Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with ToI senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur.

Former Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, an Iranian career diplomat who participated in the previous round of nuclear talks, is currently Iran's Vice President for Strategic Affairs since August 2024. In that role, he wrote an op-ed in the bi-monthly Foreign Affairs journal. The century-old magazine focuses on international relations and policy and can serve as a platform to float ideas and hear reasoned responses.

In Zarif's article, "How Iran Sees the Path to Peace," among the arguments raised was the idea of a "referendum" voting on the governance of the territory that largely includes the Jewish state.

"Iran can continue to play a constructive role in ending the current humanitarian nightmare in Gaza and work with the international community to pursue a lasting and democratic solution to the conflict," writes Zarif.

"Iran will agree to any solution acceptable to Palestinians, but our government believes that the best way out of this century-long ordeal would be a referendum in which everyone living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea — Muslims, Christians, and Jews — and Palestinians driven to diaspora in the twentieth century (along with their descendants) would be able to determine a viable future system of governance. This is in line with international law and would build on the success of South Africa, where an apartheid system was transformed into a viable democratic state."

To Rettig Gur, Zarif's op-ed -- filled with posturing and warnings to the Western world -- is a sign of Iran's faltering regime and he explains why.

So this week, we discuss this new era of Iranian potential weakness and how the West needs to handle it wisely, as Haviv Rettig Gur weighs in on what matters now.

What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. 

IMAGE: Masoud Pezeshkian, center, flashes a victory sign after casting his vote in Iran's presidential election as he is accompanied by former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, left, at a polling station in Shahr-e-Qods near Tehran, Iran, July 5, 2024. (AP/Vahid Salemi)