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The Grand Turk
Tightening the noose: Turkey revokes license of Iran's Bank Mellat
2026-09-20
[AnNahar] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
 has revoked the license of Iran's Bank Mellat, a semi-private financial entity that has been subject to Western sanctions for years, the official gazette said early Saturday.

The decision was announced some two weeks after Washington slapped sanctions on a Ottoman Turkish bank over alleged ties to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) although it was not immediately clear whether the two issues were related.
The smart money says even if they were not, President Erdogan was clever enough to see the warning.
The move follows a decision by Turkey's banking regulator over the Tehran-based bank, which provides financial support to Iran's government and is subject to U.S., EU and UK sanctions, according to OpenSanctions, an open-source database of information on sanctions-hit entities.

The Iranian government is also the largest shareholder of the bank, it said.

In revoking Bank Mellat's license, the Ottoman Turkish regulator cited article 71b of the banking law, which says the entity's "continued operation poses a threat to the rights of depositors and participation fund holders and to the security and stability of the financial system".

Bank Mellat has been subjected to Western sanctions for years over accusations Tehran was pursuing an atomic weapon under the cover of a civil nuclear program.

Those sanctions were lifted as part of a landmark 2015 deal between Tehran and world powers to curb its nuclear ambitions.

But the U.S. unilaterally pulled out of the deal in May 2018, reimposing biting economic sanctions on Iran.

Bank Mellat was also hit by U.S. and Gulf sanctions in 2019 after being named as one of 25 entities linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

- U.S. STEPS UP PRESSURE -
On September 4, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Turkey's Golden Global Bank over its alleged ties to the Revolutionary Guards as it sought to step up financial pressure on Iran.

The Ottoman Turkish investment bank denied the accusations.

A few days later, Washington imposed sanctions on 36 entities, including three Ottoman Turkish ground services companies, for helping Iran's Mahan Air -- a civilian carrier accused of supporting the Revolutionary Guards.

Following the move, Mahan Air said this week it would suspend all flights to Turkey from September 21 at the request of Ottoman Turkish aviation authorities, Iran's ISNA news agency reported. The Ottoman Turkish authority did not respond to a request for comment.

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 Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
has been at war since late February, when the United States and Israel launched a surprise bombing campaign that killed the Islamic republic's supreme leader.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said Washington was declaring an "economic D-Day" on Iran, warning of harsh consequences for countries that do not join the campaign.

The move by Turkey's banking regulator comes just days before President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...
 is reportedly due to hold talks with U.S. President Donald Trump
...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania...
 on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, which begins in New York on Tuesday.
Got it. His Excellency wants to have something that can be made to look solid to show The Donald when they get together.
Related:
Bank Mellat: 2019-10-31 US, Gulf allies sanction Hezbollah-Iran network
Bank Mellat: 2018-10-18 Closer look at Iran’s Basij wings targeted in latest bout of US sanctions
Bank Mellat: 2018-10-17 US imposes new sanctions targeting Iran banks, companies
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran’s Attempts to Get Around the Hormuz Blockade Are Hitting a Wall
2026-09-20
[WallStreetJournal] While Saudi Arabia and others find workarounds, bottlenecks are threatening Iran’s economy

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 Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
vowed to respond to a U.S. blockade by pushing more trade overland. On the ground, it isn’t going according to plan.

Hundreds of Iranian truck drivers are currently stuck at Iran’s border with Pakistain, unable to send their goods into Tehran’s neighbor. They say they are facing worsening bureaucratic hurdles and costs, many caused by their own government. The same thing is happening at Iran’s land borders with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...a NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
 member, but not the most reliable...
, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, dealing Tehran a self-inflicted blow and throttling trade through its few remaining economic release valves.

Tons of stranded apricots have been spoiled because of the delays. Lucrative cargoes of iron ore, cement and bottled gas are stuck at entry points to the Pak and Afghan borders, truckers say.

"Neither Iran is taking responsibility for the situation, nor is Pakistain allowing us to unload our cargo," one driver says in a video posted by the Union of Truckers and Drivers Organizations Across Iran over the weekend.

The economic war in the Persian Gulf is dictated as much by how much the countries in the region can move their exports over land rather than through the Strait of Hormuz. Some have found workarounds. 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...
 is moving more of its oil west across the Arabian Peninsula. The U.S. Navy is helping some of the Gulf nations shift their oil through the strait.

Iran’s attempts are faltering. The U.S. is isolating its economy with new sanctions and launching strikes on Iranian tankers in reprisal for Tehran’s attacks on its Navy, collapsing seaborne exports.

In another setback for Iran’s plans to bypass Hormuz, the country’s Mahan Air, which is sanctioned by the U.S., said Wednesday that it was suspending flights to Oman and Turkey, state-affiliated media in Tehran said. Last week, the U.S. Treasury imposed new sanctions on companies it said were supporting Mahan, which operates cargo and passenger services.

The U.S. blockade has also hurt Iran’s imports of basic goods, 70% of which normally go through the blockaded ports. Though humanitarian goods and food are ostensibly exempt, the reality is that shippers are reluctant to service Iran.

Videos posted on social media last week show cranes at the Port of Shahid Rajaee, Iran’s largest commercial container port, at a standstill. Thousands of containers are stranded in ports in Pakistain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, transportation professionals in Tehran last month told the Mehr News Agency
...And if you can't believe Mehr News Agency who can you believe?...
, which is affiliated with Iranian security services.

Iran has tried to compensate by pushing more trade through other routes. Transits across the Caspian Sea have grown by 70% in the past five months, according to Iranian officials. Iran imports large quantities of its wheat, corn and cooking oil from Russia, according to commodities data provider Kpler and Iranian trading websites.

"We are trying to turn this threat into an opportunity," Hadi Haghshenas, the governor of the Iranian province of Gilan, on the Caspian Sea, told state news agency IRNA in late August.

A freight railroad from Tehran to Xi’an in eastern China has jumped from once-a-week journeys to every three or four days since the blockade started, according to the state-controlled Tehran Times. Iran imports industrial machinery, electronics and automotive spare parts from China.

But in a sign of how vulnerable the alternative routes are, Iraq over the weekend temporarily closed cargo terminals at the Iran border after alleging Iran had used its territory to attack Saudi Arabia. On Sunday, trucks carrying Iranian onions bound for Iraq were forced to turn back as a result, according to Tehran’s Central Fruit and Vegetable Market.

Iran’s land borders were a mess before these latest closures, though. This summer, for example, the number of trucks going through Pishin, one of the main crossings into Pakistain, increased from about 40 vehicles to as many as 130 vehicles a day, local governor Rahimbakhsh Balidehei told the semiofficial ISNA News Agency. The result is that customs officers across Iran’s land borders are struggling to cope, Ehsan Malekzadeh, chairman of the Iranian International Transport Companies Association, told the Mehr News Agency.

People gathered at the Iraq-Iran border after the Shalamsheh border crossing was closed.

Malekzadeh said 3,700 trucks were stranded on the Iranian side of the crossing to Turkey, with delays reaching 20 days. At the main crossing into Pakistain, 700 trucks—mostly carrying bottled gas and cement—are waiting at any time, but only 40 are allowed to cross, according to the Baloch Human Rights Documentation Network, a local civic group.

One driver told Iran’s official news agency IRNA he was stuck for days at the Pakistain side of the border with meat destined for Iran, where prices are spiraling higher. At the border with Afghanistan, truckers also complain they have to wait for days before being able to export Iranian iron ore, according to Iran’s Truckers’ Union.

Iranian truckers trying to get into Pakistain say they can be stuck for several days without access to water, food or sanitation as temperatures rise to 122 degrees Fahrenheit, according to footage, published by the Truckers’ Union on its social-media account. The union said some bottled-gas tankers are crossing into Pakistain. But the Pak authorities asked Iranian drivers for the equivalent of more than $10,000 each to cross, an unprecedented amount, it said. A front man for Pakistain’s Foreign Ministry said he wasn’t aware of any new charges or restrictions at Pakistain’s border with Iran.

Meanwhile,
...back at the desert island, Irene was indignant at the thought of doing such a thing without benefit of clergy...
 at the border with Turkmenistan, the gateway to China, transporters complain of constraints tied to a lack of warehouses and of a proper registration process to bring goods by rail to China. One businessman complained it was increasingly difficult to bring in automotive spare parts from the Asian powerhouse.

The rising costs are now adding to Iran’s worsening inflation problem.

In some cases, the overland bottlenecks and diversions now contribute as much as a third of the price for common goods once they reach Tehran, Mohammad Reza Khodarahm, an import-sector expert, told Iranian economic daily Donya-e-Eqtesad last week. Majidreza Hariri, the president of the Iran-China Chamber of Commerce, earlier predicted that the U.S. naval blockade would cost $18 billion a year in extra outlays. The cost of transporting one container from China to Iran costs $12,000 via land routes compared with $3,000 by sea, he told KhabarOnline, an independent website close to regime moderates.

Much of these costs are being passed on to consumers, with unpredictable results for the Iranian leadership. Food inflation rose to 128% in August, according to Iran’s official statistics office.
Link


Home Front: Politix
AIPAC Is Out, CAIR Is in ‐ and Black Voters Are Fleeing the Democrat Party
2026-08-26
[PJMedia] What kind of crazy, f***ed up world is this where AIPAC is banned, spurned, and forbidden from participating in politics — yet CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood have a free hand to play kingmaker in U.S. elections?

AIPAC is “funded exclusively by Americans,” and 100% of its 6.5 million members are American citizens. Its stated purpose is to “strengthen the U.S.-Israel partnership” by creating a “mutually beneficial relationship with our ally.”

CAIR’s financial status is murkier: In at least one filing, 76% of its annual donations came from two foreign sources, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Its mission is to “enhance the understanding of Islam” and “empower American Muslims.”

(The UAE later revoked its support, declaring CAIR a terrorist group, largely due to its ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.)

And speaking of the Muslim Brotherhood, multiple Muslim-majority nations — including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Syria, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan — have officially designated the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group, banning it and jailing its leaders. (As did, interestingly enough, Russia.)

But the Muslim Brotherhood still operates freely in the United States. There is no federal ban; only a few of its foreign branches have been declared terrorist organizations by the U.S. government. And today, CAIR has 35 chapters and offices in 27 states — and counting.

Their influence is rapidly rising.

Yet AIPAC is now forbidden from supporting Mike Rogers, the Republican candidate for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat. Not because Rogers disagrees with AIPAC’s goals, but because the organization has been so thoroughly demonized that he fears its support would do more harm than good.

But oddly enough, supporters of CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood are, apparently, actively participating in U.S. politics:

Sen. Ted Cruz: Does Abdul El-Sayed’s candidacy for Senator in Michigan concern you?

Kyle Shideler: Yes sir. It does.

Sen. Cruz: Why is that?

Shideler: Well, to begin with, I look at the connection that his father-in-law, Jukaku Tayeb, has to [Muslim] Brotherhood-linked groups. This includes being the president at one time of CAIR Michigan. Also his presence on the Islamic Society of North America [ISNA] founders committee, which is only for those most exclusively devoted to ISNA and provide significant amount of funding. There are other known Brotherhood members on that committee. I would also look at El-Sayed’s ties to a group called Emgage, which purports to be a Muslim, sort of “get out the vote” or candidate recruitment organization, but it has close ties to CAIR. It was created by a former CAIR member who at one time was on a terror watch list and was also a consultant to convicted terrorist, Sami Al-Arian.

Plus, as the reporter observed, it all seems to be part and parcel of a financial pipeline:

TV Journalist: And according to a report, El-Sayed has already collected more than $115,000 from donors who worked for or held leadership roles with the Council on American Islamic Relations, better known as CAIR, and that does include the organization’s executive director, who faced massive backlash for his comments, saying he was “happy” to see the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel.

It wouldn’t be the first time CAIR crosspollinated with Islamic terrorist groups: Ghassan Elashi, the founding board member of CAIR-Texas, was sentenced to 65 years for funding Hamas. Randall Todd “Ismail” Royer, CAIR’s former communications specialist, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for helping Al-Qaeda. Bassem Khafagi, CAIR’s former community affairs director, was deported after being convicted of terrorism-related fraud. And CAIR itself was named as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in “one of the largest successful prosecutions of terrorism financing in United States history, where internal documents plainly identified CAIR as a subsidiary of the Muslim Brotherhood and a federal court eventually found ‘ample evidence to establish’ that CAIR was associated ‘with Hamas.’”

It’s a murky, incestuous relationship, with super PACs and super-wealthy benefactors circumventing U.S. financial restrictions.

From Fox News:

A Fox News Digital review found that El-Sayed, who has made getting "money out of politics" a central campaign rallying cry, has accepted donations from at least 41 individuals who either work for CAIR, formerly worked for CAIR, or have served in leadership positions with the organization.

The donor list includes several of CAIR's highest-ranking officials, including national Board Chair Manal Fakhoury, national Board Treasurer Eyas Abdeen, national Vice Chair Emad Sabbah, and CAIR-Michigan board member Jukaku Tayeb, El-Sayed's father-in-law.

Tayeb has been one of the largest financial backers of the super PAC supporting El-Sayed's campaign and is also part of the founding committee of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), a group linked to Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood funding, Washington Free Beacon first reported. [emphasis added]

This means El-Sayed now has a financial pipeline that’s completely independent of the Democratic Party bosses.
Link


Home Front: WoT
Tech for Palestine to Host Leading Muslim Brotherhood Figure Who Praised Boulder Firebomber
2026-08-16
[JewishOnliner] Tech for Palestine will host Ezzeldeen Dwedar on Aug. 20, an alleged leading Muslim Brotherhood figure who praised Mohamed Soliman before the Boulder firebomber pleaded guilty to first-degree murder.

Tech for Paleostine, a U.S.-based nonprofit that has developed dozens of anti-Israel tech tools for the broader anti-Israel ecosystem, will host Ezzeldeen Dwedar, an alleged leading figure in the Moslem Brüderbund, at an August 20 online roundtable titled "Winning the Algorithm Wars."

Dwedar is the founder and general coordinator of ISNAD, a digital influence network that researchers have linked to the Moslem Brüderbund. He and ISNAD have publicly praised Mohammed Sabry Soliman,
…the Muslim Brotherhooder waited a year, until his eldest child graduated from high school, to execute his evil plan. Disguised as a gardener, he had planned to kill all of the roughly 20 participants in the pro-Israel demonstration and had 18 Molotov cocktails, but he threw just two while yelling "Free Palestine," police said. Mr. Soliman, his wife, Hayam El Gamal, and their five children had been living and working in the U.S. illegally for years after arriving from Kuwait on tourist visas, after which they separately applied for asylum. The tragedy is that their bright and hardworking daughter has lost all her college scholarships…
who pleaded guilty to the June 2025 murder of 82-year-old Karen Diamond
…she survived the Nazi Holocaust and built a happy and fulfilling life in America, only to be burnt to death by a jihadi while walking to support the hostages held by Hamas…
during a pro-Israel hostage-awareness rally in Boulder, Colorado.

The event is scheduled for 7 p.m., according to Tech for Paleostine’s official listing. The organization presents Dwedar as an Egyptian-Ottoman Turkish politician and political-media executive who organized thousands of ISNAD volunteers into a "disciplined digital front" operating in influence, technology and the "information and algorithms war."

Other announced speakers include Paleostinian-American content creator Moath Hamzeh; digital-governance specialist Mona Shtaya; and Taysir Mathlouthi, senior European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
 advocacy officer at the alleged PFLP-linked 7amleh.

PRAISING THE BOULDER FIREBOMBER
In two X posts at the time, Dwedar reshared a propaganda video Soliman had recorded before the attack and praised him for possessing "rare courage." In another post, Dwedar said Soliman had not merely recorded a video explaining an idea, but had "embodied" and "proved" it through his actions, concluding: "God is the Greatest."

ISNAD’s Telegram channel separately amplified Soliman’s pre-attack video, circulating what it described as "the full will of the hero Mohammed Soliman." The channel also forwarded a statement praising those who followed Soliman’s path and "ignited the flames" beneath Israelis. Jewish Onliner previously documented ISNAD’s response to the attack.

Soliman pleaded guilty to 101 state charges, including first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life without parole plus an additional 2,128 years.

DWEDAR’S MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD TIES AND SUPPORT FOR HAMAS
Dwedar’s association with the Moslem Brüderbund is documented in his own words and in reporting about the organization’s internal leadership.

In a 2013 interview published by the Moslem Brüderbund’s official website, Dwedar said a film he directed faced criticism because of his Brotherhood affiliation. He stated that he did not deny belonging to the organization and was proud of his membership.

Egyptian newspaper Youm7 subsequently identified Dwedar in 2017 as a leader in the Brotherhood’s General Bureau faction. A 2018 report described him as a runaway Brotherhood leader residing in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
When Hamas
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
 released a new political document in 2017, Dwedar disputed claims that the organization had never been structurally connected to the Brotherhood. He said Hamas had been represented in the Brotherhood’s International Organization, was organizationally subordinate to the Guidance Bureau and had leaders participating in the Brotherhood’s international coordination structures.

Dwedar added that any person who had belonged to the Brotherhood for at least 15 years could attest that Hamas had been part of the organization "organizationally and ideologically."

In an April 6, 2026 X post, Dwedar wrote: "I am with Hamas."

His support predates that declaration. In an April 2025 post about the Hamas assault on Sderot, Dwedar praised what he called the "glory and miracles" created by the "angels of October 7." The attack was part of the wider October 7, 2023 massacre.

Dwedar has also eulogized Hamas terrorist leaders. In a September 4, 2025 X post, he wrote that Yahya Sinwar was in God’s mercy alongside hundreds of "heroes and leaders." In December, he published a farewell to former al-Qassam Brigades front man Abu Obeida and expressed support for his successor.

RESEARCHERS DOCUMENT ISRAELI IMPERSONATION NETWORK
The Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) described ISNAD as a foreign intervention campaign presented as a grassroots movement. Its researchers found that ISNAD volunteers used fabricated Israeli identities, artificial intelligence-generated profile pictures, virtual private networks and prepared Hebrew messages accompanied by Arabic instructions.

An INSS analysis of 538 posts from ten identified accounts during the June 2025 Israel-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 Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
war found that 46.7% attacked the Israeli government, 32.7% promoted despair or hopelessness and 5.9% focused on fear and anxiety.

The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) identified more than 100 accounts whose attributes and activities it said resembled ISNAD. Approximately one-third connected through mobile applications or app stores outside Israel. X listed most of the remainder as Israeli-based while warning that they might be using proxies.

FDD also found that the accounts drew from a shared message library and lightly rewrote material before distributing it. Iran-related content increased from less than 5% of their output before the 2026 war to more than 20% after fighting began.

INSS senior researcher David Siman-Tov wrote in The Jerusalem Post that ISNAD included a managerial layer, Hebrew-language specialists, designers and technical personnel. He cited a post threatening Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s family that was initially treated as an authentic Israeli message before Sherlocks identified it as foreign activity.

ISNAD DISTRIBUTES HAMAS AND AL-QASSAM MESSAGING
ISNAD’s public Telegram repeatedly republishes statements from official Hamas accounts and material produced by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. The channel has also translated Hamas messaging into Hebrew and instructed followers to place it in Israeli comment sections.

In April 2025, ISNAD’s Telegram channel promoted a fatwa from the Moslem Brüderbund-linked International Union of Moslem Scholars (IUMS) declaring armed jihad against Israel obligatory for Moslems. The ten-point decree called on every capable Moslem in the Islamic world to wage armed jihad, with IUMS’s own English-language version stating that "all Moslems and Moslem nations" were obligated to engage in jihad against the "Zionist entity."

IUMS was founded and long led by Yusuf al-Qaradawi
...Egyptian Islamic theologian and teevee preacher, well-known for IslamOnline, a website he helped found in 1997 and for which he now serves as chief religious scholar. Al-Qaradawi has also published more than 80 books, including Islam: The Future Civilization. He is considered one of the most influential Moslem Brotherhood scholars living today. Al-Qaradawi is banned from entering the United States, Israel and Great Britain. In 2004, 2,500 Moslem academics from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Paleostine accused him of giving Islam a bad name....
, whom Rooters described as a spiritual leader of the Moslem Brüderbund.

ISNAD EXTENDS ITS MESSAGING INTO AMERICAN POLITICS
After Abdul El-Sayed
…the overly groomed, medically trained non-doctor who went to school on a Soros scholarship is seriously connected — Muslim Brotherhood, CAIR/Islamic Society of North America, Nation of Islam, Al Qaeda, Cenk Uyghur’s nephew Hasan Piker — he’s connected to them all …
won Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary on Aug. 4, 2026, MEMRI reported that ISNAD congratulated him and contrasted his victory with the defeat of Haley Stevens, whom it called "the Zionist AIPAC candidate." ISNAD’s message used the hashtag "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...
 Changed the World" and praised El-Sayed’s positions on Israel and Gaza.

Tech for Paleostine’s event listing does not address ISNAD’s Israeli impersonation campaign, its distribution of Hamas and al-Qassam material, its amplification of a jihad fatwa, its praise for the Boulder attacker or Dwedar’s public statements supporting Hamas.
Related:
Mohammed Sabry Soliman 05/08/2026 Firebomber sentenced to life without parole for deadly attack on Colorado hostage rally
Mohammed Sabry Soliman 04/26/2026 US re-detains immigrant family of suspect in deadly antisemitic attack, their lawyer says
Mohammed Sabry Soliman 06/27/2025 Man indicted on 12 hate crime charges for attack on Boulder rally for Gaza hostages

Related:
Abdul El-Sayed 08/10/2026 El-Sayed: I Care About Hasan Piker's Audience Not His Comments
Abdul El-Sayed 08/09/2026 El-Sayed: After Elections, We Will Investigate Trump
Abdul El-Sayed 08/09/2026 Michigan imam celebrated Graham’s death, prayed for Trump to die before El-Sayed win


Link


Home Front: Politix
The Islamist-Marxist Takeover Of Middle America: MIchigan’s Abdil El-Sayed and Maine’s Troy Jackson
2026-07-26
[DailyWire] El-Sayed is the inevitable political result of Michigan’s multi-decade experiment with mass Muslim immigration.

Political observers might have been surprised when socialist Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed began gaining traction in Michigan, a state that is far from deep blue.

I wasn’t.

I grew up in metro-bankrupt, increasingly impoverished, reliably Democrat, Detroit
... ruled by Democrats since 1962. A city whose Golden Age included the Purple Gang...
, Michigan, just outside Dearborn, which is home to the largest Moslem population in the United States. Over the years, I’ve watched this population more than double, and its influence has spread beyond the city of Dearborn — where businesses advertise in Arabic and the Islamic call to prayer is broadcast over loudspeakers throughout the day — to the entire metro-Detroit region. Just last year, officials in my hometown of Canton, Michigan, approved the construction of a massive Islamic mosque and education complex called the Moslem Education Community Center of America — MECCA for short. Groundbreaking took place last month.

El-Sayed is the inevitable political result of Michigan’s multi-decade experiment with mass Moslem immigration. His parents are both Egyptian immigrants colonists, and his father was a part-time imam. His father-in-law is a founding committee member of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which has close ties to the Moslem Brüderbund, according to the federal government.

El-Sayed himself is a practicing Moslem, and while studying at the University of Michigan served as the vice president of the Moslem Students Association, which also has ties to the Moslem Brüderbund.

Pointing any of this out is, of course, Islamophobic, according to El-Sayed. We’re not supposed to ask why El-Sayed was worried about offending "a lot" of people in Dearborn who, in his own words, were "sad" about the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...>
. We’re not supposed to think it strange that El-Sayed honored the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by fretting about "the cultural and social biases that fuel discriminatory behavior and hate crimes" against Moslems. (Unlike Norm MacDonald, he was not joking).

And yet these are exactly the kinds of questions many Michiganders are now asking themselves. How did our state become home to public vigils mourning the death of a Hezbollah terrorist leader? How did a rally in Dearborn come to feature chants of "Death to America"? How did the mayor of Dearborn, who has endorsed El-Sayed, come to believe it was acceptable to tell a Christian constituent he was "not welcome" in his own city simply for objecting to renaming city streets after someone who celebrated Islamic terrorism?

And perhaps most importantly: Why does one of the leading candidates seeking to represent Michigan in the U.S. Senate feel compelled to embrace and align himself with the very people at the center of this disturbing trend?

Because he has to. Not just because he practices the same faith, nor because the Moslem bloc in Michigan has grown to become a powerful political force in the state, but because the left-wing coalition El-Sayed represents has been built around an increasingly visible alliance between Marxist ideology and Islamist activism.

Like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose victory in 2024 El-Sayed has said inspired his own run, El-Sayed is the perfect standard-bearer for this unholy alliance. He is able to cater to the far leftists in places like Ann Arbor and Traverse City with his attacks on the wealthy and talk of universal healthcare — never mind his hypocrisy on both fronts — while also winning over Dearborn’s Moslems who reject much of the Left’s cultural agenda.

These two groups might have very different visions for what the ultimate political outcome should be, but they at least agree on the immediate priority: subverting and destroying the values and institutions that have long defined our country.

Take a drive through metro-Detroit, where church buildings are being converted into mosques, where the FBI is training security at Jewish synagogues, and where Hezbollah and Iranian flags are proudly displayed, and you’ll realize that, in Michigan, they have a head start.

The truth is that the groundwork for this political moment has been years in the making. El-Sayed hasn’t created a new coalition — he has inherited one built over decades through immigration, demographic change, and the rise of identity-based politics. Whether he succeeds in his primary campaign for the Democratic nomination will be a test of just how strong and how deeply rooted this coalition has become.

Troy Jackson wins Maine Democratic Senate nomination, keeps mum on Israel, AIPAC

[IsraelTimes] Troy Jackson accepted the Democratic nomination for Maine’s US Senate race on Saturday with no mention of Israel, sidestepping an issue that has become a focal point for many Maine Jews as they assess the party’s new standard-bearer.

Jackson secured the nomination in a landslide 566 to 5 vote by delegates at the nominating convention. Saundra Pelletier, the only remaining challenger after the rest of the field dropped out in the days leading up to the gathering, picked up the handful of votes that didn’t go to the winner.

While Jackson took several shots during his acceptance address at Sen. Susan Collins, the incumbent Republican he will now face in the general election, it was Pelletier who used her remarks to specifically malign Collins’ voting record on Israel.

"She voted to increase federal funding in defensive arms for Iran, and did not vote to take moderate measures to hold Netanyahu accountable," Pelletier said, receiving a chorus from the crowd.

The victory for Jackson came after the state’s former Democratic nominee, Graham Platner, a staunch Israel critic, left the race earlier this month amid a sexual assault allegation, which he has denied. The resulting scramble to replace him upended the Democratic primary and prompted fresh scrutiny from Jewish Mainers of Jackson’s recent evolution on Israel.

Jackson, a former state politician and union advocate, had previously said little publicly about the Israeli-Paleostinian conflict during his two-decade career in state legislature. However,
facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable...
 during the race to replace Platner, he has embraced the term "genocide" to describe Israel’s war in 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...
 and called for an end to US military aid to Israel on his campaign website, both positions championed by Platner before his exit. Jackson also has said he wouldn’t accept any funding from AIPAC.

But on Saturday, as a sea of supporters sporting his campaign’s blue and yellow "Troy Jackson" t-shirts cheered their new nominee, Jackson omitted any mention of Israel from his remarks. Instead, Jackson reaffirmed his commitments to passing Medicare for all, supporting union rights and restoring child sacrifice abortion rights nationwide, among other issues.

During his address following the decisive victory, Jackson also offered a message to Maine voters who remain on the fence:

"Whether you supported me from the beginning, supported another candidate, or are still deciding what you think of this fifth-generation logger from Allagash," Jackson said. "I’ve always known this, that your trust has to be earned, and so I want you to hear this directly from me. There is a place in this campaign for all of you. There is work for you in this movement, and I will spend every day, now through November, earning that trust because today we turn the page."

Amy Fried, a professor emerita of political science at the University of Maine who attended Saturday’s conference as an alternate delegate but did not cast a ballot, said that while she believed Jackson had addressed Israel in the lead-up to Saturday because "a lot of people are interested in the topic," his speech reflected the issues he had been "concerned about his whole political career."

"Obviously, he’d have to take votes on foreign policy and funding when he’s in the Senate," Fried said. "But I think that his main interest is always in issues that have to do with housing and healthcare, you know, all of the matters that are sort of more day-to-day kitchen table issues."

While Jackson avoided revisiting his recent stances on Israel, which have raised concern among some Jewish voters in Maine, about a dozen pro-Paleostinian, anti-Israel protesters rallied outside the convention hall in support of his candidacy.

"It’s a really positive step that you have nominated Troy Jackson," one protester shouted through a megaphone. "I think he’s going to be a strong voice for the kind of values that I believe in and the people of Paleostine, the children of Iran, and all the other places the US bombed."
Related:
Troy Jackson 07/21/2026 LEE CARTER: Why I believe collapsing trust, not ideology, is reshaping American politics

Related:
Maine: 2026-07-21 LEE CARTER: Why I believe collapsing trust, not ideology, is reshaping American politics
Maine: 2026-07-17 Trump's Golden Fleet
Maine: 2026-07-14 Apple and Google suppressed negative Graham Platner stories for months on their news platform, study finds
Related:
Abdul El-Sayed 07/20/2026 AIPAC has spent record amount on Michigan’s Senate primary, in test of its influence
Abdul El-Sayed 07/12/2026 More suicidal empathy: NY’s Lander endorses Michigan candidate El-Sayed, who said Dem support for Israel is only about money

Abdul El-Sayed 07/11/2026 SHOCK POLL: Nearly Half Of American Muslims Have Positive View Of Hamas

Related:
Michigan: 2026-07-21 Trump unleashes shock 50 percent tariffs on Canada in explosive trade war over wine, cars and hockey sticks day after friendly exchange with Mark Carney at World Cup final as PM responds
Michigan: 2026-07-19 Clarice: Strange Things Are Happening
Michigan: 2026-07-18 Mamdani in ‘active conversation' about whether he can arrest Benjamin Netanyahu when Israel PM visits NYC
Link


Iraq
Explosions rock American military base in Iraq hours after US ended 13th night of strikes on Iran
2026-07-24
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A series of explosions broke out near a military base hosting US forces in northern Iraq, hours after the US military said it had wrapped up its 13th night of strikes against Iran.

A journalist with the Associated Press heard at least seven blasts around 9.30am local time in the city of Irbil, the capital of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, and observed at least four plumes of black smoke rising into the sky from areas near or inside the base.

The US and Iran have exchanged escalating strikes in fighting that began with a struggle over control of the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

Iranian state media reported that four people had been killed and nine injured in the US bombardment.

US Central Command said the latest barrage was designed to 'further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten civilian mariners and commercial vessels transiting regional waters' as the Americans push to regain control over the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas transited in peacetime. It said the strikes ended shortly before 5am local time Friday.

Bahrain activated its sirens twice later that morning, warning residents to shelter from detected incoming fire. Gulf states have also come under frequent fire over the past week.

The previous day, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels said they targeted two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, potentially widening the Iran war as international oil topped $100 a barrel.

Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi of Iraq, which has close ties to both the US and Iran, was in Tehran on Thursday to call for peace and dialogue.

He promised not to allow Iraqi territory to be used for attacks on Iran, his office said.

Al-Zaidi met with Trump earlier this month in Washington.

US strikes hit a naval base for the Revolutionary Guard in the north of Iran, the Iranian semiofficial news outlets Fars and ISNA reported Friday morning.

Blasts overnight were also reported on Iran’s Qeshm Island, home to stores of naval assets including drone boats that Iran can use to attack vessels on the Strait of Hormuz, as well as in Isfahan province, where there is a major Iranian air base as well as one of Iran’s nuclear sites.

More strikes reportedly hit Iran’s southwest Khuzestan province and southern Fars province.

Four people were killed and five wounded in a US missile attack on the outskirts of Ahvaz on the Karun River, Iranian state media said.

An attack in Lorestan province in Western Iran injured two, state media said, while two more were injured by explosions in the port city of Bandar Abbas, a critical hub for moving military supplies as well as trade cargo.

Meanwhile, the Houthis threatened to shut down another key trade route with the world economy already reeling from Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

The Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula is a vital shipping chokepoint connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.

Around 12 per cent of the world’s trade, including a fourth of global container traffic, passes through there, moving between Europe and Asia via Egypt’s Suez Canal.

The Houthi attacks put at risk oil shipments from Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu port on the Red Sea and present a 'double whammy' on top of the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, said maritime data and analysis firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence.

Saudi Arabia has diverted millions of barrels a day of oil exports to Yanbu via an overland pipeline as the war has bottled up the Persian Gulf.

Trump said on social media Thursday that sanctioned Iranian funds in the possession of the US will cover the expense of fixing boats damaged in the war.

'Please let this statement serve to represent, until further notice, that from this point forth, any and all damages done to Ships, Cargo, or anything related thereto, will be paid for by Iranian Money that the United States has in its possession, and controls,' Trump said.

It was unclear what legal mechanisms Trump would use to access and spend the funds, but he said that doing so would be 'the fair and equitable thing to do'.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned the suggestion, writing on X that 'once governments normalise confiscation, no one’s assets are safe. Ensuing chaos will not be pretty or peaceful'.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran diplomacy advances amid tensions, Vance says Switzerland talks may start Sunday
2026-06-21
[IsraelTimes] Despite the latest strain on the fragile deal, diplomatic efforts between Washington and Tehran appeared to be gaining momentum, with mediator Pakistan announcing that technical talks to implement the agreement would begin Sunday, and Vance indicating the same.

“As a follow-up to the signing of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, technical-level talks will be held in Burgenstock, Switzerland, on 21 June,” the Pakistani foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that Pakistani and Qatari mediators would participate in the discussions with US and Iranian representatives.

Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, traveled to Switzerland on Saturday for the first round of talks with Iran on a potential nuclear deal, Axios reported, citing a US official.

Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner was already in Switzerland, it added.

Vance also told Fox News that he expects to travel to Switzerland for talks with Iran in the coming days. According to CNN, Vance was expected to depart for Switzerland later Saturday.

“We’ll plan the talks when the principals from the Iranian government, also the Qatari and the Pakistani governments, arrive. That may happen as soon as tomorrow,” Vance told Fox.

The Iranian negotiating team was also set to leave for Switzerland on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said, according to Iran’s Mehr news agency.

Switzerland continued to provide a “discreet and reliable setting” at Burgenstock to facilitate discussions on implementing the memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran, the Swiss foreign ministry said.

It added in a statement that no further details would be disclosed about participants and the content of the talks, citing confidentiality.

Mediators in the US-Iran conflict, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, were also said to be due to gather for talks in Egypt on Sunday, after a meeting between negotiators slated for Friday in Switzerland was called off, raising uncertainty over the future of talks.

Meanwhile, Baghaei said on Saturday that Pakistan Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi was due to hold talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi during a visit to Tehran, according to ISNA news agency.

Baghaei said Naqvi’s visit is part of Islamabad’s ongoing efforts related to negotiations between Iran and the United States.
Townhall clarifies:
White House officials stressed that the United States is not investing any taxpayer money into the fund. Vice President JD Vance affirmed that not a single cent of American money will go to Iran under any circumstances.

Instead, any investments in the fund would come from private sources in Gulf states and elsewhere if the regime meets strict conditions on its nuclear program, inspections, and other requirements. Yet, left-wing politicians and influencers conveniently left this part out.

The only role the U.S. will play in this fund is in setting it up and removing barriers for those who wish to invest. However, Washington can shut it down if Iran does not follow through on its promises related to its nuclear program.

Switzerland says Iranian delegation has arrived for talks with US

[IsraelTimes] An Iranian delegation has landed in Switzerland ahead of talks at the Burgenstock resort on the preliminary US-Iran deal to halt their war, says Bern.

“We welcome the arrival of the Iranian delegation in Switzerland,” the Swiss foreign ministry says on X, adding that the talks are part of the implementation of the memorandum of understanding signed with the United States.

Iran’s official news agency IRNA also says Tehran’s delegation has arrived in Switzerland ahead of the talks.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran Guards say they struck groups linked to US, Israel in Kurdish area near Iraq
2026-05-20
[IsraelTimes] Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says its forces had struck groups linked to the United States and Israel in the western Iranian province of Kurdistan, near the border with Iraq.

In a statement carried by the ISNA news agency, the Guards say groups from “northern Iraq and acting on behalf of the US and the Zionist regime were attempting to smuggle a large shipment of American weapons and ammunition” into Iran.

They say the groups were hit in the Iranian city of Baneh in the Kurdistan region.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran keeps US waiting for response to latest proposal after fighting flare-ups, UK destroyer heads to Hormuz
2026-05-10
[IsraelTimes] Tehran claims it has ‘suspicions about motivation and seriousness’ of Washington as Pakistan insists diplomacy is ongoing; UK sends warship to Hormuz ahead of potential naval mission

A state of relative calm prevailed around the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, after days of sporadic flareups, as the United States waited for Iran’s response to its latest proposals to end more than two months of fighting and begin peace talks.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio
...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...
 said on Friday that Washington expected a response within hours and President Donald Trump
...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US...
 later said it would likely be submitted "tonight." But a day later, there was no sign of movement 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 Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
on the proposal, which would formally end the war before talks on more contentious issues, including the Iranian nuclear program.

A news hound for French broadcaster LCI, Margot Haddad, said Saturday that Trump told her in a brief interview he still expected to find out Iran’s answer "very soon."

With Trump due to begin a long-awaited visit to China next week, there has been mounting pressure to draw a line under the conflict, which has thrown energy markets into turmoil and posed a growing threat to the world economy.

Recent days have seen the biggest flare-ups in fighting in and around the Strait of Hormuz since a ceasefire began a month ago, and the United Arab Emirates came under renewed attack on Friday.

As Tehran kept Washington waiting for its response after saying Friday it was not paying attention to "deadlines," the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called into question the reliability of the US leadership in a call with his Ottoman Turkish counterpart.

"The recent escalation of tensions by American forces in the Persian Gulf and their numerous actions in violating the ceasefire have added to suspicions about the motivation and seriousness of the American side in the path of diplomacy," he said, according to an Iranian account of the call published by the ISNA news agency.

Nevertheless, Pak Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said diplomacy was continuing, with his country in contact with the US and Iran "day and night" in an effort to extend the ceasefire and reach a peace deal.

Russia’s foreign ministry said Saturday that it, as well as 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...
, was calling for diplomatic efforts to reach a "sustainable, long-term agreement" to end the war.

QATARI MEDIATION
Egyptian and Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
i top diplomats reiterated that diplomacy is the sole path to a solution, according to a readout of a Saturday phone call between the foreign ministers of Egypt and Qatar, as a report said Doha has emerged as a key player in mediating between the United States and Iran after Trump pressured the Qatari emir to help broker negotiations.

A day after meeting with US Vice President JD Vance at the White House, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani met Saturday with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff in Miami, a source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel.

While quietly operating as a go-between, Qatar has been allowing Pakistain to play the main mediating role, the source said, confirming reporting on the Axios news site.

While the Trump administration had wanted Qatar to serve as the main conduit, finding its services useful during the 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 and other global conflicts, Doha has been hesitant to take on a more prominent role in the Iran talks, believing it would be blamed if they collapsed or accused of bias toward Iran by pro-Israel hawks if the negotiations bear fruit, the source said.

Iran has mostly blocked the critical waterway for global energy since the US and Israel launched the war on February 28, causing a global spike in fuel prices and rattling world markets.

The US has imposed its own blockade of Iran’s ports. US Central Command on Saturday said its forces had turned back 58 fat merchantmen and "disabled" four since the blockade began April 13.

UK DISPATCHES WARSHIP TOWARD HORMUZ
The United Kingdom, meanwhile, announced Saturday it was sending a destroyer to the Middle East ahead of any international mission to help protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital international sea lane that Iran is seeking to control to extract tolls from foreign vessels and wield economic leverage over the US and its allies.

"The pre-positioning of HMS Dragon is part of prudent planning that will ensure that the UK is ready, as part of a multinational coalition jointly led by the UK and La Belle France, to secure the strait, when conditions allow," a British defense ministry spokesperson told AFP.

Britannia and La Belle France said last month that military plans to secure Hormuz were coming together and would succeed in restoring trade flows through the vital passage, though they stressed the mission to reestablish freedom of navigation in the strait won’t start until there is a sustainable ceasefire and the maritime industry is reassured ships can go through safely.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran reported several clashes with US forces in the Strait of Hormuz
2026-05-09
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] On the evening of May 8, several clashes occurred within an hour between American and Iranian armed forces in the Strait of Hormuz, the Fars news agency reported.

No details were provided. However, according to the agency, clashes continue.

In turn, the American command announced on the evening of May 8 that the US military fired at two oil tankers that were sailing under the Iranian flag, attempting to break the blockade and enter a port in the Gulf of Oman, and disabled them.




US, Iranian naval forces clash as Washington awaits Tehran’s response to latest proposal

[IsraelTimes] CENTCOM strikes Iranian tankers while Iran seizes Chinese-owned vessel carrying crude, fires missiles and drones at UAE; Vance meets with Qatari PM in DC to discuss Iran talks

Fresh "sporadic festivities" broke out Friday between Iranian and US naval forces in the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian state media, marking the latest flare-up despite a monthlong ceasefire between Washington and Tehran. The fighting came as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio
...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...
 said Washington expected a response from Tehran on Friday to its latest proposal.

"For the last hour, sporadic festivities have taken place between the Iranian armed forces and American vessels in the Strait of Hormuz," the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

Fox News, citing a senior US official, said the American military on Friday struck several empty Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC) that allegedly attempted to violate the blockade on the Strait of Hormuz. CENTCOM later confirmed US forces hit two empty Iranian-flagged oil tankers and disabled a third vessel on Wednesday.

"All three vessels are no longer transiting to Iran," CENTCOM said in a post on X.

The command also said more than 70 tankers were being prevented from entering or leaving Iranian ports.

"These fat merchantmen have the capacity to transport over 166 million barrels of Iranian oil worth an estimated $13 billion-plus," CENTCOM said.

Additionally, 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 Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
announced it seized what it called a US-sanctioned oil tanker carrying Iranian crude in the Sea of Oman, which reports said is Chinese-owned.

"The Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran’s navy, through a specially planned operation in the Sea of Oman, seized the offending tanker Ocean Koi," the Iranian army said in a statement carried by state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
, adding that the vessel had sought "to damage and disrupt Iran’s oil exports."

Meanwhile,
...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth ordered the space pirate fleet to attack Zemblonia...
 the United Arab Emirates said Iran fired two ballistic missiles and three drones at the country since midnight Friday, moderately wounding three people. According to the Emirati Defense Ministry, 13 people have been killed and 230 maimed in the UAE since the US-Israel war with Iran began on February 28.

The incidents on Friday came a day after the United States and Iran exchanged fire, in the most serious test yet of the fragile truce reached after the US-Israeli war against the Iranian regime began in late February.

US Central Command confirmed overnight that it carried out "self-defense" strikes in Iran in response to "unprovoked Iranian attacks" against US Navy missile destroyers that transited the Strait of Hormuz to the Gulf of Oman, which Tehran claimed violated international law and the ceasefire.

"The action carried out last night was both a blatant violation of international law and a breach of the ceasefire," Iranian Foreign Ministry front man Esmaeil Baqaei said, according to the ISNA news agency.

"At the same time, the country’s defenders delivered a ’major slap’ to the enemy and repelled the enemies’ aggression with full force," he added.

Despite the fighting, Trump told ABC on Thursday the truce was still "in effect." But in a social media post, he threatened Iran with further strikes if it did not agree to a deal with the US. Speaking Friday while visiting Rome, Rubio said Washington expected an imminent response from Tehran to its latest offer.

"We’ll see what the response entails. The hope is it’s something that can put us into a serious process of negotiation," Rubio told news hounds.

Meanwhile,
...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth ordered the space pirate fleet to attack Zemblonia...
 US Vice President JD Vance met at the White House with Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
i Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, to discuss the ongoing Iran talks, a source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel. Qatar has been serving as a backchannel mediator in the talks between the US and Iran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, however, accused the United States of abandoning diplomacy in favor of what he called a "reckless military adventure."

"Is this a crude pressure tactic? Or the result of a spoiler once again duping POTUS into another quagmire," Araghchi wrote on X. "Whatever the causes, the outcome is the same: Iranians never bow to pressure and diplomacy is always the victim."

Araghchi also rejected a Washington Post report saying the CIA assessed Iran retained 75% of its pre-war ballistic missile stockpile, claiming that the levels were in fact much higher.

"The CIA is wrong. Our missile inventory and launcher capacity are not at 75% compared to Feb 28. The correct figure is 120%," he wrote.

HORMUZ TENSIONS SHAKE OIL MARKETS
The struggle over the Strait of Hormuz has increasingly become the central front in the broader confrontation between Iran and the United States. An adviser to the supreme leader Mohammad Mokhber on Friday compared control of the strait to possessing an "atomic bomb."

"The Strait of Hormuz represents an opportunity as precious as an atomic bomb," Mokhber said in a video published by the Mehr news agency.

"Indeed, having in one’s hands a position that allows you to influence the global economy with a single decision is a major opportunity."

He vowed Iran would not "forfeit the gains of this war" and suggested Tehran could seek to alter the legal regime governing the strait. Shipping journal Lloyd’s List separately reported that Iran had established an authority to approve transit through the strait and collect tolls.

The disruption has continued to send shockwaves through global shipping and energy markets.

The UN’s International Maritime Organization said around 1,500 ships and roughly 20,000 crew members were currently trapped in the Gulf because of the Iranian blockade.

"Right now, we have approximately 20,000 crewmen and around 1,500 ships trapped," IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said at the Maritime Convention of the Americas in Panama.

"Ten sailors have bit the dust" in more than 30 attacks on vessels, he later told news hounds.

The IMO chief urged companies to avoid sending vessels to the Gulf so as not to increase the corpse count among sailors or incur further economic losses.

The war has also severely disrupted global energy flows. Before the conflict, roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas shipments passed through the Strait of Hormuz. Oil prices rose again on Friday following the latest festivities. Brent crude climbed 1.1% to $101.13 a barrel, while US crude rose 0.7% to $95.47. Asian markets also retreated sharply amid fears of renewed escalation.

Satellite imagery, meanwhile, appeared to show a major oil spill near Iran’s Kharg Island, the hub for roughly 90% of Iran’s oil exports, much of it destined for China. Images from the Copernicus Sentinel satellites showed what researchers described as a gray-and-white slick spanning an estimated 45 square kilometers west of the island.

"The slick appears visually consistent with oil," said Leon Moreland of the Conflict and Environment Observatory.

Analysts said it could be the largest spill since the war began 70 days ago, though the source remained unclear.
Link


Iraq
Latest message purportedly from Iran’s new supreme leader thanks Iraq for war support
2026-03-30
[IsraelTimes] Message is the third written statement attributed to Mojtaba Khamenei since his appointment as he remains out of public eye, fueling speculation about his health and whereabouts

Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei has, in a written message, thanked the people of Iraq for their support in the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s war against the United States and Israel, Iranian media said on Sunday.

Khamenei is the son of former supreme leader Ali Khamenei
...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...>
, who was killed in an Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
 at the start of the war on February 28. The younger Khamenei has yet to appear in public after being named Iran’s leader earlier this month, and even his voice has not been heard. Instead, written statements attributed to him have been carried by state media.

His failure to appear in person has led to intense speculation over his condition and whereabouts, as well as to what extent he is in control of the Iranian government and military. State television and some Iranian officials have indicated he is recovering from wounds sustained in an airstrike. The nature and severity of those wounds is unclear.

In the message attributed to him, Khamenei "expressed his appreciation to the supreme religious authority (in Iraq) and the people of Iraq for their clear stance against aggression against 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 Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
and their support for our country," Iran’s ISNA news agency said, referring to the Iraq-based Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, one of the most revered figures in Shia Islam.

The message was delivered following a meeting between the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council
Led by Sayyed Ammar al-Hakim, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI, formerly the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRII, pronounced Scarey)) is not nearly as supreme as it makes out to be. The al-Hakim family business is merely another one of political parties, this one Shiite and with its power base in the south of the country. The Iranian government sponsored the party's creation in 1982 during the Iran-Iraq war after the leading Iraqi Islamist group was weakened by a government crackdown. Designed as an umbrella organization to unite Iraqi Shi'a groups, the party supports Islamic government controlled by holy men. In post-Saddam Iraq ISCI has worked closely with other Shi'a organizations to provide social services and humanitarian aid. Though accused of receiving money and weapons from Iran, ISCI leaders maintain that the party is committed to democracy and peaceful cooperation. The Badr Brigade initially acted as ISCI's armed wing but later to split to form the independent Badr Organization., a Shia party, and the Iranian ambassador to Baghdad, it said.

No further details were given on how the message was transmitted.

Since being named, Khamenei has released a first statement as supreme leader and another message for the Persian New Year, Nowruz.

Neither statement featured video or audio of the supreme leader. They were read out on television by another speaker, and defiantly predicted victory in the war.

State media regularly publish images of Mojtaba Khamenei but without giving any indication that they are new. He also has his own official Telegram and X accounts.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
US said planning weeks-long operation to reopen Hormuz Strait; IDF strikes Tehran overnight
2026-03-23
[IsraelTimes] Israeli, US officials continue to tout possibility of regime change; Iran fires 10 missile salvos on Sunday, 1 projectile lands in Lebanon; Arrow 3 downs missile outside atmosphere

The United States is reportedly planning a weeks-long operation to force 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 Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, an Israeli report claimed Sunday, as Israeli and American officials continued to tout the potential fall of the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s regime as a result of the escalating attacks.

Israel’s ambassador in the US, Yechiel Leiter, told CNN
...formerly the Cable News Network, now who know what it might stand for...
 Sunday that the war must continue until the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s regime is degraded to the extent that it has "no power" and the Iranian people can rise up and topple it.

"What we have to focus on now is degrading to the point where they have no power left in this regime. Hopefully, that will trigger this combustion point where the people are able to take charge of their own lives. Our focus has to be on degrading this regime to the point where they no longer pose a threat to us, to the region, to the world," Leiter said.

The campaign would end, he contended, when "there is not an entity in Tehran that’s going to threaten the region."

He said that such an outcome could come about by "this regime having a change of heart," though he said that was "hard to imagine" and a popular uprising was more likely: "Probably, it’s going to take place because the Iranian people have had enough."

"I think that we need boots on the ground, but they’ve got to be Iranian boots, and I think they’re coming," he added. Asked to elaborate, he compared the situation to the collapse of the Soviet Union, and of Romania’s communist government, in the late 1980s.

"There’s a point of combustion," he said. "Look, nobody knew when the Soviet Union would collapse. Nobody knew when the Romanians would turn their guns against their... government. But it happened at some point. And if we degrade them enough, the people of Iran are going to say, we’ve had enough and we want a different regime."



US President Donald Trump
...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US...
 and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have both called for the Iranian people to rise up, following mass anti-regime protests there in January that were put down in a deadly crackdown.

Trump has also escalated his threats over Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil shipping route, issuing a 48-hour ultimatum on Saturday night to open it, or the US would target Iranian power plants.

If Iran does not give in to that deadline, White House officials have told their Israeli counterparts that the war will be extended to make time for a planned US operation to reopen the waterway that is expected to take several weeks, Israel’s Channel 12 reported Sunday.

US officials have been telling the Israelis that a change in strategy is needed, and that Washington will not allow Iran to take the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil flows, hostage. "We will use this to make them collapse from within," said US officials, according to the network.

Iran has contended that its civilian water and energy infrastructure have already suffered extensive damage due to what it claims are US and Israeli strikes on tens of thousands of civilian sites.

"The country’s vital water and electricity infrastructure has suffered heavy damage following terrorist and cyber attacks by the United States and the Zionist regime," said energy minister Abbas Aliabadi, according to Iran’s ISNA news agency. "The attacks targeted dozens of water transmission and treatment facilities and destroyed parts of critical water supply networks," he noted, adding that efforts were under way to repair the damage.

Iran’s Red Islamic Thingy chief Pirhossein Kolivand said the total number of damaged civilian sites "has reached 81,365 based on the latest field assessments."

He said the figure includes residential and commercial units, schools, medical centers and vehicles.

IRAN KEEPS FIRING CLUSTER MISSILES
Iran fired a total of 10 missile salvos Sunday at central, northern and southern Israel, some of them dropping cluster munitions that impacted in the country’s center, injuring 15 in the afternoon.

More fragments impacted without causing injuries, and at least one missile was intercepted outside the atmosphere by the long-range Arrow 3 air defense system.

Immediately after midnight Sunday-Monday, another Iranian attack caused damage but no injuries in several impacts of cluster munitions or other falling fragments in central Israel.

One ballistic missile was assessed by the IDF to have struck Lebanese territory, the first time that an Iranian ballistic missile has hit Leb
...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects....
 during the current war. It was unclear whether Iran had been aiming for Israeli troops operating in southern Lebanon or for a target in Israel.

More than 400 ballistic missiles have been launched from Iran at Israel since the start of the war, with the military reporting an interception rate of 92 percent of attacks heading for populated areas and key infrastructure.

In all, five missiles carrying conventional warheads with hundreds of kilograms of explosives have struck populated areas in Israel, causing extensive damage in four cases. There have also been more than two dozen incidents of missiles carrying cluster bomb warheads hitting populated areas, with over 100 separate impact sites.

The IDF said in the early morning hours of Monday that it had launched a "wide-scale" wave of Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s in Tehran, targeting infrastructure of Iran’s "terror regime," without elaborating.

On Sunday, the army said that it had struck Tehran the previous night as well, hitting several Iranian weapon production sites and various headquarters of the regime.

According to the military, the targets hit by Israeli Air Force fighter jets included an Iranian army training base that included a storage site for anti-aircraft missiles; a weapons production and storage site of the Iranian defense ministry; a weapons production site of the IRGC air force; a headquarters of the Iranian intelligence ministry; and a headquarters of Khatam-al Anbiya, Iran’s military emergency command.

The IAF fighter jets dropped dozens of bombs on the sites, the military said, describing the strikes as part of a "phase of deepening the damage to the core systems of the Iranian terror regime and its foundations."

In total, the IAF has conducted hundreds of waves of strikes in Iran, dropping over 13,000 bombs on Iranian regime and military sites, including air defense systems, ballistic missile launchers, weapon production sites, nuclear facilities and various headquarters.

The IDF has estimated that some 5,000 Iranian soldiers have been killed in Israeli strikes, along with tens of thousands more maimed, many of them members of the internal security forces and Basij paramilitary force.

Israel launched its campaign against Iran, alongside the US, to degrade the Iranian regime’s military capabilities, distance threats posed by Iran — including its nuclear and ballistic missile programs — and "create the conditions" for the Iranian people to topple the regime, the military and other Israeli leaders have said.

Since the war began on February 28, 15 Israeli civilians and foreign nationals have been killed in Israel in Iranian ballistic missile attacks, along with four Paleostinians in the West Bank.

In first, Iranian missile launched at northern Israel appears to land in Lebanon — IDF

[IsraelTimes] The ballistic missile Iran launched at northern Israel half an hour ago apparently struck Lebanese territory, according to military assessments.

It apparently marks the first time that an Iranian ballistic missile has hit Lebanon during the current war.

It is unclear if Iran was aiming for Israeli troops operating in southern Lebanon or for a target in Israel.
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