Ongoing Gaza ceasefire talks 'defused' Iran war threat

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00:00It's very hard to say, to use the word optimism in this context because we've been here so often

00:05before. You and I have discussed it so often before at various points along this year.

00:11Now in mid to late August we are here yet again. A possible ceasefire deal, we saw Lincoln meeting

00:20with Israel's president, Israel's prime minister, next he's going to meet with Israel's defense

00:24minister within the coming hour. Front and center of the discussion is the ceasefire.

00:29Can Washington push this government and really push its prime minister to say yes to this deal

00:39and then they'll deal with the other side and they'll see if they can get Qatar to push

00:45Hamas to say yes to this deal. I don't know how much optimism there is because

00:50we've heard from both sides, that's right-wing ministers in the Israeli government, it's Hamas

00:55spokespersons outside of the Gaza Strip and they've both been talking down the possibilities.

01:01Last night we heard from Israel's prime minister who said give and take doesn't mean give and give,

01:06there's red lines Israel is drawing and it won't go past them. We've heard from Hamas this morning

01:12who are saying Israel's blocking us, we've agreed to something, Israel's made changes,

01:17this isn't an agreement, this isn't the agreement or the deal we agreed to. Nevertheless,

01:23neither side has thrown it off entirely and that's I guess what everybody is holding on to,

01:28including the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. But if you ask me to be optimistic,

01:33I don't think I can as a predictor. And Iris, look, if there is no ceasefire deal agreed,

01:40what does that mean for Israel's northern border with Lebanon? Because just within the past 24

01:46hours we're hearing about more deaths on both sides. That's right, you know, none of these

01:53ceasefire talks have stopped any of the fighting in Gaza or in Lebanon. I tell you the one thing

01:59that may have stopped or may have at least been diffused and that's the threat of a war with Iran.

02:05We have been hearing from people who have dealings with Iranian diplomats that perhaps

02:10they're pulling back on their current position which was an immediate retaliation for the death

02:15of the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh when he was in Tehran, a death attributed to Israel. So perhaps

02:21that's one thing that would be different. But we have all those same experts also say that Iran has

02:28said to Hezbollah, you're free to go. You know, if you want to ramp up the escalation on the northern

02:34border, if you want to have a larger war, you're free to do it. That's a very worrying thought,

02:40both because of the firepower that Israel has, that Lebanon has, that they have not used. You

02:46know, we have seen an escalation, Nadia, but we haven't seen both sides using their full firepower.

02:53Is that what Hezbollah is going to take from Iran's message? We don't know and it's very worrying.

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