Morning Note

If you ran a country, and that country got bombed, would you be more or less likely to engage in previously scheduled peace talks with your attacker or its sponsors?

Probably less likely. Even if coming to the table to prevent further bloodshed was in your interest, human nature would almost certainly prompt you to disregard that option and fervently fight back. Ukraine proved this at the beginning of its war, and the Iranians are doing the same now.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian announced his country’s withdrawal from this weekend’s nuclear talks on Saturday, saying his government will not negotiate if Israel continues attacking its homeland. 

Iran will not “accept irrational demands under pressure or… sit at the negotiating table while the Zionist regime continues its attacks,” he reportedly declared.

The violence continued over the weekend, with the two countries trading missile attacks that destroyed untold numbers of buildings and killed hundreds of people.

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