Sarah: Pakistan says it moved the talks forward.
Sarah: Forward toward what, exactly?
Sarah: Quick recap if you're joining us: the U.S.-Iran channel has been blocked since the June 17 MoU expired without a final peace deal.
Sarah: Hormuz reopening, sanctions, nuclear terms, and demands to end the war are all unresolved.
Sarah: After the framework failed to produce a settlement
Sarah: Pakistan has pushed its mediator role again
Sarah: with Field Marshal Asim Munir traveling to Tehran for senior talks.
Rich: This is Iran War Daily.
Rich: Pakistan claims a breakthrough.
Rich: Cyberattacks are reaching power systems, and Washington is tightening pressure at sea.
Rich: Let's start in Tehran.
Rich: We're staying with this story: US-Iran deal negotiations.
Rich: Follow the show and you won't miss what comes next.
Sarah: This one's from Al Jazeera:
Quote: There has been significant progress during high-level talks in Tehran aimed at ending the US-Israel war on Iran
Quote: according to Pakistani officials.
Quote: The talks took place on Monday during a daylong diplomatic mission to Tehran by Pakistan’s army chief
Quote: Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir
Quote: and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi.
Rich: Pakistan sent Field Marshal Munir and Interior Minister Naqvi to Tehran for a full day
Rich: then came home saying the talks covered escalation
Rich: Hormuz and ending the war.
Rich: But what actually moved—ship security, hostages, frozen funds, any of it?
Sarah: The Pakistan mediation track we were following as Munir headed to Tehran has gotten somewhere
Sarah: at least according to Islamabad: officials now say the talks made significant progress.
Sarah: Tehran hasn't publicly endorsed any terms, though, and Tasnim's account says President Pezeshkian wants Washington to change its approach.
Rich: Pakistan was a guarantor on the prior interim agreement
Rich: according to The New Indian Express
Rich: so it has every reason to make this sound alive.
Rich: Fine—put the deliverables on the table.
Rich: Reopening Hormuz means a security arrangement and insurers willing to write policies, not a cheerful post on X.
Sarah: One important detail: Al-Monitor says Munir coordinated with President Trump before traveling to Tehran.
Sarah: That points to U.S. backing for the mission, but doesn't tell us whether Washington has accepted any Iranian position discussed on Monday.
Sarah: Al Jazeera writes:
Quote: Media reports about a cyberattack that forced a British power plant offline for four days should be taken seriously far beyond the United
Quote: Kingdom.
Quote: It gives us a glimpse of how the Iran conflict could develop and signals to governments and businesses around the world that they need to be
Quote: ready for a new battlefield.
Quote: The facility reportedly targeted by Iran-linked hackers was relatively small
Quote: and the British government has stressed that there was no risk to the wider energy system.
Rich: Four days offline at a British power plant is an infrastructure strike, even if the facility was small.
Rich: London says the wider grid wasn't at risk; fine—but somebody just got a real-world test of what happens if the target is bigger.
Sarah: Al Jazeera says the British facility was reportedly hit by Iran-linked hackers
Sarah: while the UK government is emphasizing the limited grid impact.
Sarah: The outage itself is confirmed.
Sarah: Who did it is still reported attribution.
Rich: And while Pakistan is talking up diplomatic progress, the infrastructure front is moving the other way.
Rich: Ships need insurance.
Rich: So do power plants, water systems, and ports.
Rich: Somebody has to price a risk that can turn physical fast.
Sarah: The U.S. cases call for the same caution.
Sarah: Al Jazeera reports attacks on water and wastewater systems in at least 12 states
Sarah: but Washington hasn't publicly blamed Iran
Sarah: even as reports point toward a group linked to the IRGC.
Sarah: Here's Vinay Prasad Sharma at WION:
Quote: Iran is putting pressure on Qatar to relocate detained Iranian pilots from their recent holding site on the water to a hospital facility on
Quote: dry land according to media reports.
Quote: Iran’s Armed Forces committee head Mohammad Baqerzadeh
Quote: tasked with locating missing personnel
Quote: has claimed that the health of the pilots is deteriorating.
Quote: He noted that pilots are confined at a waterborne location, calling it a “poor physical condition.”
Sarah: Iran's Mohammad Baqerzadeh says detained pilots are in poor physical condition at a waterborne site and wants the Red Cross to send an air
Sarah: ambulance. Qatar disputes Iran's account, so the condition and custody claims remain contested.
Rich: And Doha says it offered Tehran a detailed review of the search-and-rescue operation
Rich: including handing over one pilot's remains
Rich: and got no response.
Rich: So there's a humanitarian dispute playing out in public while everyone else is selling diplomatic momentum.
Sarah: Qatar is unusually exposed here: it's a U.S.
Sarah: defense partner, and now the country Iran is publicly pressing over missing and detained aviators.
Sarah: For now, the immediate question is narrower: can the Red Cross independently establish who needs a medical transfer?
Rich: Exactly. If the pilots are sick, get them to a hospital and let the Red Cross see them.
Rich: Talk of progress in Tehran won't treat wounds or settle who Qatar actually has.
Rich: How do ship interdictions and new sanctions reinforce each other here?
Rich: What would actually show this is moving Tehran, instead of just making the Strait more dangerous and expensive to use?
Sarah: At sea, the U.S.
Sarah: blockade is targeting the choke point itself, restricting Iran's economic corridors in hopes of reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Sarah: Sanctions are meant to tighten the squeeze beyond the water.
Sarah: PBS News says the measures announced in May included sanctions on Iran's newly created agency seeking to control shipping through the
Sarah: strait. The idea is to limit shipping and access to oil sales and finance, raising the cost to Tehran of keeping the waterway closed.
Sarah: But AP notes Iran has lived with U.S.
Sarah: sanctions for decades, so more penalties alone don't prove the pressure is working.
Sarah: AP reported tankers and container vessels at a standstill this week, and CNN says commercial traffic remains severely restricted.
Sarah: The civilian and global economic costs are already in the reporting: CNN reported rising food prices and unemployment for Iranians
Sarah: while AP says the strait once carried about a fifth of the world's oil and natural-gas supplies.
Rich: So the test is simple: does Iran change its conduct around the strait?
Sarah: Exactly. The clearest sign would be a sustained reopening of Hormuz: ships moving instead of remaining anchored
Sarah: with insurers and commercial operators willing to use the route again.
Sarah: Another would be concrete progress on the shipping plan Iran says it's discussing with Oman.
Sarah: Without that, pressure can deepen the standoff without clearing the bottleneck.
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Host: Links to every story we covered today are in the show notes.
Host: If something caught your attention, take a moment to read the full piece and dig into the reporting behind it.
Host: That's Iran War Daily for today.
Host: This is a Lantern Podcast.