By Tyler Derden – Zerohedge

Summary

  • Trump dials up threat, seeking leverage, denies approving Israeli Pars strikes: however, reports from The Wall Street Journal and Axios say the White House was aware. US sending more troops to region.
  • Energy war hits breaking point: tit-for-tat strikes are now directly targeting Gulf energy infrastructure, with Qatar’s Ras Laffan damaged, KSA, Kuwait, Bahrain sites attacked; Saudi trust in Iran “completely shattered.”
  • Europe pushes off-ramp, refuses entry into conflict: Macron urges direct talks  “reckless escalation,” while Friedrich Merz signals support for de-escalation—Brussels’ stance: “This is not our war.”
  • Iran signals not done exacting revenge: IRGC warns retaliation “not yet finished,” vowing escalating strikes across region as Gulf states, Iraq, and shipping lanes absorb widening fallout.
  • Strait of Hormuz a de facto economic war zone as prices rise at the pump with oil spiraling higher: Iran’s parliament is floating tolls on shipping – weaponizing control.

Continue reading “Tit-For-Tat Gulf Attacks Spark Energy Market Chaos; Trump Distances US From Israeli Actions, Macron Urges Direct Talks”

By Jason Ditz – Antiwar.com

The UN Office for the High Commissioner on Human Rights is warning that Israel’s deliberate attacks on civilian targets across Lebanon may amount to war crimes, because international law demands a distinction between military and civilian targets. Continue reading “UN Rights Office Warns Israeli Attacks on Lebanon May Amount to War Crimes”

By Drop Site News

BAGHDAD, IRAQ—Through two improvised checkpoints, men filed into Al-Ummah Park in central Baghdad’s Al-Tahrir Square on Friday to mark the celebration of Al-Quds Day (Jerusalem Day). Behind the artist Jewad Selim’s Monument to Freedom, a relic from a secular society that seemed so out-of-place and obsolete, a few hundred mourners gathered underneath a sea of paramilitary flags. A succession of defiant chants came in unison, condemning the U.S. and pledging loyalty to the Supreme Leader in Tehran. Projected on a giant screen before them were the smiling faces of Ruhollah Khomeini and his successor, the recently murdered Ali Khamenei. The image soon gave way to another, with Ali’s son, the new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, flanked by his elders and crowned with the words “fa‘azazna bi thalithin,” a cursive allusion to a Quranic verse from Surat Yasin: “We sent them two messengers, but they rejected both. So We reinforced the two with a third.” Continue reading “As the Gulf Burns, Political Uncertainty Looms Over Iraq”