Afternoon Briefing Wednesday 8th April

0:00This episode of the Times Radio News Briefing is sponsored by PwCWC. Staying competitive means getting ahead, not just keeping up. So how do business leaders cut through the noise and focus on what really matters. PwC takes you further with tech, from optimising the systems that put your data to work, to scaling AI from proof of concept to competitive edge. PwC helps you meet tomorrow's tech demands, so you can compete at a speed that rewrites the rules. Discover more at pwc.co.uk. Welcome to the Times Radio afternoon briefing on Wednesday the 8th of April. Pakistan is offering to host talks between the US and Iran in Islamabad on Friday after Donald Trump announced a ceasefire late last night.

0:47The US president says the stoppage depends on the immediate, complete and safe reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. He had been threatening to wipe out a whole civilisation if a deal was not reached. General Sir Richard Sheriff, NATO's former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander, has told Times Radio the conflict has been a pointless exercise. It's a masterclass in futility. Yes, the US and Israel have decimated the Iranian leadership. They've written down the Iranian military capabilities substantially. But the fact is that so long as Iran held the Strait of Hormuz, America is losing. Trump is losing.

1:26Trump says he's received a 10-point proposal from Iran, which he describes as a workable basis on which to negotiate. But Catherine Philp, the Times' World Affairs editor, says that's not entirely plausible. It is a list of things that the US has mostly rejected in the past when there wasn't an active conflict going on. So it's very hard to see how this stage two gets off the ground when you look at some of the things that Iran is asking for. It's asking for a total US military withdrawal from the Middle East, the lifting of all sanctions. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the ceasefire does not include Lebanon.

2:03The Times' Israel correspondent Gabrielle Weineger explains the thinking on that. Israel has said from the beginning that Lebanon will not be included in any ceasefire because this is such a direct threat to Israel's residents in the northern border, in the border with Lebanon, where their residents have been living inside bomb shelters for five and a half weeks. They haven't come up for air and they are not willing to concede until Hezbollah is completely cleared of southern Lebanon. Netanyahu says Israel does support a break in hostilities against Iran. And the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, is travelling to the Gulf today to meet leaders of countries which have been in the front line.

2:43Downing Street says he will reiterate the need for a long-term diplomatic resolution. The Conservative's shadow housing secretary, Sir James Cleverley, has told Times Radio the PM has been humiliated. We're now seeing the Prime Minister scuttling off to the Middle East after all the big events has happened, basically to try and rebuild some of the credibility that he has squandered over the last few months. The truth is that Britain has, because of his indecision, not been as good friend and ally to the region as we should have been. And you can follow the Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

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