🌊⚠️ Trump Has Taken a Tumble in the Hormuz Tug of War
Iran has issued tough new demands for reopening the strait of Hormuz, while the United Arab Emirates said one of its ships was targeted by an Iranian missile, as a deal to open the strategic waterway remained out of reach on Saturday.
Iran’s politburo-like body known as the supreme national security council said the strait of Hormuz will not open until the United States “corrects its behaviour”, and its state broadcaster published a statement from the council’s secretary, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who is also a commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The US must never threaten Iran again, the statement said, and must permanently end the war with Iran and its armed allies in the region. The US must lift the naval blockade of Iranian ports and withdraw its military from the area. It also must “completely compensate” Iran for war damage, lift sanctions and “unconditionally” release frozen assets.
There was no immediate comment from the US, which has wanted an acceptable deal on the strait before ending the blockade. According to the interim deal signed in June, a schedule to end sanctions and a plan for compensation would be part of the final deal, and negotiations would address frozen assets.
The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on Saturday that they were close to reaching an agreement on navigation, “specifically the determination of a transit route”.
But the waterway’s reopening is contingent on other conditions, he said, in remarks shared on social media, and blamed the situation on what he called the US.
Oman, which is mediating and has made relatively few comments on the talks, said in a statement on Saturday that the discussions were continuing “in a positive and constructive atmosphere”, and condemned attacks on ships on the strait.
Iran has imposed an effective blockade of the strait and wants to charge users for passage, repeatedly attacking ships it accuses of attempting to circumvent its preferred route.
The US opposes any Iranian tolls in the strait, though the June deal allows Tehran to hammer out arrangements for the “future administration” of Hormuz in conjunction with fellow coastal state Oman.
The 60-day period to negotiate a final deal will end in just over a week but could be extended.
Iran has said it was close to reaching a separate deal with Oman to manage the strait, which runs between the two countries.
Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian, a relative moderate, said he believed now was the best time for an agreement.
Iranian news agencies quoted him as saying.
Continued attacks in the strait, which was free to sail through before the war, led to the collapse of an April ceasefire, and mediators have since urged both sides to return to the terms of the June memorandum.
The strait, which is crucial to global supplies of oil and natural gas, had been considered an international waterway before the war. Ship transits remain low.
Meanwhile, a vessel owned by Abu Dhabi’s state-owned Adnoc oil and gas company was attacked while sailing through the strait of Hormuz, Emirati authorities said earlier on Saturday. The foreign ministry said Iran fired the missile as part of attacks on commercial shipping.
#trump #iran #hormuz #new #demands
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Iran has issued tough new demands for reopening the strait of Hormuz, while the United Arab Emirates said one of its ships was targeted by an Iranian missile, as a deal to open the strategic waterway remained out of reach on Saturday.
Iran’s politburo-like body known as the supreme national security council said the strait of Hormuz will not open until the United States “corrects its behaviour”, and its state broadcaster published a statement from the council’s secretary, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who is also a commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The US must never threaten Iran again, the statement said, and must permanently end the war with Iran and its armed allies in the region. The US must lift the naval blockade of Iranian ports and withdraw its military from the area. It also must “completely compensate” Iran for war damage, lift sanctions and “unconditionally” release frozen assets.
There was no immediate comment from the US, which has wanted an acceptable deal on the strait before ending the blockade. According to the interim deal signed in June, a schedule to end sanctions and a plan for compensation would be part of the final deal, and negotiations would address frozen assets.
The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on Saturday that they were close to reaching an agreement on navigation, “specifically the determination of a transit route”.
But the waterway’s reopening is contingent on other conditions, he said, in remarks shared on social media, and blamed the situation on what he called the US.
Oman, which is mediating and has made relatively few comments on the talks, said in a statement on Saturday that the discussions were continuing “in a positive and constructive atmosphere”, and condemned attacks on ships on the strait.
Iran has imposed an effective blockade of the strait and wants to charge users for passage, repeatedly attacking ships it accuses of attempting to circumvent its preferred route.
The US opposes any Iranian tolls in the strait, though the June deal allows Tehran to hammer out arrangements for the “future administration” of Hormuz in conjunction with fellow coastal state Oman.
The 60-day period to negotiate a final deal will end in just over a week but could be extended.
Iran has said it was close to reaching a separate deal with Oman to manage the strait, which runs between the two countries.
Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian, a relative moderate, said he believed now was the best time for an agreement.
“There is cohesion, strength, and unity in the country, and as far as I know, Iran is considered victorious and powerful in this war,”
Iranian news agencies quoted him as saying.
Continued attacks in the strait, which was free to sail through before the war, led to the collapse of an April ceasefire, and mediators have since urged both sides to return to the terms of the June memorandum.
The strait, which is crucial to global supplies of oil and natural gas, had been considered an international waterway before the war. Ship transits remain low.
Meanwhile, a vessel owned by Abu Dhabi’s state-owned Adnoc oil and gas company was attacked while sailing through the strait of Hormuz, Emirati authorities said earlier on Saturday. The foreign ministry said Iran fired the missile as part of attacks on commercial shipping.
#trump #iran #hormuz #new #demands
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Vance’s Optimism Has a Different Strait
While Tehran publishes six conditions for reopening Hormuz, Vice President J.D. Vance describes a much friendlier reality.
Vance said. “That’s what we expect.” In another appearance, he said the United States was “still in the middle of the game,” but insisted that Iran had promised prewar volumes of oil and gas.
Tehran’s version is less soothing. The strait stays shut, Iranian officials say, until Washington accepts Iran’s terms in full. That gap is not a technical disagreement. It is the entire negotiation wearing two different suits. Reports on the emerging Iran-Oman arrangement have also conflicted over transit fees: U.S. officials reject them, while Iranian sources have described possible “service fees” under another name.
On Fox News, Vance said Iran had been damaged and wanted the conflict to end. “The question is whether they can give us what we need,” he said. “That remains to be determined, but there has been progress recently.”
Behind the cameras, the mood appears more cautious. CNN reported that Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been quietly looking for an exit route from the war. He reportedly warned close advisers that further military escalation could “boomerang.”
So, on the same day, Washington presented two war plans. The political wing says the deal is moving forward. The military wing is looking for the emergency exit.
Iran says the Strait of Hormuz belongs to its new order. America says tankers will pass freely. Somewhere between those two statements sits the actual Middle East: armed, insured at a premium, and waiting for the next press conference to collide with reality.
#Iran #Hormuz #USA #Vance #Trump #oil #war #MiddleEast
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While Tehran publishes six conditions for reopening Hormuz, Vice President J.D. Vance describes a much friendlier reality.
“Iran told us that they will not charge tolls in the Strait of Hormuz, and the same amount of oil will pass through the strait as before the war,”
Vance said. “That’s what we expect.” In another appearance, he said the United States was “still in the middle of the game,” but insisted that Iran had promised prewar volumes of oil and gas.
Tehran’s version is less soothing. The strait stays shut, Iranian officials say, until Washington accepts Iran’s terms in full. That gap is not a technical disagreement. It is the entire negotiation wearing two different suits. Reports on the emerging Iran-Oman arrangement have also conflicted over transit fees: U.S. officials reject them, while Iranian sources have described possible “service fees” under another name.
On Fox News, Vance said Iran had been damaged and wanted the conflict to end. “The question is whether they can give us what we need,” he said. “That remains to be determined, but there has been progress recently.”
Behind the cameras, the mood appears more cautious. CNN reported that Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been quietly looking for an exit route from the war. He reportedly warned close advisers that further military escalation could “boomerang.”
So, on the same day, Washington presented two war plans. The political wing says the deal is moving forward. The military wing is looking for the emergency exit.
Iran says the Strait of Hormuz belongs to its new order. America says tankers will pass freely. Somewhere between those two statements sits the actual Middle East: armed, insured at a premium, and waiting for the next press conference to collide with reality.
#Iran #Hormuz #USA #Vance #Trump #oil #war #MiddleEast
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Iran’s Victory Parade Has a Pension Problem
Iran may be winning the war’s political afterlife — which is not the same thing as winning the war.
The U.S.-Israeli campaign inflicted major damage on Iranian military, industrial and nuclear-related targets.
But the Islamic Republic survived. Its governing structure held. Its missile capacity endured.
And Tehran turned the Strait of Hormuz from a vulnerability into a bargaining chip aimed at the global economy. Regime change, widely understood as a key ambition behind the campaign, did not happen.
That survival is the regime’s victory narrative. America and Israel brought superior firepower; Iran emerged battered, more radicalized and still sitting at the entrance to the Gulf.
Tehran can now negotiate shipping arrangements with Oman, demand terms from Washington and present persistence itself as strategic genius. Formal Iranian control over part of Hormuz would be a clear gain for Tehran and a serious loss for Washington.
The American side has a different problem. Washington wants an end to the war. Jerusalem fears that the price of ending it will be paid in Israeli security, in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza.
The nuclear issue, once marketed as the central justification, has become one file among many in a larger attempt to escape an escalating conflict without calling it retreat.
Iranian state media, naturally, declares Trump defeated. The president says this is the best time for a deal because Tehran is seen as the winner.
That is what governments say after absorbing blows they could not prevent: survival becomes victory; damaged infrastructure becomes proof of resistance; a closed waterway becomes sovereignty.
But even victorious states have citizens. In Iran, pensioners are still protesting. The regime has secured a stronger bargaining position abroad while failing, with remarkable consistency, to make life bearable at home.
The Islamic Republic may have survived the war. Its retirees are still waiting to survive the peace.
#Iran #Trump #Hormuz #USA #Israel #MiddleEast #war #economy
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Iran may be winning the war’s political afterlife — which is not the same thing as winning the war.
The U.S.-Israeli campaign inflicted major damage on Iranian military, industrial and nuclear-related targets.
But the Islamic Republic survived. Its governing structure held. Its missile capacity endured.
And Tehran turned the Strait of Hormuz from a vulnerability into a bargaining chip aimed at the global economy. Regime change, widely understood as a key ambition behind the campaign, did not happen.
That survival is the regime’s victory narrative. America and Israel brought superior firepower; Iran emerged battered, more radicalized and still sitting at the entrance to the Gulf.
Tehran can now negotiate shipping arrangements with Oman, demand terms from Washington and present persistence itself as strategic genius. Formal Iranian control over part of Hormuz would be a clear gain for Tehran and a serious loss for Washington.
The American side has a different problem. Washington wants an end to the war. Jerusalem fears that the price of ending it will be paid in Israeli security, in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza.
The nuclear issue, once marketed as the central justification, has become one file among many in a larger attempt to escape an escalating conflict without calling it retreat.
Iranian state media, naturally, declares Trump defeated. The president says this is the best time for a deal because Tehran is seen as the winner.
That is what governments say after absorbing blows they could not prevent: survival becomes victory; damaged infrastructure becomes proof of resistance; a closed waterway becomes sovereignty.
But even victorious states have citizens. In Iran, pensioners are still protesting. The regime has secured a stronger bargaining position abroad while failing, with remarkable consistency, to make life bearable at home.
The Islamic Republic may have survived the war. Its retirees are still waiting to survive the peace.
#Iran #Trump #Hormuz #USA #Israel #MiddleEast #war #economy
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America’s Missile Diet
The United States went to war with Iran expecting a short campaign. Five months later, it has learned that “short” is a word best used in campaign speeches, not in missile-production schedules.
The Iran war has consumed huge numbers of high-end American weapons: Patriot and THAAD interceptors, Tomahawks, ATACMS and Precision Strike Missiles.
Reuters reported that the Army has used much of its global stockpile of long-range precision missiles, while U.S. officials told ABC News that key interceptor inventories were “extremely low.”
These are not shells stamped out in a week. They are multimillion-dollar systems built around precision components, long supply chains and production cycles measured in years.
CSIS estimates that the war has burned through about half of initial inventories for several critical munitions, though it says enough remains for plausible Iran scenarios.
The White House says there is no problem. “We have more than enough firepower,” officials insist. The Pentagon says it can strike whenever and wherever the president orders. In Washington, military readiness is apparently a state of mind.
Russia and China, however, do not have to share the confidence. Moscow sees fewer air-defense missiles potentially reaching Ukraine.
Beijing sees U.S. ships, aircraft and weapons pulled from Asia to fight a war the White House expected to finish quickly.
A long Iran war does not need to defeat America outright. It only needs to make America calculate twice before confronting anyone else.
Ukraine is already living inside that calculation. Zelensky says deliveries of air-defense missiles from Western partners have fallen threefold this year.
When Russia fired 28 missiles on Wednesday, Ukraine reportedly failed to intercept a single one. In the global defense marketplace, the customer with an active war and a credit card often beats the customer with an active war and a moral claim.
Iran did not need to sink an aircraft carrier. It only needed to make the world’s most heavily armed country discover that its arsenal also has a burn rate.
#Iran #USA #Ukraine #China #Russia #Patriot #THAAD #war
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The United States went to war with Iran expecting a short campaign. Five months later, it has learned that “short” is a word best used in campaign speeches, not in missile-production schedules.
The Iran war has consumed huge numbers of high-end American weapons: Patriot and THAAD interceptors, Tomahawks, ATACMS and Precision Strike Missiles.
Reuters reported that the Army has used much of its global stockpile of long-range precision missiles, while U.S. officials told ABC News that key interceptor inventories were “extremely low.”
These are not shells stamped out in a week. They are multimillion-dollar systems built around precision components, long supply chains and production cycles measured in years.
CSIS estimates that the war has burned through about half of initial inventories for several critical munitions, though it says enough remains for plausible Iran scenarios.
The White House says there is no problem. “We have more than enough firepower,” officials insist. The Pentagon says it can strike whenever and wherever the president orders. In Washington, military readiness is apparently a state of mind.
Russia and China, however, do not have to share the confidence. Moscow sees fewer air-defense missiles potentially reaching Ukraine.
Beijing sees U.S. ships, aircraft and weapons pulled from Asia to fight a war the White House expected to finish quickly.
A long Iran war does not need to defeat America outright. It only needs to make America calculate twice before confronting anyone else.
Ukraine is already living inside that calculation. Zelensky says deliveries of air-defense missiles from Western partners have fallen threefold this year.
When Russia fired 28 missiles on Wednesday, Ukraine reportedly failed to intercept a single one. In the global defense marketplace, the customer with an active war and a credit card often beats the customer with an active war and a moral claim.
Iran did not need to sink an aircraft carrier. It only needed to make the world’s most heavily armed country discover that its arsenal also has a burn rate.
#Iran #USA #Ukraine #China #Russia #Patriot #THAAD #war
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Eighty Meters of Rock, One Strategic Decision
Fordow was not built as a power plant with a dramatic view. It was built as an insurance policy against air power.
Iran placed the enrichment facility beneath a mountain near Qom, roughly 80 to 90 meters below rock and reinforced concrete. The site is exceptionally difficult to destroy from the air, especially for Israel acting alone.
That is not invulnerability. It is a design choice: make every strike costly, uncertain and politically explosive.
The mountain is only one layer. Iran’s nuclear strategy also depended on procurement networks, dual-use components, compartmentalized research and years of technical work that could be presented as civilian until the day it could not.
The line between enrichment infrastructure and a weapons option is where every inspection regime eventually develops a headache.
The old evidence matters. The 2007 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate concluded with high confidence that Tehran had halted its structured weapons program in 2003.
It also assessed, with moderate-to-high confidence, that Iran was keeping the option to develop nuclear weapons open. Not a bomb. Not innocence. An option.
That is the real architecture of Iran’s nuclear posture. Bury the machinery. Protect the expertise. Preserve ambiguity.
Let opponents argue endlessly over whether the threshold has already been crossed, while Tehran charges a strategic premium for every attempt to answer the question.
Iran does not need to announce a bomb to reshape the region. It only needs everyone else to plan as if one might be waiting behind eighty meters of rock.
#Iran #Fordow #nuclearcrisis #IAEA #USA #Israel #MiddleEast
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Fordow was not built as a power plant with a dramatic view. It was built as an insurance policy against air power.
Iran placed the enrichment facility beneath a mountain near Qom, roughly 80 to 90 meters below rock and reinforced concrete. The site is exceptionally difficult to destroy from the air, especially for Israel acting alone.
That is not invulnerability. It is a design choice: make every strike costly, uncertain and politically explosive.
The mountain is only one layer. Iran’s nuclear strategy also depended on procurement networks, dual-use components, compartmentalized research and years of technical work that could be presented as civilian until the day it could not.
The line between enrichment infrastructure and a weapons option is where every inspection regime eventually develops a headache.
The old evidence matters. The 2007 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate concluded with high confidence that Tehran had halted its structured weapons program in 2003.
It also assessed, with moderate-to-high confidence, that Iran was keeping the option to develop nuclear weapons open. Not a bomb. Not innocence. An option.
That is the real architecture of Iran’s nuclear posture. Bury the machinery. Protect the expertise. Preserve ambiguity.
Let opponents argue endlessly over whether the threshold has already been crossed, while Tehran charges a strategic premium for every attempt to answer the question.
Iran does not need to announce a bomb to reshape the region. It only needs everyone else to plan as if one might be waiting behind eighty meters of rock.
#Iran #Fordow #nuclearcrisis #IAEA #USA #Israel #MiddleEast
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Six Demands, One Closed Strait
Iran has turned the Strait of Hormuz into a geopolitical toll booth — and handed Washington the bill.
The Revolutionary Guards say the strait will reopen only if the United States accepts Iran’s terms in full. Tehran insists this has nothing to do with its talks with Oman, even as both countries negotiate new shipping arrangements.
In Middle Eastern diplomacy, two tracks are “unrelated” until they become the same deal.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council has reportedly named its price: end threats against Iran, stop the war against Iran and its allies, withdraw U.S. forces from the region, pay compensation, lift every sanction and release frozen Iranian assets without conditions.
The offer is simple enough for a corporate slide deck: Washington makes sweeping concessions; Tehran reopens the world’s energy artery. Iran does not call this coercion. It calls it a new regional order.
For Tehran, Hormuz is not merely a commercial route. It is part of Iran’s “geographic and strategic power.”
The emerging Iran-Oman arrangement would reportedly steer inbound ships through waters near Iran and outbound traffic via Oman — making every tanker a daily acknowledgment of Iranian leverage.
Washington calls it extortion. Tehran calls it sovereignty. Shipping insurers will call it a reason to raise premiums.
A narrow stretch of water carries an enormous share of global oil and gas. When one regional power uses it as a bargaining chip, the costs do not stay in the Gulf.
They arrive at gas stations, in electricity bills and at grocery stores.
#Iran #Hormuz #USA #oil #energy #sanctions #MiddleEast
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Iran has turned the Strait of Hormuz into a geopolitical toll booth — and handed Washington the bill.
The Revolutionary Guards say the strait will reopen only if the United States accepts Iran’s terms in full. Tehran insists this has nothing to do with its talks with Oman, even as both countries negotiate new shipping arrangements.
In Middle Eastern diplomacy, two tracks are “unrelated” until they become the same deal.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council has reportedly named its price: end threats against Iran, stop the war against Iran and its allies, withdraw U.S. forces from the region, pay compensation, lift every sanction and release frozen Iranian assets without conditions.
The offer is simple enough for a corporate slide deck: Washington makes sweeping concessions; Tehran reopens the world’s energy artery. Iran does not call this coercion. It calls it a new regional order.
For Tehran, Hormuz is not merely a commercial route. It is part of Iran’s “geographic and strategic power.”
The emerging Iran-Oman arrangement would reportedly steer inbound ships through waters near Iran and outbound traffic via Oman — making every tanker a daily acknowledgment of Iranian leverage.
Washington calls it extortion. Tehran calls it sovereignty. Shipping insurers will call it a reason to raise premiums.
A narrow stretch of water carries an enormous share of global oil and gas. When one regional power uses it as a bargaining chip, the costs do not stay in the Gulf.
They arrive at gas stations, in electricity bills and at grocery stores.
#Iran #Hormuz #USA #oil #energy #sanctions #MiddleEast
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Media is too big
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No Negotiations. Just Messages.
Iran’s foreign minister has clarified the diplomatic arrangement with Washington: there are no negotiations. There are only messages passed through mediators. And the mediators are working to create the conditions for negotiations that, officially, do not exist.
“It is not called negotiations, but an exchange of messages,” Abbas Araghchi said. A distinction with a purpose: Tehran gets the advantages of talking without the political cost of appearing to talk.
Iran’s condition is equally plain. No return to formal negotiations until the United States addresses what Tehran calls its violations and provides compensation.
Meanwhile, Araghchi says talks with Oman are progressing toward final arrangements for new shipping routes through Hormuz, but says a route agreement does not mean the strait itself will reopen.
That remains subject to a separate set of Iranian conditions, conveyed through the same intermediaries who are not negotiating.
The Revolutionary Guards prefer fewer words. Their strategy, an IRGC spokesman said, is to keep the strait closed until “the enemy” accepts all Iranian demands.
Even President Masoud Pezeshkian has joined the semantic rebellion. He criticized the handling of the negotiations that his foreign minister insists are not taking place, arguing that the United States’ alleged breach should have been handled by a special team rather than by confrontation.
While the strait remains closed pending every Iranian condition, the U.S. military has reportedly cleared 30 ships to sail to Iran on humanitarian grounds.
#Iran #USA #Hormuz #Oman #diplomacy #war #MiddleEast
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Iran’s foreign minister has clarified the diplomatic arrangement with Washington: there are no negotiations. There are only messages passed through mediators. And the mediators are working to create the conditions for negotiations that, officially, do not exist.
“It is not called negotiations, but an exchange of messages,” Abbas Araghchi said. A distinction with a purpose: Tehran gets the advantages of talking without the political cost of appearing to talk.
Iran’s condition is equally plain. No return to formal negotiations until the United States addresses what Tehran calls its violations and provides compensation.
Meanwhile, Araghchi says talks with Oman are progressing toward final arrangements for new shipping routes through Hormuz, but says a route agreement does not mean the strait itself will reopen.
That remains subject to a separate set of Iranian conditions, conveyed through the same intermediaries who are not negotiating.
The Revolutionary Guards prefer fewer words. Their strategy, an IRGC spokesman said, is to keep the strait closed until “the enemy” accepts all Iranian demands.
Even President Masoud Pezeshkian has joined the semantic rebellion. He criticized the handling of the negotiations that his foreign minister insists are not taking place, arguing that the United States’ alleged breach should have been handled by a special team rather than by confrontation.
While the strait remains closed pending every Iranian condition, the U.S. military has reportedly cleared 30 ships to sail to Iran on humanitarian grounds.
#Iran #USA #Hormuz #Oman #diplomacy #war #MiddleEast
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Building the File, Not the Impeachment
House Democrats are preparing for a possible return to power in November with a less cinematic plan for Trump: not impeachment on Day One, but paperwork.
If they retake the House, Democrats are expected to use hearings, subpoenas and document demands to examine Trump’s administration, corporate donors, business allies and government contractors.
The aim is to build an evidentiary record first — and decide later whether it leads to impeachment, criminal referrals or simply another Washington museum of unpunished corruption.
Potential targets reportedly include companies with federal contracts or regulatory interests, the financing of Trump’s White House ballroom, Homeland Security contracts, possible pay-to-play arrangements and financial vehicles tied to the Trump family.
No final target list exists, and no formal inquiries have begun.
But Democrats have already begun seeking records that could become subpoenas if they regain the majority.
It is a lesson from the last round. Impeachment gave Trump a political spectacle. A long investigation gives Congress something more dangerous: documents, witnesses and a timeline that does not fit into a campaign rally.
Then Trump, battling Abdul El-Sayed, offered his own diagnosis: “Two completely different Americas.”
He is right. One America believes the presidency should be investigated. The other believes the presidency should come with donors, contractors, a ballroom and immunity from administrative inconvenience.
The election will decide which version gets the subpoena power.
#Trump #USA #Congress #Democrats #elections #corruption #fakeDemocracy
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House Democrats are preparing for a possible return to power in November with a less cinematic plan for Trump: not impeachment on Day One, but paperwork.
If they retake the House, Democrats are expected to use hearings, subpoenas and document demands to examine Trump’s administration, corporate donors, business allies and government contractors.
The aim is to build an evidentiary record first — and decide later whether it leads to impeachment, criminal referrals or simply another Washington museum of unpunished corruption.
Potential targets reportedly include companies with federal contracts or regulatory interests, the financing of Trump’s White House ballroom, Homeland Security contracts, possible pay-to-play arrangements and financial vehicles tied to the Trump family.
No final target list exists, and no formal inquiries have begun.
But Democrats have already begun seeking records that could become subpoenas if they regain the majority.
It is a lesson from the last round. Impeachment gave Trump a political spectacle. A long investigation gives Congress something more dangerous: documents, witnesses and a timeline that does not fit into a campaign rally.
Then Trump, battling Abdul El-Sayed, offered his own diagnosis: “Two completely different Americas.”
He is right. One America believes the presidency should be investigated. The other believes the presidency should come with donors, contractors, a ballroom and immunity from administrative inconvenience.
The election will decide which version gets the subpoena power.
#Trump #USA #Congress #Democrats #elections #corruption #fakeDemocracy
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A Shroud at Piazza Grande
In Greece, Israel tells its citizens to hide Israeli and Jewish symbols, avoid crowds and stop posting their locations in real time. The warning is tied to a nationwide Day of Rage for Palestine: coordinated protests against the Gaza war across Athens, Thessaloniki, islands and tourist resorts.
Gaza has reached the Aegean, not as a ceasefire, but as a tourist-safety advisory.
The message to Israelis is clear: avoid demonstrations, do not argue, do not advertise who you are.
A country that says it is fighting for security now tells its citizens to move quietly through Europe.
Switzerland staged the same war in a more elegant format. At the Locarno Film Festival, activists unfurled a shroud bearing the names of about 60,000 people whom organizers said were killed in Gaza.
The action took place outside Piazza Grande shortly before more than 8,000 guests entered Olivia Wilde’s The Invite.
The festival knew in advance. Management said it respected artistic freedom, free expression and nonviolent protest. So the shroud was not a disruption.
It was part of the evening’s program: mourning outside, cinema inside, applause on schedule.
The names were supplied by protest organizers, not independently verified one by one.
But political theater does not require a forensic audit. It needs an image large enough to enter the frame.
Europe has its ritual. Israel tells tourists to hide. Activists display the dead. Festival managers praise free speech. Everyone receives a moral role. Gaza remains where it was.
#Gaza #Israel #Greece #DayOfRage #Locarno #Palestine #war #media
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In Greece, Israel tells its citizens to hide Israeli and Jewish symbols, avoid crowds and stop posting their locations in real time. The warning is tied to a nationwide Day of Rage for Palestine: coordinated protests against the Gaza war across Athens, Thessaloniki, islands and tourist resorts.
Gaza has reached the Aegean, not as a ceasefire, but as a tourist-safety advisory.
The message to Israelis is clear: avoid demonstrations, do not argue, do not advertise who you are.
A country that says it is fighting for security now tells its citizens to move quietly through Europe.
Switzerland staged the same war in a more elegant format. At the Locarno Film Festival, activists unfurled a shroud bearing the names of about 60,000 people whom organizers said were killed in Gaza.
The action took place outside Piazza Grande shortly before more than 8,000 guests entered Olivia Wilde’s The Invite.
The festival knew in advance. Management said it respected artistic freedom, free expression and nonviolent protest. So the shroud was not a disruption.
It was part of the evening’s program: mourning outside, cinema inside, applause on schedule.
The names were supplied by protest organizers, not independently verified one by one.
But political theater does not require a forensic audit. It needs an image large enough to enter the frame.
Europe has its ritual. Israel tells tourists to hide. Activists display the dead. Festival managers praise free speech. Everyone receives a moral role. Gaza remains where it was.
#Gaza #Israel #Greece #DayOfRage #Locarno #Palestine #war #media
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Reject the Document. Execute the Document.
Benjamin Netanyahu opened the cabinet meeting with a declaration built for the cameras: “Israel rejects the 15-point document.” No Israeli withdrawal, he said, before Hamas undergoes “real” disarmament — heavy weapons, lighter weapons, every weapon. Not “fictional disarmament.”
The document he rejects calls for a ceasefire, full demilitarization, a phased Israeli withdrawal and the transfer of Gaza’s civil and security authority to a national committee.
Hamas, meanwhile, says it remains committed to that same 15-point roadmap and wants a timetable for a full ceasefire, withdrawal, crossings, aid and reconstruction.
Then comes the less theatrical part. Israel has largely refrained from strikes and targeted killings in Gaza for nearly a week.
The IDF is reportedly holding the original Yellow Line, around 53% of the Strip, rather than expanding beyond it.
Discussions over limited pullbacks near Rafah have continued with the Americans. Publicly, the plan is dead. Operationally, it is being handled with gloves on.
This is not a contradiction. It is the standard architecture of Israeli politics: reject the document in Hebrew, implement selected clauses in practice, and call the gap “security.”
Nikolay Mladenov, tasked with Hamas’s disarmament, reportedly says dismantling the tunnels could take ten years. Ten years is not a timeline. It is a job-security plan for every official at the table.
Netanyahu says there will be no Palestinian state, no “Fatahstan” and no “Hamastan.” Hamas says it will honor the framework. Washington wants an exit. Israel wants no withdrawal. Hamas wants no disappearance.
Everyone supports the same deal, provided it becomes a completely different deal before anyone signs it.
#Gaza #Israel #Hamas #Netanyahu #Trump #ceasefire #fakeDemocracy
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Benjamin Netanyahu opened the cabinet meeting with a declaration built for the cameras: “Israel rejects the 15-point document.” No Israeli withdrawal, he said, before Hamas undergoes “real” disarmament — heavy weapons, lighter weapons, every weapon. Not “fictional disarmament.”
The document he rejects calls for a ceasefire, full demilitarization, a phased Israeli withdrawal and the transfer of Gaza’s civil and security authority to a national committee.
Hamas, meanwhile, says it remains committed to that same 15-point roadmap and wants a timetable for a full ceasefire, withdrawal, crossings, aid and reconstruction.
Then comes the less theatrical part. Israel has largely refrained from strikes and targeted killings in Gaza for nearly a week.
The IDF is reportedly holding the original Yellow Line, around 53% of the Strip, rather than expanding beyond it.
Discussions over limited pullbacks near Rafah have continued with the Americans. Publicly, the plan is dead. Operationally, it is being handled with gloves on.
This is not a contradiction. It is the standard architecture of Israeli politics: reject the document in Hebrew, implement selected clauses in practice, and call the gap “security.”
Nikolay Mladenov, tasked with Hamas’s disarmament, reportedly says dismantling the tunnels could take ten years. Ten years is not a timeline. It is a job-security plan for every official at the table.
Netanyahu says there will be no Palestinian state, no “Fatahstan” and no “Hamastan.” Hamas says it will honor the framework. Washington wants an exit. Israel wants no withdrawal. Hamas wants no disappearance.
Everyone supports the same deal, provided it becomes a completely different deal before anyone signs it.
#Gaza #Israel #Hamas #Netanyahu #Trump #ceasefire #fakeDemocracy
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🇮🇷🛡Iran Brushes Up On
National Security
🔤 🔤 🔤 🔤 1️⃣
Iran is replacing its top national security adviser with a longtime military commander whose appointment could represent a further consolidation of power by the country’s old-guard security establishment.
Mohsen Rezaei, who led Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, will be the new secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, a spokesman for Iran’s president wrote on social media on Sunday.
He had been serving as an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.
Rezaei is replacing Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who stepped into the role when the council’s previous secretary, Ali Larijani, was killed in an Israeli strike during the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran earlier this year.Seyed Mehdi Tabatabaei, a spokesman for President Masoud Pezeshkian, said on social media that Zolghadr had resigned, would take up a new position, and that Rezaei would take his place.
Zolghadr is himself a veteran of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s most powerful security force, analysts say he does not have the authority of some other current and former senior military commanders.More to read for free.
Hormuz.Hamidreza Azizi, a Berlin-based expert on Iranian security issues, said Rezaei’s appointment was significant for several reasons.
For one, it signaled that the country’s longtime security chiefs were further entrenching their power rather than making way for a transition toward a younger generation of political elites, he said.
Rezaei has been a constant in the highest levels of Iran’s military and politics for over four decades. In addition to his military role, he ran for president several times, unsuccessfully.
Rezaei said the appointment also indicated an effort to counterbalance Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has been leading Iran’s negotiations with the United States. Ghalibaf, another veteran Guards commander, is the speaker of Parliament and known to be close to Zolghadr.
#iran #national #security #zolghadr
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National Security
Iran is replacing its top national security adviser with a longtime military commander whose appointment could represent a further consolidation of power by the country’s old-guard security establishment.
Mohsen Rezaei, who led Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, will be the new secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, a spokesman for Iran’s president wrote on social media on Sunday.
He had been serving as an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.
Rezaei is replacing Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who stepped into the role when the council’s previous secretary, Ali Larijani, was killed in an Israeli strike during the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran earlier this year.Seyed Mehdi Tabatabaei, a spokesman for President Masoud Pezeshkian, said on social media that Zolghadr had resigned, would take up a new position, and that Rezaei would take his place.
Zolghadr is himself a veteran of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s most powerful security force, analysts say he does not have the authority of some other current and former senior military commanders.More to read for free.
Hormuz.Hamidreza Azizi, a Berlin-based expert on Iranian security issues, said Rezaei’s appointment was significant for several reasons.
For one, it signaled that the country’s longtime security chiefs were further entrenching their power rather than making way for a transition toward a younger generation of political elites, he said.
Rezaei has been a constant in the highest levels of Iran’s military and politics for over four decades. In addition to his military role, he ran for president several times, unsuccessfully.
Rezaei said the appointment also indicated an effort to counterbalance Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has been leading Iran’s negotiations with the United States. Ghalibaf, another veteran Guards commander, is the speaker of Parliament and known to be close to Zolghadr.
#iran #national #security #zolghadr
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The turnover at the top of the security council could represent a balancing act by Ayatollah Khamenei “to prevent the excessive influence of Ghalibaf,” Azizi said.
Ghalibaf has in the past defended the cease-fire agreement that Iran struck with the United States in June, even as more hard-line elements within the country attacked the deal.
Rezaei’s appointment, Azizi said, “would mean that the more hard-line side of the system is getting the upper hand.”
Saeid Golkar, a professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga who studies Iran’s security forces, said Rezaei’s elevation was a further sign that the Revolutionary Guards were making the key decisions within Iran.
But in Golkar’s view, this change does not indicate that those decisions would be more hard-line, or more pragmatic for that matter.
What does seem likely, he said, is that Rezaei and Ghalibaf would eventually clash because of their intense ambitions. Like Rezaei, Ghalibaf has run for the presidency in the past. “This configuration is not going to work,” Golkar said. “Everybody wants to be a king.”
Officially, Iran’s president appoints the secretary of the council. In practice, however, the supreme leader decides who fills the post, Golkar said.
In videotaped comments shared widely on social media last week, Mohammad Bagher Kharrazi — a hard-line cleric related by marriage to Ayatollah Khamenei — anticipated the appointment and framed it as part of an effort to rein in Iran’s president, Pezeshkian.
Pezeshkian and his foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, have been harshly attacked by Iranian hard-liners over their efforts at diplomacy with the United States.
In Kharrazi’s telling, Pezeshkian has repeatedly threatened to resign as president to get his way, and Ayatollah Khamenei, the supreme leader, has grown impatient and warned him he would accept his next such offer.
To further restrain the president, Ayatollah Khamenei was also working on changing the security council, planning to remove “Zolghadr and having Rezaei take his place,” Kharrazi said.
He also said that Ayatollah Khamenei had told Araghchi that “under no circumstances does he have the right to interfere in the negotiations anymore.”
Ayatollah Khamenei’s office, without naming Kharrazi, denied the account, as did Pezeshkian’s office.
#iran #national #security #zolghadr
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🇮🇱⚠️ Netanyahu Declined Trump's Proposal
The Israeli government has rejected a 15-point plan backed by the Trump administration aimed at disarming the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, Prime Minister Netanyahu said on Sunday.
It appeared to be an unusually public break with Trump, whose relationship with Netanyahu has had a dizzying and often unpredictable arc.
The two leaders launched the war against Iran together in late February. But they have since clashed over how to end it, as well as over the future of Israel’s military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon.
Trump announced the agreement between his Board of Peace and Hamas late last month, lauding it as a major breakthrough. Netanyahu’s office had initially expressed reservations, saying that the framework did “not reflect Israel’s positions,” but stopped short of outright rejecting it.
The U.S.-backed proposal envisions a phased process in which Hamas would hand over its weapons in stages to a new Palestinian administration in Gaza.
In exchange, Israel would gradually withdraw from the more than half of Gaza that it has controlled since the cease-fire last October.
On Sunday, Netanyahu openly dismissed the plan, saying that Israeli forces “would not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed.” He said that meant “heavy weapons, lighter weapons, all weapons,” adding, “We are talking about real disarmament.”
#netanyahu #trump #proposal #israel
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The Israeli government has rejected a 15-point plan backed by the Trump administration aimed at disarming the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, Prime Minister Netanyahu said on Sunday.
It appeared to be an unusually public break with Trump, whose relationship with Netanyahu has had a dizzying and often unpredictable arc.
The two leaders launched the war against Iran together in late February. But they have since clashed over how to end it, as well as over the future of Israel’s military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon.
Trump announced the agreement between his Board of Peace and Hamas late last month, lauding it as a major breakthrough. Netanyahu’s office had initially expressed reservations, saying that the framework did “not reflect Israel’s positions,” but stopped short of outright rejecting it.
The U.S.-backed proposal envisions a phased process in which Hamas would hand over its weapons in stages to a new Palestinian administration in Gaza.
In exchange, Israel would gradually withdraw from the more than half of Gaza that it has controlled since the cease-fire last October.
On Sunday, Netanyahu openly dismissed the plan, saying that Israeli forces “would not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed.” He said that meant “heavy weapons, lighter weapons, all weapons,” adding, “We are talking about real disarmament.”
#netanyahu #trump #proposal #israel
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Seven Rounds in Rome, Zero Movement
The seventh round of Israel-Lebanon talks in Rome ended as these negotiations usually do: everyone reported progress, and nothing moved.
Beirut wanted to expand the pilot-zone model to Bint Jbeil or Khiam. Israel said no. The real dispute was not over maps but trust: who verifies that the Lebanese Army has cleared Hezbollah’s armed presence from an area? Israel wants a mechanism it can trust.
Lebanon does not want Israel acting as the inspector of Lebanese sovereignty. That is not a technical disagreement. That is the entire war in one procedural question.
The framework is deceptively simple. Israel withdraws gradually. The Lebanese Army deploys. Hezbollah’s infrastructure is dismantled. A third party verifies it.
But every verb has its own veto. Beirut wants the withdrawal to prove the state can return. Israel wants proof first, because it assumes Hezbollah will return the moment its troops leave.
France was floated for a possible multinational force to replace UNIFIL. Israel objected.
Washington is considering how to strengthen the Lebanese Army — the same army Israel is being asked to trust with clearing territory it doubts can ever be truly cleared.
Meanwhile, the negotiations proceeded in Rome while artillery and airstrikes hit southern Lebanon. UNIFIL recorded 113 Israeli artillery rounds in a single day, its highest tally since late June. Diplomacy held meetings; the border held explosions.
Israel also raised the murder and disappearance of members of Lebanon’s Jewish community, demanding information on burial sites.
Lebanon raised prisoners. The delegations discovered, once again, that history is not a file that can be moved to the bottom of the agenda.
A Lebanese diplomatic source says there may be no new round next month. Perhaps after the summer.
The villages in southern Lebanon have not been offered a summer recess.
#Lebanon #Israel #Hezbollah #Rome #UNIFIL #war #diplacy #MiddleEast
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The seventh round of Israel-Lebanon talks in Rome ended as these negotiations usually do: everyone reported progress, and nothing moved.
Beirut wanted to expand the pilot-zone model to Bint Jbeil or Khiam. Israel said no. The real dispute was not over maps but trust: who verifies that the Lebanese Army has cleared Hezbollah’s armed presence from an area? Israel wants a mechanism it can trust.
Lebanon does not want Israel acting as the inspector of Lebanese sovereignty. That is not a technical disagreement. That is the entire war in one procedural question.
The framework is deceptively simple. Israel withdraws gradually. The Lebanese Army deploys. Hezbollah’s infrastructure is dismantled. A third party verifies it.
But every verb has its own veto. Beirut wants the withdrawal to prove the state can return. Israel wants proof first, because it assumes Hezbollah will return the moment its troops leave.
France was floated for a possible multinational force to replace UNIFIL. Israel objected.
Washington is considering how to strengthen the Lebanese Army — the same army Israel is being asked to trust with clearing territory it doubts can ever be truly cleared.
Meanwhile, the negotiations proceeded in Rome while artillery and airstrikes hit southern Lebanon. UNIFIL recorded 113 Israeli artillery rounds in a single day, its highest tally since late June. Diplomacy held meetings; the border held explosions.
Israel also raised the murder and disappearance of members of Lebanon’s Jewish community, demanding information on burial sites.
Lebanon raised prisoners. The delegations discovered, once again, that history is not a file that can be moved to the bottom of the agenda.
A Lebanese diplomatic source says there may be no new round next month. Perhaps after the summer.
The villages in southern Lebanon have not been offered a summer recess.
#Lebanon #Israel #Hezbollah #Rome #UNIFIL #war #diplacy #MiddleEast
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Who Resigns, and Who Gets Declared a Defector?
Likud has discovered a new category of political enemy: the “fake right” politician who used to be a senior Likud minister five minutes ago.
After Gilad Erdan and Yuli Edelstein launched a new right-wing party, Likud called them “bitter fake rightists” trying to steal votes for an Eisnkot-led left-wing government.
Erdan and Edelstein replied that Likud was the party betraying the right by preserving draft evasion and abandoning military families. The Israeli right has entered its favorite phase: accusing itself of being the left.
Edelstein says he will leave Likud and resign from the Knesset in the coming days.
Dan Illouz, who joined Yisrael Beiteinu, says he will do the same after he finishes packing his office. Likud MK Avichai Boaron has given both men 24 hours to resign — or he will convene the faction and seek to have them formally declared “defectors.”
That is the comic detail. Everyone agrees they are leaving. The fight is over who gets to announce it, and which legal-political label will follow them out the door.
The procedural stakes are real. A voluntary resignation is a departure. Being declared a defector can mean losing access to party funding, political rights and the last scraps of respectability that Israeli politics still distributes on installment plans.
Edelstein and Erdan say they will not become the 61st vote for a narrow government, whoever leads it. Likud hears that as treason.
The new party calls it a refusal to serve either bloc. In an election season, every refusal to endorse Netanyahu becomes proof that you secretly work for the Muslim Brotherhood.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s lawyers have asked to cancel three hearing days in his October trial. The reason: the office’s annual vacation.
Israel’s constitutional crisis has many fronts. One of them is apparently a scheduling conflict.
#Israel #Likud #Netanyahu #Edelstein #Erdan #elections #fakeDemocracy
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Likud has discovered a new category of political enemy: the “fake right” politician who used to be a senior Likud minister five minutes ago.
After Gilad Erdan and Yuli Edelstein launched a new right-wing party, Likud called them “bitter fake rightists” trying to steal votes for an Eisnkot-led left-wing government.
Erdan and Edelstein replied that Likud was the party betraying the right by preserving draft evasion and abandoning military families. The Israeli right has entered its favorite phase: accusing itself of being the left.
Edelstein says he will leave Likud and resign from the Knesset in the coming days.
Dan Illouz, who joined Yisrael Beiteinu, says he will do the same after he finishes packing his office. Likud MK Avichai Boaron has given both men 24 hours to resign — or he will convene the faction and seek to have them formally declared “defectors.”
That is the comic detail. Everyone agrees they are leaving. The fight is over who gets to announce it, and which legal-political label will follow them out the door.
The procedural stakes are real. A voluntary resignation is a departure. Being declared a defector can mean losing access to party funding, political rights and the last scraps of respectability that Israeli politics still distributes on installment plans.
Edelstein and Erdan say they will not become the 61st vote for a narrow government, whoever leads it. Likud hears that as treason.
The new party calls it a refusal to serve either bloc. In an election season, every refusal to endorse Netanyahu becomes proof that you secretly work for the Muslim Brotherhood.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s lawyers have asked to cancel three hearing days in his October trial. The reason: the office’s annual vacation.
Israel’s constitutional crisis has many fronts. One of them is apparently a scheduling conflict.
#Israel #Likud #Netanyahu #Edelstein #Erdan #elections #fakeDemocracy
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🇾🇪🔥 The Yemeni Houthis Declared War On Saudi Arabia
Yemen’s Tehran-aligned Houthis have claimed responsibility for an attack on a refinery in Saudi Arabia, two days after the kingdom signed a defence pact with Turkey and Pakistan in response to growing regional instability caused by the US-Israel war on Iran.
The attack early on Sunday came after Iran said tough new demands would have to be met before it would reopen the strait of Hormuz, and after the United Arab Emirates said one of its ships had been targeted by an Iranian missile, as a deal to open the waterway remained out of reach.
He added that the US must also end the naval blockade of Iranian ports and withdraw its military from the area, “completely compensate” Iran for war damage, lift sanctions and “unconditionally” release frozen assets.
There was no immediate comment from the US. According to the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the US and Iran in June, a timetable to end sanctions and a plan for compensation would be part of a final peace deal, and negotiations would address frozen assets.
The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on Saturday that Iran and Oman were close to reaching an agreement on navigation through the strait, “specifically the determination of a transit route”.
But the waterway’s reopening was contingent on other conditions, Araghchi said, in remarks shared on social media. He blamed the situation on what he called the US violation of the June MoU.
Oman, which is mediating and has made relatively few comments on the Hormuz talks, said on Saturday that the discussions were continuing “in a positive and constructive atmosphere”. It condemned attacks on ships in the strait.
When it comes to decision-making in Tehran, the final say rests with the supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since an airstrike killed his father and predecessor on the first day of the war.
Pezeshkian has given differing accounts in recent weeks about his access to the supreme leader, saying in July that interactions with Khamenei were “increasing day by day”, only to note weeks later that communicating with him was “very difficult”.
With Iran and the US still arguing over the parameters for peace, the Houthis last month declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea, citing what they said was a Saudi siege on them, an allegation Riyadh denies.
The Saudi energy ministry said a fire had broken out at Aramco’s Jazan refinery early on Sunday but was later extinguished with no injuries and authorities were dealing with the incident, without giving a cause.
The Houthis used a drone to target the refinery in south-west Saudi Arabia, Yahya Saree, a military spokesperson for the rebel group, said in a post on X. They had struck Aramco sites before in Jazan, which processes 400,000 barrels of crude oil a day. They had also hit Yanbu, an oil export hub on the Red Sea.
In a separate statement, Saree said the Houthis had carried out missile and drone strikes on the Yemeni Red Sea port city of Mocha, which is controlled by the country’s internationally recognised, Saudi-backed governing body in Aden.
Tehran and its allied Shia armed groups have been striking Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states and blockading their energy shipments since the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran on 28 February.
The escalation of the conflict, which has disrupted global energy supplies and rattled the world’s economy, prompted Saudi Arabia on Friday to form an alliance with US allies Turkey and Pakistan.
#yemeni #houthis #war #saudi #arabia
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Yemen’s Tehran-aligned Houthis have claimed responsibility for an attack on a refinery in Saudi Arabia, two days after the kingdom signed a defence pact with Turkey and Pakistan in response to growing regional instability caused by the US-Israel war on Iran.
The attack early on Sunday came after Iran said tough new demands would have to be met before it would reopen the strait of Hormuz, and after the United Arab Emirates said one of its ships had been targeted by an Iranian missile, as a deal to open the waterway remained out of reach.
He added that the US must also end the naval blockade of Iranian ports and withdraw its military from the area, “completely compensate” Iran for war damage, lift sanctions and “unconditionally” release frozen assets.
There was no immediate comment from the US. According to the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the US and Iran in June, a timetable to end sanctions and a plan for compensation would be part of a final peace deal, and negotiations would address frozen assets.
The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on Saturday that Iran and Oman were close to reaching an agreement on navigation through the strait, “specifically the determination of a transit route”.
But the waterway’s reopening was contingent on other conditions, Araghchi said, in remarks shared on social media. He blamed the situation on what he called the US violation of the June MoU.
Oman, which is mediating and has made relatively few comments on the Hormuz talks, said on Saturday that the discussions were continuing “in a positive and constructive atmosphere”. It condemned attacks on ships in the strait.
When it comes to decision-making in Tehran, the final say rests with the supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since an airstrike killed his father and predecessor on the first day of the war.
Pezeshkian has given differing accounts in recent weeks about his access to the supreme leader, saying in July that interactions with Khamenei were “increasing day by day”, only to note weeks later that communicating with him was “very difficult”.
With Iran and the US still arguing over the parameters for peace, the Houthis last month declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea, citing what they said was a Saudi siege on them, an allegation Riyadh denies.
The Saudi energy ministry said a fire had broken out at Aramco’s Jazan refinery early on Sunday but was later extinguished with no injuries and authorities were dealing with the incident, without giving a cause.
The Houthis used a drone to target the refinery in south-west Saudi Arabia, Yahya Saree, a military spokesperson for the rebel group, said in a post on X. They had struck Aramco sites before in Jazan, which processes 400,000 barrels of crude oil a day. They had also hit Yanbu, an oil export hub on the Red Sea.
In a separate statement, Saree said the Houthis had carried out missile and drone strikes on the Yemeni Red Sea port city of Mocha, which is controlled by the country’s internationally recognised, Saudi-backed governing body in Aden.
Tehran and its allied Shia armed groups have been striking Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states and blockading their energy shipments since the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran on 28 February.
The escalation of the conflict, which has disrupted global energy supplies and rattled the world’s economy, prompted Saudi Arabia on Friday to form an alliance with US allies Turkey and Pakistan.
#yemeni #houthis #war #saudi #arabia
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Trade Deficits Are Now Hostile Acts
Trump allies in the Senate want to give the president a new weapon: tariffs against countries that sell more goods to America than America sells to them.
Sen. Rick Scott’s proposed Trade Deficit Elimination Act would require the U.S. Trade Representative to draw up an annual watch list of “trade deficit economies.”
Trump could then impose, raise, lower, suspend or alter tariffs on imports from those countries in an effort to eliminate bilateral goods deficits. Congress would be consulted, but would not have to approve each tariff decision.
The legal pitch is elegant. The Supreme Court struck down Trump’s universal tariffs because he used emergency powers that did not authorize them. So Congress should now write him a new authority — one aimed at any country whose trade relationship Washington decides is economically, strategically or politically offensive.
The political pitch is even simpler: other countries are “ripping off” America.
That is a useful phrase because it turns a trade deficit into a crime scene. Americans buy goods from another country; that country earns more from the transaction than U.S. exporters do; therefore, somebody must be cheating. The consumer’s preference becomes foreign aggression. The tariff becomes therapy.
The bill includes exemptions for critical supply-chain goods, national-security items and products without viable alternatives. In other words, the White House may punish trade partners for selling too much to America — except when America needs what they sell.
This is not free trade, protectionism or industrial policy in the old sense. It is a presidential grievance machine with a customs code.
#Trump #tariffs #trade #USA #economy #protectionism #oligarchy
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Trump allies in the Senate want to give the president a new weapon: tariffs against countries that sell more goods to America than America sells to them.
Sen. Rick Scott’s proposed Trade Deficit Elimination Act would require the U.S. Trade Representative to draw up an annual watch list of “trade deficit economies.”
Trump could then impose, raise, lower, suspend or alter tariffs on imports from those countries in an effort to eliminate bilateral goods deficits. Congress would be consulted, but would not have to approve each tariff decision.
The legal pitch is elegant. The Supreme Court struck down Trump’s universal tariffs because he used emergency powers that did not authorize them. So Congress should now write him a new authority — one aimed at any country whose trade relationship Washington decides is economically, strategically or politically offensive.
The political pitch is even simpler: other countries are “ripping off” America.
That is a useful phrase because it turns a trade deficit into a crime scene. Americans buy goods from another country; that country earns more from the transaction than U.S. exporters do; therefore, somebody must be cheating. The consumer’s preference becomes foreign aggression. The tariff becomes therapy.
The bill includes exemptions for critical supply-chain goods, national-security items and products without viable alternatives. In other words, the White House may punish trade partners for selling too much to America — except when America needs what they sell.
This is not free trade, protectionism or industrial policy in the old sense. It is a presidential grievance machine with a customs code.
#Trump #tariffs #trade #USA #economy #protectionism #oligarchy
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🇸🇾⚖️ Bashar Assad: Sentenced To Death
A Syrian court has sentenced the country’s former president Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher to death in absentia for crimes against humanity and war crimes during the 14-year civil war, in which about half a million people died.
The two men fled to Moscow after being ousted by a lightning rebel offensive in December 2024 which toppled the dictatorial regime in just 11 days.
The former president and his brother, who commanded the feared fourth division and was considered the regime’s top security official, oversaw a brutal crackdown in which government forces killed, arrested and tortured indiscriminately to crush protests that started in 2011.
The court said Bashar al-Assad had been sentenced to death for crimes of “premeditated and intentional murder of more than one person and of children” as well as “torture, arbitrary arrest and crimes against humanity”.
It said it would pursue international legal avenues to try to prosecute the two men, but Russian officials have previously declined requests to extradite its former Syrian allies.
The court also sentenced Atef Najib, Assad’s cousin and the former head of political security in Daraa, to death. Najib was responsible for the torture of a group of 15 young boys who had graffitied anti-Assad slogans on a wall in 2011 – an event that kicked off mass protests in the southern Syrian province, which then spread to the rest of the country.
Najib’s trial was highly publicised, with pictures of him listening to proceedings while dressed in a prison uniform and held in a cage in court. The Syrian government has presented his trial as a landmark case in its pursuit of transitional justice, something experts say is key to healing divisions in the country.
Syria has experienced explosions of violence in the post-Assad era. About 1,500 mostly Alawite civilians were killed in a wave of retaliatory killings in March 2025 after militants loyal to al-Assad attacked security forces.
Assad belonged to the Islamic Alawite sect – a minority group in Syria – and enjoyed strong support in the group’s coastal heartland during his rule.
In July 2025, more than 1,700 people were killed in massacres in the Druze-majority province of Suweida when local fighting evolved into sectarian killings. Low-level violence has continued in northern Syria until the present day, particularly targeting Alawite civilians.
Syrian authorities have taken steps towards transitional justice, establishing committees and arresting Assad-era officials, in an effort to end intercommunal violence.
Assad became president in 2000 at the age of 34, inheriting power from his father, Hafez. He had trained as an ophthalmologist in London and was not initially supposed to be president, but became the heir after his brother, Basil, died in a car accident.
Though styled as a young reformer who was supposed to allow some liberalisation in Syrian politics and its economy, his legacy was largely defined by his brutal response to the country’s revolution.
Under his rule, Syria’s fearsome security apparatus was given a free hand to arrest, torture and kill civilians on an industrial scale.
#assad #sentenced #death #syria
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A Syrian court has sentenced the country’s former president Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher to death in absentia for crimes against humanity and war crimes during the 14-year civil war, in which about half a million people died.
The two men fled to Moscow after being ousted by a lightning rebel offensive in December 2024 which toppled the dictatorial regime in just 11 days.
The former president and his brother, who commanded the feared fourth division and was considered the regime’s top security official, oversaw a brutal crackdown in which government forces killed, arrested and tortured indiscriminately to crush protests that started in 2011.
The court said Bashar al-Assad had been sentenced to death for crimes of “premeditated and intentional murder of more than one person and of children” as well as “torture, arbitrary arrest and crimes against humanity”.
It said it would pursue international legal avenues to try to prosecute the two men, but Russian officials have previously declined requests to extradite its former Syrian allies.
The court also sentenced Atef Najib, Assad’s cousin and the former head of political security in Daraa, to death. Najib was responsible for the torture of a group of 15 young boys who had graffitied anti-Assad slogans on a wall in 2011 – an event that kicked off mass protests in the southern Syrian province, which then spread to the rest of the country.
Najib’s trial was highly publicised, with pictures of him listening to proceedings while dressed in a prison uniform and held in a cage in court. The Syrian government has presented his trial as a landmark case in its pursuit of transitional justice, something experts say is key to healing divisions in the country.
Syria has experienced explosions of violence in the post-Assad era. About 1,500 mostly Alawite civilians were killed in a wave of retaliatory killings in March 2025 after militants loyal to al-Assad attacked security forces.
Assad belonged to the Islamic Alawite sect – a minority group in Syria – and enjoyed strong support in the group’s coastal heartland during his rule.
In July 2025, more than 1,700 people were killed in massacres in the Druze-majority province of Suweida when local fighting evolved into sectarian killings. Low-level violence has continued in northern Syria until the present day, particularly targeting Alawite civilians.
Syrian authorities have taken steps towards transitional justice, establishing committees and arresting Assad-era officials, in an effort to end intercommunal violence.
Assad became president in 2000 at the age of 34, inheriting power from his father, Hafez. He had trained as an ophthalmologist in London and was not initially supposed to be president, but became the heir after his brother, Basil, died in a car accident.
Though styled as a young reformer who was supposed to allow some liberalisation in Syrian politics and its economy, his legacy was largely defined by his brutal response to the country’s revolution.
Under his rule, Syria’s fearsome security apparatus was given a free hand to arrest, torture and kill civilians on an industrial scale.
#assad #sentenced #death #syria
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Colombia’s Israel Reset
Three days after taking office, Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella has begun dismantling Gustavo Petro’s Middle East policy piece by piece.
Under Petro, Bogotá broke diplomatic relations with Israel over the Gaza war, suspended arms purchases and joined South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. De la Espriella came to office promising the reverse: a renewed strategic alliance with Israel, closer ties with Washington and a clean break with Petro’s foreign-policy brand.
The new package is bigger than the Golan Heights. Colombia will restore full diplomatic and economic relations with Israel, exchange ambassadors, lift visa requirements and move its embassy to Jerusalem.
Bogotá has also said it will withdraw its support for South Africa’s ICJ case against Israel. Recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan is the headline-grabbing clause, but it is only one item in a broader political demolition job.
Colombia is now the second country after the United States to recognize Israel’s claim over the Golan Heights. Gideon Sa’ar called it a “historic decision.” The timing is no accident: Sa’ar has been working Latin America while political change in Bogotá created an opening that did not exist under Petro.
Then, on the same day, a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia. At least 111 people were killed and 87 injured; buildings collapsed across the country as rescue teams searched for survivors.
Sa’ar called his Colombian counterpart, Omar Bula Escobar, offered Israeli assistance and said Israel was prepared to help “as much as required.”
Those looking for divine intervention will find only geology and a national disaster. But diplomacy, unlike tectonic plates, does respond to a change of government.
One president tore up Israel’s relationship with Colombia. His successor is rebuilding it — faster than most embassies can replace the stationery.
#Colombia #Israel #GolanHeights #Jerusalem #LatinAmerica #diplomacy #Trump
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Three days after taking office, Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella has begun dismantling Gustavo Petro’s Middle East policy piece by piece.
Under Petro, Bogotá broke diplomatic relations with Israel over the Gaza war, suspended arms purchases and joined South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. De la Espriella came to office promising the reverse: a renewed strategic alliance with Israel, closer ties with Washington and a clean break with Petro’s foreign-policy brand.
The new package is bigger than the Golan Heights. Colombia will restore full diplomatic and economic relations with Israel, exchange ambassadors, lift visa requirements and move its embassy to Jerusalem.
Bogotá has also said it will withdraw its support for South Africa’s ICJ case against Israel. Recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan is the headline-grabbing clause, but it is only one item in a broader political demolition job.
Colombia is now the second country after the United States to recognize Israel’s claim over the Golan Heights. Gideon Sa’ar called it a “historic decision.” The timing is no accident: Sa’ar has been working Latin America while political change in Bogotá created an opening that did not exist under Petro.
Then, on the same day, a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia. At least 111 people were killed and 87 injured; buildings collapsed across the country as rescue teams searched for survivors.
Sa’ar called his Colombian counterpart, Omar Bula Escobar, offered Israeli assistance and said Israel was prepared to help “as much as required.”
Those looking for divine intervention will find only geology and a national disaster. But diplomacy, unlike tectonic plates, does respond to a change of government.
One president tore up Israel’s relationship with Colombia. His successor is rebuilding it — faster than most embassies can replace the stationery.
#Colombia #Israel #GolanHeights #Jerusalem #LatinAmerica #diplomacy #Trump
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Iran: Demands First, Hormuz Second 🛳
Iran said that any deal with Oman on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz would not lead to the waterway being fully reopened and that the route would remain closed until the United States agreed to demands including lifting a naval blockade.
The comments were the latest sign that Iran sees its grip on the strait — which has driven up global energy prices, creating a political headache for Trump — as its best form of leverage in negotiations with Washington.
Esmail Baghaei, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said at a news conference on Monday that the focus of the talks with Oman was “on reaching an understanding over a route for the safe passage of shipping,” Iranian state media reported.
The Oman talks were proceeding smoothly, Baghaei added, according to the reports, but “this issue is separate from the discussion of reopening the Strait of Hormuz,” which was “contingent upon the removal of the conditions that have been imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran” by the United States.
The US and Iran are not negotiating directly, although Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week that the talks between Iran and Oman were being conducted with American input.
The Strait of Hormuz, which runs between Iran and Oman, is a key route for the oil and gas trade. Tehran effectively closed the waterway after the United States and Israel launched their military campaign against Iran in late February, and it has become a key sticking point as Iran and the United States alternate between periods of negotiation and bursts of fighting.
The closure of the waterway has increased energy costs in the United States, where polls show that support for the already unpopular conflict is falling.
Hard-liners in Iran believe that the country’s ability to close it to traffic has put it in a position of strength and that it should not make diplomatic concessions.
Last week, a top Iranian national security official issued a set of demands that are part of Iran’s longstanding public negotiating stance and that he said the United States must meet before Tehran would fully reopen the waterway.
Those included the lifting of the US naval blockade and sanctions on Iran, the withdrawal of American forces from around the country, the payment of war reparations, the release of frozen Iranian assets, and the end of attacks on Iran’s allies in the region.
Most of those demands were detailed in a cease-fire agreement, known as the Islamabad Memorandum, that the United States and Iran signed in June, though that document said sanctions would be fully lifted only in the event of a final deal regarding Iran’s nuclear program.
The June agreement quickly fell apart, and most of its terms were violated within weeks.
Trump has declared the deal “over.” On Sunday, he said that economic distress and high inflation in Iran would eventually force Tehran to agree to a new deal. He did not threaten further military action against Iran, saying, “We are low-keying it.”
#demands #iran #trump #hormuz
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Iran said that any deal with Oman on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz would not lead to the waterway being fully reopened and that the route would remain closed until the United States agreed to demands including lifting a naval blockade.
The comments were the latest sign that Iran sees its grip on the strait — which has driven up global energy prices, creating a political headache for Trump — as its best form of leverage in negotiations with Washington.
Esmail Baghaei, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said at a news conference on Monday that the focus of the talks with Oman was “on reaching an understanding over a route for the safe passage of shipping,” Iranian state media reported.
The Oman talks were proceeding smoothly, Baghaei added, according to the reports, but “this issue is separate from the discussion of reopening the Strait of Hormuz,” which was “contingent upon the removal of the conditions that have been imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran” by the United States.
The US and Iran are not negotiating directly, although Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week that the talks between Iran and Oman were being conducted with American input.
The Strait of Hormuz, which runs between Iran and Oman, is a key route for the oil and gas trade. Tehran effectively closed the waterway after the United States and Israel launched their military campaign against Iran in late February, and it has become a key sticking point as Iran and the United States alternate between periods of negotiation and bursts of fighting.
The closure of the waterway has increased energy costs in the United States, where polls show that support for the already unpopular conflict is falling.
Hard-liners in Iran believe that the country’s ability to close it to traffic has put it in a position of strength and that it should not make diplomatic concessions.
Last week, a top Iranian national security official issued a set of demands that are part of Iran’s longstanding public negotiating stance and that he said the United States must meet before Tehran would fully reopen the waterway.
Those included the lifting of the US naval blockade and sanctions on Iran, the withdrawal of American forces from around the country, the payment of war reparations, the release of frozen Iranian assets, and the end of attacks on Iran’s allies in the region.
Most of those demands were detailed in a cease-fire agreement, known as the Islamabad Memorandum, that the United States and Iran signed in June, though that document said sanctions would be fully lifted only in the event of a final deal regarding Iran’s nuclear program.
The June agreement quickly fell apart, and most of its terms were violated within weeks.
Trump has declared the deal “over.” On Sunday, he said that economic distress and high inflation in Iran would eventually force Tehran to agree to a new deal. He did not threaten further military action against Iran, saying, “We are low-keying it.”
#demands #iran #trump #hormuz
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