'The Israelis are also jerking us around:' Iran latest, plus Pride month kicks off with concerns about LGBTQ health

**Christy Strawser** (0:01)
Welcome to On Deadline, your radio news from Odyssey newsrooms across the country. I'm Christy Strawser, Odyssey's managing editor of news. As the conflict with Iran marches on, President Donald Trump is getting frustrated with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to reports from Axios and ABC News. He's so frustrated with the Israeli leader that he lashed out at him over the phone Monday. Per Axios, Trump told Netanyahu, I'm saving your ass. Everybody hates you now.
Everybody hates Israel because of this.
Here's more on the situation in Iran from Newell Normand at WWL in New Orleans.

**Newell Normand** (0:38)
It's almost really become a full-time job to stay on top of and in front of the mixed messaging relative to what the regime is saying in Iran and where we are in our position. And Jonathan Sayeh joins us, Iran analyst with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Jonathan, you've been following this religiously every day. I don't know about you, but this, for me, this is getting harder and harder to wrap my head around where we are and why.

**Jonathan Sayeh** (1:08)
And you're right to point that out. Having covered this as long as I have, it does get more complex. So right now, I think the biggest hurdle is who's going to provide the concessions first?
Will the United States release some frozen assets and then in return, Tehran would show a similar gesture? Or are we waiting for Tehran to make the first move so we know we're negotiating good faith and then we can maybe, in theory, reward them with unfreezing a certain amount of their assets? But nonetheless, the discussions right now are limited to an MOU, a Memorandum of Understanding, so we're still quite far from an actual deal.

**Newell Normand** (1:47)
Are they worthy, in your view, of getting the concessions first? I mean, they have a long history of misdirection, leveraging, misleading, and I'll just say it, lying.

**Jonathan Sayeh** (2:00)
Lying is the most precise term, as you noted, and I think everything really shattered in 2015 when we enacted a deal, and on paper, there were supposed to be full inspections, and then we found out there are undeclared locations where they were enriching uranium, and that misleading policy has been going on. Of course, deception is Tehran's main strategy.
That's one hand, and two is where these funds are going to end up. Let's even say we play this game with the Islamic Republic, and let's say we somehow want to appease them. The challenge there is we know those funds are going to, again, attack our bases, our forces, and our allies in the region, because one thing about the Islamic Republic having grown up there and having been jailed in the Islamic Republic's prison system, I can tell you that the wealthier of their own people has never been on the agenda, let alone a priority. So it's one, getting it to them is one challenge, and then what they're going to do with those billions is, of course, the main concern now.

**Newell Normand** (2:59)
In the meantime, although we're not characterizing it that way, that we've re-engaged kinetically, right?

**Jonathan Sayeh** (3:05)
You can say that. I guess a better description of the status is that the fire never ceased. I guess there was never quite a ceasefire. We saw the war warring down, but to see the Islamic Republic to still be this emboldened and actually launch attacks against our assets is indicative of their mindset, meaning they thought they won this war, and that is nothing short of an ideological regime that, of course, any pause in attacks against its infrastructure is somehow a victory to them.
And what we've seen so far is that they do not change their behavior, no matter if it's during a conflict, pre or post. But you're right to point out that the kinetic engagement is ongoing, and of course we see the instigation always be initiated by the Islamic Republic, and of course we're just simply responding to the aggression.

**Newell Normand** (3:56)
One of their strategies has been to bring the region into this, and they have sought and sent ballistic missiles, drones and other armaments into the neighboring countries, I guess in the hopes of trying to create a fracture with this alliance with the US. Have they succeeded at all in that regard?

**Jonathan Sayeh** (4:18)
In certain ways, you can perhaps make the case, but in the big picture, no. So one thing that really stood out to many of us is despite Iran attacking NATO countries, in this case, we talk about Turkey or Cyprus in this case, UK bases there, we do not see any response come from Europe. So that was really astonishing. Unfortunately, it may be not that surprising given the history of appeasement coming from that continent for the Islamic Republic and even when the regime blocked the Strait of Hormuz, Europeans were the first to pay the price. Again, we saw nothing but appeasement from them.