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Category: War

‘If Iran gets a bomb it will be Bibi’s’: Trump’s deal outline sparks alarm in Israel

‘If Iran gets a bomb it will be Bibi’s’: Trump’s deal outline sparks alarm in Israel

The Guardian reports: When Donald Trump launched a pre-emptive war on Iran with Israel in February, many in the country hailed the campaign as the crowning triumph of Benjamin Netanyahu’s political and diplomatic career. Three months on the regime is still in power in Tehran, Trump is chasing a deal that will reopen the strait of Hormuz to oil tankers, and the reported terms have provoked alarm, dismay and anger in Israel. “Israel is completely beholden to the decisions of…

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Trump’s pressure campaign had little effect on Iran’s terms for a peace deal

Trump’s pressure campaign had little effect on Iran’s terms for a peace deal

The New York Times reports: Since President Trump announced a cease-fire with Iran in April, he has sought to force Tehran to accept his terms for a peace deal with a mixture of threats and limited military operations. But more than a month later, the contours of a deal emerging this week to end the war reflected how Mr. Trump’s pressure campaign does not appear to have decisively shifted Iran’s stance on its nuclear program. The impending deal could reopen…

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Rubio fends off conservative critics of Iran deal as agreement appears imminent

Rubio fends off conservative critics of Iran deal as agreement appears imminent

The Washington Post reports: Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday defended the Trump administration’s push for a deal to end the war with Iran, even as it came under attack from Republican hawks urging the United States to restart hostilities against Tehran. “There is no one who has been stronger on this issue than President Trump,” Rubio said, while noting he expects “some good news” in the coming hours regarding a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which…

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‘Trump backed down and lost his nerve!’

‘Trump backed down and lost his nerve!’

The Times of Israel spoke to regime opponents in Iran: All five respondents who spoke to The Times of Israel claimed the vast majority of Iranians oppose the regime and want it overthrown — a stance that is difficult to measure in a country where polling is restricted, dissent is criminalized, and internet access has been repeatedly curtailed. Nasrin, a 35-year-old from the northernmost part of Iran, said that while some 10% of Iranians still support the regime, ordinary Iranians…

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Trump’s reconstruction promises stall: ‘The door to the future of Gaza is still closed’

Trump’s reconstruction promises stall: ‘The door to the future of Gaza is still closed’

The Guardian reports: Gaza is in a grim limbo more than seven months after Donald Trump brokered a ceasefire deal: no reconstruction is under way, the so-called Board of Peace is struggling with funding and Palestinian technocrats chosen to run the strip are sidelined in Egypt. In a 15 May submission to the UN security council, the Board of Peace said the “principal obstacle” to realising Trump’s plan for Gaza was Hamas’s refusal to hand over its weapons and cede…

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Mood in Russia turns against Putin: ‘There is profound disappointment in him’

Mood in Russia turns against Putin: ‘There is profound disappointment in him’

Pjotr Sauer and Shaun Walker write: Vladimir Putin pulled up to a hotel in central Moscow earlier in May in a Russian-made SUV, dressed casually in jeans and a light jacket. Carrying a bouquet of flowers, he walked unhurriedly into the lobby and embraced his former schoolteacher Vera Gurevich, who kissed him on both cheeks. He then helped Gurevich into his car and drove her to dinner at the Kremlin. It came just a day after several western media outlets,…

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U.S. prepares for new military strikes against Iran

U.S. prepares for new military strikes against Iran

CBS News reports: The Trump administration was preparing Friday for a fresh round of military strikes against Iran, according to sources with direct knowledge of the planning, even as diplomacy continued. No final decision on strikes had been reached as of Friday afternoon. “Circumstances pertaining to Government” are keeping President Trump from attending his son Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding this weekend, he said in a social media post. The president had planned to spend Memorial Day weekend at his golf…

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Trump officials ‘freaked’ about the political symbolism of breaking Biden’s high gas price record

Trump officials ‘freaked’ about the political symbolism of breaking Biden’s high gas price record

Politico reports: President Donald Trump’s war threatens to push gas prices past the record high under former President Joe Biden. They aren’t the only numbers the White House staff is sweating. While record high prices at the pump are a persistent concern, the bond market’s spike over the last several days also has aides and allies fretting, worried that borrowing costs will pummel a nation that runs on credit and make it harder for the Federal Reserve to cut rates….

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U.S. bears brunt of Israel’s missile defense, Pentagon assessments show

U.S. bears brunt of Israel’s missile defense, Pentagon assessments show

The Washington Post reports: The U.S. military has depleted much of its inventory of advanced missile-defense interceptors after expending far more high-end munitions defending Israel amid hostilities with Iran than Israeli forces used themselves, according to Defense Department assessments described to The Washington Post. The imbalance, according to three U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters, underscores the extent to which Washington has shouldered the burden of countering Iranian ballistic missile strikes during…

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Iran consolidates control of Hormuz with island checkpoints, diplomatic deals – and sometimes ‘fees’

Iran consolidates control of Hormuz with island checkpoints, diplomatic deals – and sometimes ‘fees’

Reuters reports: The tanker crew gathered their courage and carefully navigated along a route designated by Iran, hugging the coastline and maneuvering their hulking vessel between island checkpoints through the Strait of Hormuz. The 330-metre-long Agios Fanourios I, laden with Iraqi crude oil and bound for Vietnam, had been bottled up off the coast of Dubai since late April. But on May 10 it set off for the strait after a direct deal with Iran overseen by Iraq’s prime minister….

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U.S.-Iran war highlights the underappreciated national security benefits of China’s electrostate strategy

U.S.-Iran war highlights the underappreciated national security benefits of China’s electrostate strategy

Alison Gocke and Ashley Deeks write: News headlines regularly announce that China has made a wise choice in pursuing clean energy technologies and weaning itself off oil and gas—a trend that has only accelerated with the U.S.-Iran war. These headlines, which emphasize China’s limited exposure to the greatly diminished supply of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, are true. But the news analysis has missed two key aspects of China’s “electrostate” victory over the “petrostate” status that the United States…

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Russia’s war is going badly — on the ground and in the air

Russia’s war is going badly — on the ground and in the air

The Wall Street Journal reports: Ukraine’s military has wrestled Russia’s much-larger army almost to a halt in recent months, having gained a tactical and technological edge. This summer will test whether it can turn that slender advantage into a strategic turning point. Fast-improving Ukrainian drone capabilities are hurting the invaders’ logistics behind the battlefield, and pounding oil infrastructure and military targets deeper inside Russia. “We are not only holding the line, but we are also increasing pressure,” Ukrainian Defense Minister…

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How Israel-backed Sweida became Syria’s narcotics capital

How Israel-backed Sweida became Syria’s narcotics capital

Charles Lister writes: In the early hours of Sunday, May 3, Jordanian F-16 fighter jets crossed into Syrian airspace and launched strikes on at least six locations in the southern province of Sweida. In a statement issued hours later, Jordan’s military said that “Operation Jordanian Deterrence” had targeted “factories, facilities and warehouses used by trafficking groups as launch points for smuggling operations into Jordan.” This was the fifth time Jordan had launched military strikes in Sweida since the fall of…

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Iran eyes a new source of power deep beneath the Strait of Hormuz

Iran eyes a new source of power deep beneath the Strait of Hormuz

CNN reports: Emboldened by its successful wartime blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran is turning to one of the hidden arteries in the global economy: subsea cables beneath the waterway that carry vast internet and financial traffic between Europe, Asia and the Persian Gulf. The Islamic Republic wants to charge the world’s largest tech companies for using the subsea internet cables laid under the Strait of Hormuz, and state-linked media outlets have vaguely threatened that traffic could be disrupted…

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As global crises multiply, scores of American diplomats say they have been forced out

As global crises multiply, scores of American diplomats say they have been forced out

CNN reports: Amid ongoing foreign policy crises around the globe and as the Trump administration struggles to reach a deal to end the war with Iran, the State Department last week finalized the firings of nearly 250 foreign service officers in a brief, impersonal email. “Your reduction in force separation will be effective today,” part of it read. “Thank you again for your service to the Department.” Those reductions in force (RIFs), which were initiated last July, also impacted more…

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