Trump wants a exit ramp….
Israel IS full speed ahead….
Israel IS taking out the leadership men of Iran , leaving who to talk to for Iran?
Israel IS going its OWN way under the cover of a Trump’s actions, which are earning him heartache, not pats on the back….
Israel is also starting a military operation in Lebanon that Allied countries are NOT Happy with……..
It IS becoming more apparent that the American President, Donald Trump, is JUST a bystander , as the Israeli’s and Defense Sec. Hegseth bomb whatever they want….
NATO and Europe, and even China are NOT gonna help Trump get out of his current trouble’s….
The top US counterterrorism guy , Joe Kent, has quit, voicing disagreement, with the Trump War policy and actions….
Israel has told the US State Dept. that any uprising by Iraninan’s would result in ‘slauderings’….
Iran is still sending drone’s at Middle Eastern countries showing that no matter how bombs the US military drops?
Iran keeps launching drone’s and missiles…
Contrary to Trump’s FCC guy Carr?
Trump admin people ARE leaking stuff to the media to be shown to the public….
The Israeli military said on Tuesday that it had killed one of Iran’s highest-ranking leaders, Ali Larijani, in an overnight airstrike near Tehran, dealing another severe blow to a power structure already decimated by three weeks of U.S.-Israeli strikes.
The killing of Mr. Larijani — who became Iran’s de facto leaderafter U.S.-Israeli airstrikes killed the upper echelons of Iran’s government and military — removes one of Iran’s most prominent voices of defiance. But Mr. Larijani was also an influential pragmatist who was seen as having the clout to negotiate with the United States, and his death could embolden even more hard-line Iranian leaders who believe that the Islamic republic can survive only by doubling down.
The Israeli military also said on Tuesday that it had killed Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of the Basij, Iran’s powerful plainclothes militia. The Iranian authorities and state media did not comment on the Israeli announcements. But two Iranian officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, said they believed Mr. Larijani and Mr. Soleimani had been killed.
Mr. Larijani, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, was a close confidant of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader who was killed in an Israeli airstrike at the start of the war on Feb. 28. Mr. Larijani in effect ran Iran behind the scenes even before Ayatollah Khamenei’s death, leading the brutal crackdown early this year on protests against Islamic rule.
He took on a more prominent role in key decision making during the war, including after the appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei as supreme leader. Mr. Larijani had opposed that choice, lobbying for a more moderate option.
Mr. Larijani’s killing on Tuesday showed that Israel was not slowing in its effort to eliminate top leaders of a regime it considered an existential threat. “We are undermining this regime in the hope of giving the Iranian people an opportunity to remove it,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said, although he conceded that would “not happen easily.”
The death of Mr. Larijani also renews serious questions about President Trump’s endgame for the war: He has not clearly articulated his goals or how the assault on Iran might end, and he has acknowledged that many of the Iranian officials that the United States might have negotiated with have been killed.
“We don’t even know their leaders,” Mr. Trump said on Monday. “We have people wanting to negotiate,” he added. “We have no idea who they are.”
Here’s what else we are covering:
-
Resignation: Joe Kent, the director of the National Counter Terrorism Center, announced his resignation on Tuesday because of his opposition to the war, writing in a letter that Iran had “posed no imminent threat to our nation.” Mr. Kent is the first Trump administration official to quit over the Iran war, and one of the first to explicitly resign citing a significant policy difference. Read more ›
-
Powerful militia: Mr. Soleimani had led the Basij since 2019 and was under U.S. and European sanctions for his role in the violent suppression of Iranian protests. The Basij, estimated to number at about one million, are affiliated with the country’s most powerful military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and have played a central role in repressing dissent.
-
Tanker attack: A tanker anchored near a port in the United Arab Emirates was hit by a projectile early Tuesday, sustaining minor damage, in the first strike on a ship in and around the Strait of Hormuz in five days, according to United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations. At least 17 vessels have been attacked in the region since the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran began. Read more ›
-
Lebanon: An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon killed a Lebanese soldier and wounded four others, the Lebanese army said. The Israeli military said it was reviewing the episode. A day earlier, Israel’s defense minister had announced a “ground maneuver” in southern Lebanon, defying concerns over the consequences for civilians. More than a million people have fled their homes, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
-
Death toll: At least 1,348 civilians in Iran have been killed since the start of the war, Iran’s U.N. representative told the Security Council last Wednesday, the latest figure the country has provided. In Lebanon, officials said that 886 people had been killed. In Israel, at least 12 people have been killed, according to the authorities. The Pentagon has said that 13 American service members have died since the start of the war.
…
Wash Post….
Israel urges Iranians to revolt but privately assesses they’ll be ‘slaughtered
Senior Israeli officials have told U.S. diplomats that Iranian protesters will “get slaughtered” if they take to the streets against their government even as Israel publicly calls for a popular uprising, according to a State Department cable reviewed by The Washington Post.
The cable, circulated by the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem on Friday, relayed an Israeli assessment that Iran’s regime is “not cracking” and is willing to “fight to the end” despite the Feb. 28 killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the ongoing U.S. and Israeli bombing campaign….
….
Despite the grim forecast, Israeli officials said they hoped for a popular revolt and urged the United States to prepare to support protesters if that happens, according to the cable.
The cable summarized recent meetings between U.S. officials and senior members of Israel’s National Security Council, Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday and Thursday.
It comes as Iran’s exiled crown prince, Reza Pahlavi, calls for Iranians to take to the streets this week to mark the ancient Persian “Festival of Fire” known as Chaharshanbe Suri…..
European leaders rebuff Trump’s call to open the Strait of Hormuz
Trump has expressed frustration over a lack of military assistance from allies, but leaders are reluctant to join a conflict he started without consulting them.
“While taking the necessary action to defend ourselves and our allies, we will not be drawn into the wider war,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday….
Donald ‘One Way’ Trump’s defiant acknowledgement that he ain’t got no foreign friends ….
President Donald Trump on Tuesday fumed at longtime American allies he says aren’t doing enough to help the U.S. and Israel in their war against Iran, now arguing that their assistance was never needed after spending days publicly requesting their help.
“Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer ‘need,’ or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance — WE NEVER DID!” he wrote on Truth Social. “Likewise, Japan, Australia, or South Korea. In fact, speaking as President of the United States of America, by far the Most Powerful Country Anywhere in the World, WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!”
More…
One War, Two Mistakes
Elliot Cohen: “The war’s advocates may acknowledge that the Trump administration has done a clumsy job of arguing its case and that it has entered the conflict with only one visible ally, but they view those as venial strategic sins. What they admire is the ferocity of the onslaught against the Islamic Republic and Donald Trump’s apparent willingness to stick it out despite rising oil prices and discontent even among his base.”
“They are wrong. In any war, even the most just, maintaining domestic support is essential to victory, because the outcome is inherently uncertain…”
“But if the war’s advocates underestimate the extent of the administration’s strategic malpractice, its opponents miss one big thing as well: the Iran problem. The threat posed by the regime is severe, and all previous attempts to deal with it have failed egregiously.”