WSIU-TV - DW The Day

reporter: but the danger of new attacks is looming on both sides of the border and the cease-fire between israel and lebanon appears to exist only on paper. brent: turning me now is the director of middle east studies at the elliott school of international affairs at george washington university. his latest book is called " iran and the bomb: the united states, iran and the nuclear question." good to have you with us. last week we spoke and there was reason to ask you if we were looking at talks between the u.s. and iran collapse before our very eyes. are we there yet? >> no. last week as we approached the last weekend, we were very close to getting a deal between iranians and americans, but i think president trump is under a lot of pressure from the right wing of his own party, the so-called iran hawks, and these organizations have been trying to derail engagement between iran and the u.s. so he has been pressured to toughen up his stance on iranians, and i think the ongoing conflict in lebanon has made the situation even worse. in the last hour that i've been looking at the reports, iranians announced they are going to suspend exchanging messages with the u.s. in protest to israel's operations in southern lebanon. i don't say that the talks have collapsed, but we have not finished, we have not crossed the finish line of getting a deal between iran and the u.s. to end the conflict. brent: you bring up a good point. with iran saying an end to the israeli offensive in lebanon is a key condition for any peace deal. what will this do to peace talks? they were already difficult. when do we reach the threshold that tells us a peace deal is not possible at this moment? sina: i think peace is within reach. but the lebanese theater is adding yet another difficult dimension to the already difficult negotiations between iranians and americans. from iran's standpoint, the conflict in lebanon can drag iranians to the conflict in the future. this is why they are insisting the conflict has to end in all theaters. this is in addition to the ideological ties between supporters of the islamic republic and the shias in lebanon. i think it is more strategic than ideological. brent: do you think israel sees these two conflicts as connected? conflicts against hezbollah in lebanon and its war with iran. sina: i believe israelis think they have momentum since the terrorist attacks of october 7, that israel has responded. i think they have the momentum, they can reshape the region. israelis have spoken about a greater israel, that this is what israeli officials of actually said. i think they have the momentum, they can change the region as i said. in lebanon they believe they can quash and completely destroy hezbollah, which is iran's major ally in the region. this is why they are continuing their offensive and i also think at the same time they can put pressure on iranians and americans at the same time. brent: there are reports iran could launch more missiles to hit targets in the middle east because the regime is accessing weapons it had buried. so it is uncovering buried weapons. what does this tell us about claims by the pentagon that iran 's military has been completely degraded? and if this is true, what does it tell us about intel we have