Q&A: CBS under attack, Iran's ransom price and has Mamdani delivered?

**Jamie** (0:02)
This is a Global Player Original Podcast.

**Christiane Amanpour** (0:05)
The fact that it's happening in the United States of America to such a program, such a gold-plated program, is a horror. The first step, as you know, in solidifying and starting down the path of authoritarianism is to attack the independent media.

**Jamie** (0:22)
And everybody's got an opinion about every single person's bias, bias, bias.
Without facts, we can't make good decisions. President Trump is ready to end this war and is ready to release money and is ready to get this behind him because he wants it over.

**Christiane Amanpour** (0:40)
Sources say that Israel kind of exceeded to that demand from Trump, but that it will continue firing on Lebanon. Well, that of course is what gets Iran to fire back and to get Hezbollah to fire back. So it's a constant, vicious cycle.
Hello everyone and welcome to the Q&A episode of The Ex Files with me, Christiane and with Jamie and this is where we get to answer your questions. And we love answering them. We love considering them. So let's get started. Jamie, this time I'm going to ask a question because it comes from Lebanon. The first question is from Nadim. It comes on email. Basically, he's talking about the war in the Middle East, but particularly about how this could end. And because he's Lebanese, he's obviously very, very much concerned about how Lebanon is being essentially dragged into this by Iran, Hezbollah, Israel and all the rest of it. So as far as I can see, he says, what we've ended up with is the two sides haggling over the ransom. That's all the firing back and forth periodically. As far as I see it, Trump wants to pay the ransom, i.e. have a peace accord and potentially release some money. Israel wants to fight the mafia. Arabs are terrified and can't trust either option.
Is it cheaper to pay off the mafia, i.e. Iran, than to fight it? This is the fundamental moral dilemma with the IRGC. What happens if we pay the ransom?

**Jamie** (2:06)
Well, your friend is obviously a very thoughtful person and knows how to cut to the heart of a geopolitical problem and put it in terms that any shop owner in any city that has an organized crime problem knows. What do you do? Do you pay them off and hope that somehow things are going to change? I think in this case, President Trump is ready to end this war and is ready to release money and is ready to get this behind him because he wants it over.
The question for the Israelis of paying the mafia and in this case, the IRGC, Hezbollah together, is one the Israelis are not prepared to pay right now under this government and that's why the war continues because they are not prepared to see any situation in which Hezbollah has power inside Iran and has this power.

**Christiane Amanpour** (2:58)
Inside Lebanon.

**Jamie** (2:59)
Sorry, inside Lebanon. Thank you. And so until there's a change in policy in Israel by election or by decisions, I think we're going to see this Lebanese factor bedevil us for a long, long time to come because the Israelis are not prepared to pay the mafia.

**Christiane Amanpour** (3:23)
And just as we've been talking, we were talking in our episode this week, the main episode, Trump prevailed on Netanyahu to stop, you know, firing at Iran while he's trying to, you know, get that bigger deal. But now sources say that Israel kind of exceeded to that demand from Trump, but that it will continue firing on Lebanon. Well, that of course is what gets Iran to fire back and to get Hezbollah to fire back. So it's a constant vicious cycle this.
Just quickly before we leave this question, are you convinced that even though Trump is and the Trump administration is shepherding these talks between Israel and Lebanon, the government of Lebanon and the government and the state of Israel, is there enough knowledge, you know, by the brokers, so to speak, in this case, the United States, to really shepherd this to a proper end of war, proper peace? And we're talking about the end of war between Lebanon and Israel.

**Jamie** (4:28)
Well, I think the short answer to that is no.
We've not seen an effort made to give diplomacy a real chance in any of the cases, whether it's Ukraine, whether it's, you know, the war in Iran, or whether it's the discussions between Israel and Lebanon. There are people assigned to the job, but the Trump administration, for its own reasons, doesn't trust its own diplomats. And so it really doesn't have the kind of teams of experts who have the subtle knowledge that is often needed to identify an opening when it's presenting itself, to understand the language that's needed to make something happen. You know, this is something diplomats are trained to do. They study their whole lives to do it. And it's a shame that the Trump administration isn't giving those diplomats who are completely nonpartisan. I've worked with them both when I was in and out of government. They just want to get the job done. These are very, very smart people who spent their lives learning a subject, learning a language, and they really want to serve their country. And that's why they're in the government. And they will serve the Trump administration, whether they agree with it or not. And I hope they take a chance and start to use them because the sooner they do, the sooner we can have a chance for some of these agreements that are always talked about at a high level by these real estate negotiators turned into something real.