Description:
Pepe Escobar and Zulfiqar Ali on Transition Protocol on unaccounted Iranian uranium, Pakistan's Iran corridors, and Trump's maximum-pressure campaign.
440.9 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium are unaccounted for, and according to sources inside the Pakistani command the only remaining channel with visibility into where it went runs through a mediator Donald Trump has discarded. Escobar and Ali report Pakistan will not close the six overland corridors keeping Iran supplied, will not close Gwadar, and does not treat Scott Bessent's sanctions threats as reason to change course.
They also report Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar has met Wang Yi and secured a Chinese commitment to backstop Pakistan if it walks away from the $10 billion IMF programme. Iran's internal calculation, they say, is that it can absorb maximum pressure until November; Escobar assesses Tehran may go on the offensive within weeks if provoked again.
440.9 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium are unaccounted for, and according to sources inside the Pakistani command the only remaining channel with visibility into where it went runs through a mediator Donald Trump has discarded. Escobar and Ali report Pakistan will not close the six overland corridors keeping Iran supplied, will not close Gwadar, and does not treat Scott Bessent's sanctions threats as reason to change course.
They also report Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar has met Wang Yi and secured a Chinese commitment to backstop Pakistan if it walks away from the $10 billion IMF programme. Iran's internal calculation, they say, is that it can absorb maximum pressure until November; Escobar assesses Tehran may go on the offensive within weeks if provoked again.