Update XVI from The Iranist
June 19, 2026
Salam reader,
It’s been an incredibly busy week. While I’d hoped to dedicate part of this newsletter to Team Melli, the Iranian national soccer team, and its participation in the World Cup, the memorandum of understanding (MOU) ended up taking both the spotlight—and much of my bandwidth.
If you haven’t read the MOU signed by US President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian yet, you can find the text here. The start of the 60-day talks to implement the deal was scheduled for today in Obbürgen, Switzerland, but was postponed after Israel and Hezbollah exchanged attacks in Lebanon (The Guardian).
For a deeper dive into the agreement, the debates surrounding it within the clerical establishment, and its implications for the broader Middle East, I highly recommend watching/listening to a panel discussion I participated in with my colleagues at The Washington Institute this week. Joining me were Ambassador Dennis Ross, who helped negotiate Arab-Israeli peace agreements during the Bill Clinton administration, and Richard Nephew, former US Deputy Special Envoy for Iran and a member of the team that negotiated the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)—aka the Iran nuclear deal—under the Barack Obama administration.
I also wrote an op-ed for MS NOW examining how the Trump administration has severely damaged US credibility among what was once one of the world’s most pro-American populations. The piece asks a fundamental question: Is the United States still committed to supporting the Iranian people at all?
More soon,
Holly
P.S. Feel free to follow me on X for real-time updates and on LinkedIn, where I’ve been sharing additional interviews and commentary.