Sarah: Twelve straight nights of strikes — and that very same day, a document called a 'roadmap.'
Sarah: Two tracks moving in opposite directions.
Sarah: If you're just joining us: ahead of this week's meetings, the U.S.-Iran channel had stayed open even after the fighting resumed.
Sarah: Washington said it was still open to talks while accusing Tehran of not being serious.
Sarah: Mediators meanwhile were trying to keep a preliminary framework from collapsing under renewed strikes
Sarah: maritime pressure around Hormuz
Sarah: and disputes over what each side had already promised.
Rich: This is Iran War Daily.
Rich: Switzerland says 'roadmap,' Doha says 'no headway' — same week.
Rich: We'll ask which one's real, and what Trump's threat to hit bridges and power plants is doing to the shipping lanes.
Sarah: This one comes via Rabia Iclal Turan at Anadolu Ajansı.
Sarah: CENTCOM says the U.S.
Sarah: military has now completed a 12th consecutive night of strikes on Iran.
Sarah: That's the number I can stand behind tonight — it's CENTCOM's own count, not a claim from either side of the battlefield.
Rich: Twelve nights. Sarah
Rich: we're now looking at one of the longest sustained American bombing runs on Iran we've ever seen — and CENTCOM's still measuring it in nights
Rich: not objectives.
Sarah: And notice what the readout doesn't give us — no target list, no battle-damage assessment, no independent casualty figure.
Sarah: Twelve nights confirmed, the results still unverified.
Rich: Right, and the diplomacy update landed that same day.
Rich: Somebody's been dropping ordnance for twelve straight nights while the talks are supposedly still on.
Rich: I want to know which one is the actual policy.
Sarah: From Al Jazeera:
Quote: Iran and the United States concluded a round of indirect technical talks on Wednesday with no sign they had made headway towards a lasting
Quote: peace. Instead, the two countries focused on issues that they said had been resolved when an interim agreement was announced two weeks ago.
Quote: The indirect talks followed days of tit-for-tat military attacks by the US and Iran amid a dispute over shipping routes in the Strait of
Quote: Hormuz.
Rich: Two weeks after they announced an interim deal, Witkoff and Kushner fly to Doha — and what do they talk about?
Rich: The same things they said were already settled: compliance and frozen funds.
Rich: They're re-litigating the receipt.
Sarah: Let's be clear about who was in the room.
Sarah: Qatar's Emir met Witkoff and Kushner, and Gharibabadi led Iran's technical team.
Sarah: Araghchi and Ghalibaf — Iran's top negotiators — didn't show.
Sarah: When the principals stay home, they're signaling the ceiling for this round.
Rich: And this is happening on top of the twelve straight nights of strikes we just covered.
Rich: Indirect technical talks in Doha, with bombs still falling and Hormuz under pressure.
Rich: Qatar and Pakistan are mediating, and the best they can say is 'no headway.'
Sarah: So now we have two readings: a roadmap from the Swiss track, and a Doha reality check over compliance and frozen funds.
Sarah: I want to keep those outcomes separate, because Al Jazeera's reporting gives us very different results in the same week.
Rich: Right — same negotiators, same week.
Rich: One venue comes back with a document; the other comes back with 'we agree we disagree.'
Rich: Somebody's stringing one of these along, and I'd like to know who's paying to keep both flights in the air.
Sarah: Al Jazeera Mirror writes:
Quote: The first round of talks between high-level officials from Iran and the United States in Switzerland has ended
Quote: mediators say with the two sides agreeing on a roadmap towards a final deal to end their more than 100-day war.
Quote: Iran and the US agreed to set up communication lines to keep the vital Strait of Hormuz open and end fighting in Lebanon at the marathon
Quote: talks that ended on Monday
Quote: according to mediators.
Sarah: What came out of Switzerland is a 'roadmap towards a final deal within 60 days.'
Sarah: That's according to Al Jazeera Mirror, citing the mediators, Pakistan and Qatar.
Sarah: Vance led the U.S. side; Iran's parliament speaker, Ghalibaf, led theirs.
Rich: And it lands the same day the Doha round we just covered comes up empty.
Rich: So within one week, one venue has a document and the other has nothing.
Sarah: Right — and I don't want to mash them into one story.
Sarah: Doha and Switzerland are different rooms with different results.
Sarah: I'm watching the gap between them.
Rich: The one concrete line that actually moves markets is the communication channel to keep Hormuz open.
Rich: Everything else in a 60-day 'technical talks' roadmap is a promissory note.
Rich: Show me the Hormuz mechanism and I'll believe there's a deal.
Sarah: They also say the fighting in Lebanon will end — again, per the mediators.
Sarah: The readout doesn't explain what authority Iran has to commit Hezbollah to that.
Rich: A hundred-plus days of war, the twelfth straight night of strikes still under way, and the paper says everybody's headed for a final deal.
Rich: Somebody forgot to tell CENTCOM.
Sarah: This one's from RTÉ News:
Quote: US President Donald Trump has vowed to destroy an Iranian bridge or power plant every time Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz
Quote: raising the stakes after Iranian-allied Houthis in Yemen threatened a second vital energy route.
Quote: Five tankers changed course in the Red Sea to avoid the Bab el-Mandeb Strait today
Quote: a day after the Houthi threat to block Saudi oil exports highlighted a new risk to global oil supplies from the escalating conflict.
Rich: So on the same day Rubio tells RTÉ the U.S.
Rich: is 'still willing to negotiate,' Trump vows to flatten an Iranian bridge or power plant every time a ship gets hit in Hormuz.
Rich: Great — the carrot and the wrecking ball, hand in hand.
Sarah: Let me pin down the sourcing.
Sarah: Rubio's 'still willing' is on the record via RTÉ — one step past last week's 'open to.'
Sarah: Trump's infrastructure threat came in a presidential statement, and Iran's joint military command answered through state media.
Rich: And the market already voted.
Rich: Five tankers changed course to avoid Bab el-Mandeb in a single day.
Rich: The day before that, three Saudi cargoes bound for China and India U-turned.
Rich: Nobody's waiting to see whose bridge goes first — the rerouting is happening now.
Sarah: Here's the escalation logic Araqchi laid out: 'eye for an eye,' and anyone supporting a strike becomes a legitimate target.
Sarah: That widens the target list beyond Iran and Israel.
Sarah: This is Tehran's framing; we don't have confirmed capability to go with it.
Rich: Right — Trump names bridges and power plants; Iran answers with 'not a single drop of oil' getting out of the Strait.
Rich: That's the ladder Lloyd's is pricing tonight, and it has nothing to do with Rubio's negotiating table.
Sarah: From WTOP News:
Quote: DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S.
Quote: President Donald Trump has repeatedly issued threats to bomb an under-construction Iranian nuclear site buried deep under a mountain as the
Quote: two nations exchange blows over the Strait of Hormuz.
Quote: The site known as Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La
Quote: or “Pickaxe Mountain,” lies on the south side of Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment site
Quote: which was bombed by the United States during Operation Midnight Hammer in 2025’s 12-day war between Iran and Israel.
Rich: Twelve straight nights of strikes, and the one target Washington keeps naming — Pickaxe Mountain — is still sitting there untouched.
Rich: Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, quote, 'we'll be hitting that area probably pretty soon.'
Sarah: And notice how AP frames this: Trump has 'repeatedly issued threats.'
Sarah: It's a pattern now. I want to know whether CENTCOM has said a single word about that site independent of the president.
Sarah: So far, it's all come from Trump himself.
Rich: Right — and Trump himself admitted the centrifuges may be buried deep enough to beat America's biggest bombs.
Rich: So he's threatening a site he's not sure he can crack, on the south side of Natanz, which we already flattened in Midnight Hammer last year.
Sarah: One more thing to hold onto: the UN watchdog has never been inside Pickaxe Mountain.
Sarah: Nobody outside Iran knows what's in those tunnels, so the threat is running ahead of any verified intelligence that's been made public.
Rich: And this comes on the same day as a 'roadmap' out of Switzerland.
Rich: One channel's drafting a deal while the president names bombing targets.
Rich: Somebody's paying for that gap — watch what it does to tanker traffic through Hormuz tonight.
Host: If Iran War Daily helps you stay informed, subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen.
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Host: We're watching the technical talks under the Switzerland roadmap, set to continue for the rest of the week at Burgenstock.
Host: The mediators are aiming for a final U.S.-Iran deal within 60 days.
Host: You'll find links to every story in today's show notes if you'd like to read further.
Host: That's Iran War Daily for today.
Host: This is a Lantern Podcast.