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Hostage diplomacy
Negotiators at nuclear talks between Iran and the US reached an agreement on "general guiding principles" for a deal yesterday.
Amid an exchange of war threats, including a temporary closure of the Strait of Hormuz for Iranian military drills, diplomacy is currently holding sway.
Among those watching intently for signs of progress in Geneva was Joe Bennett, whose mother and her husband are locked up in Tehran’s Evin Prison for the crime of trying to travel through the country on a motorbike tour.
He hopes that international detainees like his mother, Lindsay Foreman, can be put on the agenda at future talks.
“For any country that engages in peace talks, hostage negotiations should also be a part of it. It shouldn’t just be peace talks [without addressing] human rights violations and hostage taking,” Mr Bennett told The National.
“Part of the package should be the release of prisoners who are being held for nothing else than leverage."
Mr Bennett said he’d had no information from the UK government about whether the plight of Mrs Foreman and her husband Craig would be raised. This gave him the impression the UK was a passive player in the global impasse with Iran. “It’s leaving the fate of UK citizens in the hands of another state,” he said.
While he acknowledged the UK might be putting on pressure behind the scenes, he said the lack of clarity from British diplomats to the families of detainees had been frustrating.
Mr Bennett said his mother had received death threats in prison recently, as tension in Evin rises over the nationwide protests. ”Some people have a hatred for the US and the UK, and some of that was directed towards my mum,” he said.
“She tries to understand. She was there [in Iran] trying to do good. She’s been shown the darkness,” he said.
Locked and loaded
If Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who led the country's delegation, and US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner et al fall short in their efforts to find agreement, the next roll of the dice could be a military option.
US President Donald Trump said he was on the cusp of getting “very tough” with Iran unless it accedes to his demands on abandoning its nuclear programme. The region – and the world – have been anticipating his next move.
Experts have told The National that with American defensive and offensive weapons now “locked and loaded”, an attack could commence imminently.
Military analysts have detailed the nature of the air, sea and land onslaught that Iran could face, with its navy and oil refineries high on the list, alongside its air defences, and special forces raids against senior regime members.
Sinking the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' navy, hitting air defences, special forces operations and striking nuclear sites would all be in the US playbook, they said.
“The US has the capability to strike Iran right now and has done so since the crisis started. All the military build-up is purely to protect the region,” said Sascha Bruchmann, of the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank. “The question has been, how do they defend the region?”
The extra time would have been used to its fullest by American tactical planners, who are selecting the first targets to be struck.
With a range of defensive missiles now posted around the region to fend off any Tehran retaliation, it is now a question of whether Mr Trump will decide to pull the trigger.
You're not cancelled
The British Museum has contacted Palestine’s ambassador to the UK to reassure him that the word Palestine had not been expunged from the museum.
The museum’s executive director Nick Cullinan spoke with ambassador Husam Zomlot by phone after reports circulated that the Palestine labels for artefacts had been removed after pressure from the British charity UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI).
It is correct that some labels and maps in the Middle East galleries have been amended to show ancient cultural regions, and now use terms such as "Canaan", which the museum believes are more relevant for the southern Levant in the later second millennium BC. However, the labels were replaced throughout the past year, after a decision made more than a year ago with focus groups, the museum said.
A British Museum representative rejected claims that the changes were made in response to a letter from UKLFI, which was sent to the museum last week.
"It is simply not true," the representative said. "We continue to use Palestine across a series of galleries, both contemporary and historic."
A trip to the museum by The National on Tuesday found this to be true. One example in the Ancient Levant gallery included a pair of dolls in traditional embroidered garments and headwear that refers to their "Palestinian traditional dress" and to "rural Palestine of the mid-19th and 20th centuries".
Gaza plan
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper is set to bring together Palestinian and Israeli officials in a push for progress on US President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan.
According to the Foreign Office, the UK will convene the briefings for the first time since October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched its deadly attack on southern Israel.
Ms Cooper is set to arrive in New York on Wednesday, where she will chair a meeting of the UN Security Council.
She will call for progress in implementing Mr Trump's peace plan, which would see Hamas and other factions “agree to not have any role in the governance of Gaza”.
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