Revision History

As the U.S. and Iran negotiate under a fragile ceasefire following the 2026 Twelve-Day War, the lawyer for detained American journalist Reza Valizadeh argues that a hostage release should be the simplest confidence-building step in broader nuclear talks. But former negotiators warn that Iran views its American prisoners as bargaining chips, and the far harder questions — uranium enrichment limits, centrifuge counts, and IAEA access — remain unresolved, with the two sides separated by a 15-year gap on enrichment timelines alone.