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Lebanon was at the center of talks on Sunday between Iran and the United States in Switzerland. While Tehran claimed to have closed the Strait of Hormuz and U.S. Vice President JD Vance delivered remarks in an upbeat tone, President Donald Trump responded to the strait's closure with threats against Iran, prompting the Iranian negotiators to suspend the discussions. As for Lebanon, all eyes are on the direct negotiations with Israel, which have drawn the ire of Hezbollah. Sunday, June 21: the start of U.S.-Iran talks in Lucerne, Switzerland. The American delegation was led by Vice President JD Vance, and the Iranian delegation by Parliament Speaker Mohammed Ghalibaf. After a false start — the talks had originally been scheduled for Friday at the same venue — they finally got underway two days later. They were far from smooth, once again laying bare the deep divisions between the former adversaries.

Contemporary political discourse is no longer measured solely by what a leader says, but by the meanings and symbols his words, movements, and images generate. From this perspective, the performance of U.S. President Donald Trump stands as one of the most striking semiotic models in contemporary politics—one in which language, body, and image merge into integrated tools for the production of power and influence. Donald Trump's political discourse represents an exceptional case in contemporary political literature, owing to its linguistic and semiotic characteristics, which have made it a subject of study across political science, communication studies, and political psychology.

Many analysts have taken note of the unusually critical remarks made by U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance toward Israel, viewing them as an unprecedented stance, despite the massive political, military, and economic support that Washington continues to provide to Tel Aviv. Indeed, Vance reminded Israeli critics of the diplomatic agreement with Tehran that two-thirds of the weapons that have "protected their homeland" are American-made and fully funded by U.S. taxpayers. He stressed that Israel relies too heavily on military force to resolve its crises, and that it should show greater deference to Washington as its one and only remaining strategic ally in the world. In an interview with the New York Times , Vance noted that Donald Trump is the only world leader currently showing sympathy toward Israel, before addressing Israelis directly:

The Strait of Hormuz and Lebanon: two key military-diplomatic "weapons" Iran intends to wield to strengthen its position in negotiations with the United States, which are set to unfold over 60 days according to the memorandum signed Wednesday by both parties. Iran announced on Saturday that it was once again "closing" the strategic Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for Israeli strikes on Lebanon, while stopping short of breaking off talks aimed at reaching a final agreement with the US, which are due to begin Sunday in Switzerland. Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaïl Baghaï warned the United States on Saturday that the initial protocol would be "at risk" if its provisions were not implemented swiftly, in an apparent reference to the situation in Lebanon.

On paper, the American-Iranian memorandum of understanding eventually signed by President Donald Trump and President Masoud Pezeshkian appears to be a document in which all outstanding questions remain unresolved. Apart from reopening the Strait of Hormuz and lifting the American naval blockade imposed on the “Islamic Republic”, nothing points to any breakthrough on the issues that continue to divide Washington and Tehran. Can one also say, at least on paper, that the Trump administration has chosen to yield to Iran rather than follow through on its initial determination to break its capacity for disruption and put an end to its expansionist project, as it had originally intended?

Every time Hezbollah faces a political, military, or popular crisis, its leaders return to the same lexicon: resistance, victory, sovereignty, the rejection of any tutelage. Heavy words, charged with strong emotion, yet losing more of their persuasive power among the Lebanese with each passing day, as the gap between the rhetoric and the reality keeps widening. In his latest speech, Hezbollah's secretary general, Sheikh Naim Qassem, claimed that the Party remained faithful to the Taif Agreement and the Lebanese Constitution, that its weapons were aimed at Israel, and that it was facing projects of foreign allegiance and tutelage. A statement that appears coherent at first glance, but collapses the moment it meets the facts.