Middle East Crisis Peace Talks

Expert: The attacks could cause the agreement to collapse

Iran and the US are testing each other's limits in the Persian Gulf. This is what Middle East expert Alexander Atarodi tells SvD after the new attacks that are taking place despite the ceasefire agreement that the countries signed.

Atarodi says that the political discussions that were planned to take place during the 60-day ceasefire have not yet started. He believes that the agreement is still valid, but emphasizes that it will be difficult to achieve a comprehensive peace.

- It will be very difficult and the probability is very low that we will reach a real agreement after these 60 days.

Aron Lund, Middle East expert at the Swedish Institute for Foreign Policy, is on the same track in an interview with SVT Nyheter. He says that the attacks could have serious consequences.

- The worst-case scenario is that the agreement collapses.

Analysis: US and Iran Haunted by Their Fuzzy Agreement

The fact that the agreement between the US and Iran is so vaguely formulated has already had consequences for the peace process, analysts write in The Guardian and the New York Times.

The conditions regarding Lebanon and the Strait of Hormuz are deliberately vaguely formulated because it was the only way to get the agreement through, writes the NYT's Yeganeh Torbati.

This has led to both sides trying to twist the conditions to their own advantage before the ambiguities can be sorted out in a permanent agreement, she continues.

Patrick Wintour writes in The Guardian that the attacks around the Strait of Hormuz in recent days have flared up again precisely because the agreement cannot withstand the pressure of the parties' conflicting interpretations.

"But now, as the bombings resume, creative legal ideas seem to have been put aside, and the men of war are taking their place on the stage again," he writes.