Over the weekend, President Trump called off a trip to Pakistan by two of his negotiators for a potential additional round of talks with Tehran, leaving the fate of the cease-fire in limbo. Farnaz Fassihi, who covers Iran for The New York Times, looks at who is in charge of the country after the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and what those leaders really want. Guest: Farnaz Fassihi (https://www.nytimes.com/by/farnaz-fassihi) , the United Nations bureau chief for The New York Times. She also covers Iran and how countries around the world deal with conflicts in the Middle East. Background reading:  • These are the generals who are running Iran (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/23/world/middleeast/iran-new-leadership-generals.html) . • Here’s what to know (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/26/world/middleeast/us-iran-peace-talks-pakistan.html) about the U.S.-Iran peace talks. Photo: Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily (http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily) . Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.  Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts (http://nytimes.com/podcasts) or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.