Are Iran Peace Talks Possible? Who can be Trusted? Whose Lives Do We Value? Whose Do We Not?In the Middle East, Israel and America, have redefined peace negotiations to mean outright capitulation and subservience. In Russia and Ukraine it means talks, it could even mean losing a little land.
In the Middle East, Israel and America, have redefined peace negotiations to mean outright capitulation and subservience or annihilation. Where in Russia and Ukraine it means talks, it could even mean losing a little land to gain a little peace. But in the Middle East that is not the case. It is capitulation or annihilation, even if one didn’t start the war. In Iran, a war that Tehran neither started, nor provoked, Israel says it wants regime change. What America’s heavy handed leadership wants changes daily, but at one time it too was regime change. Today the Iranian leadership is largely gone, certainly its top clerics and some, the true extent of which is not known, of its top military officials. The question is with whom would Israel and America be able to negotiate, if in fact either country had a desire for negotiations. The Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian offered what appeared to be an olive branch, with an apology for attacks on its neighbors. Prior to the war, Pezeshkian had shown a desire to engage, to leave the past behind and perhaps forge a new path. He supported greater freedom at home, as well as renewed nuclear talks and he steered clear of the blustering embraced by the White House’s Donald Trump. In Pezeshkian there appears to be an Iranian leadership that may be willing and able to negotiate, not crawl toward America and Israel on his hands and knees, but to talk, to negotiate a peaceful co-existence. At least it would seem to be worth exploring, unless it is the complete destruction of Iran, the humiliation of its people and chaos that is being sought by Israel and America. But if not, Pezeshkian seems a good place to start. But before negotiations could begin the question also needs to be asked: Does Iran have in America and Israel, interlocutors with whom it can negotiate, and in good faith? A difficult question when looking at the makeup of both the American administration and the Israeli Cabinet as well as the past practices of both. So far neither country has shown that they are capable of good faith negotiations. Even the Sultanate of Oman, which was brokering nuclear talks between the United States and Iran prior to the war, said Tehran had made concessions, was ready and willing to keep talking. The Omani representative sounded optimistic. But it seems a deal was never wanted by the American interlocutors. Talks did not continue. Rather the United States and Israel launched what has been widely criticized as an illegal war against Iran, with Trump, whose relationship with the truth is sketchy at best, saying “you can’t negotiate with these people.” Meanwhile there is little evidence of Israel’s good faith negotiations. In Gaza, Israel agreed to a cease fire and since then has daily bombed the tiny strip of land, which is little more than rubble and ash after Israel’s two-year war. Since Israel signed on to that cease fire it has killed more than 700 Palestinians, while illegal Israeli settlers continue to attack and kill Palestinians in their homes in the occupied West Bank, even as the Israeli military watches and does nothing, except to occasionally support the illegal Israeli settlers. The Israeli military also has been taking Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank as a so-called “buffer”. Past practices of both America and Israel clearly question their ability or sincerity to negotiate. Instead both countries would seem to believe the path to peace is through territorial annexation, capitulation, subservience and/or death, a path which is a formula for endless war. Another reality and serious impediment to lasting peace in the Middle East is the racist tropes, and relentless evidence, displayed not just by Israel and America, but much of the western world that Palestinian lives, Lebanese lives, and Iranian lives are of less value, deserving of less dignity than theirs. The outrage and horror Europe expresses for excesses said to be committed by Russia in Ukraine is nowhere to be found when evidence reveals the horrific excesses committed by Israel against Gazans, Lebanese and Iranians. Instead these excesses are met with excuses, skepticism or justification. Their moral outrage for some and silence for others screams hypocrisy. In Iran today the World Health Organization says as many as 11 hospitals have been struck by Israeli and American bombs, schools, including an elementary school that killed more than 160 children have been hit. Ambulances have been targeted, residential areas hit. All in a war started by Israel and America. A war, America’s heavy-handed leader, Donald Trump, says will end only with capitulation, not negotiations. In Israel’s war in Gaza, the U.N.’s Children and Education Fund (UNICEF), as well as several international aid organizations, including Doctors without Borders, reported repeatedly of Israel killing children, attacking hospitals, fertility clinics, and schools where hundreds sheltered and no outrage, no sanctions from much of the West ___ only silence. No accountability, no demands for accountability. As the numbers of Palestinians killed by Israel in Gaza rose dramatically, the figures were met with skepticism, even shameful jokes about Gazan babies dying, yes CNN commentator Van Jones, that is you and the audience that laughed. Today Israel has accepted the death toll of 70,000 Gazan’s dead, without saying how many were Hamas and how many were civilians. But more telling, and screaming hypocrisy and racism, is that the death toll is believed because Israel, a government caught in countless lies, accepts the death toll as accurate, while international aid organizations, like UNICEF and others, who have devoted themselves to helping others, were not believed even as they begged the world to see the 70,000 dead Palestinians, 20,000 of them children. Still, today the outrage has been muted, lest Israel be held accountable. Today in Lebanon tens of thousands of Lebanese are living on the street, no shelter, no washrooms, their dignity challenged at every turn and no outpouring of outrage. Israel is in a war with Hezbollah, but has declared it seems war on all Lebanese. Israel’s right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich boasted Beirut’s suburb of Dahiyeh will be flattened like Gaza’s Khan Younis, a city described as little more than rubble and ash. Tens of thousands of Gazans were killed in Khan Younis. Israel has not been held accountable. How many civilians will be killed or driven from their homes in Beirut’s Dahiyeh neighborhood? The question must at least be asked as does the question, who lives in Dahiyeh? Hezbollah yes, but how many Hezbollah and how many are civilians, families, elderly? Is it tens of thousands of civilians? Is it enough to send a message telling people to evacuate your house, pack up your children, your elderly, sick, take what you can, find a spot anywhere on the street, elsewhere in Beirut because we are going to bomb your neighborhood? Every Lebanese Shia is not Hezbollah, nor should they be considered a target. South Lebanon, under relentless bombing by Israel and now occupation, is also populated by farmers, elderly, families, children, people whose lives have been ruined and who have now been forced on to the streets of Beirut in the open, exposed. They have no more ability to stop Hezbollah, or disarm Hezbollah, than Iranians hiding in terror from waves of bombing raids has to overthrow its government. Israel and America has shown no respect, no dignity, no recognition that the lives of Middle Eastern nationals are of equal value to theirs, nor has the rest of the world. Individually Trump has nothing but respect for the wealthy oil sheikhs of the Middle East, but that really translates into respect for money and gold. He does love his gold. It should be said at the heart of the world’s double standards in the Middle East lies a widespread prejudice against Muslims, blaming all, for the actions of some, while shouting foul when other non -Muslim populations, whether they be Jewish, Hindu or Christians, are all blamed for the actions of a few. All are foul. Western nations, which frequently describe themselves as Christian countries, have attacked and invaded several Muslim countries—including Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan—resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands, and causing widespread destruction to their societies and economies. These actions have heightened local tensions and rivalries, and after withdrawing, these nations often leave behind devastated populations. The aftermath of such invasions has commonly led to the rise of militant groups, stemming from the suffering and instability caused by the interventions. Left to pick up the pieces, many nationals of these countries in desperation seek refuge elsewhere in a world that wonders why. © 2026 Kathy Gannon |