Bennett to ToI: ‘We’re at an existential moment. Another four years with this government, we won’t have a society’ timesofisrael.com/bennett-to…

🛑🛑 ماذا يجري بين الامريكان وايران🛑🛑 ✍️ مجتهد العراق اولا: #دول_الشواهين .... الإمارات 🇦🇪✅ الكويت 🇰🇼✅ البحرين 🇧🇭✅ ....لا يمكن ان تحلق بصحبة الغربان والخفافيش وبالتأكيد مع نعامتهم التي هي اصلا لا تطير. ثانيا: الخليج يعيد تشكيل واقعه و #الأحواز و #العراق تنتظر اكمال تحريرها لتنظم للسرب. ثالثا: #سوريا و #الاردن جاهزة وهي في خطة المواجهة مع ايران وتساهم في انهاء اخر تواجد في #لبنان لمن تبقى من اعوان ايران رابعا: #اسرائيل دائما جاهزة ومتواجدة على الارض والسماء وقادرة على تنفيذ اصعب المهام. خامسا: #ترامب الآن يعود الى خطة الجنرال ديفد باتريوس قائد القوات الأمريكية في العراق وايران وقتها ثم رئيس ال CIA في افهام سنة العراق بعد 2005 ان مقاومتكم لجهودنا تقوي عدوكم وعدونا ايران فانضموا لنا، فأطلق عليهم كلابها من شيعة العراق كي يفهموا, وفعلا نجح في ذلك خلال ثلاث سنوات... الان نعود في الشرق الاوسط لمثل ذلك المشهد و لكن خلال ادارة ترامب الحالية موجها ترامب رسائله الضمنية لحلفاء ايران من الدول: ان لم تكفوا عن محاولاتكم في مقاومة جهود ترامب في المنطقة بل وفي محاولاتكم لإنقاذ نظام ايران فسنطلق ايران عليكم,,,, والمصادفة العجيبة ان باترايوس نفسه وهو الخبير بهذه الاستراتيجية عاد من جديد الى المشهد بعد عشرين عاما وتواجد في كل من سوريا و العراق لتهيئة الساحة لذلك. 📍ملاحظة: اسألوا الدكتور عمر عبدالستار وطارق الهاشمي عن تلك المرحلة لأنهم كانوا قريبين من باتريوس وقتها وانا ايضا شخصيا كنت مهتما وداعما لتلك التحولات. ✍️ #مجتهد_العراق /المهندس محمود التكريتي 14 حزيران يونيو 2026

Look at it this way: Iran’s leaders are celebrating right now because the regime didn't collapse. In their minds, outlasting the combined pressure of the US and Israel is a massive win. They survived, and the government is still standing! But if you look at the actual price tag, that "victory" looks completely hollow. You can outplay your opponents on the map, but it doesn't mean much if your own house burns down in the process. Here is what that survival actually cost them: 1. Their Strategic Power is Gone Iran spent decades and billions of dollars building up leverage in the region. To survive this round, they had to give almost all of it up. Their nuclear and missile programs are essentially wiped out or frozen. They had to sign pledges to stop backing regional proxies and to stop interfering in Arab states. On top of that, their military command structure was completely hollowed out with the loss of hundreds of generals and top leaders. 2. The Country is in Ruins The damage to Iran itself isn't just bad—it's catastrophic. ✅ Financial Implosion: They are looking at $350 billion in economic losses. The local currency (the Rial) has completely crashed, wiping out everyone's life savings. ✅ Infrastructure Destroyed: Over 125,000 buildings—military, civilian, and commercial—are reduced to rubble. ✅ Human Misery: 40 million people—nearly half the country—have been pushed below the poverty line. Right now, ordinary citizens are dealing with no reliable drinking water, regular power outages, and zero access to basic medicines. When you have to destroy your own economy, give up your biggest weapons, and watch your people starve just to keep the government alive, "winning" is just a word! The US and Israel didn't get the total regime collapse they wanted. But when officials step out of the rubble to declare victory, the people living in the wreckage are left with a brutal reality: this kind of victory is almost impossible to tell apart from a total defeat!

A peace deal with Iran will be signed Sunday, President Donald Trump said Saturday in a social media post. Immediately after it is signed, the Strait of Hormuz will be open to all, the president said on Truth Social. “Our relationship with Iran is a much different and better one than previous administrations have had.”

الرئيس أحمد الشرع لوفد من وجهاء وأعيان ريف دمشق: تكاتف السوريين هو السبيل لبناء سوريا وإعادتها إلى مكانتها التاريخية الحقيقية، بما يليق بحضارتها العريقة وقيمها وأخلاقها. #سانا

I'm a European realist - half Dutch, half Norwegian - who hates Islamism and Jihadism in every form! They've wrecked big parts of our continent. Sweden, Belgium, and the UK are unrecognizable because of non-European extremism! You'll never see me back the Muslim Brotherhood, Iran-backed networks, or Islamist ideology of any kind! Yet I support the new Syria under President Ahmed al-Sharaa. Why? Because I'm not an ideologue. I'm a pragmatist. Since taking power, al-Sharaa has governed on realism, not Jihadism. No grand ideological experiments. Just focus on stability, security, and running the country! That's the shift happening across the Arab world. Modern Arabic nationalism isn't Pan-Arabist fantasy or Brotherhood revivalism. It's country-first pragmatism - Saudi Vision 2030 style. Nations putting their own people and future first while seeking real stability and coexistence! If that doesn't earn respect, nothing does!

Iran is collapsing tunnels and placing explosive mines at entrances to seal off its near-bomb-grade uranium stockpile amid fears of a US operation to seize it. This doesn't sound like a great deal is in place.

🇦🇪 الإمارات تردّ بحزم: “لم يتم الإفراج أو نقل أي أموال إيرانية عبر أراضينا” وزارة الخارجية تنفي قاطعةً ادعاءات الـ 3 مليارات دولار، وتصفها بـ”غير الموثوقة وغير الصحيحة” وتطالب الإعلام بالدقة والرجوع للمصادر الرسمية 🔴 #الإمارات #إيران #ماريا_معلوف

No war has ever been won by airpower alone... Just saying

The idea that Ankara sees the complete destruction of Hezbollah as something that would simply strengthen Israel - and therefore wants to prevent it - doesn’t track with either Turkey’s record or the actual dynamics inside Syria! Hezbollah was one of the most destructive external forces in the Syrian war. It sent thousands of fighters to prop up Assad, played a central role in several of the regime’s major victories, and contributed heavily to the destruction, sieges, and displacement that defined much of the conflict! The new authorities in Damascus are not operating from abstract ideology here. President al-Sharaa has stated clearly that Syria paid a heavy price for Hezbollah’s intervention and that the group partnered with the former regime against the Syrian people. Since December 2024, the government’s priorities have been consistent and pragmatic: stabilize the country, consolidate central control, rebuild basic state functions, and restore sovereignty! This has included moving against Hezbollah networks operating inside Syria and preventing weapons flows across the border, while signaling support for Lebanese efforts to bring all armed factions under state authority. A full-scale war with Hezbollah is not something Damascus is seeking or currently positioned to wage! Syria remains fragile after more than a decade of conflict and has no interest in opening new fronts. That said, if degrading Hezbollah’s residual influence helps the new government rebuild its own military, secure its territory, and push Israeli forces back to the pre-December 2024 lines, it would align with core Syrian interests in sovereignty and security! The same Syrian forces that overthrew Assad already defeated Hezbollah-backed units in direct fighting, without air support and while facing Russian strikes and Assad regime counterattacks. With modern equipment and external backing, their capabilities would be considerably higher. At root, the question for Damascus is straightforward: what actually strengthens Syria’s recovery and position? Everything else is secondary.

I actually think President al-Sharaa was invited to Washington. Not to celebrate Trump’s birthday or watch UFC, but to discuss regional stability - especially Lebanon and Hezbollah - and a potential security agreement with Israel. Looking back, those leaks about the visit really hurt Damascus. It feels like someone doesn’t want the Trump administration to keep working with the new Syria, let alone build a stronger relationship with it. I’m sure al-Sharaa will visit the White House in the future. The timing will just depend on how the Iran deal progresses.

Bummer

One of PM Netanyahu's closest aides and advisers, Yonatan Urich, was indicted today for allegedly leaking classified documents to a German tabloid in the so-called #BibiLeaks affair: haaretz.com/israel-news/isra…

Look at this video. It shows a small group of wealthy Persians in upscale parts of Tehran. Unlike most Iranian women, they live quite freely - they don’t get arrested or killed for not wearing the hijab! This is the same upper class that often supports Reza Pahlavi. Not because they care about ordinary Iranians or want a better future for the country, but because they see him as the safest way to protect their money, status, and lifestyle. That’s exactly why he has so little real support inside Iran! Most Iranians - whether they’re Baloch, Kurdish, Azeri, Arab, or working-class Persian - don’t care what rich Persians in Los Angeles or north Tehran think. They’re not thinking about restoring the old elite! They’re trying to survive: feeding their kids, paying the bills, and staying out of prison! The people who actually suffer most under this regime aren’t dreaming of bringing back the old order!!! They just want basic rights and a normal life. And expecting these comfortable, privileged Persians to actually risk everything and fight the regime? Well, that's not going to happen...

As Kaja Kallas tells Islamabad that GSP depends on human rights, Pakistan is using anti-terror arrests, internet blackouts and preventive detentions against JAAC protesters demanding lower electricity bills and real political representation: medium.com/@michaelarizanti/…

Here’s the revised paragraph: On behalf of the Syrian American Alliance for Peace and Prosperity (SAAPP), I want to sincerely thank you, Michael, for this thorough and well-articulated piece. Your voice adds important momentum to a growing chorus of advocates, policymakers, and Syrian Americans who recognize the remarkable transformation underway in Syria under President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s leadership. The series of actions you’ve outlined — from lifting Caesar Act sanctions, to delisting HTS, to removing key figures from UN sanctions lists — represents extraordinary progress, and it is only fitting that we now complete this journey by formally removing Syria from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. As a board officer of SAAPP(Syrian American Alliance for Peace and Prosperity), I am deeply grateful to writers and analysts like yourself who help raise awareness about this critical final step, and SAAPP joins others in urging the State Department, the White House, and Congress to act swiftly to give the Syrian people the fresh start they have long deserved. The new Syria is ready to be a constructive partner in the region — and it is time for U.S. policy to fully reflect that reality.

Meanwhile in Sweden: Jonas Sjöstedt (Left Party MEP) is presenting Ilham Ahmed as 'Rojava’s Foreign Minister.' Reality check: The PKK-linked self-administration in northeast Syria (DAANES/Rojava) has been dismantled. After major offensives and integration deals in early 2026, Damascus controls the vast majority of the territory. The experiment is over!

It's almost impossible to fully take in, but as of today, Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has entered its 1,568th day - one day longer than the entire First World War lasted. Let that sit for a moment! The human cost has long since passed the threshold of the comprehensible. Conservative estimates put Russian military deaths at between 300,000 and 500,000; Ukrainian losses at over 100,000. These are soldiers only - the count excludes civilians killed, the hundreds of thousands wounded, and those lost to suicide and indirect causes. Taken together, these numbers already exceed the total military dead from all the wars in the former Yugoslavia, and surpass every armed conflict on European soil since the Napoleonic Wars - with only the two world wars and possibly the Russian Civil War as exceptions. This is not a regional skirmish or a frozen conflict. It is the bloodiest war Europe has seen in living memory, and it is still going! What makes this especially difficult to process is not just the scale, but the proximity - geographical, historical, cultural. This is not a war being fought at a comfortable distance. It is unfolding on the same continent where Europeans built institutions, signed treaties, and told themselves, repeatedly, that industrial-scale slaughter between states was a thing of the past. That assumption has been shattered. And yet, more than four years in, there remains a strange collective numbness - a failure of imagination, or perhaps a failure of will - that prevents us from fully reckoning with what is happening. Whatever name we give it - the Russo-Ukrainian War, the war in Ukraine, Russia's war of aggression - the reality is the same: a deliberate, sustained attempt to destroy a sovereign nation through overwhelming force. Over 1,500 days in, that attempt has failed to achieve its objectives. But the cost of resistance has been catastrophic, and the end remains nowhere in sight.

The United States conducted a series of "self-defense" strikes against Iranian military targets near the Strait of Hormuz, primarily targeting radar positions, air defense systems, and drone control sites. Iranian media reported powerful explosions in southern Iran, including the port city of Bandar Abbas, Qeshm Island, and the cities of Minab and Sirik in Hormozgan province. According to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), the operations struck sites in areas such as Geruk (near the southern coast) and Qeshm Island in response to perceived Iranian threats to shipping and U.S. forces, including drone and missile activity. The Pentagon described the strikes as part of a strategy of "coercive diplomacy" intended to pressure Tehran into making concessions during ongoing tensions.

#IranWar‌ Rarely in the history of modern conflict has such overwhelming tactical superiority yielded such hollow geopolitical returns! Let’s look at the cold reality of the current theater. The world’s two premier air forces successfully decapitated Iran’s top leadership- including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the regime's strategic "brain," Ali Larijani- while systematically dismantling the core of their military-industrial complex. By any traditional military metric, this should have been a terminal blow. Yet, three months into the aftermath, the strategic reality on the ground tells a completely different story. 1. The Total Failure of Deterrence Deterrence is a unique asset because it operates in the shadows; it is the ability to enforce your will through an unspoken threat, without ever having to pull the trigger. Consequently, you can never truly measure deterrence until it has failed. By raining down an unprecedented volume of bombs and missiles on Tehran without actually bending the regime's political will, Israel and the US have inadvertently exhausted their leverage. The Iranian regime survived the trial by fire, and far from being cowed, they now radiate strategic confidence. The grim takeaway? Israel's deterrence posture vis-à-vis both Iran and Hezbollah is fundamentally broken. 2. The Washington-Tehran Dynamics The new leadership structure emerging in Tehran isn't intimidated by Washington's proximity to Israel. In fact, they mapped out the White House early on. They recognized that Trump lacks strategic patience and prefers transactional, improvised decision-making- making him the ideal counterpart for an adversary that knows exactly what its long-term objectives are. While the White House improvises, Tehran is capitalizing on the vacuum. They are now playing a card they never dared to touch before the war: explicitly chaining their own geopolitical survival to the fate of Hezbollah in Lebanon. 3. Netanyahu's Domestic Corner This brings us to the domestic crisis inside Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently running a brutal gauntlet in the press. Hezbollah continues to fire into northern Israel without meeting a resolute kinetic response, leaving northern border town mayors- from Netanyahu's own Likud party- openly mocking him for letting his security policy be dictated by Washington. When a leader is backed into a political corner by their own core constituency, the standard playbook is to manufacture a distraction. It is within this exact context of vulnerability that Netanyahu suddenly decides it is a "brilliant" idea to launch a harsh, aggressive rhetorical offensive against Erdogan. The Bottom Line: Tactical dominance means absolutely nothing without a coherent political endgame. If you destroy the infrastructure but leave the ideological willpower and strategic clarity of your adversary intact, you haven't won the conflict- you've just escalated the stakes for the next round.