Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Good morning, I'm Alice Dempster.
Chapter 2: What are the latest developments in peace talks over Iran?
And I'm Andrew Williams.
It's Monday the 20th of April. In Your Squiz today, more peace talks over Iran, One Nation dips in the polls, an AFL player's mental health incident is investigated, and a new Aussie board game. This is Your Squiz today. Time's running out on the two-week ceasefire between Iran, the US and Israel. It's set to expire on Wednesday.
And so US President Donald Trump says that negotiators are on their way to Pakistan for new peace talks. But at the same time, he's threatened again to destroy civilian infrastructure, power plants and bridges if Iran doesn't come to the table.
And given that threat, you may not be surprised to hear that Iran isn't very happy about it. And the Iranian state media says that the country isn't likely to send a negotiation team to Pakistan at this stage, as long as the US continues its blockade of Iranian ports on the Strait of Hormuz.
Now, the Strait of Hormuz, which is, of course, this very important waterway for fuel supplies and oil and whatnot, was closed again.
on saturday and that may surprise you to hear if you haven't followed news over the weekend to hear that it was reopened at all but it was very briefly on friday iranian foreign minister abbas said that the strait was completely open and trump backed that assertion up and given the closure of the strait has caused so much havoc for fuel supplies around the world that was music to the ears of many people many international leaders but it didn't last very long
No, the US announced it would keep its military presence in the Strait going forward, and that led to Iran closing it again. But even before that, it was shaky. Indian officials reported two of their ships sailing through the Strait being fired on by Iranian ships, and Trump said that that was a violation of the ceasefire agreement.
So as you can tell, things are changing pretty quickly, moving pretty fast. And it's not really clear if these planned peace talks in Pakistan will even go ahead. But there is preparation underway in Islamabad for them anyway. If they don't go ahead, Trump has said that the US might have to start dropping bombs again, in his words.
So it's a high stakes few days with not much time left in this current ceasefire. And as you and Larissa mentioned on Friday, Alice, there's also a 10-day ceasefire underway between Israel and Lebanon at the moment. That has largely held up over the weekend, although it's worth mentioning it doesn't officially include the militant group Hezbollah as a formal signatory to it.
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