Overview
- Iran’s leadership vacuum deepened as reporting detailed Revolutionary Guard generals taking charge of war, security and diplomacy, while the latest Islamabad round collapsed after Iran’s team declined to attend and President Donald Trump extended a cease-fire citing divisions in Tehran.
- Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf is fronting the channel with Washington, yet analysts say Guard chiefs sought to supervise the delegation, insert security officials into the team and even haul negotiators back to Tehran, which narrowed his latitude to make deals.
- Accounts describe the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, as absent from public view and communicating through written notes relayed by couriers while recovering from injuries, a setup that lets officials attribute broad red lines to him without exposing detailed choices to scrutiny.
- The United Arab Emirates said it foiled a terrorist cell and its Federal National Council called the plot a betrayal of the country, as Kenya’s president, in talks in Abu Dhabi, condemned what both sides described as Iranian attacks on civilians and infrastructure in the region.
- Lebanon’s president said envoys are pushing a longer truce that would require a full stop to Israeli operations, an Israeli withdrawal from occupied areas, the return of prisoners and a Lebanese army deployment to the border, with talks also touching disputed points along the Blue Line.