[IsraelTimes] Ahavat Hashem Gordon wins technical knockout against Ali Koyuncu, who had baited him with anti-Israel posts ahead of fight; remains undefeated in professional career.
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Today, around 50 military vehicles carrying Taliban militants moved from Ghazni towards Paktia, DandPathan district to start a direct war against Pakistan army.
Today, around 50 military vehicles carrying Taliban militants moved from Ghazni towards Paktia, DandPathan district to start a direct war against Pakistan army.
Al Shabaab appoints a Kenyan national to Oversee Kenya Operations
Al Shabaab has installed a new commander to manage its activities in Kenya after experiencing a noticeable downturn in operations along the Somalia Kenya frontier.
Al Shabaab has installed a new commander to manage its activities in Kenya after experiencing a noticeable downturn in operations along the Somalia Kenya frontier.
According to credible reports, Salmaan Al Muhaajir, a Kenyan by nationality, has been assigned responsibility for the group’s military and internal security apparatus, with a mandate to coordinate attacks and reorganize networks targeting the country. The leadership shift is widely viewed as a response to Kenya’s strengthened counterterrorism measures, which have significantly disrupted the group’s ability to operate and project force within Kenyan territory.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] Recently, US President Donald Trump's Senior Advisor for Africa, Massad Boulos, held a working meeting in Libya with Saddam Haftar, the son and deputy commander of the Eastern Libyan Armed Forces. The Americans invited Haftar and his fighters to join the large-scale Flintlock 26 exercises, scheduled for spring 2026 and held near the city of Sirte.
The visit to Libya of a high-ranking State Department official (who also happens to be the American leader's in-law) sparked considerable controversy. And not just because Washington played a decisive role in starting the country's civil war. Far more concerning were the personal motives of the distinguished guest, who sought to turn the African country into a "family business."
A BUSINESSMAN WITHOUT A BRIEFCASE
Is that like a minister without portfolio?
Although Boulos had been actively involved in the Republican camp since the time of George W. Bush, he only entered big politics in 2024, after being invited to join Trump's team.
Moreover, unlike many of the "transitional period" appointees, the president's matchmaker arrived at the White House with established communication channels. Boulos retained significant connections in Lebanon, where his family has been actively involved for several generations. The American envoy's ancestors sat in the local parliament and held leadership positions, actively influencing public opinion in the country. Boulos himself maintained active contacts with representatives of many Lebanese parties, including Suleiman Frangieh, the leader of the conservative centrist Marada Party (a tactical ally of Hezbollah).
With such a "portfolio," many observers were confident that his rise to a leading position in resolving the conflict between Lebanon and Israel was only a matter of time. However, Boulos's potential was not fully utilized; the Hezbollah disarmament negotiations were completely dominated by Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey and the White House special representative for Syria. He also doubles as the "Saudi group's" confidant within the US administration. Replacing Barrack with Boulos would have complicated the White House's already difficult dialogue with the Arabian monarchies and would have harmed the interests of Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who traded Barrack's participation in the negotiations for support for US projects in Saudi Arabia.
Similarly, the former businessman failed to integrate into the Gaza negotiations, even though Boulos helped the Republicans establish a stable channel of communication between Trump and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. However, the "Qatar-Turkish" group, led by Steve Witkoff, resisted. Unwilling to upset the fragile balance of elite groups around the White House, Trump decided not to play this card either.
Moreover, the idea of pressuring Hezbollah through semi-loyal Christian parties or negotiating Gaza's future with the unpopular Abbas seemed a foregone conclusion to the Republican. So, in both processes, Boulos played a largely technical role.
AFRICAN SUCCESSES
Trump's matchmaker achieved far greater success in Africa. Boulos participated in a mediation mission between the warring Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, ultimately convincing both sides to sign a ceasefire on Washington's terms.
He also managed to extricate three Americans from DRC prisons who participated in the failed anti-government coup of May 2024. This required first winning over the country's president, Félix Tshisekedi, whom the accused had previously attempted to assassinate. However, the State Department's expenses were more than repaid: Kinshasa not only complied with Washington's request but also expressed a willingness to become more actively involved in US diplomatic and economic projects on the continent.
Boulos has even been jokingly nicknamed "Trump's chamberlain" in Africa, as the savvy businessman has had a hand in most of the key deals on the continent concluded in 2025, from a massive American investment program in Nigeria to a joint rare earths mining plan with the DRC.
The US-Africa mini-summit, held at the White House in the summer of 2025, was also partly the brainchild of Boulos and his staff.
FRIENDSHIP AND SERVICE
But let's return to Libya. Boulos made his first attempt to "make inroads" into the country back in April 2025, in the first days after his appointment as Senior Advisor for Africa. He proposed a "comprehensive plan" for reconciling the warring parties, but it failed to gain much support. It was consistently rejected by both East and West Libya, with each side complaining that Washington was "trying to play along" with its opponent instead of addressing real problems.
Trump's matchmaker's attempts to impose his vision of a settlement on individual Libyan politicians at closed meetings (sometimes through persuasion, sometimes through threats) also failed, which caused irritation in the White House.
Boulos then moved on to targeted "cultivation" of key figures in the Libyan political scene, with an emphasis on future faction leaders. Saddam Haftar was among the first figures the Trump adviser met with in Libya after a nearly six-month hiatus.
In preparing for the meeting with him, Boulos took into account previous mistakes and played his trump card, essentially offering the East a “roof” for the duration of joint exercises in Sirte, as well as guarantees that the Tripolitanians (also involved in these exercises) would not use them as cover for preparing a military campaign.
It's worth noting that the Americans' increased activity in the East is no coincidence. In early February, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, one of the sons of the former Libyan leader and a presidential contender, was assassinated in northwestern Libya. His death rocked the country, with warring factions accusing each other of "political assassination" and looking for signs that their counterparts were preparing for a "military revenge." Moreover, it was the East that rattled its sabres most vigorously, seeing the crisis as an opportunity to unite under its banner the younger Gaddafi's former supporters—all those who disagreed with Tripoli's policies.
Here, Boulos partly decided to play on his ambitions: inviting the eastern forces to participate in exercises under the auspices of AFRICOM strengthened their legitimacy in the eyes of other factions, and speaking on equal terms with Haftar Jr. only fueled rumors of an imminent transfer of the eastern commander's position from father to son. Haftar Sr. himself indirectly supports this transfer: in August 2025, he appointed Saddam as his deputy, entrusting him with the most sensitive negotiations, including those related to the possible creation of a unified Libyan armed forces.
Interestingly, this meeting did not provoke a wave of indignation in the other camps. This was largely due to the fact that Boulos's lieutenants had carried out a serious "diplomatic barrage": they organized meetings with Libyan Prime Minister Hamid Dbeibah and other influential Western Libyan officials, and, according to leaks, held talks with General Osama Juwaili, the "governor" of the city of Ez-Zintan (where Gaddafi Jr. had long been hiding) and an "equidistant" force between East and West.
HIDDEN INTEREST
However, when establishing ties with Libyan elites from different camps, Boulos is guided not so much by Washington's foreign policy aspirations as by his own business interests.
Numerous relatives and friends of the adviser have already set their sights on Libya's war-ravaged (but still attractive) oil and industrial sectors. Among the first to be considered is his own son, the young billionaire and Trump's son-in-law, Michael Boulos.
In September 2025, Boulos was already trying to play the role of "good uncle" in negotiations with Libyan bigwigs. At a closed meeting in Doha, he promised his interlocutors to press the Republican administration to unfreeze "tens of billions of dollars" frozen since the overthrow of Gaddafi in 2011. But only on the condition that some of these funds be returned as kickbacks to American companies entering the market.
By a “strange coincidence,” most of the firms named were either connected to relatives of the elder Boulos or had permanent contracts with companies of Turkish billionaire Ercument Bayeganu, the “oil king” of the local market.
Given that Trump's aide's initiative was in stark contrast to UN sanctions imposed on Tripoli, Boulos was accused of conflict of interest and violation of international law. Combined with his dubious connections, this could have spelled the end of his political career.
At that time, the active adviser was saved from consequences not so much by his relationship with the president as by the intercession of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who highly praised Boulos's contribution to advancing US interests on the African continent and saw him, among other things, as a strong counterweight to the "Turkish-Qatari group" led by Witkoff. With great difficulty, the errant politician was saved.
Boulos learned his lesson and, during his current foray into Libya, disguised his business interests as much as possible, shifting the focus to seeking agreement between Libya's "military camps." However, the very next day, numerous economic representatives and businessmen associated with the "Boulos group" rushed in the wake of Trump's advisor. This means that a new conflict of interest is just around the corner.
Quelle surprise. Given their attitudes range from indifference to agreement with the Manchester police chief’s objective, all from a government actively involved in covering up the latest Pakistani grooming gang scandal…
[IsraelTimes] MPs blast police for bogus research, failure to liaise with local Jewish community ahead of Aston Villa game last year, say government’s ‘clumsy’ response inflamed tensions further
A report released Sunday by a panel of UK politicians into the banning of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from a soccer game in Birmingham last year found that police failed to perform basic due diligence or liaise effectively with the Jewish community, while the government’s intervention in the matter failed to improve the situation.
The committee of seven politicians said they found no evidence of a "conspiracy" to keep out the Israeli fans, but said they "cannot rule out the suggestion that political pressure played a part" in what one of the authors — Labour MP Joani Reid — called "among the most serious policing failures in recent years."
According to the report, "evidence was selected partially in order to justify the ban, and West Midlands Police were overly reliant on inaccurate and unverified information about the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans."
"This incident has caused serious damage to trust in West Midlands Police, particularly among the local Jewish community, as well as to public confidence in the effectiveness of the force," the politicians said.
At the same time, the committee noted that by "intervening only after the decision to ban away fans was taken, the Government increased tension around the fixture but was ineffectual in enabling Maccabi Tel Aviv fans to attend."
The findings came after an earlier report, published last month, found that police succumbed to "confirmation bias" in their risk assessments.
In the wake of the January report, local police chief Craig Guildford — who is the subject of two ongoing investigations into potential misconduct — stepped down in January, a move welcomed by the committee on Sunday.
British police used false information to justify the Maccabi ban, having relied for its research on an artificial intelligence program — Microsoft’s AI Copilot — that "hallucinated" a soccer match that had never taken place, in which Maccabi fans had ostensibly caused problems.
Guildford initially denied any use of AI by the force. The politicians’ report issued Sunday said he did not intentionally mislead politicians, but that "it demonstrates a remarkable lack of professional curiosity" that he did not get to the bottom of the matter once concerns were raised.
Additionally, police claimed that hundreds of Maccabi fans had targeted Moslem communities on the night preceding a 2024 game against Ajax in Amsterdam. Dutch police have since disputed that characterization of the confrontation, however, saying Maccabi supporters were targeted.
Following that game, a violent mostly peaceful riot ensued during which local gangs — made up largely of local Moslems and Arabs — attacked Israeli fans, in what Dutch leadership described as an antisemitic act.
The committee on Sunday also criticized Guildford for poor communication with, and about, the local Jewish community, whom the police did not consult before announcing the ban.
"It is not just that West Midlands Police harmed their relations with the Jewish community; their failure to engage may have weakened the robustness of their decision-making," the report argued, noting that the police were already exposed to the views of those who wanted the Israeli fans banned, and "missed an opportunity to hear any contrary views."
The politicians said they found no evidence the ban was motivated by antisemitism, but said the gap between the police’s robust engagement with other communities and its comparatively meager engagement with local Jews "provided a basis for some to perceive" it as such.
The committee also criticized police representatives for seeming to indicate that the Jewish community had signed off on the ban, which was not true. The politicians said they saw no evidence that these misleading comments were deliberate, but that they were nevertheless "surprising and disappointing."
UK GOVERNMENT’S INTERVENTION CAME TOO LATE
Despite the problems with the police force’s actions, the UK government’s intervention — publicly denouncing the decision, once it had already been made — made things worse, the politicians said.
The UK’s Home Office and Department for Culture, Media, and Sport knew by October 8, 2025, that a ban of Maccabi fans was likely, the report said.
"If the Government had intervened privately at this point, to make its preference known, and to offer assurances that the Government was prepared to support with additional resources, a different outcome might have been achieved," the politicians wrote.
Instead, comments like those from UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who called the ban the "wrong decision," only drew more attention to the game, they said.
The chair of the committee, Dame Karen Bradley, told The Guardian that it "should have been obvious" to the government in advance that the game could be a flashpoint.
"Government intervention was clumsy and came too late, and we reject the government’s argument that it could only intervene once the decision was taken," Bradley said. "Their intervention when it came did little more than inflame tensions."
One way to avoid a situation like this in the future, the committee concluded, would be introduce a designation of some soccer matches as "of national significance," allowing for stronger intervention in sensitive cases.
[Reuters] Cuban security advisers and doctors have been leaving Venezuela as Interim President Delcy Rodriguez's government faces intense pressure from Washington to unwind Latin America’s most consequential leftist alliance, according to 11 sources familiar with the matter.
Venezuela’s Interim President Delcy Rodriguez has entrusted her protection to Venezuelan bodyguards, according to four of the sources, unlike deposed president Nicolas Maduro and his predecessor, the late president Hugo Chavez, who both relied on elite Cuban forces.
Thirty-two Cubans were killed in the U.S. military attack that captured Maduro on January 3, according to the Cuban government. These soldiers and bodyguards were part of a deep security agreement between Caracas and Havana that began in the late 2000s in which Cuban intelligence agents embedded throughout the military and Venezuela’s formidable DGCIM counterintelligence unit, which was fundamental to weeding out domestic opposition.
“The Cuban influence was absolutely essential” to the survival of the Chavista government, said Alejandro Velasco, an associate professor of history at New York University and an expert on Venezuela.
Inside DGCIM, some Cuban advisers have been removed from their posts, according to a former Venezuela intelligence official. Some of the Cuban medical workers and security advisers have travelled from Venezuela to Cuba on flights in recent weeks, two of the sources said.
One source close to Venezuela’s ruling party said the Cubans were departing on the orders of Rodriguez due to U.S. pressure. The other sources were not clear on whether the Cubans were being forced to leave by the new Venezuelan leadership, departing of their own accord, or being summoned home by Havana.
The decision to sideline Cubans from the presidential guard and the counterintelligence unit has not been previously reported.
TRUMP WANTS END TO VENEZUELA-CUBA TIES
Prior to the operation to remove Maduro, thousands of Cuban doctors, nurses and sports coaches worked in Venezuela as part of welfare programs begun under Chavez. In exchange, Venezuela provided Cuba with a source of much-needed oil.
Following the U.S. attack, U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to end the security relationship between Venezuela and Cuba. “Cuba lived, for many years, on large amounts of OIL and MONEY from Venezuela. In return, Cuba provided ‘Security Services’ for the last two Venezuelan dictators, BUT NOT ANYMORE!,” he wrote on Truth Social on January 11.
In response to questions about U.S. pressure on Venezuela to cut ties with Cuba, a White House official said the U.S. has “a very good relationship with the leaders of Venezuela” and that it believes that Rodriguez’s “own self-interest aligns with advancing our key objectives.”
Severing Venezuela’s relationship with Cuba is part of Washington’s broader strategy of toppling Havana’s communist-run government. Since mid-December, Washington has blockaded Venezuela from shipping oil to Cuba, economically strangling the island.
The U.S. government is “talking to Cuba, whose leaders should make a deal,” the official said.
The Cuban government has said it is open to dialogue on equal terms, while condemning the oil blockade and vowing to resist U.S. intervention.
Neither the Cuban nor Venezuelan governments responded to requests for comment. The two countries have publicly affirmed their continued relationship.
Rodriguez, the daughter of a former Marxist guerrilla, has been a longtime ally of Maduro and member of Venezuela’s ruling Socialist Party. She’s also personally close to the Cuban government, according to ten U.S. and Venezuelan sources.
Regarding the relationship between the two countries, the White House official said: “President Trump understands that they have to make certain statements for domestic political reasons.”
FLIGHTS BACK TO CUBA
A source familiar with the Cuban government’s thinking said that some military personnel injured in the U.S. attack have returned to Cuba, but that others have remained active in Venezuela. The source also said many Cuban doctors continue to provide care in Venezuela.
Cuba’s state-run media in early January said a suspension of commercial flights and closure of Venezuelan airspace had caused a backlog that prevented Cuba from bringing home doctors from vacations or for ending their missions in Venezuela. Those flights resumed the week after the January 3 U.S. attack, those reports said.
A U.S. source familiar with the matter said that while the Cuban presence is diminishing, some undercover intelligence agents are likely to remain in the country to see how the political situation pans out.
[IsraelTimes] 1 detained; officials say more arrests possible as police investigate Nazi salutes, racist slurs and homophobic insults
Thousands of people marched in southeastern La Belle France on Saturday under heavy security in tribute to a far-right activist whose killing, blamed on the hard left, has put the country on edge.
The crowd — many wearing black and some covering their lower faces with masks — marched through the city of Lyon carrying flowers and placards bearing pictures of Quentin Deranque and the words, "Justice for Quentin" and "The extreme left kills."
The 23-year-old died from head injuries following festivities between radical left and far-right supporters on the sidelines of a demonstration against a politician from the left-wing La Belle France Unbowed (LFI) party in Lyon last week.
The authorities had deployed heavy security, including drones, fearing further festivities at the event that saw at least 3,200 people attend, according to local officials.
Hours before the gathering, French President Emmanuel Macron had urged "everyone to remain" calm.
He said the government would meet next week to discuss "violent mostly peaceful action groups" in the wake of the fatal beating, which has ignited tensions between the left and right ahead of the 2027 presidential vote.
"In the Republic, no violence is legitimate," said Macron, who will be unable to contest next year’s election after hitting the two-term limit.
The march went ahead without festivities, although one person threw an egg from a building, and police said another person was detained for carrying a knife and hammer.
More arrests are possible as police investigate suspects behind Nazi salutes, racist slurs and homophobic insults made during the procession and caught on video shared online, the local prefecture said.
Some residents living along the route hung signs from their windows reading "Lyon is antifa" or "Love is greater than hate."
’DEFEND HIS MEMORY’
Mourners had first gathered in the church frequented by Deranque before his death and his portrait was hung from the facade of the administrative headquarters of the Auvergne—Rhône-Alpes region.
Laurent, a friend of Deranque, attended "to defend his memory" in the setting "where Quentin expressed himself most intensely, namely the Catholic Church and the traditional rite," he said.
One of the rally’s organizers, Aliette Espieux, former spokesperson for the anti-child sacrifice abortion movement, told AFP she wished for a "peaceful tribute."
She hit out, however, at Jordan Bardella, the president of the far-right National Rally party, which senses its best chance ever of scoring the presidency in next year’s vote.
Bardella had urged his supporters not to attend the rally, with Espieux saying, "I don’t find that very honorable."
According to the Deranque family’s lawyer, Fabien Rajon, his parents would not take part in the rally, adding they hoped would go ahead "without violence" and "without political statements."
Several ultra-right-wing groups, including Deranque’s nationalist Allobroges Bourgoin faction, had nonetheless heavily publicized the march on social media, stoking authorities’ concerns of unrest.
CALLS TO BAN RALLY
Ahead of the rally, some residents barricaded the ground floor windows of their apartments in fear.
"At my age, I’m not going to play the tough guy. If I have to go out somewhere, I’ll avoid the places where they’re marching," said Lyon local Jean Echeverria, 87.
"They’ll just keep fighting each other, it’ll never end. Between the extreme of this and the extreme of that, it’s non-stop," he added.
The event went ahead despite calls from Lyon’s left-wing green mayor, Gregory Doucet, and LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard for the state to ban it.
But Interior Minister Laurent Nunez declined to ban the rally, arguing that he had to "strike a balance between maintaining public order and freedom of expression".
Deranque’s death has provoked a reaction from US President Donald Trump ...The cad! Twice caught beating wimmin!... ’s administration, with State Department official Sarah Rogers on Friday branding the killing "terrorism" and claiming that "violent mostly peaceful radical leftism is on the rise."
That came a day after Macron pushed back at comments by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on the death, suggesting she refrain from commenting on La Belle France’s internal affairs.
Six men suspected of involvement in the fatal assault have been charged over the killing, while a parliamentary assistant to a radical left-wing MP has also been charged with complicity.
Kudos to the German hosts, who did their best to keep the festival from being hijacked by the Jew-haters.
[IsraelTimes] A German minister walked out of the awards ceremony of the Berlin Film Festival after a prize-winning director accused Germany of complicity in the “genocide” committed by Israel in Gaza.
Social Democratic Environment Minister Carsten Schneider left the ceremony on Saturday evening because of “unacceptable” remarks, his ministry says.
Syrian-Palestinian director Abdallah Al-Khatib, who picked up a prize for Best First Feature Award with his “Chronicles from the Siege,” said in his speech that the German government “are partners in the genocide in Gaza by Israel. I believe you are intelligent enough to recognize this truth.”
Schneider was the only member of the German government attending the ceremony though he was not representing it, his ministry tells AFP. The Ministry of Culture, contacted by AFP to find out the reason for the absence of its minister Wolfram Weimer, does not respond immediately.
A leading member of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative party, Alexander Hoffmann, denounces what he says were “repugnant scenes” of “antisemitism” during the ceremony.
“The accusations of genocide, the antisemitic outbursts, and the threats against Germany at the Berlinale are absolutely unacceptable,” Hoffmann, head of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian party allied with Merz’s Christian Democratic Union, tells the Bundestag.
The CDU mayor of Berlin Kai Wegner tells newspaper Bild, “The open display of hatred towards Israel is in direct contradiction with what this festival represents.”
The backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East led to a tense 76th edition of the festival.
[IsraelTimes] Tom Shoval’s ‘Letter to David’ first aired at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival but was given a new ending and a second premier after the release of David and Ariel Cunio
[IsraelTimes] A far-left anti-Zionist group plans to stage a protest at the annual commemoration of the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp, drawing sharp criticism across Germany.
The group, Kufiyas in Buchenwald, says it will demonstrate outside the memorial grounds on April 11 after the site banned pro-Palestinian symbols, including the keffiyeh scarf. The campaign, which includes several pro-Palestinian organizations, describes itself as an anti-fascist international movement,
… more Black Bloc/Antifa “Aktion”. How exciting…
and accuses the memorial of “historical revisionism and genocide denial” and of promoting what it calls Israeli propaganda.
Organizers are protesting a 2025 court ruling that upheld the memorial’s right to deny entry to visitors wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh. Participants include activists from Germany’s Left Party youth wing,
…the unaltered East German Communist Party, in a burst of creativity they have called themselves die Linke since 2007…
the German Communist Party and Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East.
…the ones who observeJewish holidays don’t realize they, too, are the hated Zionists because every year they join in the closing cry of the Passover Seder, “Next year in Jerusalem!” Many of the others only identify as Jews in order to be able to browbeat their opponents without any underlying connection to the Jewish community.
Germany’s commissioner for combating antisemitism, Felix Klein, denounces the planned demonstration as “a new low in the reversal of roles between victim and perpetrator.”
Buchenwald was one of the largest concentration camps established within Germany’s borders, and has become one of the country’s central Holocaust memorial sites.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Kamran Gasanov
[REGNUM] Despite systemic and long-standing economic difficulties, Turkey has surprisingly maintained its geopolitical and military influence. Syria is a case in point. In the midst of the lira crisis and inflation, Ankara almost single-handedly succeeded in changing the government in Damascus and transformed itself from a minority group into the dominant force in the Arab country. Recently, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's government built on its success by forcing the disarmament and disbandment of its primary source of intervention—the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).
Turkey is actively promoting its influence in all areas, including Libya, Somalia, Central Asia, and the South Caucasus. In Europe, Turkey's main stronghold is the Balkans, where Ankara manages to befriend both Albanians and Kosovars, Bosnian Muslims, and their adversaries in Belgrade. For the Balkans, Turkey serves both as a hub for the spread of Islam and as an economic partner. The Turkish Stream, which operates through interconnectors in Serbia, Romania, and Hungary, has become a key source of energy security for the region, especially in light of anti-Russian sanctions.
As for the rest of Europe, with the exception of the UK, a traditional ally of Turkey, which has since left the EU, it has been hostile to the Erdoğan administration, with a few exceptions, such as Viktor Orbán, who joined the Organization of Turkic States. Brussels, Paris, and Berlin constantly poured in accusations of human rights violations and criticism of Turkey's military activity in Libya, Syria, Cyprus, and elsewhere. Greece and Cyprus, as EU members, created obstacles to normalizing relations, expanding the customs agreement, not to mention EU accession.
However, with Donald Trump's return to power, Turkey has become a privileged partner of the EU. Amid doubts about American guarantees and Trump's unpredictability, Brussels, along with London, is making every effort to integrate Turkey into the future European security system. After the US and Russia met for the first time in Riyadh, which Europeans perceived as a betrayal of the EU, Erdoğan was invited to the EU leaders' summit in London in early March 2025. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan attended and supported the idea that European security without Turkey is unthinkable.
Subsequently, contacts between Turkey and Europe intensified. In October, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz visited Ankara to pay their respects to Erdoğan. The latter finally approved the supply of Eurofighter fighter jets to Turkey, while the former brought some with him. Italy and Poland are among Turkey's most reliable partners in the EU. Warsaw, through Donald Tusk, openly supported Turkey's accession to the EU, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni facilitated the signing of a defense contract between Baykar and Leonardo for the development of unmanned aerial vehicles. Turkish Defense Minister Yaşar Güler began participating in meetings with his EU counterparts.
Europe wants to draw Turkey into its defense and use it to cover the rear areas that would emerge in the event of a possible US troop withdrawal from the Old World. Trump and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, at their recent meetings in Davos and Munich, made it clear to Europe's freeloaders that it's time for them to take their own defense into their own hands. The EU tirelessly trumpeted that Russia plans to attack it in the next three to five years. Therefore, Turkey is being cast as a shield.
Turkey is pandering to the wishes and hopes of Europeans. Recently, its armed forces deployed drones to participate in the NATO Steadfast Dart 2026 military exercise in the Baltic Sea. The total number of troops deployed reached 10,000. Ankara deployed Bayraktar-TB3 UAVs (with a range of 2,000 km) from the deck of the landing ship TCG Anadolu. The drones, which struck targets at sea, practiced missions in the "harsh winter conditions" of the Baltic Sea.
Matthias Böhnke, spokesman for NATO's Joint Force Command Brunssum, boasted that Turkey made the "largest contribution" to these exercises. The Turkish delegation was indeed impressive: the task force comprised 1,500 personnel. In addition to the landing ship, the ship Derya and the frigates TCG Istanbul and TCG Oruçreis were also present in the Baltic. The latter made headlines in the early 2020s when it accompanied gas exploration offshore Cyprus, antagonizing Paris, Athens, and Nicosia.
Judging by the fact that all the Baltic countries are NATO members, it's not hard to guess who the maneuvers were aimed at. Turkey, unlike its NATO partners, doesn't mention the Russian threat. Naval Commander-in-Chief Ercüment Tatlıoğlu is no exception. He explained the purpose of his forces' participation as "demonstrating the capability of long-range force projection as part of allied cooperation" and "integrating unmanned systems into amphibious operations."
Analyzing the specifics of Turkish foreign policy, it's easy to see that it lacks any commitment or solidarity to Euro-Atlantic security. Especially since NATO has repeatedly demonstrated its friendship with Turkey by criticizing its actions against the PKK in Syria, harboring coup plotters, and stepping aside during the Russia-Turkey conflict over the Su-24. So, Ankara will play on the fears and incentives of the EU and other NATO countries to monetize its own profits. Are Bayraktar sorties in the Baltic not just another advertisement for them, aimed at expanding their European markets?
But whether Turkey will participate in a real battle between the EU and Russia for the sake of Europe, or participate in the arrest of the Russian fleet in the Baltic, risking multi-billion dollar trade, nuclear power plants, and precious oil and gas supplies, is a rhetorical question.
So the key word in Tatlioglu's statement is "long-range power projection." Turkey's ambitions are growing in the face of global confrontation and competition. The more powerful Turkish weapons are, the easier it will be to advance its geopolitical interests. Understanding this simple truth, the leadership in Ankara is busy building up and modernizing its military capabilities.
Thus, immediately after the NATO exercises, Erdogan made it clear that his country, which already independently produces drones, tanks, missiles, ships, and helicopters, is aiming to build aircraft carriers. It must be said, not every country in the world has these "floating airfields." Of course, owning aircraft carriers doesn't automatically make you a great power. Examples include Thailand and, to some extent, Italy. But Turkey wants all the attributes of a great power. Otherwise, Erdogan's statement, "Not a single problem in the world can be solved without us," seems populist.
Other missing attributes include a strong economy, a strong currency, a seat on the UN Security Council, and nuclear weapons. Ankara's currency and economy are faring poorly. However, Erdogan has been talking about revising the UN Security Council for a long time. The Turkish government is less forthcoming about nuclear weapons. However, in February, Fidan first raised the possibility of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East if the US pushes Iran to acquire WMD. For now, Turkey, like Europe, relies more on NATO's nuclear shield. However, if Ankara plans to remove American warheads from Incirlik Air Base, they can only be replaced with domestic ones.
Nuclear weapons are a long-term prospect, while aircraft carriers are a medium-term project. A more feasible and anticipated defense project in the near term is fighter jets. The Turkish company TAI has already built the second prototype of the state-of-the-art fifth-generation KAAN fighter. These aircraft are being considered as an alternative to the F-35, which the US has not jointly produced with Turkey due to its purchase of Russian S-400 air defense systems.
The modified KAAN is 20 meters shorter than the first version and is wider in the middle to accommodate more missiles. Three completed prototypes are already at the factory, with their first flights scheduled for May–June 2026. Serial production will follow three years later. Like the F-35, the KAAN incorporates stealth technology.
Despite the Trump administration's friendly approach, the US is not happy about Turkey's military-industrial complex becoming independent. Congress still refuses to grant licenses for General Electric engines. Fidan has already complained about this. Not only is the US slowing down KAAN production, but they are also hindering its future exports. The White House has already demanded an explanation from Saudi Arabia for its intention to purchase Turkish F-35 equivalents.
In short, while news about the militarization of Europe dominates the news agenda, Turkey is doing the same. Ankara is clearly aiming to expand beyond its status as a regional power and will seek to increase its influence in Central Africa, the Mediterranean, the Caspian Sea, and the Persian Gulf. And achieving all these goals without aircraft carriers, fighter jets, and bombers will be extremely difficult.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/23/2026 00:00 ||
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[1812 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
The man who entered Trump's Mar-a-Lago property with a shotgun and gas canister comes from a family of Trump supporters and became 'obsessed' by the administration's handling of the Epstein files.
Austin Tucker Martin, 21, was shot and killed on Sunday morning after entering President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.
Braeden Fields, Martin's cousin, reacted with disbelief, calling Martin 'quiet' and saying his family was almost entirely in favor of Trump.
'We are big Trump supporters, all of us. Everybody,' Fields said, but his cousin was 'real quiet, never really talked about anything.'
Martin himself was also allegedly a Trump supporter, expressing his belief in Trump as recently as late last year, anonymous co-workers told TMZ.
However, a text message uncovered by the outlet shows that Martin may have been influenced by the Department of Justice's release of the files related to dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
On February 15, just a week before he was killed by law enforcement, he texted a co-worker at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club in North Carolina about the files.
'I don't know if you read up on the Epstein Files, but evil is real and unmistakable,' Martin said.
President Trump has never been charged with any involvement in any wrongdoing involving Epstein and has long said he cut ties with the financier over 20 years ago.
Co-workers said that Martin - who was open about his Christian faith - was fixated on the Epstein saga and said he would talk about the elites 'getting away with it.'
They also described him as becoming increasingly frustrated by the state of the US economy and having fruitlessly tried to start a union at his place of work.
However, Fields described Martin as quiet, afraid of guns and from a family of avid Trump supporters.
'He's a good kid,' Fields, 19, said. He said they grew up together. 'I wouldn't believe he would do something like this. It's mind-blowing,' Fields said.
Fields said Martin worked at a local golf course and would send money from each paycheck to charity.
'He wouldn't even hurt an ant. He doesn't even know how to use a gun,' Fields said.
Fields said his cousin didn't discuss politics.
His family said on Facebook that Martin was last heard from on Saturday just before 8pm after he left his $1.1million home in Cameron, North Carolina, at around 1pm.
'This is not like him at all,' his devastated aunt wrote.
Martin lived with his parents at the secluded, countryside home - and the young man had a fascination with drawing golf courses in his spare time, an Instagram account linked to him showed.
'I specialize in pen illustrations centered around landscapes, architecture, and scenery,' he wrote in a brief description.
He posted dozens of photos of scenes from golf courses, buildings, and countryside shots in both black and white and color.
Martin was also seemingly religious - captioning one of his drawings of an ornate garden with: 'Thank you for this gift, Dear Lord,' alongside a Christian emoji.
Photos of Martin, posted by his family online, showed him smiling with his siblings and parents.
Posted by: NN2N1 ||
02/23/2026 07:43 ||
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[1793 views]
Top|| File under: Nut Jobs
Martin was from central North Carolina, where guns and hunting are a part of life, his cousin said. But whenever they'd go hunting or target shooting, Martin would never pick up a gun, Fields told The Associated Press on Sunday.
He lived with his mother in a modest modular house down a rutted sandy road near the town of Cameron. No one answered the door Monday, and the large police presence from the day before was gone.
Martin’s sister was killed in a car accident a few years ago and he has an older brother who’s in the military, Fields said.
For the past three years, Martin worked as a groundskeeper at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club.
Martin last year started a business to sell pen drawings he made, according to state records. A website matching the company name features illustrations of golf courses, buildings and ancient Roman architecture.
Politics didn’t seem to be among his interests, his cousin said
[IsraelTimes] Haaretz reports on Israeli efforts to improve the nation’s eroding image to the American right, allegedly paying millions of dollars to various public relations firms to create online campaigns.
It focuses specifically on various websites recently set up to push the importance of shared Judeo-Christian values and support the Israeli government’s nationalist agenda. The sites present themselves as “research” and “education” platforms dedicated to advancing Israeli-American ties. The report says the sites support the expansion of West Bank settlements, disparage the Palestinian Authority and push other talking points of the current, hard-right Israeli government.
A paper published by one such website, Culturavia.org, is titled, “Why Palestinianism Conflicts With Christian Moral Teaching.” Another, on the website Innovascope.org, is headlined “Israeli Defense Firms Help Keep US Soldiers Safe With Precision Drone Technology.” Yet another, on Cognitura.org, is titled “The Political Invention of a Palestinian Entity.”
The websites are all structured similarly, and, according to Haaretz, appear built to maximize influence on AI chatbots as they scan web resources to provide answers to users’ questions.
Haaretz identifies Brad Parscale’s PR firm Clock Tower X as being behind the campaign. It says the company and the Israeli Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
#1
Won't work. These are 20th century methods. Should hire video game streamers with followers in the dozens or thousands and build them up. They're poor and live in Mom's basement, highly susceptible to money.
Or better yet, promise to find them girlfriends. But if that ever happened they'd stop streaming and buy a house with the money.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/23/2026 13:08 Comments ||
Top||
#3
A single streamer gets more viewers than NBC, CBS and ABC put together in prime time.
Ignore them at your peril. Asmongold is just the tip of the iceberg. He's a moderate. It goes MUCH deeper and darker than that. Ever since Elon bought Twitter that uncorked the genie and it's wreaking havoc among the young who don't know anything about the world or why things are the way they are. They just know their little sister got her breasts cut off and are angry at...someone. Streamers tell them who to be angry at.
[IsraelTimes] Preparations for Gaza’s reconstruction are underway on the eastern side of the Yellow Line, which constitutes the 53% of Gaza under IDF control, Channel 12 reports, even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserts that Israel will not allow rebuilding to begin before terror groups in the Strip disarm.
Engineering work is being carried out to clear rubble for the rehabilitation of the Strip, according to the TV report, which cites an internal document from the Civil-Military Coordination Center in Kiryat Gat, which oversees the Gaza ceasefire, assessing that over 70,000 tons of rubble have already been cleared as of the middle of January.
According to the internal document, which the report says summarizes the first 100 days of the ceasefire, the work was done specifically to prepare for the rehabilitation of Gaza, including the building of a housing complex for displaced Palestinians near Rafah in the southern Strip. Senior White House aid Jared Kushner said last month that construction would first focus on building “workforce housing” in Rafah, claiming that rubble-clearing and demolition were already underway there.
Yakir Gabay, a member of the Trump administration’s Board of Peace Gaza Executive Board, said last week that Gaza reconstruction will begin by clearing over 70 million tons of rubble and unexploded ordnance from the territory, along with hundreds of miles of tunnels.
Channel 12 airs footage showing heavy engineering equipment used for the works, as well as satellite imagery revealing areas from which rubble has been cleared.
The IDF tells the network in a statement that the work was carried out “in accordance with the directives of the political echelon. IDF forces are operating in the Strip to neutralize threats and dismantle terrorist infrastructure.”
“In addition, engineering activities are being conducted, such as roadwork and terrain preparation, which were determined in accordance with the operational situational assessment,” the statement adds.
The Prime Minister’s Office and the CMCC decline to comment on the report.
[IsraelTimes] A senior Hamas official tells AFP that the terror group is in the final phase of selecting a new leader, with two prominent figures competing for the position.
Hamas recently completed the formation of a new Shura Council, a consultative body largely composed of religious scholars, as well as a new political bureau.
Members of the council are elected every four years by representatives from Hamas’s three branches: the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and the movement’s external leadership.
Hamas prisoners in Israeli jails are also eligible to vote.
The council subsequently elects the political bureau, which in turn selects the head of the movement.
“The movement has completed its internal elections in the three regions and has reached the final stage of selecting the head of the political bureau,” the official says, speaking on condition of anonymity as he is not authorized to speak publicly.
He adds that the race for the group’s leadership is now between Khaled Mashaal and Khalil al-Hayya.
A second Hamas source confirms the development within the organization, which led a devastating attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and subsequently fought a two-year sparked by the assault.
Hayya, 65, a Gaza native and Hamas’s chief negotiator in ceasefire talks, has held senior roles since at least 2006, according to the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), a US-based organization.
Mashaal, who led the political bureau from 2004 to 2017, has never lived in Gaza. He was born in the West Bank in 1956.
He joined Hamas in Kuwait and later lived in Jordan, Syria and Qatar. The CEP says he oversaw Hamas’s evolution into a political-military hybrid.
He currently heads the movement’s diaspora office.
Last month, a Hamas source told AFP that Hayya enjoys backing from the group’s armed wing, the Izz a-din Al-Qassam Brigades.
After Israel killed former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July 2024, the group chose its then-Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar as his successor.
Israel accused Sinwar of masterminding the October 7 attack.
He too was killed by Israeli forces in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, three months after Haniyeh’s assassination.
Hamas then opted for an interim five-member leadership committee based in Qatar, postponing the appointment of a single leader until elections, given the risk of the new chief being targeted by Israel.
[IsraelTimes] NYT details succession plans, says Iran views US strikes as ‘inevitable and imminent’; official says US willing to hold another round of talks Friday if Iran submits proposal soon
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has put in place detailed plans for his succession and emergency chains of command should he, or other top leaders, be killed in potential US or Israeli strikes, The New York Times reported Sunday, also detailing how he elevated longtime loyalist Ali Larijani to manage the crisis.
The United States and Iran last week resumed Oman-mediated talks in Geneva aimed at potentially reaching an agreement, after Washington dispatched two aircraft carriers, many jets and a massive amount of weaponry to the region to back up its warnings.
Also Sunday, senior US officials told the Axios news site that America is willing to send negotiators for further talks with Iran in Geneva this Friday, if Tehran presents a new draft proposal for a nuclear deal within 48 hours.
Officials were cited as saying that this is likely the last chance for diplomatic resolution before Washington launches a major military operation.
According to the New York Times report, at the height of nationwide protests last month and amid rising US threats of military action, Khamenei tapped Larijani — a former Revolutionary Guards commander and veteran politician — to a central governing role, effectively placing him at the helm of state affairs and undermining the powers of President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Citing interviews with senior Iranian officials, members of the Revolutionary Guards and former diplomats, the Times report said that Larijani has since overseen the recent brutal crackdown on protests, managed sensitive nuclear diplomacy with Washington, and coordinated with allies and neighbors including Russia, Qatar and Oman.
He was also said to be leading wartime planning as Iran braces for possible US strikes. The report said that Iran was operating on the assumption that US strikes were “inevitable and imminent.” As such, Iranian forces were on the highest level of alert and prepared to resist.
Iran has been placing its missiles near the Iraqi border, where they can target Israel, and along the Persian Gulf, where they threaten US military bases in the region. Iran has also repeatedly conducted missile tests and drills in the key Hormuz Straights as it gears up for war.
INTERNAL CONTROL
The report also detailed the preparations Iran was making to ensure there was no internal loss of control in the event of war.
The officials said that if hostilities break out, special forces units of the police, intelligence agents and battalions of the plainclothes Basij militia, a subsidiary of the Guards, will deploy across cities, setting up checkpoints to stop protests and possibly identify those working for foreign agencies.
On Sunday, the opposition outlet Iran International reported that Iranian students were holding fresh waves of nationwide anti-regime rallies, commemorating those killed in recent protests and voicing opposition to the Islamic Republic.
According to the report, demonstrations have taken place at the University of Tehran, Sharif University of Technology, Shahid Beheshti University, Ferdowsi University, Khajeh Nasir University, and the University of Art.
Iran International, a media outlet based outside the country and branded a “terrorist” organization by Tehran, shared a video on social media of students holding up the flag at Sharif University, as well as videos of rallies at other institutions of higher learning.
A video geolocated by AFP of what appeared to be the same demonstration at Sharif University showed a large crowd around the flag-waving students chanting “long live the shah” and other anti-government slogans.
Members of the Basij paramilitary force have reportedly entered some campuses in an effort to identify protesters.
Others staged competing pro-regime protests as students rallied on Saturday at the start of the new university semester to mark the 40th day since the deaths at the peak of the protests on January 8 and 9, in line with Shiite mourning tradition.
LESSONS FROM 12-DAY WAR
Much of Khamenei’s preparations come as a result of the lessons learned by Iran in the wake of the 12-day war fought with Israel in June, when Israeli strikes killed much of the Iranian military leadership in the opening hours of the conflict, and amid fears that the Americans will try and kill the supreme leader.
As such, Khamenei has taken a series of steps to try and ensure the continuity of the regime and of the military leadership, including naming four layers of succession for each of the military command and government roles that he personally appoints.
Khamenei also instructed all people in leadership roles to name up to four replacements, the Times report said.
He has also delegated responsibilities to a close inner circle that could make decisions in the event that he is out of contact or killed, chief among them Larijani.
Other senior leaders mentioned include top military adviser and former commander-in-chief of the Guards, Maj. Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi; Brig. Gen. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a former Guards commander and current speaker of parliament; and Khamenei’s chief of staff, the cleric Ali Asghar Hejazi.
The Times said Ghalibaf has been designated Khamenei’s de facto deputy to command the armed forces during war.
The report said Khamenei had identified three potential successors while he was in hiding during the war with Israel, but they have not been publicly named.
The report noted that while Larijani would be tasked with the de facto running of the country, he would not be considered a successor for the role of supreme leader, as he is not a senior Shiite cleric.
LARIJANI IN CHARGE
Nevertheless, analysts said that Khamenei “fully trusts” Larijani to manage the crisis and lead should Khamenei be killed.
“The supreme leader fully trusts Larijani. He believes Larijani is the man for this sensitive juncture because of his political track record, sharp mind and knowledge,” Nasser Imani, a conservative analyst close to the government, told the Times. “He relies on him for reports on the situation and pragmatic advice. Larijani’s role will be very pronounced during war.”
The report highlighted how Larijani’s ascension has come at the expense of Pezeshkian, detailing how the president had to request that Larijani lift the internet blockade and grant permission to Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to establish contact with US President Donald Trump’s chief negotiator, Steve Witkoff.
LAST CHANCE TALKS
Witkoff and fellow negotiator Jared Kushner have been waiting for a detailed offer from Tehran since their last talks with Araghchi on Tuesday.
A senior US official told Azios that the two Americans plan to be in Geneva on February 27 if the Iranians send their proposal early this week.
“If Iran gives a draft proposal, the US is ready to meet in Geneva on Friday in order to start detailed negotiations to see if we can get a nuclear deal,” the official said.
The official also said that the Trump administration and Iran could also discuss the possibility of an interim agreement before a full nuclear deal is agreed.
However, officials warned this could be the last chance for a deal.
[IsraelTimes] Army steps up efforts to degrade terror group’s missile capabilities, no longer assessing proxy will stay out of fight should US strike Tehran, amid heavy Iranian pressure and $1 billion for rehab
The Israeli military in recent weeks has stepped up Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s against Hezbollah in Leb ...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?... , with assessments indicating that the Iran-backed terror group may join Tehran in a new conflict against Israel.
Strikes carried out by the Israeli Air Force on Friday night targeted three Hezbollah command centers belonging to the terror group’s missile force in eastern Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley, killing eight terror operatives, including a top commander.
The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that Hezbollah’s missile force had recently been working to improve its ability to launch rockets at Israel.
The strikes, according to military sources, were intended to degrade Hezbollah’s rocket and missile capabilities in case the group should try to resume hostilities.
With tensions between Washington and Tehran threatening to bring war back to the region, the military has identified preparations by Hezbollah — particularly by its rocket and missile forces — to strike Israel if the US military attacks Iran, the sources said.
According to Israeli assessments, 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... has recently been pressuring Hezbollah to fight alongside it in the event of a war with Israel. During the 12-day war with Iran in June, Hezbollah secretary general Naim Qassem ... the Grand Vizier of the Hezbullies... received several requests — not orders — from Iran to join the conflict, but declined, according to IDF officials.
In the event of a conflict between the US and Iran, Tehran can be expected to activate its proxy forces arrayed around the region against Israel, including Hezbollah, 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'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 Jews They 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... s and militias in Iraq, according to the recent Israeli assessments. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps would also launch attacks.
Hezbollah is widely considered to be Iran’s most prized proxy, built up over decades as a strategic deterrent for Tehran situated on Israel’s northern border, and ties between the terror group and the Islamic Theocratic Republic are thought to go deeper than the handsome funding Iran provides.
The refusal in June showed that Hezbollah had managed to carve out some measure of independence and the military previously assessed that Hezbollah was less likely to act against Israel, instead being focused on trying to restore its capabilities following the 2024 war.
However,
there's more than one way to skin a cat... with Iranian pressure and around a billion dollars in funding handed over in the past year, the Israeli defense establishment now assesses that Hezbollah could join Iran in a new conflict against Israel.
There are also signs that Tehran is now exerting greater control over its proxy. On Saturday, Saudi outlet al-Arabiya reported that IRGC officers have effectively taken charge of Hezbollah in anticipation of a war with the US and Israel.
The IRGC officers, some of whom recently arrived in Lebanon from Iran, were tasked with rebuilding Hezbollah’s military capabilities, al-Arabiya said, citing sources close to Hezbollah.
The Iranian officers have also been personally briefing Hezbollah operatives across Lebanon, said the unnamed sources cited by al-Arabiya.
They added that IRGC officers were meeting with members of Hezbollah’s missile unit at a site in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley that was bombed by Israel on Friday.
Israel has consistently targeted what it says are Hezbollah attempts to rebuild its force following a November 2024 ceasefire that ended a year of conflict between Israel and the terror group.
Such strikes have been carried out on a near-daily basis, with the IDF saying it has killed over 400 Hezbollah operatives and members of allied terror groups in that time.
However,
there's more than one way to skin a cat... Friday night’s strike against the Hezbollah missile force operatives was among the deadliest since the start of the ceasefire.
The IDF said the strike "eliminated a large number of operatives belonging to the missile array of the Hezbollah terror organization," and the terror group confirmed the deaths of eight operatives, including a senior officer.
Hezbollah identified one of the operatives, Hussein Mohammed Yaghi, as a "commander," indicating he was a bigwig in the terror group. Hezbollah rarely refers to its operatives slain in Israeli strikes as commanders, saving the designation only for a handful of senior officers in the terror group killed by the IDF.
There has been no indication from Iran or Hezbollah that any of those killed were members of the IRGC.
Friday’s strike comes after a series of other Israeli attacks in Lebanon in recent weeks, including raids on weapon depots, missile launchers, and other military sites belonging to the terror group on Thursday, on February 15, and on February 5; and the elimination of at least eight other Hezbollah operatives, two Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... operatives and two Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... members since the start of the month.
The Iran-backed group is considered by the IDF to have been heavily degraded, mostly as a result of the two months of open warfare between September and November 2024, but also from the near-daily Israeli strikes after the ceasefire took effect.
According to Israel, 70-80% of the group’s rocket fire capabilities have been destroyed.
However,
there's more than one way to skin a cat... the terror group is still believed by the military to be a potent force, with its rocket and missile capabilities especially concerning.
The IDF has estimated that Hezbollah still possesses several thousand rockets — the vast majority of them short-range projectiles like mortars. Most of Hezbollah’s weapons are located in areas north of the Litani River, the army says, after the military destroyed the terror group’s infrastructure closer to the border, meaning they are too far away to threaten Israel.
But the group still has several hundred medium- and long-range missiles that can reach deep into Israel, according to the military.
Therefore, the IDF has been operating to thwart any attempt by Hezbollah to build up its capabilities in all areas of Lebanon, not just in the south.
Since January, the IDF has been on high alert and has carried out various preparations over concerns that Tehran or its proxies could attack in response to US military strikes on Iran, which US President Donald Trump ...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania... has threatened to carry out.
Preparations have largely focused on the military’s air defense array, attack plans, intelligence, and the Home Front Command, according to the IDF.
In recent weeks, Trump has amassed military forces in the region and repeatedly threatened to use them against Iran, first over the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s brutal crackdown on anti-regime protesters last month and more recently over its nuclear program.
Israeli leaders have said the country will launch strikes on Iran should it be targeted by Iran in response to American actions.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir on Thursday said the military’s "eyes are open in every direction, and our finger is tighter on the trigger than ever."
[IsraelTimes] Iran made a secret 500 million euro ($589 million) arms deal with Russia to acquire thousands of advanced shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, the Financial Times reports.
The agreement, signed in Moscow in December, commits Russia to deliver 500 man-portable “Verba” launch units and 2,500 “9M336” missiles over three years, the FT says, citing leaked Russian documents seen by the FT and several people familiar with the deal.
Under the deal the deliveries are scheduled in three tranches, running from 2027 through 2029, the FT says.
The deal was negotiated between Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport and the Moscow representative of Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL), the FT says.
Tehran formally requested the systems last July, according to a contract seen by the FT. In June last year, US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites as the country joined Israel’s military campaign against Iran.
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin
[ColonelCassad] The war against Iran in the summer of 2025 ended in failure. Or it was another step in a stepwise progression, not intended to be the final one — though neither America not Israel would have complained had it turned out to be.
Trump's Special Envoy Steve Witkoff reported that the war against Iran in the summer of 2025 was a failure and failed to deprive Iran of the ability to obtain nuclear weapons. This is precisely what was being said while "experts" on our social media were blatantly burying Iran.
In fact, from a military standpoint, Iran, thanks to its missile cities, was able to draw the war against Israel and the United States, while retaining both the ability to continue the war (22 of 24 missile sites were operational by the end of the war) and hundreds of kilograms of enriched uranium. Key facilities in Fordow and Isfahan also survived (the Natanz facility was seriously damaged).
Since the 2025 war failed to produce the desired result, and the attempt to organize a Maidan in Iran recently failed, we are witnessing yet another attempt to overthrow the Iranian regime through the issuance of ultimatums with unacceptable conditions and the threat of direct military aggression.
Iran absolutely must be prepared for war, where its goal is to prolong the conflict as much as possible and inflict serious damage on US and Israeli assets in the region in order to increase the costs for its opponents. The key variable is assistance from China and Russia.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/23/2026 00:00 ||
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[1774 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
But not total failure.
Given the most recent Iranian People upraising.
It is clear, that it showed its people that the dictatorship, they are forced to live under, is very vulnerable.
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.
...The cad! Twice caught beating wimmin!...
[IsraelTimes] Preparations for Gaza’s 
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
