't Trump accept that?

Because it's got Barack Obama's name on the deal.

Well, this is, in effect, what Israel gets.

I won't say it's a consolation.

It gets this as a maneuver if there is a U.S.-Iran ceasefire, and that is the Israelis don't get regime change in Tehran anymore.

The regime survives there, but Israel does get an expansion of its space, of its occupation, if you will.

We have seen this in Gaza.

Indeed, remember that the Gaza occupation, which was fixed at 53% in the deal last autumn, it's now 60% occupied by Israel, and Netanyahu wants 70%.

Well, the same thing's happening in Lebanon.

Not quite on the same scale, but the Israelis already occupy an area up to what they call the Yellow Line, 10 kilometers inside Lebanon.

And they could extend that up to 30 kilometers inside Lebanon with the military operations that are still going on, despite a supposed extension of the ceasefire between the Israeli and Lebanese governments last week.

The Israelis are certainly a factor, but I don't think it necessarily works that it's always that the Israelis twist Trump.

In fact, I think what the play here is by the Iranians is to try to get it the other way around.

Remember in 2025, Pat, what ended the 12-day Israeli war was an Iranian maneuver.