The US and Iran are facing off in a battle for concessions once more, as they resume nuclear talks against the backdrop of military threats.

Officials said good progress was made at the latest round of negotiations in Geneva on Tuesday but added that a lot of work lies ahead.

Only a day later, the White House warned Tehran it would be “wise” to make a deal. The US has boosted its military deployment in the Middle East, signalling its readiness to attack at a moment's notice.

Iran’s nuclear programme was set back by US strikes on its atomic infrastructure last year. Tehran is determined to preserve its enrichment capability, while Washington wants to see it dismantled.

But there are signs that talks and heightened tension are no longer about the nuclear programme alone, and that President Donald Trump may be pursuing more seismic changes, including regime change in Iran.

In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher speaks to Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran programme at the Middle East Institute, and asks him how the latest US-Iran showdown could play out.

Israel’s recent change of land-buying policies in the occupied West Bank has been condemned by the international community and the UN.

The measures have been designed to make it easier for settlers to acquire Palestinian land in areas that until now had been under the Palestinian Authority’s administration.

Critics have described the move as de facto annexation of the territory that would crush any prospect of Palestinian statehood.

In a joint statement, Arab and Islamic countries condemned the measures, calling them illegal actions. But this is not the first time. Last July, the same countries rebuked an annexation motion by the Knesset.

An Israeli takeover of the occupied West Bank has long been considered a red line in the region and beyond, as it would deal a final blow to the two-state solution. And yet, since the war in Gaza, Israel has accelerated its land-grab practices there, pushing forward with settlement expansion.

In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher looks at the chain of events that brought the West Bank to this tipping point and asks: is there enough international will and pressure to push back against Israel’s latest decision?

The rules-based international order is the system of principles, laws and institutions put in place since the end of the Second World War to protect human rights and prevent conflict.

But this status quo has been challenged by the past two years of wars and serious breaches of international law.

Bodies such as the UN are also facing an uphill battle. Secretary General Antonio Guterres has warned that it is at risk of financial collapse by July after its primary contributor, the US, slashed payments to its agencies and refused to pay its debts.

At the same time violent conflicts, many of them in the Middle East, have led to alarming levels of death and destruction among civilians, often with complete impunity for perpetrators. If the mechanisms built to protect humanity are proving ineffective, what is the alternative?

In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher looks at the circumstances that have brought the rules-based order to the brink and the reforms needed to restore it. She speaks to Saul Takahashi, visiting professor of legal studies at NYU Abu Dhabi, and to Stuart Casey-Maslen, the lead author of a new report examining International Humanitarian Law violations.