US-Iran Peace Talks Postponed As Iran Demands Lebanon Guarantees Before Meeting JD Vance | N18G

[00:00:00]What was supposed to be day one of this new 60-day negotiating period between the United States and Iran has turned into day nothing. Vice President JD Vance was supposed to be in Switzerland meeting today, but that trip has now been postponed is what they're saying with little explanation. A diplomat tells CNN that Iran is seeking guarantees that hostilities in Lebanon will end before it resumes talks with the US and there was new violence overnight. Israel says four s soldiers were killed in Lebanon when a Hezbollah explosive device struck a tank. Israel hit back launching air strikes that killed at least 18 people. That's according to Lebanon's health ministry.

[00:00:39]Want to get right to CNN as Nick Robertson on the shores of lovely Lake Lousern in Switzerland. Nick, it's a nice picture there, but not nice results at least in terms of what the US and Iran were hoping.

[00:00:54]Yeah, John, look, if you wanted a venue that speaks peace and tranquility, where two sides, the United States and Iran, can get away from the sort of domestic pressures of is this a goodou, is it a badouou, and just sit down and try to talk through and find the details and commonality that's going to bring a final result if it's achievable. This would be the location. That hotel on the top of the mountain there behind me was the venue. James Bond movies have been done around here. Goldfinger, I believe, was one of them. But right now, the thing that is missing here are the two sides. And as you say there, the Iranians are pointing to Lebanon and saying that that is part of the deal.

[00:01:32]That the first part of the memorandum of understanding is a ceasefire in all areas including Lebanon. And part of that first line, first first uh paragraph in the memorandum of understanding is that all sides should respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of uh of Lebanon. But at the same time, Hezbollah is attacking Israeli troops who are inside of Lebanon. The Israeli prime minister says that is an abregation of the ceasefire agreement. The Iranians are saying they're not coming until it's sorted out. So, so where do we realistically stand right now? These talks have been beset and fraught by the issue of Lebanon from the get-go two months ago.

[00:02:12]Was it or was it not included? It's definitively in the agreement. But that is the trickiest and hardest thing to pin down for President Trump. And this is going to be the question I think where the pressure lands from President Trump towards the Israeli prime minister. Can he bring down the temperature of the hostilities there enough to bring the Iranians to the table? the talks table up here. We've seen this before, the ups and downs over the past few months of these talks.

[00:02:42]Diplomats are working behind the scenes here to try to get the two sides of the table. And until they are, thatou is just words on a on a piece of paper.

[00:02:53]It's not a reality. And that's the difficulty where we stand today. Uh >> first, I want to just start with the uh talks being called off today. Is that bad news? How should we read that?

[00:03:06]>> Well, good morning, Audi. And uh look, I think we had to expect a lot of bumps in the road because this is a very vague and very partial agreement. Uh it is meant to be the start of negotiations rather than the end of negotiations. And secondly, it did not bind Israel to anything. It did not bind Hezbollah to anything. So Iran how now has a card to play which is peace in Lebanon and if Hezbollah attacks Israel which apparently happened uh then Israel responds they can claim okay there's no peace so we don't have to do anything.

[00:03:44]So there's a lot to play out here.

[00:03:47]>> Yes you just mentioned that last night at least 16 people actually uh were killed after Israeli air strikes. Vice President Vance had pretty strong words for members of the Israeli government who have criticized the agreement with Iran and him. Um, here's what he had to say.

[00:04:03]>> I don't think BB himself has actually criticized the deal because I think he's maybe a little bit more familiar with the details of what's in it. But yeah, you've seen people in their system, Ben Gavir and Smotri, who've attacked the deal. And I guess my response to them would be, what is your exact proposal?

[00:04:20]And you know, you're you're a country of of 9 million people. You can't just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have.

[00:04:31]>> As a diplomat, how do you hear how he's defending this?

[00:04:36]>> Well, there are several things that come to mind. Number one is that it is an Iranian objective to seow divisions between the United States and Israel.

[00:04:46]and hearing that kind of comment from the vice president about Israel is fulfilling that Iranian objective of sewing those kinds of divisions.

[00:04:55]Secondly, if you're Israel, you're living in a very dangerous neighborhood and what you need to do is provide security for your people and that rests on deterring what are very real threats to your people. So, Israel is focused on that. We may not agree with them as to how they go about that. We may think sometimes they are too aggressive in pursuing that but that is what the Israeli prime minister's job is and he's not going to be deterred from that. We have to look at that reality. And then thirdly um we shouldn't make an assumption that because there is now this memorandum of understanding with Iran that everything that is not in the memorandum of understanding is somehow better than it was before. Iran funds, supplies, trains, supports terrorist networks all over the world, especially those that are targeting Israel. And we have to recognize that that is real.

[00:05:51]>> Yeah. And I think a lot of people do, frankly. Um, the people who are loudest in their complaints about this deal are Republicans. Um, and we're just hearing so many senators saying similar things even to what you might hear from those loud voices in Israel. I want to play for you a a series of voices.

[00:06:11]>> Everything I've heard about it uh causes me concern.

[00:06:14]>> I do have concerns that certain aspects of this deal might be a step in the wrong direction.

[00:06:20]>> I have to know where that money is coming from because I don't think my constituents are going to be really happy about it if that's all US taxpayer dollars. History demonstrates that giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is an exceptionally bad idea.

[00:06:38]>> So people are kind of up in arms about many things, but specifically the $300 billion potential reconstruction and development fund, which is supposed to be an investment fund. Uh and Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, he's the top Republican. He was saying, "Look, I get that it's not funded by taxpayer dollars, but it's still a payoff." and he's saying it's a payoff that would make Obama's 2015 deal look like a pittance by comparison.

[00:07:06]>> Yes, that's exactly right. That's the one part of this thing that is the most mystifying at all. Why there's any money changing hands here, whether it's >> but they're saying there isn't, right?

[00:07:16]They're arguing that money isn't changing hands.

[00:07:20]>> Well, um they say that, but then you look and you say sanctions are being lifted. Iran is getting oil sales. There will be a reconstruction fund that the Gulf States will organize. That's money.

[00:07:31]And what what you have to look at here is where we were in January was Iran's nuclear program had been bombed and substantially destroyed and the Gulf of was open. Now we had four months of war that we paid for and the nuclear program remains destroyed and we are still in an open-ended negotiation about where that goes. And there is some Iranian insistence that they have some control over the state of the straight of or moves. Okay. But maybe it was worth it to get out of the military conflict to get our forces home to bring down uh oil prices to restore some stability in the global economy. You could argue, okay, we can go back and reset. But then you add on top of that and Iran gets access to hundreds of billions of dollars.

[00:08:19]That's kind of inexplicable.

[00:08:21]>> Yeah. And none of this sounds like what the president said, unconditional surrender by Iran.

[00:08:27]>> Well, um I know that's what he wants to say, but the Iranian regime is still in place. They are setting terms over the straight of Hormuz. They are setting terms for future negotiations about nuclear weapons. And as we saw today, they're also insisting on demands about Lebanon that is mentioned in the agreement but has no binding effect on Israel or Hezbollah.

[00:08:52]>> Following all of this for us is CNN's Paula Hanox. She's live from Abu Dhabi.

[00:08:56]Good morning, Paula. So, some really difficult images that we're seeing from Lebanon this morning with at least 16 people killed after a heavy night of Israeli air strikes. Israel also saying that it's had its deadliest incident for IDF troops since the beginning of this three-month conflict. Are we starting to see this memorandum of understanding fall apart before it's even begun? And what can the United States do to contain this conflict on the Lebanon front when Israel is not party to the deal?

[00:09:31]Well, Sam, we've long been talking about this issue, the issue of Israel and Hezbollah being potentially the uh the break when it comes to this memorandum.

[00:09:42]It could become uh the spoiler as we know that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu uh does not feel contained or restrained by this deal when it comes to fighting against Hezbollah. Uh we did hear him on Thursday saying that his priority is to make sure that residents in the north of Israel are protected. Uh that he his military will remain in southern Lebanon uh where they have seen this uh these increased uh hostilities overnight, these deadly hostilities as long as is necessary in order to protect the security of Israel. Uh what we've heard though from Iran is that there will be a harsh response if they continue to see uh these uh these strikes against Lebanon. So this has become one of the crucial points of this uh this memorandum of understanding. It's it's point one of this 14point plan that the sessation of hostilities on all fronts are including uh Lebanon. Now, we have been hearing increasing frustration from the Trump administration against Israel, against Prime Minister Netanyahu, believing he is not doing uh enough to try and limit the amount of civilian casualties when it comes to uh firing against Hezbollah. We heard specifically yesterday from the US Vice President JD Vance. Let's listen.

[00:11:08]>> Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time and he happens to be the head of state of the world superpower. If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.

[00:11:34]Now, we are hearing the farright elements of Netanyahu's coalition uh be very critical of this deal, even critical of the US president. That's what the vice president is referring to there. But we've heard from President Trump that Israel needs to do better when it comes to uh minimizing or preventing civilian casualties. Now from Thran's point of view, they fought hard to make sure uh that the US Iran deal included Lebanon and they have said that there will be a harsh response if they see a continuation of hostilities there.