Tag: iran

Israel Says Preparing For Escalation With Iran, Didn’t Know Deal Was Close: ‘Series Of Targets Ready’

Wednesday saw yet another early morning Axios ‘scoop’ that within hours of being issued proved premature and too out front, given talk of Iran and the US being ‘close’ to a deal was quickly denied by Tehran and even President Trump quickly acknowledged it’s “too soon” to plan peace talks with Iran.

But the headline of “US and Iran closing in on one-page memo to end war” was enough to raise alarm bells in Israel, which has insisted that the conflict must end with a nuclear-free Iran.

“Israel was unaware that US President Donald Trump was close to reaching an agreement with Iran to end the fighting and open the Strait of Hormuz,” an Israeli official told Army Radio soon after the optimistic peace deal headlines went international.

“We were preparing for an escalation,” the official said. Indeed the last couple weeks of stalled Pakistan-mediated talks have seen several reports out of Israel saying the Netanyahu government is waiting for the ‘green light’ from Washington to renew the aerial bombing campaign, which took place over prior 38 days as part of Operation Epic Fury.

But as of Tuesday Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that Epic Fury was ending, and that Project Freedom – to open the Strait of Hormuz – is the new focus. But even after that President Trump in the evening announced a ‘pause’ to allow negotiations to proceed.

So there has been much confusion and contradictory signaling out of Washington to say the least. Tehran has meanwhile made clear its “finger is on the trigger” – but Israel is also saying the same thing.

For example, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir on Wednesday made it known that military has a “series of targets” ready to strike in Iran at the moment the war resumes.

“Cooperation with the United States military and coordination continue at all times, and we are monitoring the situation,” he stated during a visit to southern Lebanon, where Israel ground forces are occupying territory.

“In Iran, we have a further series of targets ready for attack. We are on high alert to return to an intense and broad campaign that will allow us to deepen our achievements and further weaken the Iranian regime,” Zamir said further.

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Trump’s War on Iran Is Destroying America

The very first story on the Drudge Report on both April 23 and 24 was headlined with a quote from Bernard Arnault saying if the Iran war was not quickly settled, it could be a “world catastrophe.”

I apparently do not keep up with world business as much as I should, because I did not know that Arnault is one the three richest men in the world along with Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. They trade first, second and third depending on fluctuating stock prices.
Arnault heads a French conglomerate, LVMH, which specializes in luxury brands like Louis Vuitton and many others. He bought a struggling Christian Dior in 1984 for $15 million and Tiffany & Co. in 2021 for over $15 billion.

Arnault told the annual meeting of his Company: “Either it (the Iran War) will be a world catastrophe with very serious and very negative economic impacts – in which case, who can say how 2026 will unfold – or it will be resolved more rapidly in some shape or form that we all hope for – even if it doesn’t seem easy – in which case businesses will recover and resume their normal course.”

Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House, almost always tries to speak in a positive way about Republican chances in elections. But he told the New York Times on April 28 that if the elections were in May, Republicans would lose.

He said: “The war, the sense of affordability, and gasoline – some of that has to be cleared up in order to win. If it doesn’t change, I’ll start tearing my hair out.”
President Trump is in an almost impossible situation. He is in between possibly the greatest rock and hard place in history.

I think Trump realizes that both the U.S. economy and the world economy will be greatly damaged and possibly go in to a major recession if the war is not ended very soon. JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said it “will be worse than people think.”
The President seems to be trying very hard to reach an agreement, but he knows Israel wants to go in the other direction and escalate the war even further. And he knows the Israel Lobby has almost total control of the Congress and will go along with Netanyahu no matter what.

John Mearsheimer is a West Point graduate, Air Force veteran, and longtime professor at the University of Chicago. He is one of the most well-respected foreign policy experts in this Country.

In an interview on April 27, he said “The world economy is teetering, and the longer this war goes on the worse the damage… and if we go up the escalation ladder, it will be another hammer blow to the world economy.”

He added: “Israel wants to continue the war. They want us to continue hammering away at Iran to try to beat them into submission and if we can’t beat them into submission, well we’ll just destroy them and do what we did in Gaza to Iran.”

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The Donald Can’t Reopen the Strait

We noted in Part 1 that when confronted with the failure of 44 days of bombing Iran “back-to-the-stone-age”and, also, thankfully, being reluctant to send American boots into a Gallipoli-scale slaughter on the ground, the Donald turned to his goofy Secy of Treasury for a 4-D chess move.

To wit, a blockade of the Gulf of Oman, which commenced on April 13th. The latter was supposed to dry-up Iran’s cash flow from global oil sales and to then fill its oil storage tanks full to the rim, thereby causing the pipelines connecting to its 3.5 million b/d oil production apparatus to back up and then explode in a post-constipationary release.

Alas, the Donald’s genius boy band – also including Pete Hegseth and Little Marco Rubio – forget the elephant in the room. To wit, it was always a question of which of the dueling blockades – Iran’s at the Strait of Hormuz or the US Navy’s outside of the SOH on the Gulf of Oman – would run out of time first.

However, you only had to know a little bit about the world’s 103 million barrel per day petroleum supply, demand and storage system, and a tad more about oilfield engineering, production management and storage systems, to realize that there was never a doubt as to the outcome.

Namely, that the true-believers who run Iran, and in the face of an existential threat to their regime, were destined to outlast the world economy’s ability to function without the Persian Gulf’s massive flows of hydrocarbons and its derivatives. These crucial ingredients of global economic life ordinarily transit the Strait of Hormuz (SOH) to the tune of 30 million BOEs (barrels of oil equivalent) each and every day.

Of course, the truth is that the Donald is lazy, impatient and impulsive—and therefore is always ready to run with a factoid or cockamamie notion that suits his purposes at the moment. And regardless of whether it happens to be true, valid, plausible and or even rational.

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Did you know the US and Israel helped create Iran’s nuclear project? Here’s the story

What’s 3,000 people killed in Iran, 2,020 killed in Lebanon, 23 in Israel, and more than a dozen in Gulf states after the US launched its war against Iran? “A little Middle East work” that’s going “very well,” US President Donald Trump said at the White House last week during a state dinner for King Charles. 

Trump’s ‘little work’, which involved significant casualties in the region without a clearly defined objective at the outset, was later framed as serving the purpose of ensuring that “Americans and their children would not be threatened by a nuclear-armed Iran.”

Will Charles help Donald make sure there’s nothing – and no one – to allow Iran to work on its nuclear project? It seems like the US will try to level Iran to the ground anyway. According to The Atlantic, the Trump administration began considering strikes aimed not simply at Iran’s military capacity, but at the faction inside the regime that Washington believed was preventing a deal.

Trump even reposted a video by Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen calling for an air campaign along those lines. According to Axios, the military prepared options for a “short and powerful” wave of strikes, which General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, briefed the president on.

The timing is politically delicate. Trump has a state visit to China scheduled for mid-May, a trip that has already been postponed once. If strikes are ordered, they could come before the trip, allowing the president to travel after demonstrating strength. Or they could come immediately afterward, once the diplomatic optics are out of the way.

While Trump supplied the performance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio supplied the doctrine. When Trump spoke of military victory, royal agreement, and Iran never being allowed to possess a nuclear weapon, Rubio framed the same position as strategic necessity: Iran’s government cannot be trusted, its future intentions are already known, and any deal that fails to address the nuclear question is unacceptable.

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Trump’s War on Iran Is Not America’s War

In a recent editorial exhorting President Trump to stay the course in Iran, the Wall Street Journal wrote, “Democrats in Congress are hoping for Mr. Trump’s failure in Iran, as if that wouldn’t also be America’s.”

For the life of me, I don’t see how Trump’s failure in Iran would also be America’s failure in Iran. I wish the Journal had explained its reasoning. I hope it still does.

This is Trump’s war. Not America’s. Trump’s!

Let’s keep in mind some basic facts. Trump launched this war all on his own. Well, okay, not entirely on his own. He launched it in consultation and partnership with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The two of them got together and decided to initiate their war on Iran, clearly thinking that it would be over within a few short weeks.

One fact is undisputed. Trump did not go to Congress, which consists of the elected representatives of the American people, to secure a declaration of war before launching his war of aggression on Iran. He (as well as the Wall Street Journal editorial board) knows full well that that is what the U.S. Constitution requires. The Constitution is the law. It is the higher law that we the people have imposed on Trump and all other federal officials. Trump is required to obey our law, just as the American people are required to obey laws enacted by Congress (and enforced by Trump and other executive branch officials).

Trump chose not to obey the law. He chose to break it. He chose to launch his war on Iran all on his own. He knew that when he launched his war, he was breaking the law — our law — the law of the Constitution.

Therefore, how in the world can Trump’s illegal war, which he launched without the consent of the American people, as required by law, possibly be converted into America’s war? I just don’t get it. I wish the Journal’s editorial board would explain its reasoning. If Trump’s illegal war of aggression against Iran results in his failure, why isn’t that his failure alone? Why is it also the failure of our country?

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Warren blames Spirit Airlines closure on Iran war after advocating against JetBlue-Spirit merger

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is receiving backlash from GOP lawmakers for pushing former President Biden’s Justice Department to block the merger of JetBlue and Spirit Airlines. 

“The 14,000 employees at Spirit who’ve lost their job loss, the travelers who will now pay higher fares, and the shareholders and debt holders who have been wiped out can thank Elizabeth Warren,” Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) wrote on X on Saturday. “Electing left politicians, who have ZERO business experience, has consequences.”

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz reposted a critical Warren post and wrote, “Stunning.” 

Warren defended her advocacy against the merger by blaming a federal judge for stopping it. 

“Spiking fuel prices from Trump’s war was the nail in the coffin for twice-bankrupted Spirit airline,” Warren wrote in a post on X. FWIW, JetBlue merger failed because a judge, appointed by Ronald Reagan, said the deal was illegal. Republicans are desperate to shift blame from higher costs hitting families.”

Biden’s Justice Department had detailed its involvement in blocking the merger back in 2024.

“Our win in court is a victory for U.S. travelers who deserve lower prices and better choices,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “We fought this case to protect consumers who, as the court recognized, ‘otherwise would have no voice.’ I am incredibly proud of the Antitrust Division’s team and our state law enforcement partners’ tireless advocacy.”

Warren had pushed the Department of Transportation under Biden to work to block the merger, as detailed in a letter she wrote.

She also applauded the blockage of the merger.

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Obama: Netanyahu presented to me same arguments for war with Iran that he made to Trump

Former U.S. President Barack Obama said in an interview with The New Yorker published Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had presented him with the same arguments he later presented to current President Donald Trump to persuade him to launch a war with Iran.

“I think my prognosis was accurate,” he said. It may be that Netanyahu has “gotten what he wanted. Whether that’s what is ultimately best for the Israeli people, I would question that. Whether I think it’s what is good for the United States and America, I would question that. I think there’s an ample record of my differences with Mr. Netanyahu.”

Netanyahu opposed the nuclear deal Obama signed with Iran in 2015, an agreement that Trump ultimately canceled in 2018 during his first term in the White House. Since then, Trump has not succeeded in bringing Iran to a new nuclear deal, and no such agreement was signed during Joe Biden’s presidency either.

Since the agreement was canceled in 2018, Iran has raced toward a nuclear bomb, and its progress eventually led to two wars — the 12-day Operation Rising Lion in June 2025 and Operation Roaring Lion, which began in late February 2026.

In the interview, Obama was asked about threats Trump has made toward Iran in recent months, including that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”

Obama replied: “believe American leadership, as represented by the American President, has to reflect a basic regard for human dignity and decency, not just within our own borders but beyond. That’s part of the responsibility of leadership. If we are not giving voice to those core values—that there are innocent people in countries with terrible governments and we have to care about those people, that we can make mistakes if we are not guarding against hubris and pure self-interest . . . If we don’t have those things, the world can break in very bad ways.”

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Ceasefire Apparently Over as Iran Fires Missiles at UAE – Fujairah Oil Zone on Fire

UAE claims to have the ‘full and legitimate right to respond to these attacks’.

The ceasefire in the Middle East seems to have been broken today, as the United Arab Emirates reports that Iran fired four missiles toward its territory.

The UAE says that it is actively engaging with a ‘missile and drone attack’.

Axios reported:

“There were also fires reported at a fuel facility in the UAE and on ships off its coast. Iran has not claimed responsibility for any of the apparent attacks.

This would be the first time Iran attacked a Gulf state since the ceasefire was announced nearly a month ago. The U.S. and Iran may now be on the precipice of a return to war.”

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As the War in Iran Drains Stockpiles, US Warns European Allies of Long Delays in Weapons Deliveries

There’s never going to be enough missiles for the number of military conflicts going on.

US officials have informed some European ‘allies’ – including the UK, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, and Norway – that some contracted weapons deliveries will be ​delayed ⁠as the Iran war continues to deplete weapons ​stocks.

The Pentagon has warned the countries to expect serious delays for several missile systems.

Financial Times reported:

“The delays are partly driven by acute concerns about US inventory levels given the high volume of weapons used in the past two months in Iran. The American military has already been forced to move weapons from other regions, including the Indo-Pacific, to make up for the shortfalls.

But the Iran war has also deepened concerns about whether the US has a sufficient stockpile of weapons to deter Beijing or defeat China in any future conflict over Taiwan.”

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Iran war ‘likely’ to restart, senior Tehran official warns after Trump says US might be ‘better off’ without deal

The war between the US and Iran is “likely” to restart, a senior Iranian official predicted on the heels of comments by President Trump that the US might be “better off” without an agreement.

A “renewed conflict between Iran and the United States is likely,” said Mohammad Jafar Asadi, a high-level officer in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Iran wants the US to test its strength, said Ali Rafiei Atani, an IRGC commander in Qazvin province.

“We hope America makes a mistake and tests its power on the ground as well. It was defeated at sea and in the air, and we would like it to test itself on the ground too,” claiming the conflict had “shattered America’s hollow power.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), an Iran hawk and a prominent Trump ally, is calling on the president to “finish the job” with more strikes if Tehran continues to be “provocative.”

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