Hey Everyone,

Last night Joel Rubin and I went on a whistle-stop world tour, taking stock of where the US is positioned, for better or worse.

We kicked off, of course, with Iran, because that’s the cliffhanger of the moment. As I type this Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are in Geneva for talks with both Iran – and Ukraine.

Joel’s analysis of how we got to this moment and what the problems are, is worth listening to. I was particularly struck by his comparison to the daring military capture of Nicolas Maduro in the middle of the night in Venezuela. “That was a clean win,” he explained.

But, he says there is no possibility of a “clean win” in Iran. The likelihood of the Iranians agreeing to give up every nugget of nuclear possibility is almost zero.

“Then what?” asks Joel. What will that Armada sitting on Iran’s doorstep do?

Also, the US is alone in picking this fight. We do not have the support of the other members of the UN Security Council.

He also reminds us that Witkoff and Kushner are not experience Iran experts. Unfortunately the Trump administration didn’t see the point of keeping any of those around, it seems.

We move on to discuss the latest news out of Israel: The US embassy is providing services for US citizens in West Bank Settlements – a first.

We get to Marco Rubio’s speech in Munich and its meaning.

And the lack of emphasis on Ukraine in Trump’s State of the Union Speech.

I was about to get to Epstein and the fallout around the globe that’s happened following the release of the Epstein files and suddenly I was cut off the chat!

I had high-speed internet, so I am getting to the bottom of why. My apologies. It was very annoying.

Joel and I will be back! Fear not! And I will give you an updated Epstein report shortly. You can read Joel’s substack here.

Watch the full conversation on Vicky Ward Investigates.