Iran…Trump…Conflict… Evening… 4/26/2026…Stalemate WILL Continue…..

With plans for U.S.-Iran peace talks derailed, at least for now, Tehran and Washington are sinking into an awkward limbo of neither peace, nor war, each hoping to outlast the other in a standoff with drastic stakes for the global economy.

Iranian officials seem confident they can withstand economic pain caused by war longer than President Trump, analysts say. But they are still concerned that without the momentum of negotiations, they will remain trapped under the persistent threat of U.S. or Israeli attacks.

“What’s happening is something akin to what we had at the end of the 12-day war, which is ending the war, but without any permanency,” Sasan Karimi, a vice president in Iran’s previous government and political scientist at the University of Tehran, said of the Israel-Iran war last June.

Over the weekend, an article published by a prominent conservative newspaper, Khorasan, and redistributed by several other Iranian outlets described the current moment as “a strategic limbo” with considerable risks.

“Both sides have stepped back from the costs of full-scale war but have not moved beyond the logic of force and pressure,” it said. This “may be more dangerous than short-term war itself.”

The halting efforts to restart cease-fire talks brokered by Pakistan reflect the dynamics since the U.S.-Israeli bombardment of Iran ended in a cease-fire earlier this month. Both sides argued that they emerged with the upper hand. And Mr. Trump also seems to believe that the United States can outlast Iran in withstanding the war’s economic pain of the parallel blockades of the Strait of Hormuz.

The result is that neither side is willing to give ground that could allow talks to move forward…..

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Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth and his Christian Church Influence in the Iran Conflict..

On 17 April, at a briefing on the Iran war, secretary of defense Pete Hegseth told reporters he had been “sitting in church with my family” the previous Sunday while the minister preached from Mark 3.

Hegseth then recast a passage about the Pharisees watching Jesus “so that they might accuse him” as a description of the US press corps, which has long been a target of his ire. “Our press is just like these Pharisees,” Hegseth said. He accused “the legacy Trump-hating press” of a “politically motivated animus” that blinded it to “the brilliance of our American warriors”.

The sermon Hegseth described as attending bears similarities to one delivered only days earlier at Christ Kirk DC, a Washington branch of the openly Christian nationalist Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches(CREC), the denomination to which Hegseth belongs….

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Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, said: “Hegseth has aligned himself with some of the most extreme Christian nationalists in the country. Their anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs and extremist views about women should give anyone pause, as well as his ‘biblical’ attacks on journalists, especially when Hegseth is sharing them with our soldiers and blasting away at the separation of church and state.

“But even more worrisome is his infusion of his Christian beliefs as the basis for our war in Iran,” Beirich added. “Our national security should not be based on fanatical holy war fantasies, but that is what Hegseth, and by extension Trump, have wrought.”….

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ISW….Iran Update Special Report, April 26, 2026

1. Prospects for meaningful US-Iran negotiations remain low due to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ (IRGC) domination of decision-making and opposition to compromise. Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Abbas Araghchi travelled to Muscat, Oman, on April 26 to discuss security in the Strait of Hormuz with Omani Sultan Haitham al Tariq.
2. Israel deployed an Iron Dome battery and Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) personnel to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which demonstrates the deepening of Israeli and Emirati security ties as a result of the war. Two Israeli officials and one US official told Western media on April 26 that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the IDF to send an Iron Dome battery and “several dozen” IDF personnel to operate it after a phone call with Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed….

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Report: Iran has caused billions in damage to US military bases in Gulf region

Iran has reportedly caused billions of dollars in damage to U.S. military assets and bases in the Gulf region, sparking questions about the Trump administration’s transparency regarding potential costs for repairs.

Six people familiar with the damage said runways, high-end radar systems, dozens of aircraft, warehouses, command headquarters, aircraft hangars and satellite communications infrastructure were struck by Iranian forces in an interview with NBC News.

The destruction spans across several countries in the Middle East and could cost up to $5 billion to repair.

The projected price tag does not include fixes to radar systems, weapons systems, aircraft and other equipment that were either impaired or rendered unsalvageable as a result of Iranian strikes, the outlet reported.

Initial damage was caused to U.S. base Camp Buehring in Kuwait by an Iranian F-5 fighter jet within the first few days of the war, which began Feb. 28 with a series of U.S.-Israeli strikes…

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