ADVISORY Watch: The World This Week, at 8 p.m.: ‘Will the war end?’ Joe Lauria of Consortium News talks with fellow journalist Chris Hedges to examine the prospects of a deal to end the war on Iran and to remake the Middle East. Click HERE at 8 p.m. EDT to livestream talk, or for subsequent video — and before then for print introduction.
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Links to ELEVEN-plus reports, analyses, commentaries and interviews (about 20): from or via the Associated Press, National Public Radio, the Cradle, Peoples Dispatch, Consortium News, Indian Punchline, Middle East Eye, Middle East Monitor, and Anadolu Ajansi; others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials as highlighted. (Scroll down for IRAN 4-10-26. Scroll up for LEBANON.) — MCM
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U.S.-Iran talks begin in Pakistan as war’s fragile truce holds, by Munir Ahmed, Sam Metz, E. Eduardo Castillo and Samy Magdy | AP ISLAMABAD — The United States and Iran began negotiations today in Pakistan, days after a fragile, two-week ceasefire was announced, as the war that has killed thousands of people and shaken global markets entered its seventh week. READ MORE . . . Click HERE for same AP report in Spanish, and HERE for others. Click HERE and HERE for reports from NPR and Middle East Eye.
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Pressure builds on Iran to ‘drop’ Lebanon ceasefire demand as Islamabad talks hang in balance. From the Cradle. Pakistani officials are pressuring the Iranian delegation in Islamabad to enter talks with their US counterparts by “dropping” demands for a ceasefire in Lebanon, according to information obtained by Lebanese journalist and the Cradle columnist Dr. Mohamad Hassan Sweidan. READ MORE . . .
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FROM APRIL 10 Iran does not seek war but will never abandon its rightful demands, claims Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, by Abdul Rahman | Peoples Dispatch Millions of Iranians took to the streets Thursday to mark the 40th day of the mourning of the deaths of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, various other leaders, and the school children of Minab. READ MORE . . .
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Lebanese journalist Kim Ghattas shares likely outcome of U.S.-Iran talks in Pakistan. Scott Simon
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FROM APRIL 10 U.S. diplomacy’s last breath, by Patrick Lawrence | Special to Consortium News Israel’s diplomatic credibility has long been nonexistent for the simple reason the Zionist state has no interest either in the truth or in negotiating anything with anybody — certainly not with any of its West Asian neighbors. And Trump, in his regime’s serial dishonesty these past weeks, has reshaped the conventions of American diplomacy in the Israeli fashion. He has turned the United States into the same sort of pariah. READ MORE . . .
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FROM APRIL 10 The Iranian billionaire negotiating with Trump, by M.K. Bhadrakumar | Indian Punchline / Consortium News Glaring differences between the United States and Iran notwithstanding, the talks beginning in Islamabad Saturday have a fairly good chance of being a success. READ MORE . . .
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Islamabad and the end of easy power, by Junaid S. Ahmad | Middle East Monitor History, when it chooses to humiliate power, does not bother with elegance — it stages spectacle. READ MORE . . .
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FROM APRIL 10 Could the Islamabad talks end 48 years of hostility between the U.S. and Iran? by Seyed Hossein Mousavian | Middle East Eye After 40 days of military confrontation, the ceasefire between Iran on one side and the United States and Israel on the other emerged from a combination of military, strategic, political, and economic realities. READ MORE . . .
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Former U.S. secretary of state says Netanyahu repeatedly pressed U.S. presidents to strike Iran, only Trump agreed, by Merve Berker | Anadolu Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had repeatedly urged U.S. administrations to carry out military strikes on Iran, but previous presidents declined. He spoke in an interview on The Briefing with Jen Psaki on Friday. READ MORE . . .
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TO BE CONTINUED