[SudanWarMonitor] El-Obeid–Dilling highway remains contested, prolonging isolation of Dilling
The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) launched a large-scale offensive on Saturday aimed at reopening the El-Obeid–Dilling road, triggering one of the deadliest confrontations in recent months in North Kordofan, according to geolocated footage and statements from the warring sides.
The operation, involving thousands (or several hundreds) of troops and allied forces, quickly escalated into intense multi-axis fighting across Kazgil, Hamadi, and El-Debeibat, with all parties claiming battlefield gains while evidence suggests a contested and fluid frontline.
Videos geolocated by Sudan War Monitor indicate that SAF units advanced from El-Obeid southward through Kazgil and toward Hamadi, before pushing further south to reach El-Debeibat by the afternoon. However, the same footage suggests that the advance was not sustained, with SAF elements later withdrawing back toward Hamadi.
Militants were armed with common #China-made 🇨🇳 Type 80 machine guns, PG-7V / T69-1 Anti-Tank rockets and Type 56-1 assault rifle. pic.twitter.com/SpliFZyYDb
Nigerian Army personnel successfully ambushed the group along the Luma Babana route in Borgu Local Government Area, Niger State. Resulting in the de@ths of numerous terror!sts.
The surviving fighters attempted to escape in the direction of the Benin border, only to face another… pic.twitter.com/PzIescUWy3
Nigerian Army personnel successfully ambushed the group along the Luma Babana route in Borgu Local Government Area, Niger State. Resulting in the deaths of numerous terror!sts.
The surviving fighters attempted to escape in the direction of the Benin border, only to face another assau1t from Benin Army units, which received aerial support from a French aircraft. This follow up operation caused further heavy losses among the militants.
An internet search shows a bunch of local articles on the attack dated March 23 and 24, 2026, some identifying the miscreants as bandits. See here, for instance.
[IsraelTimes] UK Chief Rabbi Mirvis: A ‘sustained campaign of violence and intimidation against the Jewish community’; no injuries reported in either incident; counter-terror police investigating
A synagogue in northwest London was targeted in an arson attack overnight Sunday, officials said, in the latest in a string of assaults in recent weeks that Britannia’s chief rabbi called a "sustained campaign of violence and intimidation against the Jewish community."
There was minor smoke damage to a room inside Kenton United Synagogue, the Community Security Trust (CST) said, after police and fire teams were called to the Jewish house of worship.
A pro-Iranian government Islamist group, which says it is also behind a spate of attacks across Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... on US, Israeli and Jewish targets, said on Sunday afternoon that it was responsible for the overnight attack.
UK counter-terrorism police, in the wake of the incident, said they were heading up investigations into the incidents.
"Last night yet another synagogue, this time in Kenton, was targeted in a cowardly arson attack," Britannia’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said on X. "A sustained campaign of violence and intimidation against the Jewish community of the UK is gathering momentum."
The newly founded Islamist group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HAYI), or Movement of the Companions of the Right Hand of Islam, said in a statement published on Telegram on Sunday afternoon that it had targeted Kenton United Synagogue because it is "one of the centers of Zionist influence in the British capital."
The synagogue, it claimed, "holds ceremonies such as ’Shabbat for Israel,’ and sings the so-called ’Hatikvah’ anthem in support of the Israeli occupation."
Among other perceived crimes, it said the synagogue had hosted relatives of one of the hostage soldiers kidnapped by Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... in the terror group’s October 7, 2023, attack.
Identifying the synagogue’s leadership by name, the group accused them of being "key instruments of this Zionist base in London."
Separately, the UK’s The Sunday Times said the Islamist group has also grabbed credit for a Friday night arson attack on a London building that was formerly used by a Jewish organization.
The attack targeted a building in north London’s Hendon neighborhood that still displayed the sign for Jewish Futures, an educational organization. There were no injuries.
The newspaper added that British police are examining whether HAYI is a front for Iran’s security forces.
A British security source told the outlet that a string of recent attacks in London by the group amount to "psychological warfare" against Jews.
"As the conflict in the Middle East continues to evolve, counter-terrorism policing and our partners remain alive to the threat of Iranian hostile activity in the UK," Vicki Evans, Britannia’s senior national coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, told news hounds.
"We are aware of public reporting that suggests this group may have links to Iran. As you would expect, we will continue to explore that question as our investigation evolves."
Given the spate of attacks, CST urged all Jewish institutions to strictly adhere to security protocols.
The group has grabbed credit for a spate of attacks across Europe on American, Israeli and Jewish targets, including in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Monitoring groups have reported an upsurge in antisemitic incidents in Britannia, particularly since the start of the war Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... war sparked by Hamas’s terror onslaught on October 7, 2023.
The Community Security Trust recorded 3,700 instances of anti-Jewish hate across the UK last year, a four percent rise on 2024, but down on 2023.
[FoxNews] Mexican authorities announced Sunday that multiple officers, including U.S. Embassy personnel, died after returning from a major weekend operation to dismantle "clandestine drug laboratories" in Morelos.
"The Attorney General of State, Cesar Jáuregui Moreno, mourned this morning the death of elements of the State Investigation Agency, as well as two instructing officers of the United States Embassy, who died in an accident when returning from the operation of destroying clandestine laboratories in the Municipality of Morelos," the Chihuahua State Attorney General's Office said.
According to the Mexican officials, Pedro Ramon Oseguera Cervantes, the director of the AEI, and one of his bodyguards were traveling in a convoy on their way back from the raid when their vehicle lost control and went off a cliff. Mexican officials would not provide information on the two U.S. officials who had been accompanying their Mexican counterparts. Authorities also did not reveal if only one vehicle went off the cliff or if more than one did. Officials confirmed that several individuals sustained various levels of injuries.
#3
Based on 28+ years w/State, car accidents kill more USG employees oversees than anything. The numbers are way down in the last 3-5 years for a range of reasons. Next might be outdoor folly (drowning/falls), fire, then illness/disease.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
04/20/2026 12:45 Comments ||
Top||
#4
This is different from rolling your Humvee in a non-combat zone?
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
04/20/2026 13:50 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Billy, you ever run across a DIPSEC guy, a 10th Gp vet by the name of "Jimmy Mac."
From April 12th — probably the work of local criminals hired by Iran to harass the local Jews. Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya has claimed a bunch of these. See here for their attack on a synagogue in London.
[IsraelTimes] Attack on Skopje synagogue in country with just 200 Jews is latest in a string of such incidents throughout the world
In what is believed to have been the first antisemitic attack in North Macedonia since World War II, the country’s only synagogue, in the capital city of Skopje, was targeted in an attempted arson attack Sunday, authorities said.
Photos from the Beth Yaakov Synagogue shared on social media show the synagogue’s door and courtyard charred by fire.
Surveillance footage reportedly showed two suspects climbing a fence, pouring fuel, and throwing a Molotov cocktail before fleeing. Police found a fuel canister at the scene, but have yet to identify suspects in the case.
The attack was quickly condemned by national figures and the Jewish community.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Timco Mucunski said on X that the attack was "utterly unacceptable and strongly condemned."
"There is no place for such acts in [North Macedonia]. An investigation is underway, and those responsible will be held accountable," he wrote. "Our society stands firm on tolerance and multiethnic coexistence."
Israel’s Ambassador to North Macedonia Vivian Aisen said the attack "strikes at the very values of coexistence the Jewish community upholds."
"I stand with the community and trust the authorities will act swiftly to bring those responsible to justice," she posted on X.
Members of the country’s small Jewish community were outraged. "This act represents a serious attack not only on our community’s safety, but also on the principles of religious freedom, dignity, and peaceful coexistence that we have upheld for generations," said Pepo Levi, the president of the Jewish community, in a statement shared by the World Jewish Congress.
"This incident reflects the continued vulnerability of Jewish sites in Europe, where places of worship and community life remain at risk," the European Jewish Congress added. "Such acts seek to intimidate and disrupt Jewish presence."
The Beth Yaakov Synagogue in Skopje, consecrated in 2000, is the only functioning Jewish house of worship in the Balkan country.
The country, with a total population of some 1.8 million people, has only about 200 Jews, with nearly all of them based in Skopje. Before the Holocaust, the country had nearly 8,000 Jews and five synagogues in Bitola, and some 3,000 Jews in Skopje, according to the World Jewish Congress.
In 1943, almost all of Macedonia’s Jews were deported to Treblinka, and about 98 percent of its population was murdered.
Synagogues have increasingly been the target of vandalism attacks as antisemitism has skyrocketed in communities around the world. In recent months, there have been incidents in Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United States. In Australia, there have been several incidents of synagogue arson in recent years, including a December 2024 attack on the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne.
[IsraelTimes] Iranian national, who is US permanent resident, to face charges that she brokered sale of ‘drones, bombs, bomb fuses, and millions of rounds of ammunition’ between Iran and Sudan
US Federal prosecutors said a 44-year-old Los Angeles woman was arrested Saturday night at Los Angeles International Airport on suspicion of helping 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 spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... traffic weapons to Sudan ...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans... , which is in its fourth year of a bloody civil war.
Shamim Mafi will face charges that she brokered the sale of "drones, bombs, bomb fuses, and millions of rounds of ammunition" between Iran and the Sudanese Armed Forces, First US Attorney Bill Essayli said Sunday on social media.
The arrest took place during a ceasefire in the US-Israeli war with Iran, which began on February 28.
A phone number for Mafi could not be located and it wasn’t known Sunday if she has an attorney who could speak on her behalf.
Essayli posted a photo of someone in an FBI jacket escorting a woman into the back of a sedan outside a terminal at LAX.
Mafi is an Iranian national who became a lawful permanent resident of the United States in 2016, Essayli said.
A criminal complaint dated March 12 alleges that Mafi and an unnamed co-conspirator operated a company in Oman called Atlas International Business through which weapons and ammunition were trafficked. The company received over $7 million in payments in 2025.
Separately, Mafi and the co-conspirator brokered the sale of 55,000 bomb fuses to the Sudanese Ministry of Defense, according to the court documents.
"In connection with the transaction, Mafi submitted a letter of intent to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (’IRGC’) to purchase the bomb fuses for Sudan," the complaint said.
Mafi is scheduled to appear in US District Court in Los Angeles on Monday. If convicted, she could face up to 20 years in prison.
The Sudanese civil war has created a humanitarian crisis in the North African country where food supplies are dwindling and millions of people have fled their homes.
Militias opposing Hamas have launched a coordinated military operation across the Strip.
Ghassan al-Dheini, commander of the Popular Forces in Rafah, announced the campaign — dubbed “Deterrence of Aggression” — following… pic.twitter.com/gN64lE6H9D
Militias opposing Hamas have launched a coordinated military operation across the Strip.
Ghassan al-Dheini, commander of the Popular Forces in Rafah, announced the campaign — dubbed “Deterrence of Aggression” — following Hamas’s refusal to disarm.
The operation is reportedly being carried out in coordination with other militias.
This marks a potential shift: internal armed opposition to Hamas emerging inside Gaza.
[IsraelTimes] Interior ministry says cell arranged to fire missiles across the border from Quneitra province, which borders Israel, without specifying which country was the intended target
Syria’s interior ministry said Sunday that security forces thwarted an alleged cross-border attack near the border of Israel planned by remnants of ousted leader Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... ’s regime and cells linked to the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah terrorist organization.
From March 2 until a 10-day ceasefire went into force on April 17, Hezbollah was battling Israel after drawing Leb ...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration.... into the Middle East war with rocket fire aimed at Israel in support of Tehran.
In a statement, the interior ministry said security forces "arrested members of a sabotage cell" linked to Hezbollah and Assad remnants.
The ministry said the cell "was working to carry out an attack from inside Syrian territory on targets outside the borders" from Quneitra province, which borders Israel. However,
death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate... authorities didn’t name the country that had been about to be targeted.
Syria’s official SANA news agency, quoting an interior ministry source, said Hezbollah "intended to launch missiles across the border with the aim of destabilizing the country."
Hezbollah provided military support to Assad, who was tossed in December 2024 by an Islamist coalition hostile to the Shiite group.
Since then, its supply routes from Syria have been cut off, and Lebanese and Syrian authorities are trying to combat smuggling across the mostly non-existent border between the two countries.
The ministry said the Quneitra incident was the latest among "several attempts to destabilize the country and undermine public security" involving remnants of the former regime and "unscrupulous individuals linked to Hezbollah."
Last week, Damascus accused Hezbollah of being linked to a cell that attempted to plant an bomb in front of a house belonging to an unidentified religious figure in the Bab Tuma area of the Syrian capital.
Israel’s Kan public broadcaster and reports in Syria and 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... named the figure as Rabbi Michael Khoury.
The terror group denied the ministry’s claims, saying they were "false and fabricated."
Hezbollah said it has "no activity, no ties and no relationship with any party in Syria, and has no presence on Syrian soil."
In February, Syria said it had dismantled a cell responsible for recent attacks targeting Damascus’s Mazzeh district, claiming the weapons came from Hezbollah, which denied any involvement.
Under Assad, Syria was part of Iran’s "axis of resistance" against Israel and enabled the transfer of weapons and money from 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 spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... to Hezbollah.
But since taking over, Syria’s Islamist authorities have rejected Iranian influence.
In March, Hezbollah fired artillery shells into Syria from Lebanon. Syrian army officials said artillery shells fired from Lebanon landed near the town of Serghaya, west of Damascus, according to a report by SANA.
The army accused Hezbollah of targeting Syrian army positions, telling the news agency it observed Hezbollah reinforcements at the Syrian-Lebanese border.
The military says five IDF divisions, alongside naval forces, are operating south of the line to dismantle Hezbollah infrastructure and prevent threats to northern Israeli communities.
The map shows that the security zone crosses the Litani River, a key geographic marker long associated with efforts to push Hezbollah forces northward, and includes the historically strategic Beaufort Ridge.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have instructed the IDF to act with full force, both on the ground and from the air, including during the ceasefire, in order to protect our soldiers in Lebanon from any threat,” Katz says at a event in the West Bank.
He says that the military has also been ordered “to remove the houses in the [frontline] villages near the border that served in every respect as Hezbollah terror outposts and threatened Israeli communities.”
The Israeli military is reestablishing a security zone that it left some 26 years ago, although commanders say that this time around, it will not carry with it the same dangers that troops faced during the 18-year occupation of southern Leb ...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade.... in 1982-2000.
On Sunday, for the first time since hostilities with Hezbollah escalated last month during the 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 spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... war — when the terror group resumed rocket and drone attacks on Israel — Israeli news hounds were allowed by the Israel Defense Forces to enter southern Lebanon, in an escorted visit to the newly established security zone.
The visit took place during a fragile 10-day ceasefire, announced by US President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... , that began at midnight between Thursday and Friday, following more than 40 days of fighting in southern Lebanon.
Driving through the fresh mud of southern Lebanon, news hounds were taken in Eitan armored personnel carriers to a makeshift military post in the largely destroyed village of Ayta ash-Shab.
Five IDF divisions — composed of tens of thousands of troops — are currently stationed in the new security zone, whose boundaries are unsurprisingly similar to the security zone Israel held between 1985 and 2000, as Lebanon’s terrain has not exactly changed in the past 26 years.
Military and defense officials have said that the idea behind the security zone is to remove the threats of a potential Hezbollah invasion and the terror group’s "direct fire," or anti-tank guided missiles, on Israeli border communities.
The IDF avoids calling it a "security zone." Rather, the military dubs it a "forward defense area," in an apparent attempt to distance any connection to the deadly and controversial conflict nearly three decades ago, during which an estimated 675 troops were killed.
"What do you call it? It doesn’t really matter," said Col. Arik Moyal, the commander of the Nahal Infantry Brigade.
"Tactically, as a commander, this is a security area. We were told to create a security area where direct anti-tank fire cannot be carried out. There can’t be bully boyz here who could infiltrate Shtula or Zarit... and there must not be any terror infrastructure here," he told news hounds during Sunday’s tour.
"What matters is what we do, and what we need to do so that a mother in [the Israeli border area moshav] Shtula can take her children to kindergarten safely and no one threatens her."
As part of the security zone, Defense Minister Israel Katz has said that the IDF would raze all of the Lebanese border villages — with the exception of several Christian communities — though military commanders have insisted that the army is only destroying Hezbollah infrastructure, which they say is often embedded within civilian homes.
NEW SECURITY ZONE, WITHOUT THE OLD THREATS
There are several key differences between the 2026 security zone and the one the IDF hurriedly evacuated in 2000, military officials said.
The first is that there are almost no Lebanese civilians currently residing in the IDF-controlled territory except for the Christian communities, with which commanders said the military has coordination channels.
Israel ordered a wide-scale evacuation of all of southern Lebanon, which Lebanese civilians largely abided by, especially in villages close to the border, leaving behind an estimated 1,000 Hezbollah operatives — most of whom have been killed, according to the army.
IDF officers said that this makes it both harder for Hezbollah to hide, as it cannot use the civilian population as cover, and easier for the military to detect members of the terror group.
The second is the systematic destruction of Hezbollah’s infrastructure in the border villages, preventing the terror group from using those areas to stage attacks on forces.
Hezbollah has been pushed back deeper into southern Lebanon, though it could still fire rockets at Israeli forces in the security zone, as well as at Israel.
For that reason, the third key change compared to the security zone 26 years ago is the fact that the IDF will have a limited number of stationary outposts in southern Lebanon this time, commanders said. Decades ago, the IDF maintained more than a dozen main outposts in southern Lebanon, which became targets for Hezbollah attacks.
Military officials said that the IDF would establish several posts inside the security zone to be able to control it, but the army as a whole would be a lot more "mobile" within the area, to limit the possibility of Hezbollah attacks.
A map released by the IDF on Sunday showed that the security zone crossed the Litani River, a key geographic marker long associated with efforts to push Hezbollah forces northward, and included the historically strategic Beaufort Ridge.
However,
it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... ground troops are not stationed in all of those areas, including the Beaufort Castle. Rather, the map marked areas the IDF controls with both surveillance and firepower, with ground troops only in areas deemed strategically necessary.
’STILL A LOT OF WORK TO DO’
The IDF has said it would clear the area currently under its control in southern Lebanon of Hezbollah infrastructure, operatives, and any other threats, during the ceasefire.
The military believes that several Hezbollah cells remain trapped in the IDF-held territory since the ceasefire took effect, and officers said they would be found sooner or later.
"This is an enemy that mostly retreats, runs away, and tries to evade you until you have left him no room to escape," Moyal said.
Asked if the sudden ceasefire announced by Trump put an unexpected halt to the military’s operations, Moyal said that the timing could not have been better.
"The ceasefire came into effect exactly when we were right at the lines we wanted to reach," he told news hounds. "We operated fully. We reached the places we wanted to be. We captured the villages we wanted to capture. But there is still a lot of work ahead. It will take more time," Moyal said.
The Nahal commander said the IDF has now "created a security area that both prevents direct anti-tank fire toward the northern communities, and also prevents the threat of an infiltration, and allows us to destroy all the remaining infrastructure here."
"Therefore, we still have a lot of work to do," he added.
#1
Next: annexation. Divide into administrative districts, name streetsand start handing out houses to diaspora to return home, but on the condition they have at least five children, with bonuses for every extra child, and a special mother award for large families which can be worn in public. People on buses and trains have to give up their seats to these heroines.
#3
Annexation?? Don’t be absurd, Gephids Wheasing9964. Not ruling over the Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is quite enough responsibility. The plan is to keep Hezbollah beyond shooting distance, and encourage the Lebanese to be civilized within their own borders.
Why on earth do you fall prey to every dumb idea about IsraHell and the Jooooooz that scrolls across your computer screen?
[IsraelTimes] US president says he’s optimistic on prospects for deal, threatens to blow up bridges and power plants if Tehran doesn’t agree to demands; Netanyahu says war is ‘not over yet’
US President Donald Trump ...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania... said Sunday that talks with Iran on extending the ceasefire would resume on Tuesday, while the Islamic Theocratic Republic indicated it was not planning to send a delegation and was pessimistic about the prospects of the talks.
Trump told Fox News that White House envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff would be heading to the Pak capital Islamabad for the negotiations, and if Tehran does not agree to a deal, the whole of Iran would be "blown up."
He told the outlet that bridges and power plants in Iran would be targeted, repeating his threat to target civilian infrastructure — plans that appeared to have been halted after the ceasefire was reached nearly two weeks ago. The break in the fighting is set to expire on Wednesday if an extension is not agreed upon.
Trump told Fox he is demanding that Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz and give up its highly enriched uranium, a demand Tehran has not agreed to.
Iran has consistently denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. However,
a hangover is the wrath of grapes... it enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities, all while repeatedly threatening over the years to annihilate Israel.
Contrary to Trump’s claim, Iranian state media reported on Sunday night that Tehran was not planning to take part in new talks.
"There are currently no plans to participate in the next round of Iran-US talks," state broadcaster IRIB said, citing Iranian sources.
Earlier on Sunday, Iranian news outlet IRNA had pointed to Washington’s "maximalism and unreasonable and unrealistic demands, frequent changes of positions, constant contradictions, and the continuation of the so-called naval blockade," adding that "in these circumstances, there is no clear prospect of fruitful negotiations."
The Fars and Tasnim news agencies, quoting anonymous sources, said Tehran has yet to decide whether it will participate and that "the overall atmosphere cannot be assessed as very positive," with Fars citing one source as saying the lifting of a US blockade on Iranian ports is a precondition for talks. The blockade was imposed in response to Tehran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
TAKE THE DEAL, OR ELSE...
After Sunday’s interview, Trump emphasized his threats on Truth Social, writing: "We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran."
"NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!" he wrote.
He said that the bridges and plants will "come down fast, they’ll come down easy and, if they don’t take the DEAL, it will be my Honor to do what has to be done, which should have been done to Iran, by other Presidents, for the last 47 years."
"IT’S TIME FOR THE IRAN KILLING MACHINE TO END!" he concluded.
Hours after making the explicit threats, Trump told Channel 12 news that he was optimistic about the chances for a deal with Iran.
"The concept of the deal is done. I think we have a very good chance to get it completed," Trump said.
However,
a hangover is the wrath of grapes... according to the same report, Trump did not talk about an impending deal with Iran during a meeting with his top advisers on Saturday, which could be an indication that the US is gearing up for a return to fighting. The report added that Iran’s leadership seems suspicious that Trump’s upbeat talk of a deal could be intended to create cover for a surprise US attack on Iranian targets.
At the same time, an unnamed US official told the outlet that Trump is serious about reaching an agreement with Iran during talks this week in Pakistain.
And so he will continue to be, until suddenly he is not.
Trump also told ABC News that Vice President JD Vance, who led the delegation for last week’s round of talks, would not lead the next one, citing security concerns — despite brass hats suggesting Vance would make the trip.
Earlier in the day, both the US envoy to the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... , Mike Waltz, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright had indicated that Vance would lead the round of negotiations in Islamabad. A White House official also told AFP the vice president would attend, shortly after Trump indicated Vance would not make the trip.
"It’s only because of security," Trump told ABC News of the reason Vance was supposedly not making the trip. "JD’s great."
IRAN DERIDES TRUMP’S ’FOOLISH’ BLOCKADE
Trump’s comments on Sunday came after one of Iran’s chief negotiators, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, termed Trump’s blockade of Iran’s ports "ignorant" and "foolish," and said Tehran would not allow others to transit the Strait of Hormuz if its ships were blocked. He also said Iran’s forces were "fully prepared" for the US to resume hostilities at any moment.
Additionally, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday said Trump has no legitimacy for depriving Tehran of its ostensible nuclear rights. "Trump says Iran cannot make use of its nuclear rights, but doesn’t say for what crime. Who is he to deprive a nation of its rights?" Pezeshkian said.
According to reports, the main areas of dispute in the talks remain the matter of Iran’s nuclear ambitions and the Strait of Hormuz.
On the margins of a diplomacy forum in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... member, but not the most reliable... , Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named on Sunday that his country was not yet ready to hold a new round of face-to-face talks with the US.
Khatibzadeh also said his country will not hand over its enriched uranium to the United States, rejecting claims made by Trump.
"I can tell you that no enriched material is going to be shipped to United States," Khatibzadeh said. "This is nonstarter and I can assure you that while we are ready to address any concerns that we do have, we’re not going to accept things that are nonstarters."
Khatibzadeh said there have been many exchanges of messages between the sides but accused the United States of holding firm on demands Iran deems to be excessive.
He also reiterated Iran’s position that the ceasefire must extend to Leb ...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration.... , where Israel had been fighting with the Hezbollah terror group.
Also speaking at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, Ottoman Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan sounded positive about talks, saying that negotiations were nearly complete, but that a few disagreements remained.
He said he was "optimistic" that both sides would extend the ceasefire to keep talks alive.
Fidan also said that Israel was run by a "fundamentalist government. They are a problem for the whole world. This is not just a problem for Turkey."
IRAN MAINTAINS CLOSURE OF HORMUZ, SAID TO TURN BACK TWO TANKERS
Iran’s armed forces turned back two tankers attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz after issuing warnings, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, saying it came as a result of the continuing US maritime blockade on Iran.
The vessels, sailing under the flags of Botswana and Angola, were forced to change course after what the report described as "unauthorized transit" through the strategic waterway.
On Friday, Tehran had declared the strait open after a ceasefire was reached in Israel’s war with Iran’s ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, triggered by the terror group’s relentless rocket and drone fire at northern Israel. Iran had tied its ceasefire with the US to a halt in Israeli attacks on Hezbollah.
Opening of the strait prompted elation in global markets and sent oil prices plunging, but with Trump insisting the blockade of Iranian ports would continue until a deal is struck to end the wider war, Tehran said it was shuttering the strait once more.
Iran’s foreign ministry said on Sunday the US naval blockade on Iranian ports was a violation of the ceasefire as well as an "unlawful and criminal" act.
"The United States’ so-called ’blockade’ of Iran’s ports or coastline is not only a violation of Pak-mediated ceasefire but also both unlawful and criminal," foreign ministry front man Esmaeil Baghaei said in a post on X.
"Moreover, by deliberately inflicting collective punishment on the Iranian population, it amounts to [a] war crime and crime against humanity," Baghaei added.
#3
If Trump's plan and MO is to out crazy the iranians, it will not work.
They dont care about the Persian people over which they rule. The govt class, minority rule, as i understand, are mostly of foreign Azeri and Arab blood.
Posted by: chris ||
04/20/2026 17:24 Comments ||
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#5
Then there’s this. I don’t know if it’s true, but…
One of the Israeli generals said the blockade will do more damage to the IRGC than every bomb we dropped on them for the last month. https://t.co/eFtZZBrjpt
#6
Rebuilding destroyed/stopped industry and supply chains takes a lot longer than a pause. Keep defying, assholes.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/20/2026 19:40 Comments ||
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#7
^ It seems to be true. Iran is dead broke and unlike us can't just print money - no one will take it. How many enforcers will be satisfied with worthless script.
With little to no oil exported they have no national income.
Posted by: Difar Dave ||
04/20/2026 19:44 Comments ||
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#8
I read somewhere that they haven’t been paid for months, so scrip may not be the issue anymore, Difar Dave.
[IsraelTimes] Uncertainty mounts over truce’s future; Iran accuses US of ‘armed piracy’; French firm says ship targeted by warning shots; UK fears ‘risk of attack or miscalculation’ in strait
The United States announced on Sunday that it had taken custody of an Iranian fat merchantman that attempted to pass a blockade Washington has been maintaining around Iranian ports.
In response, 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 spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... accused the US of breaking the ceasefire in the US-Israeli war, and vowed to retaliate.
The incident cast further doubt over the future of the truce, which is due to expire on Wednesday. Also on Sunday, Iran said it had "no plans" to attend negotiations in Pakistain aimed at ending the war, while Trump threatened to "knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran."
The US has maintained a blockade of Iranian ports, while Iran has lifted and then reimposed its own blockade on marine traffic passing through the Strait of Hormuz, which typically handles roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply. US demands for freedom of movement in the strait, and Iran’s continued obstruction of it, are at the center of negotiations between the countries.
Trump wrote on his Truth Social site that the US had seized an Iranian vessel that tried to run the US blockade.
"Today, an Iranian-flagged fat merchantman named TOUSKA — nearly 900 feet long and weighing almost as much as an aircraft carrier — tried to get past our naval blockade, and it did not go well for them," Trump wrote in the post.
"The US Navy guided missile destroyer USS SPRUANCE intercepted the TOUSKA in the Gulf of Oman, and gave [it a] fair warning to stop," Trump continued. "The Iranian crew refused to listen, so our navy ship stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engineer room. Right now, US Marines have custody of the vessel."
"The TOUSKA is under US Treasury sanctions because of [its] prior history of illegal activity. We have full custody of the ship, and are seeing what’s on board!" the US president added.
Iran’s top joint military command, Khatam al-Anbiya, later accused the US of violating the truce. State media quoted a Khatam al-Anbiya spokesperson as saying that the vessel was en route from China to Iran.
"We warn that the armed forces of the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran will soon respond and retaliate against this armed piracy by the US military," the spokesperson said.
Later on Sunday, the American military published footage showing a US Navy missile destroyer opening fire on the Iranian cargo ship, and provided further details about the incident.
The American destroyer "intercepted M/V Touska as it transited the north Arabian Sea at 17 knots en route to Bandar Abbas, Iran. American forces issued multiple warnings and informed the Iranian-flagged vessel it was in violation of the U.S. blockade," US Central Command said in a statement.
CENTCOM said that after Touska’s crew "failed to comply with repeated warnings over a six-hour period, Spruance directed the vessel to evacuate its engine room." Audio of a US crew member ordering the Iranian ship to vacate the room can be heard in the video shared by CENTCOM.
The missile destroyer disabled the Iranian cargo ship’s propulsion "by firing several rounds from the destroyer’s 5-inch MK 45 Gun into Touska’s engine room."
"U.S. Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit later boarded the non-compliant vessel, which remains in U.S. custody," CENTCOM said.
CENTCOM said its forces "acted in a deliberate, professional, and proportional manner to ensure compliance."
U.S. forces operating in the Arabian Sea enforced naval blockade measures against an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel attempting to sail toward an Iranian port, April 19.
U.S. Marines depart amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli (LHA 7) by helicopter and transit over the Arabian Sea to board and seize M/V Touska. The Marines rappelled onto the Iranian-flagged vessel, April 19, after guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance (DDG 111) disabled Touska’s… pic.twitter.com/mFxI5RzYCS
FRENCH FIRM SAYS SHIP TARGETED WITH WARNING SHOTS
Tensions also remained high over the Strait of Hormuz. French shipping company CMA CGM said that one of its vessels was the target of warning shots in the strait yesterday, and Trump said Iran had fired on French and British ships in the strait.
The International Maritime Organization confirmed that a French-flagged vessel was involved. The IMO, which regulates international shipping, said there have been 24 incidents in the Strait of Hormuz and across the Middle East since March 1.
The latest, on April 18, involved the CMA CGM Everglade, a container ship sailing under the French flag. The IMO said it was damaged north of Kumzar, Oman, though no pollution or injuries were reported.
Trump said today on his social media platform, Truth Social, that Iran had "fired bullets" in the Strait of Hormuz, adding that "many of them were aimed at a French ship and a freighter from the United Kingdom."
The British military, meanwhile, has declared the situation in the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf to be "critical," its highest risk level. The military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, UKMTO, cited "a high level of activity by naval forces in the region."
It said there is a "risk of attack or miscalculation" in the waterway. The UKMTO also cited multiple attacks on Saturday by Iranian forces on vessels passing through the strait.
US ENERGY SECRETARY: GAS PRICES TO REMAIN HIGH
More than 20 vessels passed the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, data from shipping analytics firm Kpler showed, the highest number of ships crossing the waterway since March 1, the war’s second day.
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Sunday, prior to news of the Iranian ship’s seizure, that the US "is not too far away from a deal" with the Iranians.
"There are negotiations with the Iranians going on, despite what you hear in the chatter in public, I think those are actually going well," Wright told "Fox News Sunday."
Wright said Trump is "a creative negotiator" who uses "pressure in different ways, uses uncertainty in different ways."
"I think we’ll have a nice end of this conflict," Wright predicted, adding that restarting shipping "will take time but probably not too much time" once the Strait of Hormuz was reopened.
But oil prices rose in early trading Sunday amid the conflict. The price of U.S. crude oil increased 6.4 percent to $87.90 per barrel an hour after trading resumed on the reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel... Mercantile Exchange. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 5.8% to $95.64 per barrel.
Sunday’s higher prices wiped out much of the declines seen Friday, signaling renewed doubts about how soon ships will again transport the vast amounts oil the world gets from the Middle East.
Asked when he thought US motorists would again see gas cost less than $3 a gallon on average, Wright said prices at the pump might not go down that much until next year.
"But prices have likely peaked, and they’ll start going down," Wright told CNN ...formerly the Cable News Network, now who know what it might stand for... ’s "State of the Union" on Sunday.
A gallon of regular gas costs an average of nearly $4.05 a gallon in the US on Sunday, according to the road assistance group AAA. That’s about 8 cents lower than a week ago, but far higher than $2.98 before the war.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/20/2026 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1894 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Backgroung on TOUSKA
The Touska, which can carry up to around 4,800 20-foot-long containers, had been traveling back from a Chinese chemical-storage port laden with cargo, according to AIS data provided by the global intelligence company Kpler. The Gaolan port is located in Zhuhai, a city on China’s southeastern coast. Experts previously told The Washington Post that it is a known loading port for chemicals including sodium perchlorate, a key precursor for solid rocket fuel that Iran needs for its missile program, though it is not immediately clear what materials were on the ship.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
04/20/2026 11:46 Comments ||
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#Syria 🇸🇾: Members of the Syrian Army have recently released a new video with several notable AR / AK weapons.
One of the fighters is carrying a very rare #Russia-made 🇷🇺 “AK-12 Obr. 2016” assault rifle (likely captured from Syrian SOF or Russian Forces some time ago). pic.twitter.com/Px7oxPJyFo
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans...
...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...
...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade....
...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration....
