A bis (phenolate) pyridine pincer ligand (henceforth abbreviated as ONO) has been employed to support a variety of iridium complexes in oxidation states I, III, and IV. Complexes (ONO) IrL2Me (L= PPh3, PEt3) react with I2 to cleave the Ir–C bond and liberate MeI, apparently via a mechanism beginning with electron transfer to generate an intermediate Ir (IV) complex, which can be isolated and characterized for the case L= PEt3 ...