00:00I had many sources telling me they were heading your direction, looking at venues, ready to set up this signing
00:05ceremony.
00:06Now we're hearing it could possibly be a digital ceremony.
00:10Do we think this is something that will be happening in person or do we think this is something that
00:14is going to happen before the president gets on the plane and shows up in the G7?
00:18I mean, it seems like anything in person is off the table and you can hear maybe from the echo
00:22in my voice.
00:23I'm the only person here. Like there's nothing happening in Geneva right now.
00:26So there's not – but even the virtual signing, there are questions about that today with Tehran pushing back according
00:32to a state media report about whether that will happen.
00:35You should know today is the president's birthday.
00:37He wanted this deal for his 80th and it doesn't look like that will necessarily materialize, although we have radio
00:43silence right now from the Americans, including on what would be in this MOU.
00:47To Finer's points, let me just respond to a couple of them.
00:50And it's absolutely true, at least from the press perspective, that we have not seen point form at all in
00:56writing either on background or something published on a government website or something, what is on the table or what
01:03isn't.
01:03The Americans have been downplaying stuff that is coming out of the region, particularly from the Americans saying don't believe
01:09everything you read, but they aren't offering their own position yet.
01:13And that is absolutely true. I think one thing that we have heard from a senior administration official on Friday
01:17in a briefing when it comes to that diluting of the uranium is that the American position is that it
01:23will be diluted on site and then removed.
01:26Again, Iran has not backed that up, but they're sort of trying to do both as opposed to either removing
01:31it immediately or diluting it in place and leaving it with the uranium.
01:34So a lot of questions swirling here. Of course, it's going to be on the agenda, the president arriving for
01:39the summit in Evian, France, which is just up the lake from here in Geneva.
01:43Geneva is already cracking down, so protesters will face quite the gauntlet run, I think, to gather in this city
01:51should they decide to do that.
01:53But we're going to see where it goes. But right now, it just seems so, so fluid right now whether
01:57they're going to get anything on this.
01:58And one final point on the cash, Mr. Feiner and many others are right to point out that there's virtually
02:05no one expects a deal to come here without at least some release of something.
02:10You know, the U.S. official on Friday is saying the U.S. is open to both lifting sanctions and
02:14unfreezing assets.
02:15Trump is drawing a line in the sand on sending direct cash from the Americans.
02:19We don't know yet whether the cash will come from other sort of allied countries or if it's just simply
02:25unfreezing of assets to stop the table.
02:26Also, that seems to be a very specific parsing of words. Like, it's not cash. You're not getting pallets of
02:31cash.
02:32But you can send money other ways, including unlocking some of these funds in Oman and UAE. Yeah.
02:37Still music on what a digital signing might look like as well, Josh. I mean, I assume what? At least
02:42I hope there's two-factor authentication.
02:45DocuSign haunts us all, David. And I think it haunts this administration as well. And we're just going to see
02:50one step at a time where it goes.
02:52I think that this is just very fluid. And we just don't know where it's going to land.
02:57The president, of course, is facing political pressure. I think we sometimes have slept on the fact, particularly the audience
03:02is abroad.
03:03His poll numbers, including on handling the economy, are at or near all-time lows.
03:08Handling the economy was like the silver bullet, right?
03:10That used to be the one thing that he could sort of dine out on.
03:13And even in the aftermath of some of his lowest moments, that held firm.
03:16So he's under a lot of political pressure here. And perhaps, you know, that could be why the Iranians seem
03:21to be ragging the puck, to use a Canadian term this morning.
03:24Wow. Well, you're in hockey.
03:28Ice sports are big there in Switzerland. Yeah, you're going to be in good hands.
03:31Josh, as we draw from what John Feiner had to say, there was a moment where Christina brought up kind
03:35of this comparison to what we saw in the JCPOA.
03:38And it is clear that this is a comparison that is rankling President Trump.
03:41I wonder if we could talk a bit about that. So we've touched on frozen assets, the prospect for on
03:45getting some money, cash, otherwise restored as a result of this deal.
03:51But this is the JCPOA is something the president has talked about and not trumpeted, but quite the opposite for
03:55most of his political career here.
03:57He tore it apart the minute that he got into office.
04:00Why does it rankle him so much?
04:02And indeed, how close is it, as you see and other observers, as we kind of piece together what this
04:05memo of understanding might look like?
04:08One through line of all his commentary in the last several weeks has been an apparent nervousness that whatever he
04:15signed is compared to the JCPOA.
04:17Because, of course, if it looks a lot like the JCPOA or if it walks like the JCPOA and blacks
04:21like the JCPOA, then what was the point of all this will be the question that a lot of people
04:26are asking.
04:27Not only withdrawing from that deal in the first place, but last year's bombing campaign and this year's more fuller
04:32fledged mission.
04:34So I think that's why you're seeing him dig in on the pallets of cash and to the point of
04:38inspections that John Feiner raised.
04:40That did come up with that senior U.S. official on Friday who said that there would be some sort
04:44of international verification and supervision of this.
04:47That raised my eyebrows on a lot of others because the U.S. had not talked about that so far.
04:51The Iranians certainly haven't talked about that.
04:53So if that's true, that will sort of lend credence to whatever nuclear pledges are in any MOU that may
05:00or may not be published by one or both parties.
05:02But if that's not true, then it casts out on it.
05:06And if it is true, then another thing enforces it.
05:09It will continue to invite those comparisons to the original deal.
05:12That was you stole my next question because that was what I was going to ask you.
05:15I mean, you know, Vienna is not that far from where you are.
05:17I wonder if any IAEA folks are expected to show up at the G7.
05:21And is that something that all these leaders who have been reticent to get involved in this conflict, much to
05:26President Trump's annoyance,
05:28might try to gently suggest while they're all in the room with him that maybe this would be a way
05:33to facilitate this.
05:34And, you know, Iran might be amenable to restarting some of those inspections by IAEA folks.
05:40So, look, the criticism that Iran was cheating is valid and something that people can get into.
05:45But what we've heard from these inspectors is even when they know they're kind of trying to pull the wool
05:50over their eyes,
05:51there are things they can see and notice or the absence of which they notice by being on the ground.
05:55They tell me it's always valuable to have some sort of presence of these inspectors.
05:59Yeah.
06:00It's a great point.
06:01And I think we're just simply not in a position to know what or, you know,
06:05whether they're near agreement on this or what the U.S. is seeking.
06:07They simply, you know, haven't said.
06:09I think, you know, in the next few days, G7s have always been a bit bumpy for President Trump.
06:15Not only last year when he bailed on my home nation of Canada early,
06:18and that he did not like the Pomeroy sweets, you know, in the foothills of Alberta, my home province.
06:25So much unexpected Canadian-ness in this segment.
06:28All right, continue, continue.
06:29I just tuck it in.
06:29Little Easter eggs for you all.
06:31But going back to the first term, of course, you remember that, like, iconic photo of Merkel,
06:34you know, lecturing him over a table when he sat, arms crossed, cranky.
06:39So we don't know what this is going to look like.
06:41And it's unclear how amenable he's going to be to suggestions in this.
06:45But one thing that our colleagues have reported is that the Europeans are coming
06:48with a proposal on helping clear the strait.
06:51Seems like Trump thinks that that would be unnecessary or at least too little too late.
06:55But the Europeans are trying to at least bring some sort of olive branch that they want to get involved,
06:59even when there's a deal to help, for instance, clear mines
07:02and other things to ensure that the strait is open.
07:04Of course, that has been one of the things that Trump has really teased
07:07as an immediate effect of what looks like it would take shape as sort of a multi-stage deal.
07:13Step one does seem to be the, you know, quote-unquote reopening of the strait
07:17and whether we see traffic resume.
07:19Remember, the Americans in the last week or so have started saying,
07:21hey, surprise, secretly overnight we've been helping ships get through the strait safely.
07:25It remains a bit fluid on how much of that has been verified.
07:29Josh, we've got a minute left here.
07:30We've talked about President Zelenskyy being present for the G7.
07:33There's going to be this kind of working group.
07:35What is your sense from your reporting of what the White House hopes to get out of that meeting?
07:39Again, not a one-on-one, but a group meeting with the Ukrainian president.
07:42I think the hopes are on the other side.
07:44The president seems to have washed its hands a little bit of the conflict.
07:47He wants an end to it generally, but it doesn't seem like he wants to put much capital into it.
07:51The Europeans are hoping that they, as always, can remind him of the Ukrainian perspective on it
07:56and hope that he just doesn't walk away and give either implicit or even more so explicit blessing
08:01to the continuation of the conflict.
08:03We just don't know.
08:04But Trump has been pretty disinterested in it for months now and just doesn't really talk about it.
08:07So I think even the G6, if you will, are going into that Zelenskyy situation
08:12with modest expectations at best.
08:15All right.
08:15Josh Wingrove, our in-house Canadian.
08:17I had questions for that interview with you, Josh, and you've exceeded them.
08:20You've met all of them, buddy.
08:22Well, good, because there's no one else here.
08:25I was going to say, this is it.
08:26I hope you find some friends in your very lonely conference room.
08:29The big signing that may or may not have materialized.
08:31Sorry, Mrs. Wingrove for coming to Geneva early.
08:34Listen, I googled it.
08:35It is a one-hour, very scenic drive along L'Oc-Lemande to get to Evian from where you are.
08:41That's true.
08:42It's not a hardship.
08:43Josh Wingrove, thank you very much.
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