The Levant Files

Well-informed sources tell The Levant Files that Ankara is open to dialogue on Cyprus and Greek-Turkish relations, but will not return to the federal negotiating model that collapsed at Crans-Montana in 2017. Ankara will not enter a new Cyprus negotiation on the basis of the federal formula pursued at Crans-Montana nearly a decade ago, well-informed sources have told The Levant Files, as reports emerge of a possible United Nations effort to table a more flexible political framework later this summer. According to the sources, Turkey welcomes dialogue on all outstanding issues, including the Cyprus problem and Greek-Turkish relations. However, Ankara’s position is that it is impossible to return to the deadlocks and assumptions that defined previous rounds of negotiations. The sources said Ankara strongly supports what it describes as the state dimension of the Turkish Cypriot side and considers a just, equal sharing of land, governance, airspace and maritime areas to be essential to an...

Four-party talks involving Iran, the United States, Qatar and Pakistan paused on Sunday after an initial 80-minute session, as Tehran sought to make progress on what it describes as unmet commitments over Lebanon, sanctions relief and the implementation of an earlier understanding. Iranian news agency IRNA, in reporting carried by several Persian-language outlets, said the delegations interrupted the meeting at the Bürgenstock venue for internal consultations. The pause was presented as procedural rather than as a breakdown, with reports indicating that further discussions were expected after the delegations reviewed their positions. The meeting brought together Iranian and US representatives alongside Qatari and Pakistani mediators. According to Eghtesad Online, which cited IRNA, the talks were convened to follow up on commitments contained in the so-called Islamabad memorandum, a framework that Iranian officials portray as a precursor to any wider agreement rather than a final settle...

Hezbollah has strongly condemned the ongoing direct negotiation rounds between a Lebanese state delegation and Israel in Washington, stating that their true objective is "submission and surrender," according to a report by Al Mayadeen.  In a statement released on Sunday and cited by Al Mayadeen, Hezbollah’s Media Relations office argued that these US-brokered talks usurp Lebanon’s sovereignty. The group warned that by participating, the Lebanese state is shifting the country's political position into the "camp of those reconciling with the Zionist occupation." The group expressed zero expectations for any positive outcome from the diplomatic track. According to Al Mayadeen, Hezbollah described the foundation of the negotiations as "wrong and suspicious," reiterating its stance that the talks are designed solely to force Lebanon into submission.  Furthermore, the statement condemned the broader approach of direct negotiations with Israel, accusing the t...

  As Iranian and US delegations prepared to meet in Switzerland following the signing of the Islamabad memorandum of understanding, Persian-language media portrayed the encounter less as the start of a reconciliation process than as a decisive test of political will, regional leverage and Washington’s credibility. Across Iran’s ideological spectrum, commentators broadly agree on one point: the confrontation has not been resolved. Instead, it has shifted from overt military and diplomatic pressure to a contest over the sequencing and implementation of commitments. The state news agency IRNA reported that the first high-level Iranian-American meeting after the Islamabad memorandum was due to take place at the Bürgenstock hotel in Switzerland. The agency stressed that Tehran does not regard the meeting as the automatic beginning of a 60-day process toward a final settlement. Rather, according to IRNA’s account of the Iranian position, negotiations on a comprehensive agreement are cond...

High-stakes peace negotiations between the United States and Iran have commenced in Switzerland, severely overshadowed by renewed brinkmanship over the Strait of Hormuz and ongoing violence in the Middle East. The diplomatic push, mediated by Qatar and Pakistan, aims to finalize an interim agreement ending their 108-day conflict. U.S. Vice President JD Vance arrived at the Bürgenstock resort on Sunday, joining Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The Iranian delegation, led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, arrived hours earlier. However, the two sides face a severe agenda clash before formal discussions can gain momentum. Vance emphasized that securing a lasting ceasefire in southern Lebanon and advancing strict negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program remain Washington’s primary objectives. Conversely, Tehran insists the hostilities in Lebanon must unconditionally dominate the discussions. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmae...

Amid a fog of air-raid sirens, political recriminations and contradictory maritime alerts, an intricate web of shuttle diplomacy is edging forward, offering the region a sliver of hope even as bombs continue to fall. Envoys from both Tehran and Washington are converging on the Swiss resort of Bürgenstock. An Iranian team led by parliamentary speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is tasked with “demanding implementation” of the 14-point US-Iran memorandum of understanding (MoU). On the American side, White-House emissaries Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are already on the ground, and Vice-President JD Vance says he expects to join them “within days.” Mediators from Pakistan and Qatar will sit at the table when technical talks begin on Sunday.  Yet the very clause that underpins those negotiations—the requirement for an “immediate and permanent termination of military operations” in Lebanon—lies in tatters. Since the small-print ceasefire took effect on...

In a dramatic escalation that threatens the fragile two-day-old peace agreement, Iran's military has announced the immediate closure of the Strait of Hormuz to maritime traffic. However, the directive has triggered intense public friction within the Iranian government, as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs vehemently denied the shutdown just minutes later. The sudden blockade order was issued by the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, the operational command center overseeing all of Iran’s Armed Forces. According to reports published across Iranian state media outlets—including IRIB, Tasnim, and Tabnak—the military command explicitly cited "clear bad faith and treaty-breaking by the United States" regarding the first clause of the June 18 peace memorandum recently signed by U.S. President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. The military directive also pointed to ongoing Israeli military operations and the failure of forces to withdraw from southern Leban...

The latest reports from both sides of the border paint an increasingly catastrophic picture as the 4 p.m. Friday cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah collapses almost on contact. Lebanese outlets say Israeli jets, drones and artillery shredded towns from Barish to Nabatieh before dawn Saturday, killing at least 23 civilians—including four members of one family—and injuring scores more. Charred houses, pancaked apartment blocks and overwhelmed field clinics signal a death toll “certain to rise,” warn emergency doctors on the ground.  Israel insists the chronology is inverted: according to the Israel Defense Forces, Hezbollah initiated hostilities with a terrifying 50-rocket barrage at IDF positions inside a long-held “security zone.” The army claims its retaliatory strikes were “surgical,” aimed at launchers and command nodes, yet nighttime footage shows fireballs consuming residential streets—imagery certain to inflame Arab public opinion.  Hezbollah’s counternarrative is e...

A fragile, newly renewed ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah is facing an immediate test after deadly military strikes hit southern Lebanon on Saturday, threatening to completely derail a landmark diplomatic framework orchestrated by the United States and Iran to end the West Asia war. According to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA), an Israeli airstrike targeted the village of Qannarit, near the southern city of Sidon, killing at least seven people and wounding 13 others. Additional overnight and morning bombardments across the Nabatieh region, including an airstrike on the town of Arabsalim, claimed five more lives and destroyed several residential structures. The ongoing violence comes less than 24 hours after regional mediators from the US, Qatar, and Iran successfully scrambled to reinstate a temporary truce The security situation originally imploded over the previous 24 hours, marking the bloodiest escalation since a US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was si...