This is a densely packed week for U.S. foreign policy. Three diplomatic tracks vital to the Middle East are moving simultaneously, and President Donald Trump has proclaimed progress on each one. Trump arrives in Ankara on Tuesday for the NATO summit carrying three files: Iran, Lebanon, and Syria. None resolved. All moving.
The Iran talks have not yet touched on the all-important nuclear file. The Lebanon framework was reportedly called a “non-starter” within three days of being announced. And Trump’s Wednesday meeting with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, may be the most consequential bilateral of the week.
Also this week: an MBN exclusive on Iraq’s largest anti-corruption sweep since 2003, the one confession that started it all, and $250 million in assets already seized. Iran’s funeral procession for former Supreme Leader Khamenei crosses into Iraq on Wednesday, at a delicate moment for Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s upcoming Washington visit.
And something different: on an October day in 1765, Thomas Jefferson made an unusual purchase: a leather-bound two-volume set of the Quran. Award-winning journalist Roya Hakakian traces that little-known history in the initial episode of MBN’s new eight-part podcast series, “Founding Encounters,” marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Read her piece and listen to the first episode here.
Mustafa Saadoon, Alexis Thomas and Joe Kawly contributed to the Agenda this week.
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Washington Signals
Trump Claims Three Wins
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a Fourth of July rally, marking the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 4, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
President Donald Trump says the Iran nuclear deal is progressing, the Lebanon framework is holding, and Syria is ready to help disarm Hezbollah. Three diplomatic tracks, three public assertions. This week’s developments will test each one.
On Iran, the most striking detail is not what happened in Doha, but what did not. Indirect technical talks on July 1 and 2 focused on navigation fees and frozen assets. Nuclear issues, the core of any final deal, never came up. Trump told reporters denuclearization was “moving along well.” Then Vice President JD Vance said the same day: “We’re going to start talking about that.” The first substantive nuclear session is expected in Islamabad around July 11, inside a 60-day window that closes in mid-August. Iran has signaled it will impose tolls on the Strait of Hormuz,the moment that window expires. No American official has said what happens then.
On Lebanon, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the Trilateral Framework Agreement on June 26, calling it a foundation for “lasting peace.” Within three days, Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Hezbollah’s most powerful political ally in the Beirut government, declared it “will not be implemented in its current form.” By July 3, diplomats were privately calling it a “non-starter.” The Pentagon also missed a congressional deadline to deliver the enforcement benchmarks for the Lebanese Armed Forces’ undertaking to disarm Hezbollah. Without them, there are no measurable standards for compliance and no trigger for consequences. More than a million Lebanese remain displaced from the south, waiting to see whether the framework produces results on the ground.
On Syria, Trump has repeatedly suggested that President Ahmad al-Sharaa could help disarm Hezbollah. Damascus publicly rejected the idea. The New York Times reported the proposal “confounds many in the Middle East,” reviving memories of Syria’s 15-year military occupation of Lebanon. Syria’s foreign minister then flew to Beirut and met with Berri, positioning Damascus as a regional mediator. Trump meets al-Sharaa on Wednesday at the NATO summit in Ankara. What each side says publicly – or avoids saying – after that meeting will be worth reading carefully.
Exclusive
Crackdown in Baghdad
Iraqi authorities deployed checkpoints throughout the Green Zone, stopping and searching vehicles for cash said to be headed out of the heavily fortified district.
Iraq launched one of the largest anti-corruption sweeps in its post-2003 history this month, detaining dozens of current and former officials and members of parliament. Iraqi official sources told MBN the total value of assets seized or frozen has already exceeded $250 million.
It started with one man talking. Adnan al-Jumaili, former undersecretary of Iraq’s Oil Ministry, has been naming names every day since his arrest, implicating officials across current and past governments. Sources told MBN he distributed large sums to politicians, officials, parliamentarians, and journalists, and separately offered approximately $250 million to purchase control of the Planning Ministry, to further his aim of consolidating influence over Iraq’s state resources.
A judicial source told MBN that when detainees face the investigating judge and al-Jumaili’s statements are read aloud, “They cannot deny anything.” Checkpoints appeared inside the Green Zone, the heavily fortified government district in central Baghdad, as authorities searched vehicles for cash being smuggled out. Two members of parliament left their phones behind to mislead trackers. A third was arrested while fleeing toward Turkey.
Iraq has long ranked among the most corrupt countries in the world, and corruption prosecutions here have rarely been purely about corruption. Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi is personally overseeing this campaign. The names being implicated span multiple political factions, but the sourcing in this investigation runs entirely through government channels. Independent verification of the specific claims against those detained has not been possible.
One confession started it. Whether this is a genuine reckoning with decades of looting, a settling of political scores, or both at once, is a question Baghdad’s own history makes impossible to dismiss.
Read the full MBN exclusive here
Iraq Watch
Khamenei’s cross-border funeral
People ride motorcycles past a billboard bearing a portrait of Iran’s late Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran, Iran, May 6, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters.
Iran began funeral ceremonies for former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Tehran on Monday, launching a solemn procession that is expected to move into Iraq by Wednesday before returning to Mashhad for burial. The Iraqi leg takes place at a sensitive time for Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, who is preparing for a visit to Washington this month.
Iraqi officials told MBN that Tehran and Iran-aligned factions appear to be using the funeral to demonstrate that Iraq remains within Iran’s sphere of influence, even after the U.S.-Israeli strike that killed Khamenei. A source close to the clerical establishment in Najaf, a theological center for Shiites in Iraq, told MBN that the ceremonies risk blurring the distinction between Iraq’s Shiite religious authorities and Iran’s authoritarian system of clerical rule.
The funeral is expected to pass through Najaf and Karbala on Wednesday, with Iraqi authorities preparing major security and logistical arrangements. For al-Zaidi, the challenge is to manage a deeply symbolic Shiite religious event without appearing subordinate to Tehran or damaging its effort to strengthen ties with Washington.
Syria Watch
The foreign fighter dilemma
Members of the Khaled Battalion, affiliated with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, take part in a military parade in Damascus, Syria, Dec. 27, 2024, following the ouster of Bashar al-Assad. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah
Syria’s efforts to rebuild after the fall of former President Bashar Assad are being complicated by the thousands of foreign fighters integrated into the country’s new military. The issue is drawing growing scrutiny in Washington, where the Senate is considering a bill that would condition defense assistance on President Ahmed al-Sharaa taking “credible steps” to remove jihadists from Syria’s security forces.
The debate comes amid reports that Uzbek and Uyghur units have been conducting simulated operations near the border with Lebanon, raising concerns that they could be deployed in a confrontation with Hezbollah. “They’re an important part of the fighting capability of the current Syrian army,” former U.S. Syria envoy James Jeffrey told MBN, underscoring why Sharaa is reluctant to remove them despite U.S. pressure.
The dilemma points to a broader challenge for Sharaa. The foreign fighters remain among the most experienced and loyal elements of Syria’s new military and play a key role in securing the country against ISIS and limiting Iranian influence. But their continued presence undermines Sharaa’s efforts to gain international legitimacy.
Featured Conversation
Israel’s future in Lebanon
Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon spoke with MBN Washington Bureau Chief Joe Kawly.
Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon sat down with MBN Washington Bureau Chief Joe Kawly in New York to discuss the Israeli-Lebanon peace framework.
On Israel’s future in Lebanon: “We have no claim to the land. This land belongs to Lebanon. Not to Hezbollah, not to us. It belongs to the Lebanese people. But for us to live safely, we have to push away Hezbollah.”
On foreign pressure to make a deal: “Prime Minister Netanyahu is not being pressured. He makes the right decisions for Israel. And I can tell you, it’s not only now. For a very long time, he wanted to see a movement toward Lebanon.”
On Iran’s role: “We prefer to speak directly all together with the U.S., with Lebanon, rather than to have — I don’t want to mention all the names of those countries, but you can Google it and see countries that have no connection to the region.”
On UNIFIL: “We don’t want the UNIFIL force to stay in the region. We want to work directly with the Lebanese military. They should be the one protecting the border of Lebanon.”
Quote of the Day
Could this be a very important historical moment? The answer is obviously yes. But how exactly this plays out is very much contingent on the way the Iranians respond to the leverage the president has put on them.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance assessing the state of U.S.-Iran negotiations on The Michael Knowles Show, July 1, 2026
