President Trump says he's reviewing a new Iranian peace proposal

But let's continue on with the latest coming out of the Middle East, a live look there at the White House. But I want to bring into the conversation now Enya Kervin. She is the senior director of the Israel Program, a national security network at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Enya, good morning. Good to see you. Always good to see you, Coral. Let's start with the basics here. Obviously, you know, negotiations have been going back and forth for weeks now in order to end this war. President Trump saying he was going to review a proposal from Iran. Not too many details, but based on everything we've seen in your assessment, how would you characterize where we stand in this war, specifically the U.S. and Iran? I think there's still a lot of gaps. I think there are large and important gaps between where Iran is and where the U.S. is right now. And I think that we see a pattern with the Iranian negotiators. We've seen this in previous negotiations as well, where they're working hard to separate the nuclear issue from the other issues at hand. They don't want to give up on their nuclear capacity, their ability to move, continue moving towards a nuclear weapon. So what we've seen in the last couple of days and what I've heard from the readouts of the new proposal is that the Iranians are once again trying to say, look, we'll talk to you about the straits of Hormuz, we can come to some terms on that important waterway. But we're going to delay the talk about the nuclear aspect of this, which is highly problematic because, of course, they closed the straits of Hormuz in order to maintain leverage or try and keep leverage on the U.S. and the international community. But at the absolute root of this conflict is the nuclear issue. So it's very difficult for them to say, we'll ease up on the straits of Hormuz, but we're not going to deal with the core issues until a later date. And that's it. That's a really classic tactic of theirs is not only to keep delaying the nuclear issue, but to try and draw out the negotiating for as long as possible. Speaking of the straits of Hormuz, we are taking a live look at it here, courtesy of marine traffic. The red dots on the screen are tanker vessels, and then the green dots are cargo vessels, just to give our viewers a little bit of a reference as to what we're looking at here. And yet the U.S. and Iran, again, going back and forth within these negotiations. This war, though, first started back on February 28th, joint strikes between the U.S. and Israel. What is the Israeli government saying about this back and forth? What is the input that they have, not just with the straits of Hormuz, but also Iran's nuclear program? The Israelis are very focused on the nuclear issue. It's been the core issue for them since the beginning, of course. This is a regime in Tehran. The Iranian regime that has threatened to wipe Israel off the map that has been marching towards a nuclear weapon for years, and Israel has constantly warned about the danger that that poses not only to Israel, but to the entire region. So Israel's very focused on the nuclear issue, but it's also taking its orders from the White House. And I say that. It's not a direct command-control relationship, but if the White House says, you know, we want to test out this ceasefire, we want to enter negotiations, Israel has complied with the White House ceasefire and is in very close coordination with the White House. So while Israel maintains its laser focus and its national security concerns about the nuclear issue, among others, it is coordinating very closely with the White House and understands that Israel is the junior partner in this relationship. We're taking a live look here over at Tel Aviv, Israel. Speaking of Israel, Enya, not only are they in this battle there with Iran, but also they are focused on battling Iranian proxy groups such as Hezbollah, particularly there in Lebanon. I want to bring up a social media post in just a moment from the Israel Defense Forces. But what is the status there between Iran and Hezbollah, and specifically because we know that there is a ceasefire in place between Israel and Lebanon. Also important to point out that the fight is not technically between Israel and Lebanon. Very, very good points, all, Grell. So as you said, there was a U.S.-negotiated ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel. Hezbollah is the Iranian proxy in Lebanon. They are funded, trained and supported by the regime in Tehran. So this is one of the regimes, another one of their tactics that they are very famous for, which is this proxy network throughout the region that stretches from Iraq, Lebanon, inside the Palestinian territories, and all the way to Yemen and other places. They have a long tradition of exporting the Iranian revolution throughout the region. And Israel is often the target of the attacks of these proxies. So Lebanon is the one that Israel, the Iranian proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah, is the force that Israel has been fighting with in this last round since February 28th, when Hezbollah decided to get into the fight between the U.S. and Israel on one side and Iran on the other one. So Israels have been fighting on two fronts, which is also not uncommon for the Jewish state. So Israel has been tackling Hezbollah in Lebanon on its northern border. Trump managed to negotiate a ceasefire. There has been some process, there have been historic meetings between ambassadors, but quietly below the radar, the fighting continues. And Israel has sustained losses of soldiers in the past couple of weeks. It's not all out warfare, but operations by the IDF and by Hezbollah seem to be continuing. And I think that the message as articulated by Trump and Vance to Israel was, look, we want Hezbollah to be included in this Iranian ceasefire. We want a regional peace. Iran also wants Hezbollah covered under that sort of ceasefire umbrella. But so we want you to tamp it down, Israel. We want these to be low key. We don't want any big moves. We don't want any sensational attacks going on between Israel and Hezbollah. But it's certainly not a peace and not even a cold peace, Karel. I want to take us out now to that social media post from the IDF that I had talked about a little bit earlier. This was recent from, I want to say a few minutes ago, maybe 30 minutes ago. They include a photo and they say this, discovered dozens of Hezbollah weapons intended for terror activity against IDF soldiers. Those weapons, they include rifles, machine guns, anti-tech missiles, magazines, I mean, you name it. And then they say that additionally, two armed terrorists were eliminated south of the forward defense line after posing an immediate threat to IDF soldiers in the area. Enya, a little bit ago, you did mention the cooperation and coordination between the U.S. and Israel given the war with Iran. Let's bring it back to Lebanon, though, because, again, Israel continuing to fight Hezbollah militants there that are stationed across Lebanon. How has the communication and the coordination maybe changed with the Israeli and Lebanese government since that ceasefire was enacted? Well, so it's been interesting. I mean, as you point out, there are still there is still fighting going on between the IDF and Hezbollah throughout this negotiated ceasefire. But as I mentioned, there have been historic meetings between U.S. and Lebanese officials directly, which points to something much deeper going on here. The issue in Lebanon is that Hezbollah, which is an Iranian backed militia, has essentially occupied Lebanon, has essentially taken over their government and keeps triggering these conflicts with with Israel. The official government of Lebanon, the elected government, the U.S. backed and European backed government of Lebanon is trying to figure out how to take Hezbollah out of the country, how to take Iranian control out of Lebanon. And there's even been talks of normalization between Israel, of having official delegations and of peace. But none of that can happen until there is a resolution with Hezbollah, until either the Lebanese people can take their country back, can kick out Hezbollah, can stop the Iranian influence and malign activity in their country, or we're going to continue to see these cycles of violence. And it's very similar to what's happening in Iran. The U.S. is at war with the regime, but the people of Iran, by all accounts, by all indicators that we have, want a free Iran. They want to be rid of the regime and this regime that has funded terrorism of all throughout the region, this regime that has killed unknown thousands of its own people who have protested the government. And the million dollar question is, is there enough grassroots energy activity support in both of these places to get rid of these terror regimes that are destroying the countries? Kind of staying on this similar tangent there, Enya, by the way, this is another vantage point there out of Tel Aviv and Israel. How has Israel's relationship with other neighboring countries evolved since this war first began? So Israel, even before the war began, was moving towards normalization throughout the region. That was a big trend of the last Trump administration when he when he midwived in the Abraham Accords, which were essentially normalization agreements between Israel and other Middle Eastern countries who also happened to be U.S. allies. So it was a U.S. framework. Now, unfortunately, in the last couple of years of war, those agreements have sustained. None of the Abraham Accords partners have left the agreements, but we haven't seen the expansion that we were anticipating back in Donald Trump's first term. But in the recent war with Iran, Iran made the strategic blunder of attacking U.S. Arab allies in the region, including but not limited to Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE. And in fact, those countries have suffered the blunt, the brunt of Iranian missiles. So what that's done is it's caused an interesting dynamic in the region where those countries that previously liked to hedge a lot of times and wanted to have open lines of communication with Iran and wanted to kind of balance their U.S. alignment and and their ongoing relationship with Iran, they've kind of taken a step back from Iran and in some cases have decided and made outward gestures towards Israel for a more open cooperation. So one example of probably the strongest example is the UAE. While UAE was under attack from Iran in this most recent war, Israel sent Iron Dome and troops into the UAE to help defend that country. That was a read that was recently became public in the media. So the Iran war has had a very interesting effect on the region. I think the repercussions are continuing to kind of ripple out. And it's definitely had the effect of alienating the U.S. aligned countries even further from Iran and potentially bringing them closer to Israel. Once again, we do have that live look out of the Strait of Hormuz. And yet from an intelligence perspective, what are some of the biggest unknowns or blind spots, whether it be for Israel or U.S. as this war continues? So the blind spots are many. Look, this isn't a perfect science, unfortunately, and no one has a crystal ball. And anyone who says they know what's going to happen or they see the future here is lying. There are a lot of X factors. But I will say the one that I'm watching is whether the Iranian people will stand up and take down this regime. The protests that we saw in December of 2025 and early in January 2026 were massive across the country. And ever since, Iran has had a crackdown, a brutal crackdown, killing unknown thousands, probably tens of thousands of its own people. It has shut down the Internet completely since the war. The Iranian people are in a complete blackout. There is an information campaign that is prosecuting against its own people. And we don't have much insight into what the average Iranian people are thinking. But the only way the regime will ultimately fall is if the Iranians decide to stand up and say that they want a different way of life, a different type of leadership and take their country back. So all of this, what it all boils down to. And I think the reason Donald Trump decided to come into this war and to bring this military confrontation to Iran was to give the Iranian people a chance to take back their country. So the question is, Terrell, will this, you know, 60 plus days of war, will this intense economic pressure, will all of it lead to a new Iranian leadership? And that for me is the million dollar question. And I think that we covered a lot of ground throughout this conversation. But is there anything else that you feel that you have to add possibly for our viewers to keep in mind as we wait to see what President Trump says about this latest proposal from Iran, but also countries in the Gulf region and really neighboring states there and how they continue to react? Yeah, I'll say the most fascinating thing for me to watch is Trump's approach to these negotiations. The Iranians are absolutely known for drawing out negotiations as long as they possibly can, making it painstakingly slow and wearing down their opponents. And Western negotiators just haven't really been able to to come away with the things that they want at the negotiating table. But Trump has taken a slightly different, well, radically different approach and that he's brought in real military power. So he's got his carrot and his stick. And he is actually got time on his side right now. He is running the Iranian economy into the ground day by day. They're losing hundreds of millions of dollars a day by the U.S. counter-blockade in the Strait of Hormuz. They've said to loss billions of dollars in oil trade alone. And frankly, time is on the U.S. aside. I know there's a pinch at the pump. I know that there is potential repercussions for everyday Americans and it's not easy. But ultimately, this tactic does put the time on Trump's side. So it's going to be interesting to see who has the strongest will here, who can who can hold their hold their cards the longest and ultimately prevail in this game, in this test of wills. Enya Curveen, the senior director of the Israel Program and National Security Network at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Enya, always good to see you. Great to see you. All right. We'll talk soon.