Iran-US 10-Point Negotiations and the Failed Ceasefire

It was very clear that Iran was winning. What we had at that moment was that it was a really

very clear humiliation for the US, at which point this parallel and until then denied

diplomacy was admitted to by the Iranian foreign ministry, by the foreign minister and by others

associated with them. And it became apparent that they had this, what was called a 10 point

deal. That was quite shocking because of course, they'd previously denied that they were doing

this. And of course, the foreign minister is a reformist, like the president, Pazishkian,

like his foreign policy advisor, Zarif, perhaps the most reformist of the reformists. And the

10 point plan, of course, was something which it was said would be the basis for a negotiation,

which the Americans had agreed to. If you look at closely at the fine print, they'd agreed,

not the 10 demands, but to using the 10 demands as the basis for negotiation, which meant in the

Iranian version, for example, that the missile defence programme was off limits and couldn't

be discussed. Now that of course, was not what the Americans meant. And it became clear very soon

after that the 10 points issued by the National Security Council of Iran was not the same as the

10 points which was informally conveyed to Vickoff by Iraqi, the foreign minister. And that's where

the whole thing fell to bits. Because of course, in the 10 points given to the Americans, there

was no discussion of the removal of the US from the region, which is in the Iranian's version.

And there was no discussion either about the US accepting nuclear enrichment, which of course,

they've said that they won't. But it became very apparent that there'd been double dealing going

on inside the government of Iran. And the reformers were trying to stitch up a deal,

which of course, never even happened for a minute. There was no actual ceasefire for a

second, for two minutes even. Because of course, what happened was that, as always happens in these

circumstances, when the possibility of a ceasefire approaches, which the Zionists don't want,

they make sure to up the ante. And what did they do? They launched 100 raids within 10 minutes

across the whole of Lebanon. And then they pretended Lebanon was not included in the

ceasefire. There's been a whole set of backchannel briefings and negotiations.

Now my understanding from people inside the process is that the Iranians got nothing at

all in writing, nothing signed. All they had was discussions by text message and by,

in fact, posts on X. And so there was nothing binding. So now the Americans are going,

oh, we didn't think it was that, we wouldn't have agreed to that. And so the whole thing has

been an absolute disaster. It's paused the IRGC's campaign. It's been very, very dramatically

difficult for the Iranian people. The Iranian people don't support it. And we now have the

difficulty of the Iran has turned because of the treachery of the senior officials.

What was looking like a surefire victory, it looks like they've tried to grab defeat

from the jaws of victory. And it's very, very disappointing. We're at a very critical moment now.