Near Tabriz —
Flanked by glistening, snow-capped peaks, the long road to Tehran winds through picturesque valleys of Tabrizi poplar trees and fields with green shoots of wheat.
We trace the narrow Qotur river, brown and swollen from the spring thaw, as it surges past shepherds grazing their shaggy flocks on the slopes.
In the distance, an impressive railway bridge, its steel girders painted bright white, stretches across the shimmering landscape, apparently untouched by the US and Israeli strikes that battered and scarred parts of Iran earlier this year.
But amid stalled peace negotiations and growing tensions over the continued closure of the strategic Strait of…