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Category: War

How Netanyahu duped Trump

How Netanyahu duped Trump

The New York Times reports: Netanyahu and his team outlined conditions they portrayed as pointing to near-certain victory: Iran’s ballistic missile program could be destroyed in a few weeks. The regime would be so weakened that it could not choke off the Strait of Hormuz, and the likelihood that Iran would land blows against U.S. interests in neighboring countries was assessed as minimal. Besides, Mossad’s intelligence indicated that street protests inside Iran would begin again and — with the impetus…

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Trump’s Iran threats look like self-incrimination for potential war crimes

Trump’s Iran threats look like self-incrimination for potential war crimes

The New York Times reports: President Trump’s threat on Tuesday to wipe out Iran’s entire civilization escalated days of bellicose rhetoric in which he has made what appear to be self-incriminating statements about an intent to commit war crimes if the Iranian government does not submit to his demands. “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media, adding: “We will…

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U.S. bombs craters in ‘restrikes’ on Kharg Island as rhetoric and reality sharply diverge

U.S. bombs craters in ‘restrikes’ on Kharg Island as rhetoric and reality sharply diverge

The New York Times reports: A stark disconnect between reality and rhetoric surfaced on Tuesday as U.S. forces continued their methodical strikes on military targets in Iran even as their commander in chief raised his steady stream of threats directed at Iran to apocalyptic levels. The United States launched a series of more than 90 strikes on Kharg Island, Iran’s oil export hub, early Tuesday. A U.S. military official characterized the Kharg strikes as “restrikes” — hitting targets that have…

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Trump has backed himself into a corner

Trump has backed himself into a corner

Hussein Banai writes: When President Donald Trump takes to the airwaves to threaten to bomb a nation of 90 million people “back to the Stone Ages” and follows that threat — in less than 48 hours — with strikes on civilian infrastructure, the destruction of a major bridge between two populous cities and a warning, in an expletive-laden post (on Easter Sunday, no less), that the assault on the targeted country’s power grid has “not even started,” it is worth…

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Hegseth’s claims about Iran war contradict reality, officials say

Hegseth’s claims about Iran war contradict reality, officials say

The Washington Post reports: President Donald Trump has continued to describe the war against Iran as an unqualified success, saying as recently as Monday that the United States was doing “unbelievably well,” while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tehran had been “embarrassed and humiliated” by U.S. forces. But Iran’s downing of an F-15E fighter jet and the high-risk rescue operation that ensued showed that Tehran retains the ability to threaten the United States’ military personnel and cast doubt on the…

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How unhinged and dangerous is Trump becoming?

How unhinged and dangerous is Trump becoming?

Trita Parsi, the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, discusses the increasing “desperation” of U.S. strategy, Iran’s long-term economic control over the Strait of Hormuz and growing “hawkishness,” and the dangerous possibility of nuclear warfare:   Garrett Graff writes: Are we really this inured to unhinged comments that “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell” doesn’t even warrant a full 24-hour news-cycle? In a sentence that would have surprised the…

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Trump and Netanyahu’s war is turning Iran into a major world power

Trump and Netanyahu’s war is turning Iran into a major world power

Robert A. Pape writes: In recent years, the conventional geopolitical wisdom has been that the world order was moving toward three centers of power: the United States, China and Russia. That view assumed that power derived primarily from economic scale and military capability. That assumption no longer holds. A fourth center of global power is quickly emerging — Iran — that does not rival those three nations economically or militarily. Instead, its newfound power derives from its control over the…

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John Mearsheimer: Israel is the greatest threat to stability in the Middle East

John Mearsheimer: Israel is the greatest threat to stability in the Middle East

  The greatest threat to stability in the Middle East is not Iran, but “the US working closely together with Israel”, argues United States political scientist John Mearsheimer. Mearsheimer tells host Steve Clemons that the notion that the US and Israel are making a safer, more stable Middle East is “ludicrous”. And the idea that Iran is “the great destabiliser” in the region is “a myth that the US and Israel purvey”. After US President Donald Trump insisted that “We…

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How China can survive without the Strait of Hormuz

How China can survive without the Strait of Hormuz

Reuters reports: The world’s largest importer of oil through the Strait of Hormuz is, paradoxically, also one of the best placed to weather the waterway’s closure. China consumes oceans of oil from the Gulf and imports roughly as much from the region as India, Japan and South Korea combined. In response to the closure of the Strait, officials across Asia are asking citizens to take shorter showers or work from home to save energy. In China, the ruling Communist Party’s…

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War-driven energy crisis gives China a boost for its renewable exports

War-driven energy crisis gives China a boost for its renewable exports

The Washington Post reports: As the oil and gas crisis set off by the war in Iran drives governments to accelerate their transitions to renewable energy, one country above all stands to benefit. China dominates renewable energy supply chains, producing a vast majority of the world’s solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and electric vehicles. Exports of these technologies were already climbing to new heights in the first two months of 2026. Now volatility in the supply of fossil fuels is…

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As Trump threatens to commit war crimes in Iran, his ‘own morality’ is nowhere to be found

As Trump threatens to commit war crimes in Iran, his ‘own morality’ is nowhere to be found

Edward Wong writes: Power plants, desalination stations, oil wells, roads, bridges and other infrastructure. They are the foundations of civilian life in Iran, and their destruction by American and Israeli forces would cause widespread suffering among the country’s 93 million people — and in most cases would be considered a war crime under international law. Yet President Trump has repeatedly threatened to do exactly that, with the aim of sending Iran “back to the Stone Ages, where they belong,” as…

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Pope Leo: ‘Let those who have weapons lay them down!’

Pope Leo: ‘Let those who have weapons lay them down!’

The Washington Post reports: Pope Leo XIV used his first Easter speech Sunday to deliver a resounding call for peace in times of renewed war, declaring, “Let those who have weapons lay them down!” “Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace!” Leo said. “Not a peace imposed by force, but through dialogue! Not with the desire to dominate others, but to encounter them! We are growing accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it, and becoming indifferent….

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Life and death aboard cargo ships stranded near the Strait of Hormuz

Life and death aboard cargo ships stranded near the Strait of Hormuz

The Wall Street Journal reports: On the 19th day that the oil tanker ASP Avana was stuck in the Persian Gulf, its 47-year-old captain, Rakesh Ranjan Singh, died. ​Singh had boarded the vessel in early February and sailed to the Persian Gulf to load crude. But his journey back to Asia ground to a halt Feb. 28 when U.S. and Israeli forces struck Iran. With no ships allowed to cross the Strait of Hormuz, under threat of attack, his ship…

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Gulf funds reconsider American investments, including backing for Paramount merger, as Iran war rages On

Gulf funds reconsider American investments, including backing for Paramount merger, as Iran war rages On

Ryan Grim reports: Gulf sovereign wealth funds are undertaking a sweeping review of American investments, driven by a combination of commercial necessity and political recalibration driven by the Iran war, according to sources familiar with deliberations around the high-level financing deals. In particular, the planned merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Brothers Discovery, made possible as a result of Gulf financing, is getting a new look. A postponed meeting of the board of the Qatar Investment Authority will reconvene within…

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Control over Strait of Hormuz will determine who wins the war with Iran

Control over Strait of Hormuz will determine who wins the war with Iran

The Wall Street Journal reports: Oil tankers, container ships and bulk carriers shimmer all over the horizon to the left of the windswept beach here at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz. They have been bottled up in the Persian Gulf ever since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran more than a month ago. To the right, with the Iranian coast only 40 miles away, the dark-blue sea is completely empty. Only a handful of vessels…

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U.S. success in destroying Iran’s missile capability is being overstated, intelligence indicates

U.S. success in destroying Iran’s missile capability is being overstated, intelligence indicates

The New York Times reports: Iranian operatives have been digging out underground missile bunkers and silos struck by American and Israeli bombs, returning them to operation hours after an attack, according to U.S. intelligence reports. Iran has also retained a significant amount of its missiles and mobile launchers, the reports say. The Pentagon and White House this week claimed to have made substantial progress against Iran. At a briefing this week, the Pentagon said it had struck 11,000 targets in…

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