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THE ART OF CAPITULATION: TRUMP DESPERATE FOR IRAN OFFRAMP — TOP
ANALYST HASSAN AHMADIAN
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Jeremy Scahill, Hassan Ahmadian
June 12, 2026
Drop Site News [[link removed]]
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_ Scahill and Ahmadian discuss the events leading up to Trump’s
announcement on Thursday, Iran’s red lines—including the
unfreezing of assets an end to the war on Lebanon—and how Israel
will seek to sabotage a deal, and economic impact on Iran. _
, Drop Site News
Top Iran analyst Dr. Hassan Ahmadian tells Drop Site that Donald Trump
was forced to seek a deal on Iran's terms after meeting the “hard
rock” of Iranian resistance.Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill spoke to
Ahmadian, Associate Professor of Middle East Studies at Tehran
University on Friday, following President Trump’s announcement that
a deal with Iran was imminent.
“The United States has hit the hard rock of a formidable force that
stopped its aggression and they have to deal with it,” said
Ahmadian. “President Trump realized that he cannot change the
failure, the military failure of the war into a diplomatic win.”
Throughout the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, Trump has constantly
flailed in his campaign to portray it as a historic success. The blunt
reality is that what Trump announced as a quick and easy war of regime
change rapidly transformed into a quagmire. For the past two months,
Trump has struggled to find a way to declare victory, alternating
between claims that Iran is begging him for a deal and threats to
destroy Iranian civilization.
On Thursday morning, Trump threatened to hit Iran “very hard.”
Later in the day, Trump claimed a deal was now at hand, suggesting it
could be signed as early as this weekend. “Based on the fact that
discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the
highest level of Iranian leadership and approved, I have, as President
of the United States of America, cancelled the scheduled strikes and
bombings against Iran this evening,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“Discussions and final points have been, in both concept and great
detail, approved by all parties involved.”
Trump has made such claims more than three dozen times since the
initial two-week ceasefire was signed on April 7, and behind the
scenes, Iranian officials maintain they have stood firm in protecting
their own red lines in any deal framework.
This time, however, the initial response from Tehran indicates that a
deal may well take shape. Scahill and Ahmadian discuss the events
leading up to Trump’s announcement on Thursday, Iran’s red
lines—including the unfreezing of assets and an end to the war on
Lebanon—and how Israel will seek to sabotage a deal while continuing
its overt and covert actions targeting Iran. They also discuss the
economic impact on Iran and the domestic political situation.
00:00 [[link removed]]-05:25
[[link removed]] — Opening and
Context from Jeremy Scahill05:26
[[link removed]]-13:45
[[link removed]] — Iran’s
Posture and Core Demands13:46
[[link removed]]-24:31
[[link removed]] — Israel’s
Efforts to Shape or Derail the Deal24:32
[[link removed]]-32:18
[[link removed]] — Lebanon &
Decoupling Israel From the U.S.32:19
[[link removed]]-39:05
[[link removed]] — Gaza and the
Limits of Iran’s Leverage39:06
[[link removed]]-51:57
[[link removed]] — Iran’s
Domestic Situation: Covert Ops & Economic Pressures51:57
[[link removed]]-53:51
[[link removed]] — The UAE,
Gulf States, and Closing Remarks
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YouTube, and Facebook
JEREMY SCAHILL is an American activist, author, and investigative
journalist [[link removed]].
He is a founding editor of the online news publication _The Intercept_
[[link removed]] and author of
_Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army_
[[link removed]]
(2007), which won the George Polk Book Award
[[link removed]]. His book _Dirty
Wars: The World Is a Battlefield_ (2013) was adapted into a
documentary film [[link removed]] which
premiered at the Sundance Film Festival
[[link removed]] and was
nominated for the 2014 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature
[[link removed]].
In July 2024, he left _The Intercept_ and, together with Ryan Grim
[[link removed]] and Nausicaa Renner, founded
Drop Site News [[link removed]].
Scahill is a Fellow at the Type Media Center
[[link removed]]. Scahill learned
journalism and started his career on the independently syndicated
[[link removed]] daily news show
_Democracy Now!_ [[link removed]!]. He
publishes a podcast [[link removed]] titled
_Intercepted_. (Wikipedia)
DR. HASSAN AHMADIAN ([link removed]
[[link removed]])
is an Assistant Professor of Middle East and North Africa studies at
the University of Tehran and a Senior Research Fellow at the Middle
East Scientific and Strategic Studies Center in Tehran. He previously
was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer
Center as well as an Associate with the Project on Shiism and Global
Affairs at Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.
His research and teaching work is mainly focused on Iran’s
foreign/regional policy and relations, political change in the Middle
East, civil-military relations and Islamist movements in the Middle
East.
He has appeared on CNN, Al Jazeera and the Doha Forum
* Donald Trump
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* Iran
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* Israel
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* Lebanon
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* Gaza
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* covert operations
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* Economic Crisis
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* UAE
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* Gulf States
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