Hopefully the two of them are again chortling gleefully in private about how they’re fooling everyone into believing they have differences, as opposed to actually disagreeing on next steps.
[IsraelTimes] Revolutionary Guard says its ‘devastating blows will crush’ its ‘American-Zionist enemy’ if Trump resumes strikes, as Pakistani interior minister back in Iran for talksUS President Donald Trump
...Never got invited to a P.Diddy party...
asserted Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will do "whatever I want" when it comes to a potential military strike on Iran, in remarks made a day after the pair reportedly held a tense call on the subject.
Trump was asked by news hounds about his Tuesday phone call with the Israeli premier. "He’s a very good man, he’ll do whatever I want him to do. And he’s a great guy... Don’t forget he was a wartime prime minister," Trump responded.
Netanyahu has touted his close relationship with Trump, crediting it for a long list of pro-Israel decisions made by the US president. But it has also exposed Netanyahu to criticism that he is unable to push back on Trump as he has become so indebted to him.
Asked by The Times of Israel in March whether he alone would decide when the war with Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for
spontaneouslytaking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet
militiasto extend the regime's influence. The word
Iranis a cognate form of
Aryan.The abbreviation
IRGCis the same idea as
Stürmabteilung (or SA).The term
Supreme Guideis a the modern version form of either
Duceor
Führeror maybe both. They hate
ends or if Netanyahu would also have a say, Trump claimed that it would be a "mutual" decision," but when a ceasefire was announced several weeks later, Jerusalem was reportedly caught off guard.
Trump has still been careful not to criticize Netanyahu and has even lobbied for him to be pardoned by President Isaac Herzog in the ongoing corruption trial that the premier is facing.
Netanyahu is seen as supportive of resuming the war against Iran, as he has argued that war aims pertaining to Tehran’s nuclear and missile programs, along with its support for proxies, are still unmet. The premier has said he would accept those issues being address diplomatically but has expressed skepticism over whether Tehran is willing to negotiate in good faith.
Axios reported that during their Tuesday phone call, Trump updated Netanyahu on new mediation efforts by several Arab and Moslem states to reach a deal between the US and Iran.
The emerging proposal — reportedly drafted by Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
and Pakistain with input from regional mediators Saudi Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...,
...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund...
and Egypt — would see Washington and Tehran sign a "letter of intent" that would officially end the war and open 30 days of negotiations on issues including reopening the Strait of Hormuz and limiting Iran’s nuclear program, a US source involved in the phone call told Axios.
The two leaders disagreed on the path forward during the call, as Netanyahu was highly skeptical of the framework, believing the US should continue applying military pressure on Iran to further weaken the regime by destroying its critical infrastructure, two Israeli sources said.
The US source said that Netanyahu’s "hair was on fire after the call," though Israeli sources noted that Netanyahu "is always concerned" about how negotiations with Iran will go, even during stages that previously failed.
The Prime Minister’s Office and the White House declined to comment to Axios on the report.
Mediators have been working over the last several days to bridge gaps on the last Pak proposal, and Qatar recently presented the US and Iran with a new draft, two Arab sources and an Israeli source told Axios, though a fourth Qatari source said there is no separate draft from Qatar and Doha is only aiming to improve the Pak draft.
The current efforts aim to secure stronger commitments from the Iranians regarding limiting their nuclear program and better guarantees from the US to gradually unfreeze Iranian funds kept abroad, according to the report.
Qatar sent a delegation to Tehran earlier this week for talks on the latest draft, as did Pakistain, the report added, while Iran’s Tasnim news agency claimed the US had submitted a new proposal via Pak mediators and that Tehran was reviewing the text.
Asked by news hounds on Wednesday if he is open to a limited Iran deal that would only open the Strait of Hormuz and extend the ceasefire, Trump said he is in no rush to reach an agreement: "We’d have to open the strait that would open immediately, so we’re gonna give this one shot. I’m in no hurry. Everyone is saying, ’Oh, the midterms.’ I’m in no hurry... Ideally I’d like to see few people killed, as opposed to a lot."
Hours earlier, though, he told news hounds that the war "will end very quickly.
Trump has given vague timelines for reaching a diplomatic solution with Iran, saying Tuesday that he could wait "two or three days" or for "a limited period of time," after announcing that he canceled a strike planned for Tuesday. In further remarks on Wednesday, he said the US was willing to wait a few days for the "right answer" from Iran, as talks are right "on the borderline."
"It’s right on the borderline, if we don’t get the right answers, it goes very quickly," he told news hounds just after stepping off Air Force One. "We’re all ready to go."
Trump said "we have to get the right answers [from Iran], so it’d have to be complete 100% good answers, and if we do, we save a lot of time, energy and lives." He added that it "could be a few days, but it could go very quickly," claiming the US was dealing with "people that are, I think, far more reasonable than the people that are really no longer with us... so hopefully those people will make a deal that’s going to be great for everyone."
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued its own warning to Trump on Wednesday, threatening major repercussions if the US resumes the war.
"If the aggression against Iran is repeated, the promised regional war will this time spread far beyond the region, and our devastating blows will crush you," said the IRGC, in a statement on its Sepah News website.
"The American-Zionist enemy... must know that despite the offensive carried out against us using the full capabilities of the world’s two most expensive armies, we have not deployed the full power of the Islamic revolution," it continued.
On Tuesday, US Vice President JD Vance told news hounds that "a lot of good progress is being made" in the efforts to reach a deal, adding, "We’re just going to keep working at it." At the same time, he warned Iran that the US military was "locked and loaded."
Also Tuesday, the US Senate advanced a war powers resolution, as a fourth Republican joined Democrats
...every time you hear the phrase
white people,
white supremacy,
whiteanything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word
(Thomas) Nastyto the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects...
in their efforts to assert authority over the conflict, though support for passing the measure remains short of a majority.
Amid the tension, Pakistain’s interior minister headed to Iran on Wednesday for the second time this week, Iranian state media reported.
"Mohsin Naqvi traveled to Tehran to meet officials from the Islamic Theocratic
Republic," Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported, citing diplomatic sources in Islamabad.
Pakistain has been mediating between Iran and the US, with Naqvi previously in Tehran on Saturday to "facilitate" the process, according to Iranian media.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, meanwhile, said further hostilities in the Middle East would be "inadvisable," calling for a ceasefire, as he spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
in Beijing on Wednesday, according to Chinese state media.
"A comprehensive ceasefire is of utmost urgency, resuming hostilities is even more inadvisable and maintaining negotiations is particularly important," Xi told Putin, the Xinhua news agency reported.
GERMANY TO SEND TURKEY ADDITIONAL PATRIOT SYSTEM
Also amid the war in Iran, Turkey said on Wednesday that Germany would send it a Patriot missile defense system for a six-month deployment from June to replace a system deployed as part of NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants...
measures in southeast Turkey to bolster air defenses.
In March, Ankara said a US Patriot system was deployed to southeast Turkey, near a NATO radar base, in the face of missile threats from Iran. NATO defenses shot down four ballistic missiles launched from Iran during the war.
"In addition to the Spanish Patriot air defense system currently deployed in our country, one of the two additional Patriot systems deployed by NATO due to the conflicts between the US, Israel, and Iran will be replaced by a German system," the Ottoman Turkish Defense Ministry said in a statement.
"This replacement is planned to be completed in June, and the system is expected to remain operational for approximately six months," it said, adding that security evaluations will continue in coordination with allies.
JORDAN SHOOTS DOWN DRONE, ORIGIN UNKNOWN
Jordan, meanwhile, announced it had shot down a drone of unknown origin in its airspace on Wednesday. No casualties were reported.
"This morning, the Jordanian Armed Forces engaged with a drone of unknown origin that entered Jordanian airspace and was brought down in Jerash Governorate, without any injuries," the military said of an area located around 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the capital Amman.
Though the Iran ceasefire has mostly held, drones have lately been launched from Iraq toward Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, apparently by Iran’s allies.
Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said they launched the war in late February to curb Iran’s support for regional militias, dismantle its nuclear program, destroy its missile capabilities, and create conditions for Iranians to topple their rulers.
Iran responded to the attacks by firing on Israel, US forces, and neighboring Mideast countries. The regime also seized control of the Strait of Hormuz, and the US imposed a blockade on Iranian ships and ports.
The war has yet to deprive Iran of its stockpile of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium, though the US and Israel have said it will be removed from the country by force if not through a deal.
The Islamic Theocratic
Republic’s holy manal leadership, which had faced a mass uprising at the start of the year, has so far withstood the onslaught.
With Trump conflicted and Iran emboldened, vital bid to end regime’s nuclear drive is being botched
I’m working hard on practicing trust — not my strength when it comes to politicians and jihadis.
[IsraelTimes] The Islamic Republic retains its highly enriched uranium stockpile, has 10 tons of lower-enriched uranium that nobody’s even asking for, and is holding the world to ransom at the Strait of Hormuz.