How does the Middle East see the U.S.-Iran deal?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Support for Here and Now Anytime comes from MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink software, to design and develop engineered systems, accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science. Learn more at mathworks.com.

**Chris Bentley** (0:16)
WBUR Podcasts, Boston.

**Negar Mortazavi** (0:21)
I hope it holds people in the region, across the region, here in Doha, in Iran, in Lebanon, all over place, want this war to end, but it's just going to be a difficult road ahead.

**Chris Bentley** (0:34)
Calling it a deal implies it's done. But peace talks between the US and Iran are anything but.
It's Tuesday, June 16th, and this is Here and Now Anytime from NPR and WBUR. I'm Chris Bentley. Today on the show, Colorado gets FDA approval to import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada. But that does not mean Americans can actually buy them yet. Also, there's a new mayor in Roku City, Fox.

**Robin Farzad** (1:17)
This is the biggest acquisition by far in the company's history.

**Chris Bentley** (1:24)
But first, President Trump is at the G7 Summit today in France, where he was asked a crucial question about his agreement with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

**John Daley** (1:35)
Can this deal survive if Israel attacks Lebanon?

**SPEAKER_4** (1:38)
It can. And I consider that the minor war, Iran is a big one, so we have that little pinprick out there that constantly rears its head, and that's Hezbollah.

**Chris Bentley** (1:52)
Israel has said it's keeping troops in Lebanon, which threatens to derail peace talks between Iran and the US.
The actual text of that memorandum of understanding, the preliminary agreement that opened the door to those talks, by the way, is still not public. So how is this all going over elsewhere in the region? Negar Mortazavi is a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy, and she has some thoughts. Here's her conversation with Scott Tong.

**Scott Tong** (2:21)
You're in Qatar on the Persian Gulf, just across from Iran. The country has been caught in the crossfire as Iran has launched attacks on targets there including an American airbase.
How are people there responding to news of this framework deal?

**Negar Mortazavi** (2:36)
There's a lot of happiness and relief because as you said, this is a country, the host of the largest US base in the region, a very close ally of the US but also a close ally of Iran. And it's essentially caught between a powerful ally and a powerful neighbor that has been there, will always be there. And so they have been trying to manage sort of this fight and these relationships. This memorandum is really bringing some relief. And we know Qatar played a very key role, especially towards the end.

**Scott Tong** (3:06)
You, of course, are watching Iran very closely. How do you read how Iranian leaders are framing this temporary deal and whether they will indeed sign the Memorandum of Understanding, which is expected Friday?

**Negar Mortazavi** (3:23)
All signs indicate that they will sign it and they have already started selling it both sides and they are presenting this as an absolute win and an absolute loss for the opposite side. And it's something that's happening both in Tehran and Washington. It was very much expected and frankly for them, winning wasn't hard for them. Winning was just not losing because they didn't have any of these grand goals that the US set regime change, destroying their army, destroying their Navy, you know, and then eventually the problem that wasn't even a problem, which is reopening the state of Hormuz that was created because of this war. And that's now the core basis of this memorandum. So for the Iranians permanently ending the war, including Lebanon, having the US lift the blockade and some economic relief down the line in exchange for a nuclear deal is something that they're presenting as a win that they got because they showed a lot of strength and deterrence on the battlefield.

**Scott Tong** (4:19)
One topic still very unclear, likely up for future discussion is Iran's nuclear program, including its enriched uranium, which President Trump has said the US will destroy. At this point, are there realistic options as to what the future of Iran's nuclear program will look like?

**Negar Mortazavi** (4:37)
So the Iranians have committed publicly, privately that they're not going to weaponize. They're not after a nuclear weapons program. The details of a civilian nuclear program, the levels of enrichment, you know, the nuclear stockpile that they have, which is beyond what a civilian program needs, all of that is to be discussed later. One sticking point that I will be watching is Lebanon because Iran wants Lebanon very much involved. And Israel does not want that.