After the United States refrained from striking 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
overnight Friday-Saturday for the first day in two weeks, Hebrew media reported Saturday that Jerusalem had been prepared for a major escalation in the war over the weekend, which never came. Despite the pause, Israeli leaders still estimate that US President Donald Trump
...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US...
would soon be compelled to step up military action, the reports said.
After the quiet night in Iran, there were also no reports on Saturday of attacks by Iran on its Gulf neighbors, which have been taking place daily as well.
Trump personally ordered the US military not to strike Iran on Friday and Saturday, Axios reported, citing two sources with knowledge of the directive.
Kan reported that the Israeli military had prepared for a significant escalation in the conflict. Channel 12’s diplomatic corespondent Yaron Avraham reported the same, while Barak Ravid, who reports for both Channel 12 and US outlet Axios, said that according to his information, the strikes the US military had planned for Friday night, before Trump nixed them, had been no different in scale than those it had carried out over the previous 13 nights.
Multiple outlets, including Axios and Kan, cited sources as saying that the US was still intending a major expansion of the fighting, but that Trump was now favoring allowing more time for negotiations.
Kan reported that the US military has continued to send significant forces to Israel, including dozens of warplanes, refueling planes, air defenses and munitions. It said some 90 refuelers had arrived over the past few weeks and were stationed at Ben Gurion Airport and the Ramon and Ovda airbases — a similar deployment to the one that took place just before the US-Israeli war against Iran was launched in late February.
A senior Israeli official told Channel 12 that "the chances of reaching an agreement between the United States and Iran are virtually nonexistent," calling an eventual escalation in the conflict "inevitable."
Sources cited by Channel 13 and Ynet similarly predicted that diplomacy would fail and that Trump, who prefers negotiations, would eventually have "no choice" but to order a major attack.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet Trump on Tuesday at the White House, the offices of both leaders have said.
Channel 12 reported Saturday that Netanyahu and his team plan to present Trump with fresh intelligence on Iran’s efforts to rebuild its military and nuclear program during their meeting, including what Israeli officials believe are accelerated efforts under new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei to advance toward a nuclear weapon.
The report, citing Israeli sources, did not elaborate on the alleged moves or the intelligence Israel intends to present, though recent reports have detailed some. Previous private presentations by Netanyahu to Trump on Iran’s nuclear activities and alleged violations of its commitments reportedly played a significant role in the US decision to strike Iran.
Meanwhile,
...back at the argument, Livia had made her point with her knee to Jane's stomach...
Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
’s Iran-aligned Iran's Houthi sock puppets
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is
God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the JewsThey like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him...
rebels fired on Saudi oil installations in two ports on the Red Sea coast on Saturday, in a sign that the war that has disrupted energy supplies from the Gulf could be spreading to a second major shipping route, and reigniting Yemen’s own civil war.
| More from the Times of Israel: |
The Strait of Hormuz, a crucial passage for world energy supplies effectively shut down by Iranian attacks, has been at the center of the conflict. The US military fired Friday on a merchant vessel in the Gulf of Oman that was trying to breach its renewed blockade of Iran’s ports, while Iran targeted US-allied Gulf Arab countries.
And on Saturday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said their forces stopped four ships attempting to transit the strategic Strait of Hormuz over the past 24 hours.
“Four vessels that had intended to transit through the southern area of the Strait of Hormuz via an illegal and unsafe route were stopped over the past 24 hours after warning shots were fired by the IRGC Navy,” the Guards said in a statement quoted by state television, adding that the ships had “altered course.”
It was not immediately clear whether the halt in attacks signalled a return to diplomacy or if it was just a pause before a return to conflict.
US embassies in the Middle East also alerted Americans in the region on Friday that options to leave could become more limited, as Iran’s Revolutionary Guard advised residents of neighboring countries to stay away from bases with US troops.
The war has so far killed more than 3,400 people in Iran, according to the Iranian Health Ministry. Eighteen US service members and 24 civilians in Israel were killed, and smaller numbers of civilians were reported dead in countries across the region.
In Lebanon, more than 4,000 people have been killed, according to figures that do not differentiate between civilians and combatants, as well as 38 Israeli troops, after the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group fired at Israel in support of the Islamic Republic.
Israel says it has killed more than 2,500 Hezbollah operatives.
The U.S. naval blockade against Iran remains in full effect. As of July 25, CENTCOM has redirected 12 commercial vessels trying to run the blockade, disabled 2 that didn't comply, and boarded 2 to ensure total compliance.
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) July 25, 2026
Earlier today, U.S. forces completed a verification… pic.twitter.com/eyp1N2B9sO
…completed a verification boarding aboard Comoros-flagged M/T Charminar in the Arabian Sea, and the tanker is now continuing its journey.
CENTCOM forces disabled Mozambique-flagged M/T Lavine in the Gulf of Oman, July 24, after the crew attempted to violate the blockade multiple times and ignored repeated warnings. The ship is no longer transiting to Iran.
American 🇺🇸 forces remain highly vigilant, focused, lethal, and ready.
Interceptor shortages main concern in deliberations before Trump held off on escalating Iran campaign — NYT
[IsraelTimes] Concerns over depleted interceptor stockpiles were the focus of discussions between US President Donald Trump and his top advisers before the administration decided to hold off on escalating its campaign against Iran over the weekend, The New York Times reports.
While Trump indicated Friday he would escalate the air campaign, the president decided to hold off, for now, on an expanded operation after consulting with top advisers, the report says, citing two people briefed on the discussion.
Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Dan Caine privately said that while the military was capable of launching major combat operations against Iran, interceptors available to CENTCOM would be exhausted, officials tell the Times.
Another senior US official tells the outlet that there were doubts in the administration that an intensified campaign would pressure Iran into talks; rather, recent strikes have kept Iran united and focused on a foreign threat.