Iran IS turning out to be a pesky as the intelligence people said it would be…..
Israeli IS doing something it has wanted to do, that the Arab countries wanted, but couldn’t do….
Donald Trump, pushed by Israel, Saudi’s and probably Hegseth is now gonna suffer thru something BIGGER than he ever imaged he would have to deal with…
The War has expanded across the Middle East…..
There will be changes when the dust settles….
The repercussions WILL BE across the world….
Dan Drezner: “The more we learn about Trump’s decision-making process to bomb Iran, the clearer it becomes that there is no real strategy or end goal.”
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Jonathan Bernstein: “The main thing I’d want to get across to people about Donald Trump and his administration right now is that however unprepared you might think they are for war, the chances are very good that it’s much worse. Much, much worse.”
“To be sure: We won’t get full confirmation of this until much later. But what I see, and what reporters and experts have told us is happening, is what I’ve been saying since early in Trump’s second presidency: The entire administration has been set up to prevent the president from having to encounter information that makes him uncomfortable or challenges his impulses.”
“And the national security process as it has existed since Harry Truman was president has been at best hollowed out (with subject-matter experts removed from the loop) and at worst isn’t operating at all. What’s replaced it is the president’s impulses, based on whoever he happens to talk to, whatever he happens to see on his favorite cable news shows, or whoever is best at manipulating him.”
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The Israeli military said it had seized areas of southern Lebanon on Tuesday in an escalating conflict with the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, as the State Department closed its embassies in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait after drone attacks and urged Americans to depart immediately from 14 Middle East countries.
As Iran expanded its retaliatory strikes and the regional conflict widened, the Trump administration signaled that the assault on Iran could go on for weeks. The Israeli military said that it was carrying out additional strikes in Iran, and had targeted weapons storage facilities in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, as Hezbollah said it had fired attack drones at Israel.
Israel’s advance in Lebanon prompted fears that it could be weighing a wider ground assault similar to the one it launched during its yearlong war with Hezbollah that ended in late 2024.
The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital, issued an advisory warning of imminent drone and rocket attacks in Dhahran, where Saudi Aramco, the government-controlled oil producer is headquartered, making it a sensitive target. The embassy earlier sustained minor damage after an attack by what appeared to be two drones, the Saudi Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.
On Monday, a drone attack caused a fire at the American Embassy compound in Kuwait, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The sources of the drones in both incidents were not immediately clear.
More than 800 people have been killed in the conflict across the Middle East since Saturday, when the United States and Israel launched their attack on Iran and killed the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The war has prompted a global market sell-off that intensified on Tuesday, with stocks and bonds slipping and oil and gas prices surging.
In another sign of the widening conflict, Qatar’s Defense Ministry said its air force had shot down two Su-24 bombers coming from Iran. It was the first report that, in addition to missiles and drones, Iran has also sent warplanes toward its Gulf neighbors.
A senior Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps official vowed that “not a single drop of oil” would pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway that carries about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply. Traffic has already slowed to a trickle after the Revolutionary Guards warned ships away over the weekend, though Iran had not directly threatened them.
Here’s what we’re covering:
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U.S. advisory: The advisory for Americans to leave the Middle East on Monday cited “serious safety risks” and included Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, along with Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Syria, Yemen and the Palestinian territories. The State Department separately ordered nonessential staff members and their families to evacuate six countries: Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
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Southern Lebanon: Israel Katz, the Israeli defense minister, said the country’s forces had been ordered to advance and take control of additional strategic locations in Lebanon to prevent Hezbollah attacks on Israeli border communities. Read more ›
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Market fallout: The global market rout intensified, as investors braced for a conflict that could last for weeks and cause economic turmoil in energy markets, travel and supply chains. The price of Brent Crude, the international oil benchmark, soared above $80 a barrel, the highest level since 2024 and the price of natural gas jumped for a second day. Read more ›
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Death toll: Iran’s Red Crescent Society, the country’s main humanitarian relief organization, said on Tuesday that the death toll had risen to 787 since the start of the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Saturday. The Pentagon said that six U.S. service members had been killed in the conflict and the Lebanese health ministry said that at least 31 people had been killed in fighting. In Israel, at least 10 people have been killed, and in the Gulf, there have been six deaths since Saturday, according to the authorities…..
More @ NY Times….
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Washington Post….
U.S. and Israeli airstrikes targeted the office of the Assembly of Experts in Qom, south of Tehran, on Tuesday, according to reports by a semiofficial Iranian news agency, Tasnim. Iranian media had previously reported the Assembly of Experts had been due to choose a new supreme leader, after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed Saturday….
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Iran and its proxy forces continue retaliation across the Gulf and Israel
Iran and its proxy forces continued to retaliate for the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Tuesday, using cheap drones and missiles to hit U.S. partner countries in the Persian Gulf, sending global oil prices higher, disrupting air travel and apparently causing few casualties…
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Crowds attend funeral in Minab, Iran, for school strike victims
A huge crowd gathered in Minab, southern Iran, on Tuesday to mourn victims of a strike on an elementary school. Drone footage shared by the Islamic Republic News Agency and verified by The Post shows thousands of people lining the streets for the funeral, some holding up photos of what appear to be some of the children killed.
More than 150 children were killed in the strike on the school, Iran’s mission to the United Nations said. Iranian state media reported that the bombs fell while children were attending classes….
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Netanyahu takes a gamble on American support for Israel with the war against Iran
Throughout his political career, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has steered his country along two pillars of foreign policy: an ironclad partnership with the United States and a relentless diplomatic and covert battle against the rulers of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Now, with Israel and the U.S. in a joint war against Iran’s leadership, those two strategic paths risk clashing with each other. By enlisting the U.S. in what he views as Israel’s existential battle against Iran, Netanyahu is taking a gamble that could open up the relationship to the strain of a war with far-reaching consequences.
To be sure, persuading U.S. President Donald Trump to join the war was a coup for Netanyahu and highlights the strong ties between the two leaders. If they are successful, they could quickly realize their shared goal of toppling the Iranian government and spare the region a protracted conflict.
But if the war drags on, the two allies’ ties could again be tested.
“A large part of the American public will view it as the Israeli tail wagging the American dog and that it is dragging the United States to a war in the Middle East that isn’t theirs,”…..
AP….
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