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Hum Allah Hum Allah Hum Allah · Pharoah Sanders
Jewels Of Thought
℗ 1969 UMG Recordings, Inc.
Released on: 1998-01-01
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Tenor Saxophone, Associated Performer, Composer Lyricist: Pharoah Sanders
Vocals, Associated Performer, Composer Lyricist: Leon Thomas
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Associated Performer, Upright Bass: Cecil McBee
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Key outcomes of Iran-US talks in Switzerland; what next?
Experts warn unresolved questions over Lebanon could complicate efforts to secure a lasting agreement.
Delegation
staff members meet in the lobby on the day of a quadrilateral meeting
between the United States, Iran, Pakistan and Qatar at the Burgenstock
luxury hotel complex overlooking Lake Lucerne, Switzerland on June 21,
2026, as part of high-level talks aimed at advancing a deal to end the
war [AFP]
Mediators Qatar and Pakistan have said the United States and Iran
agreed on “a roadmap towards reaching a final deal within 60 days”,
following what they described as “encouraging progress” during the first
day of high-level talks in Switzerland.
The discussions followed
the signing of a 14-point memorandum of understanding (MoU) on June 17
that established a framework for de-escalation between Washington and
Tehran and laid the groundwork for further negotiations.
The breakthrough came after a marathon 18-hour meeting at Lake Lucerne attended by senior officials from both countries.
The
joint statement also announced the creation of a “de-confliction cell”
aimed at ending Israel’s military operations in Lebanon, alongside a
high-level committee and direct communication channels designed to
support further negotiations.
US Vice President JD Vance led
Washington’s delegation, alongside President Donald Trump’s son-in-law
Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff. Iran’s delegation was led
by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and included Foreign
Minister Abbas Araghchi.
“Yesterday was a very, very good day. We
made a lot of good progress. We did exactly what we wanted to do,” Vance
told reporters on Monday.
So what are the key takeaways from the talks?
High-level committee, communication channels
A
high-level committee has been established to “provide political
oversight on the mediation”, according to a joint statement issued by
Qatar and Pakistan, which acted as mediators in the negotiations. The
statement said the committee had “agreed upon a roadmap towards reaching
a final deal within 60 days”, with further technical talks expected to
continue over the next two months.
“Chief negotiators will report
regularly to the High Level Committee and lead working groups focused on
nuclear, sanctions, and a monitoring and dispute resolution group to
ensure the effective implementation of the MoU, and on other matters,”
it added.
Thomas Warrick, a non-resident senior fellow at the
Atlantic Council, told Al Jazeera the next phase of technical
negotiations could prove far more challenging than the political
agreement itself, and may ultimately take longer than the 60-day
timeline outlined in the interim deal.
The agreement comes as
major questions remain unresolved, including whether Iran will be
permitted to continue enriching uranium, the fate of its stockpile of
highly enriched uranium, the scope of international inspections and the
timeline for sanctions relief.
On the nuclear issue, Warrick said
“the biggest problem is that removing or downgrading the enriched
uranium is going to take several thousand people, probably 1,000
Americans, going into some of Iran’s most sensitive nuclear sites”,
referring to Washington’s demand for a role in diluting Iran’s enriched
uranium stockpile.
“I can’t imagine Iran being very happy with that idea,” he added.
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The parties have also established “a communication
line” focused on the Strait of Hormuz to “avoid incidents and
miscommunication with the aim of safe passage for commercial vessels
through the Strait of Hormuz”.
The announcement comes amid
continued disruption to maritime traffic through the strategic waterway,
through which a fifth of global oil and gas passes. An analysis by
maritime intelligence company Windward showed that 12 vessels crossed
the strait on Sunday, down from 35 transits the previous day.
Iran’s de facto blockade of the strait triggered a global energy crisis, which affected economies around the world.
On
Monday, Vance said the two parties will establish “coordination
mechanisms”, one to oversee the ceasefire in Lebanon and one to de-mine
the Strait of Hormuz.
Vance said technical negotiations will
follow, and will continue over the “weeks and days to come”. The
technical teams from the US and Iran will continue to negotiate terms of
peace with “proper oversight”, he added.
“The final deal is the
house,” Vance said. “We set the foundation. We haven’t built the house,
but we’ve laid a successful foundation to get to a good place for the
American people,” he added, saying there was still a lot to do.
Iran’s
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (L) shakes hands with Pakistan’s Prime
Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif (C) next to Pakistan’s Chief of Army
Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir (R) prior to a quadrilateral meeting
between the United States, Iran, Pakistan and Qatar at the Burgenstock
luxury hotel complex overlooking Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, on June 21,
2026 [AFP]
‘De-confliction cell’ for Lebanon
The
agreement also includes the creation of a “de-confliction cell”
intended to support efforts to “ensure the adherence of the termination
of military operations in Lebanon”.
Araghchi also declared “major
progress” towards ending the war in Lebanon, but he cautioned that the
first real test of the agreement would be the effectiveness of the
“Lebanon de-confliction cell”.
It comes as Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will remain in a security zone in
southern Lebanon for as long as it deems necessary. The
Israeli-established buffer zone covers roughly 602 square kilometres
(230 square miles), or about 6 percent of Lebanon’s territory.
The
head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s Quds Force then warned
Israel to leave southern Lebanon or risk a repeat of its withdrawal from
the country in 2000.
Esmail Qaani wrote on social media that if
Israel continued its “aggression and occupation”, it would be forced out
in “humiliation and defeat”, according to state-run Press TV.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah has yet to publicly comment on the agreement.
Al
Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank,
said that Israeli commentators described the outcome of the Switzerland
talks as a strategic dilemma for Israel.
“The past ceasefire with Hezbollah was managed between the US and Israel. It gave Israel freedom of action,” she said.
“But
this time, there’s a different dynamic… and Israel feels that it will
be compelled to play along. Right now, the thinking, the planning, the
manoeuvring in Israel centres around how much compromise can Israel do
without completely losing the confidence of the Israeli public.”
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Some analysts have questioned how the mechanism
will have any impact on the ground in Lebanon. Joey Hood, a former
senior US diplomat, noted that neither the Lebanese nor Israeli
governments were directly involved in the negotiations that produced the
mechanism, despite now being expected to implement any ceasefire
arrangements.
“So it’s giving Iran that veto power over Lebanon …
So the MoU seems to be saying, we accept Iran’s regional leadership
role, including over its proxies,” he said.
Mark Kimmitt, a former
US State Department official and retired military general, added that
the inclusion of Lebanon in the broader negotiations “complicates it
tremendously”.
“The fact remains, it’s not often the case that
external powers can solve an internal problem in an internal conflict
between two different countries,” he added.
But early signs
suggest the agreement has had some impact, with Al Jazeera’s Heidi Pett
reporting that “there has been a cautious calm here in Nabatieh as a
ceasefire appears to be taking hold” in southern Lebanon.
“It has followed a very brutal and bloody couple of days for this city and the surrounding towns and villages,” she added.
Pakistan’s
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (C) and Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh
Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani hold hands next to US Vice
President JD Vance prior to a quadrilateral meeting between the United
States, Iran, Pakistan and Qatar at the Burgenstock luxury hotel complex
in Switzerland [AFP]
Sanctions relief, frozen assets
Araghchi
has also suggested that the agreement includes significant economic
concessions from Washington, although the United States has yet to
publicly confirm them.
In
a post on X, he said sanctions on Iranian oil exports and petrochemical
sales had been waived, the blockade had been lifted, some frozen
Iranian assets had been released and a major reconstruction and
development plan for Iran had been launched.
He described these measures as key Iranian conditions that had now been met.
However,
Warrick cautioned that delivering sanctions relief may prove
politically difficult in Washington, particularly where congressional
approval is required.
“Congress is very unhappy with this deal
right now. And it is not at all clear that Congress would agree to lift
some of those sanctions that Iran wants lifted,” he said.
On
Monday, Vance said that if Iranian assets are unfrozen, they will be
used to buy American agricultural products. “They’re going to go to make
American farmers richer and feed the Iranian people.”
Cars
and motorbikes drive past billboards showing Iran’s new Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei and his late father Ali Khamenei, with the
slogan “Thank you, loyal Iran,” erected along the highway leading to
Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut on June 22, 2026 [AFP]
On Iran’s nuclear programme
“The
Iranians have agreed to invite IAEA inspectors back into their country.
That is a major milestone for the American people. And the first step
in permanently denuclearising- permanently ending a nuclear weapons
program in Iran,” Vance said. He added that some of the conversations
with the inspectors and the IAEA could happen as soon as Monday.
He also said the US and Iran had made “a lot of great progress” on other nuclear talks, without providing additional details.
The
IAEA, or the International Atomic Energy Agency, is the UN’s nuclear
watchdog. IAEA inspected Iran’s nuclear programme under the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran,
negotiated by former US President Barack Obama, but which Trump pulled
the US out of in 2018.
Iran eventually barred inspectors from
entering the country last year after the 12-day war with Israel, when
Israel pounded nuclear and military sites. The US also joined the war,
attacking three Iranian nuclear sites.
Iran’s uranium enrichment
programme has been a major bone of contention between the US and Iran.
While the US has been calling for Iran to hand over its stockpile of
enriched uranium to it, Iran has stated consistently that it will not do
this – although it has, at times, appeared willing to consider the
prospect of handing it over to a third country. The agreement announced
last week appeared to suggest that diluting it on site in Iran could
also be an option.
Parents and two daughters killed in Israeli strike in Gaza
Israel has repeatedly violated the October ceasefire brokered by the US.
Residents
inspect the Palestinian Safadi family's apartment in Gaza City, on
Saturday, June 20, 2026, following an overnight Israeli air strike
[Abdel Kareem Hana/AP]
At least six people, including four from one family, have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza.
An
overnight Israeli strike at around 2:00 am on Saturday (23:00 GMT
Friday) hit a building on al-Thalatini Street, a residential area in
Gaza City, medical sources told the Wafa news agency.
Among
those killed were a father and his two daughters – four-year-old Zina
and 14-year-old Lana. The mother was wounded and died later on Saturday.
Several others were injured.
“I was sitting at home. The rocket
fell on us without a warning,” said their relative Mohammad Safadi, who
had a forehead wound. He said both he and his wife were wounded in the
attack.
“This ceasefire the occupation and the negotiation team
speak of … is this really a ceasefire? We are civilians. I never held a
weapon,” Safadi said.
“The area had not received any prior warning
before the strikes,” said Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Abuo Azzum,
reporting from Gaza. “This is a grim reality that’s growing day in, day
out.”
A medical source told the Anadolu ageny that a
Palestinian woman was also killed by Israeli gunfire in the town of Beit
Lahia, in the north of the strip.
In another incident,
a Palestinian man was killed and a woman was moderately injured after
an Israeli drone strike targeted pedestrians near Al-Saftawi roundabout
in northern Gaza City, witnesses said.
Five people were injured
earlier on Friday evening after Israeli air strikes targeted a tent
sheltering displaced families in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis.
Meanwhile, Wafa reported heavy gunfire on Saturday coming from Israeli naval vessels off the coast of southern Gaza.
Since
a ceasefire brokered by the United States in October, at least 1,007
people in Gaza have been killed while 3,165 others have been wounded,
according to health authorities.
At least 73,018 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war in October 2023.
Israel
restricts the entry of food, medical aid and shelter materials into
Gaza, where about 2.2 million people have acute humanitarian needs.
Israel’s military also continues to occupy large swaths of Gaza.
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Palestinian
father Fahd Abou Haikal carries the body of his seven-month-old son Sam
during his funeral in Hebron in the occupied West Bank on June 6, 2026.
(AFP)
Most
people in the West, even those who follow international news avidly,
have likely not heard of Sam Fahd Abu Haikal, the seven-month-old
Palestinian baby Israeli soldiers shot in the face and killed near Hebron in the occupied West Bank earlier this month.
They
probably are not aware of the relentless, escalating Israeli violence
across the rest of the occupied territories, either. Indeed, Western
media rarely talk about West Bank villages like Sinjil, encaged in
barbed wire, its residents forbidden to access their own land. News
bulletins rarely mention how Israeli settlers continue to set fire to
homes and cars, harass, threaten and torture Palestinian villagers while
enjoying the Israeli military’s full support and protection. The fact
that more than half of Gaza has been de facto annexed by the occupation
in the past few months, and that Palestinians in the war-torn enclave
are still starving, unable to access life’s most basic necessities, is
buried at the bottom of long articles about Israel’s supposed security
concerns and struggles.
As
a result, much of the Western public, from the United States to
Germany, appears to be under the impression that Palestine is now
somewhat old news. As the war with Iran took over the headlines, coverage of Gaza fell away
while the killing went on. They believe Israel has concluded its
assault on Palestine with the so-called “ceasefire” in Gaza and turned
its attention solely to its much bigger war of “self-defence” against
the “terror state”, Iran, and its ally, Hezbollah, in Lebanon.
Now
that Iran and the US have announced that they have reached a deal, the
headlines talk of the “end of war”. But Israel’s war is nowhere near
over, because it was never primarily against Iran. Iran is just another
front in the same long war against Palestine.
Since the ceasefire
came into effect in October, Israeli fire into Gaza has continued nearly
every day, with more than 2,000 documented violations by spring and at
least 981 Palestinians killed, many of them children – shot for
approaching a yellow line that keeps approaching them. The buildings are
still falling. The children are still dying. The snipers are still
there. The drones are still there. The bulldozers are still there. And
we are expected to call this a “ceasefire”.
The hunger has not
ended, either. Aid is treated not as a right, but as a calculation: how
little can enter, how slowly it can move, how long people can be kept
alive without allowing them to live.
In mid-March, as the world’s
attention shifted to Iran, the Israeli army sent aid organisations maps
showing it had pushed 11 percent past the yellow line, from the 53
percent of Gaza the ceasefire granted it to 64. By late May, Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was telling a settler conference that
the army already held 60 percent and that he had ordered it to take 70,
while the crowd screamed for 100 and he assured them that Israel was
going in order, taking 70 first.
Palestinians can no longer reach
roughly two-thirds of their own territory, including nearly all of
Gaza’s farmland, which lies east of the yellow line. The geography now
enforces starvation. Farmers are shot for trying to reach their land.
Fishermen are killed for trying to reach the sea. Families are fired on
for trying to return to what is left of their homes. Children looking
for food are treated as targets for crossing the lines Israel drew
through their own neighbourhoods. This is genocide administered as
geography.
And it is exactly what the Iran story helps bury. When
Gaza’s crossings close, Israel calls it security. When aid is blocked,
it says the region is under threat. When Palestinians are killed, it
folds them into the war with Iran, branding them terrorists after the
bullet has already landed. The dead become operatives, collaborators,
threats. The affiliation is conjured after the killing, as if even that
would excuse shooting children in the head.
And so Palestine keeps
disappearing inside another story. The dead are no longer dead because
Israel killed them. They are dead because the region is unstable,
because Iran is dangerous, because Israel says it is defending itself.
Every Palestinian body is made to carry an explanation larger than the
life that was taken.
The same method is visible in southern
Lebanon, too, though even there it is narrated not as the forced
emptying of land, but as another front against Hezbollah or Iran.
Evacuation orders tear people from everything south of the Litani River.
Up to roughly a fifth of Lebanon has been ordered emptied. More than
1.2 million people have been forced from their homes. Hospitals and
ambulances have been struck. Land has been burned with white phosphorus.
When displaced families try to walk home against Israeli instructions,
they are treated as threats, because in this system, the punishable
offence, in Gaza and in Lebanon alike, is going home.
The
devastation in Lebanon does not push Palestine into the past. It merely
shows what Israel has learned it can do after Gaza: order people out,
destroy what they leave behind, and call the emptied land a security
zone. The Iran frame turns all of this into a regional security story.
It makes every front look separate, every victim look incidental and
every emptied village look like the unfortunate geography of someone
else’s war. The same language follows the displaced wherever they go. If
they remain, they are human shields. If they flee, they are evidence
that the land has been cleared. If they return, they are threats.
No
deal with Iran can be mistaken for an “end of war” in the region while
Palestinian land is still being taken, Gaza is still being starved, and
the West Bank is still being carved apart by soldiers, settlers,
checkpoints and barbed wire. The region will not be made stable by
treating Palestine as a side effect of someone else’s conflict.
Palestine is where this war begins again and again: where ceasefire
becomes another name for control, where hunger becomes policy, where a
baby shot in the face can be treated as a footnote.
Sam Abu Haikal
was buried wrapped in a Palestinian flag, carried in his father’s arms,
with all his innocent dreams dying with him. Sam was also the war, the
whole of it: the story every headline keeps filing as a footnote to
someone else’s missiles. The forgetting, and the forgotten, are Israel’s
final weapon.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
