How close is the US to a quagmire in Iran?
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 748 Ratings
🗓️ 27 March 2026
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The US is mobilizing ground troops, while saying it has a 15-point plan to end the US-Israel war on Iran. Tehran denies negotiations and continues to control the Strait of Hormuz. So what does reality spell for the US strategy - and what would it take to end the war rather than escalate it?
In this episode:
- Alex Gatopoulos (@AlexGatopoulos), Al Jazeera Defence Editor
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Noor Wazwaz and Chloe K. Li, with Catherine Nouhan, Marcos Bartolomé, Tuleen Barakat, Monah Hamade, Ibrahim Abdelfattah, Adhil Veettil, Sreechand Sugathan, Gerard Baladad, Shreshtha Sanghvi, Hanna Nasser, Adlan Abdalla, Mile Trifunovski, and our guest host, David Enders. It was edited by Alexandra Locke.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad Al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Today, a U.S. proposal to end the Iran war, but Tehran denies any talks are happening. |
| 0:17.0 | Sure you take an island, okay, well then maybe a bit deeper, and then sooner or later, |
| 0:23.2 | you are involved in a country four times the size of Iraq, with mountains and forests and |
| 0:30.6 | lots and lots and lots of places to hide and fight from. |
| 0:36.6 | And to speak of negotiation and talk of things now is precisely an admission of failure. |
| 0:43.1 | Didn't they say unconditional surrender? |
| 0:45.3 | So why do they now speak of so-called negotiation? |
| 0:49.2 | There is no so-called negotiation. |
| 0:52.4 | As the Trump administration continues to say that negotiations are underway, the U.S. continues |
| 0:58.2 | to send troops to the Middle East. |
| 1:00.3 | So how do you negotiate an end while the war is still expanding? |
| 1:06.3 | I'm David Enders, and this is The Take. |
| 1:17.7 | My name's Alex Cotopoulos. |
| 1:19.4 | I'm defense editor for Al Jazeera, |
| 1:21.6 | and I live and work here in Doha. |
| 1:24.0 | Great to have you back, Alex. |
| 1:26.5 | And we're talking to you today because we are seeing overtures being made by the United |
| 1:32.8 | States for an end to the war that they started along with Israel almost a month ago. But on the |
| 1:43.3 | ground, there are lots of military movements that maybe |
| 1:47.0 | suggest something different might be in the offing. The US says it's open to negotiations, |
| 1:56.0 | but it's building up its forces. |
... |
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