A retired French colonel said in an interview last week that for there to be peace in Eastern Europe, it is essential that Ukraine becomes a demilitarized zone, and ruled out western troop deployment inside the country if a peace deal is ever signed.
Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, said last week that Iran’s government “days are numbered,” because a “regime” cannot survive when the only way it maintains power over its people is through “sheer violence and terror.”
The European Union (EU) announced last week that it now considers Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terror organization in response to the country’s crackdown on protesters, with Kaja Kallas, the bloc’s top diplomat, stating, “Repression cannot go unanswered.”
Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s top diplomat, said last week that Tehran will not negotiate with the U.S. while the Trump administration tries to threaten it into submission, stating that he has not interacted with Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy, nor has Iran “requested talks.”
Masoud Pezeshkian, the Iranian president, has taken steps to prepare his country for another war with the U.S., and President Donald Trump says Tehran must agree to his terms, or face the might of American forces steaming into the region.