It’s hard to overstate or even begin to list all the genuinely awful precedents set by Israel and the U.S.’s behavior vis à vis Iran in the latest war. But if we had to summarize it in one expression it’d be “maximum paranoia and secrecy is the only rational security strategy.”

Iran was paradoxically in many ways too transparent, reasonable and cooperative - accepting international monitoring that provided targeting intelligence, engaging in diplomatic processes that turned out to be elaborate traps and honoring agreements that were unilaterally abandoned.

In short, the key lesson for any reasonable third-party state is, paradoxically, be like North Korea. Essentially, here are the 4 lessons that countries serious about their survival have learned from what happened:

Key lesson 1: You must have nuclear weapons, but you need to develop them outside of any international monitoring

Key lesson 2: Diplomacy with the West is worse than useless, it's harmful

Key lesson 3: You need to fear all Western technology

Key lesson 4: Preemptive strikes and targeted assassinations of civilians are legitimate

President Donald Trump said China could purchase oil from Iran, in an apparent reversal of policy after his administration spent months imposing sanctions on Chinese refineries for buying Iranian crude.

“China can now continue to purchase Oil from Iran,” Trump wrote on Truth Social as he flew to The Hague for the Nato summit.

“Hopefully, they will be purchasing plenty from the US, also. It was my Great Honor to make this happen!” Trump added.

The comments came the morning after he had claimed credit for arranging a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, and hours after he lashed out at both
countries, particularly Israel, for violating the arrangement.

Iran’s missile strategy appears to be working: initial heavy missile (& drone) barrages drained Israeli interceptors, and now fewer launches are landing more hits.

This points to better accuracy, degraded defenses, and a shift to inflicting long-term attrition on Israel.

Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI): “The latest round of conflict in the Middle East utilized, large amounts of munitions to defend Israel from Iranian strikes. Does the Navy currently have all the SM3s it needs for global threats?”

ADMIRAL JAMES KILBY / NAVAL OPERATIONS ACTING CHIEF: “I'll take this. We do, sir, but we are to your point, using them at an alarming rate. As you know, those are, missiles procured by the Missile Defense Agency and then delivered to the Navy for our use. And we are using them quite effectively in the defense of Israel.”

Earlier today, CNN reported that, per a leaked top secret assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the Iranian nuclear program has at worst been set back by a couple of months. Per the report, the core components of the program remain intact and either continue to function or have been evacuated to secret nuclear facilities that were not targeted.

Although denied strenuously by Trump's Press Secretary Leavitt, who stated the assessment is “flat out wrong”, CNN’s reporting has now been backed up by reporting from the New York Times, ABC News, the Associated Press and the Washington Post in America as well as Channel 14 in Israel. Adding to CNN’s earlier findings, the NYT reports that Iran's enriched uranium stockpile was mostly moved before the strikes and is currently in unknown locations unknown to both the Americans and Israelis.

Bertrand: …And what we are told is that as of now, this defense intelligence agency assessment, it does conclude at this point… that those underground facilities, including the centrifuges, including the highly enriched uranium that everyone has been talking so much about, those are largely intact.

Israel’s military is running low on some key weaponry as Trump tries to hold together a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran, according to three U.S. officials. 

Israel is specifically low on munitions, two of the officials said.

The shortage comes amid tensions between Trump and Netanyahu over Trump’s push for a ceasefire after 12 days of strikes between Israel and Iran. 

A spokesperson for the Israeli government did not respond to a request for comment. 

A defense official declined to comment. 

At the same time, acting Chief of Naval Operations James Kilby testified today before the Senate that while the U.S. Navy has enough of the missiles it needs to defend Israel, the United States is using them “at an alarming rate.”

The United States has helped defend Israel against a barrage of Iranian attacks in the past two weeks.