The two-week Iran ceasefire ends Wednesday, and President Trump is saying he doesn't plan to extend it if a second round of talks in Pakistan fail. These Islamabad talks, it should be noted, have not so much as even gotten off the ground.
President Trump has further said "lots of bombs" will fall if there is no deal, and if Iran doesn't hand over its nuclear material. And yet the Iranians are remaining defiant and proving their resiliency by showing a sense of 'normalcy' has returned to Tehran and across much of the country. For example, the below is a fresh scene of bustling city life in the capital via AFP:
Similar scenes have been portrayed going back to the second week of April. It was in the April 7-8 range that the ceasefire first took effect.
Iran has also made clear its military and civic workers are rapidly rebuilding the country's damaged and destroyed infrastructure, starting with rail lines, bridges, and energy sites.
But an even bigger gamble is the resumption of air travel. NBC freshly reports Tuesday, citing state sources, that "Domestic flights will resume in Iran starting tomorrow, Iran Air announced earlier today."
"The semi-official news agency Fars reported that the airline announced flights would resume after a 50-day suspension caused by the war," NBC continues. "The agency said a flight from Tehran to the eastern city of Mashhad is scheduled to depart tomorrow morning and a return flight will operate the same day."
For well over a month airspace over Iran and the whole region was completely closed to commercial aviation, given the exchange of missiles made it highly dangerous. Again, the ceasefire could expire tomorrow, and it could be bombs away again.
As a reminder, the US and Israel actually directly attacked Iranian commercial aviation hubs amid the major Operation Epic Fury bombing campaign.
But the Iranian 'regime' is keen to demonstrate on the domestic front, but also on an international level, that it is indeed governing and remains firmly in control. The US and Israel have sought to overthrow the government, but that did not happen, and so leaders in Tehran want to demonstrate resolve even after President Trump claimed to have obliterated the country's navy, air force, missile sites, and much of its armed forces.