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Trump's Iran war widens suddenly: Ukraine hits ship, Houthis target Saudi oil | Janta Ka Reporter
Janta Ka Reporter
Jul 25, 2026

In a dangerous escalation, the Iran conflict has spiralled out of control after a Ukrainian missile strike hit an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea. As Tehran vows to avenge the attack, the region faces another flashpoint: the Houthis have fired over a dozen missiles targeting key Saudi oil facilities in retaliation for recent Saudi airstrikes in Yemen. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump faces mounting domestic pressure to end the military campaign against Iran as the monumental economic and human cost weighs heavily on the American public.

In this episode, Janta Ka Reporter founder and veteran journalist Rifat Jawaid breaks down the day's critical developments with sharp analysis and expert commentary.



Transcript

Iran has vowed to punish Ukraine after its commercial vessel was hit by the Ukrainian force. The Ukrainian military's action has caused a dangerous escalation in the region. In another instance of the widening of Iran US war, Yemen's Houthi fighters have targeted Saudi oil facilities with ballistic missiles after the Saudi military bombed Houthi targets in Yemen. Meanwhile, there has been a brief pause by both the US and Iran in their military strikes and retaliatory attacks.

Israeli terrorist Israel cats has confessed to playing a lead role in the ouster of ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan. This will be the broad focus of my video tonight. Also in this video, another Lego style film on the empire of dirt by Gandocraft. So please stay tuned.

Two major developments related to the Iran conflict that have marked a 1 minutedangerous escalation in the region today. First, the Houthis have fired over a dozen ballistic missiles hitting key Saudi oil facilities. Key targets hit by Houthi missiles included Saudi Aramco oil refinery and marine terminal located in Jazan industrial city along the southern Red Sea coast and critical Aramco oil refineries and export infrastructure in the main Red Sea port city of Yamu. Let's not forget that the Houthi's ability to set the Saudi Aramco oil field on fire was what had forced the Islamic kingdom to agree to a ceasefire with the Yemeni fighters in the first place.

This is precisely what the Houthis are now seeking to achieve even this time around. They look determined to cause economic devastation to Saudi Arabia. This would also mean that the Red Sea is effectively out of bounds for international maritime trade. This is what the Houthi's military spokesperson said after hitting the Saudi targets.

forch. for speech. forchech. for for for This Al Jazzer reporter explains the significance of the dangerous escalation in the Red Sea.

Saudi military is announcing that they targeted military sites. According to the onsouthis however uh they're saying that the uh Saudi Arabia targeted the island of Kamaran and targeted also facilities belonging to telecommunication centers all of which happened in the strategic province of Heda. This is exactly what we we might see with the escalation of military activities against Saudi assets. Whether it's at sea, whether it's at land, whether they are target targeting Saudi Arabia's most precious jewel, the Aramco oil facilities.

The main target here, make no mistake about it, is uh Saudi Arabia's uh uh money maker, the uh oil exporting industry. That's 5 million barrels from Saudi Arabia that's being exported on a daily base. And and this is also according to many officials who who who basically sent the message that they want the war to escalate. They want to target more Sahi at assets.

And it looks like it's not just going to include imposing the blockade. This is going to perhaps lead into a a fullcale war between Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni group just as it happened in 2000 from 2015 to 2022. Um it looks like history is going to repeat itself unless negotiations can deescalate the rising tensions. Iran then faced another escalation from an unexpected quarter when Ukraine of all the countries Ukraine fired a missile to hit an Iranian flagged commercial ship killing at least one sailor.

The Ukrainian missile attack targeted the Iranian ship of the port of Ola, a major Russian maritime hub situated in the Astarakhan region along the delta of Wulgar River where it flows into the northern part of the Caspian Sea. Iran has vowed to teach Ukraine a lesson. How Iran responds to the Ukrainian attack will be interesting. Although experts say that Iran can achieve this in two different ways.

The Islamic Republic can bolster its transfer of key missiles and drones to Russia that can be used by Russia against Ukraine. Iran is already accused of doing that, but chances are Iran would speed up now that Ukraine has decided to hit an Iranian ship. Iran will also most likely inflict economic pain by launching cyber attacks on the Ukrainian financial infrastructure, thereby causing more chaos in the war torn country. Only time will tell what the Iranian response to this extraordinary development would be.

Meanwhile, the deranged occupant of the White House is under pressure, tremendous pressure to end his madness against Iran. Now even American media outlets are embarrassing this Israeli slave on the war crimes committed by him in Iran and see his utter discomfort when faced with such a pointed question. Quick question about Iran. Um you're talking about blowing up civilian power plants and bridges.

Much of the civilized world would consider that a war crime. Do you? Uh I won't respond to that question. Who you with?

The New York Times. I figured so failing New York Times. Even American lawmakers are not prepared to remain silent anymore on Trump's deprivity which has endangered even the lives of American troops. This is Chris Murphy here.

Billions of dollars wasted, 18 Americans dead, thousands of civilians and children in the Middle East killed. Our military stockpiles dangerously depleted. New wars in the region breaking out by the week. the Straight of Hormuz and possibly the Red Sea now closed, controlled by our enemies.

Gas prices skyrocketing, the global economy melting down. This is day 146 of a war that has no achievable objectives and no endgame. A war that has ruined American families as gas prices are back over $4 a gallon. unaffordable for many workingclass Americans.

We have sky-high diesel and fertilizer prices. We've seen record numbers of farms go into bankruptcy. This is a war that has made Iran stronger. A war that has depleted American munitions so dangerously that we are now exposed without the munitions and interceptors necessary if there was an actual threat posed to the United States elsewhere around the world.

Every day as we speak, Iran strikes its neighbors, Israel, Kuwait, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar. Every day Iran strikes US forces and our basing in the region. They have done billions of dollars worth of damage to our forces and to our partners' forces. Our war against Iran has set off other wars.

Israel has invaded Lebanon. In that country, 4,300 people have been killed. 12,000 have been wounded. 2 Two million Lebanese have been dep displaced from their homes.

A new conflict is breaking out between the Houthis in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. The Straight of Hormuz is closed. Iran did not control the strait before the war, but they now effectively control it. The Bob Elmande Strait connecting the Red Sea to global waterways now appears also closed.

And the Houthis, again, another Iranian ally, have started to attack ships there. The US has depleted our munitions and interceptor stores to dangerous levels. Over decades, we carefully, methodically built up a stockpile of long range stealth missiles, mostly in preparation for a possible future 12 minutesconflict with China. You know what percentage of that stockpile has been fired at Iran in 146 days?

Not 10%, not 30%, 50%. We have fired half of our entire stockpile of long range stealth missiles in 4 months. And the situation is even worse for our allies and partners in the region. Reports suggest that the UAE and Kuwait may have burned through 75% of their Patriot missiles just over the last 146 days.

This all sounds like a disaster, correct? Like an unmitigated five alarm disaster. But the administration defends this reality. They simply say that this is the cost of a just war.

Lives lost, regional chaos, high prices, low stock piles, taxpayers footing the bill. It's just all worth it. It's not worth it. Why?

Because Trump has not achieved a single war goal. All of the cost, all of the chaos, all of the death that I just described is going to be for nothing because not a single one of these goals is going to be achieved. Now, I will admit the goals have shifted over time. And so on this chart, I am simplifying the set of goals.

But here's the reality. Yes, this war has taken out the previous leadership, but what has happened is that the old regime has simply been swapped for a new generation and they feel emboldened because they have survived this war. 14 minutesElsewhere, Israeli terrorist has reportedly confessed that his genocidal entity was instrumental in ensuring the ouster of ICC chief prosecutor Kharim Khan. We all knew who was behind this dirty campaign, but the terrorist himself has admitted that now.

One of Khan's lawyers, Tyabali, wrote on Twitter, and I quote, "So this makes a little more sense now, doesn't it? While we were preparing a legal case against the allegations at the ICC, which resulted in the judicial panel finding no misconduct or breach of duty by Mr. Khan Israel had a whole task force dedicated to making sure whatever the evidence was, he would be removed anyway. If the ICC had an ounce of credibility left, they would launch an investigation into this clear indication of political interference and manipulation of due process.

Who did the task force get to? End quote. Look, this 15 minutesis not rocket science if you understand the chronology. The ICC issues arrest warrants against Israeli barbarian Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yuav Galant.

The genocidal entity and its stoes in the US cry foul and threaten to dismantle the ICC itself. The rogue regime of Trump then sanctions the ICC judges and Kharim Khan himself. Then you suddenly have allegations of sexual misconduct against Khan. The United Nations judicial process declares Khan not guilty.

But war criminals from the illegal settler colony used their sto in the US to force member states to vote through secret ballot to remove Khan. And you still think this has been a fair process. We're living in a crazy world where depraved and bloodthirsty terrorists are being allowed to destroy the very system that seeks to hold them accountable for their war crimes. I will now leave you with another Lego style video by Gandocraft.

This new video is titled Empire of Dirt. You can follow their works by subscribing to their YouTube channel. The link is in the description. I watch the glowing screen to see the world again.

My little boy asks why. I don't know what to say. The monsters in the suits are stealing every breath. I smile to hide the truth from this empire of death.

How do I answer my precious son? Every child they break fades [music] away when day is done. And they [music] consume it all. this empire of dirt.

How do I [music and singing] explain to you while the babies hurt? I walk the shadows. Now [music] I learn their every name. The men who kill for greed.

[music] The masters of the game. They think they sit unseen above the law and tears. I [music] track them in the dark. Then their rain of fears.

How [music] do I answer my precious son? How do I explain all the blood to anyone? They think they took it all [music] from a bleeding nerve. But I'm the approaching storm for the ones who hurt.

I will make them pay. [music] for the tears you shed today. [laughter] [music] I hold your little hand and turn the [music] screen away. I swear to you, my son, it will not [music] end this way.

I'll tear the darkness down through all the ash and burn. I promise [music] you a world where children never hurt. [music] That's it for me. Thank you very much for your support of this platform and our journalism.

If you haven't subscribed to my channel, please do so because that's one of the many ways you can support independent journalism. God bless you all.

Iran REPELS US Attack, 43 Warplanes WIPED OUT as Trump BACKS DOWN | KJ Noh
Danny Haiphong
Streamed live 101 minutes ago #iran #iranwar #trump

KJ Noh discusses the restart of all out US war on Iran, what precipitated the over 80 strikes along Iran's coastal cities, and the beginning of Iran's retaliation.



Transcript

Welcome back to the show everyone. Danny Hiong here with KJO to break down the latest developments. We begin with Iran where the United States has decided to stop strikes on Iran. Two straight days now of no strikes and we'll get to reasons about that later.

But I wanted to pull up a major list published by Iranian military sources on all of the uh uh military assets hit in just 13 days. And I scroll down to the aircraft losses here. If you count up these from the fighter aircraft to the reconnaissance drones, operational drones, F-15s, PAT7s, it equals a whopping 43 aircraft in 13 days. 6 billion.

This of course is still Iranian sources but it's all we have because the US does not report these things. But what they are reporting KJ is that Trump has sheld plans for a major escalation in the war on Iran. uh stating that both uh uh chief of staff Dan Kaine as well as JD Vance said that the Patriot interceptors have been nearly exhausted and escalation would basically deplete them to nothing. Uh and another report has said that US forces were reportedly allowing missiles to hit uh US bases because they were so concerned the Sententcom was with the Patriot interceptors and the air defenses.

KJ, this is major news. Uh many people have said this is a major taco by Trump. um what have you made of uh what's happened you know in the last and what it says about this war and the geopolitical situation more broadly well I think once again the US is reaching its uh you know capacities the magazine is certainly one of the key issues as we said magazine markets midterms these are all core issues but the larger issue is that the US is not capable of winning this war it is not capable of imposing its will on Iran. It is not capable of uh forcing the uh straight of Hormuz to be open.

So it signals in a very very clear way that the US in a very very concrete sense is is extraordinarily infeebled. And of course we can talk about the depletion of air interceptors. We know from the estimates of Russi, from CESUS and then from the Iranian uh uh reports uh the US is really really depleting its strategic assets. One of the key things I want to highlight is not simply the number of airplanes that have been hit but the number of radars.

So, seven command and control centers, three satellite commu comm communication systems, six patriot air defense radars, three air and maritime surveillance and monitoring radars, eight early warning radar systems, seven air missile defense radars, three EPS radar systems, two EPS117 radars, five longrange radars, two air defense radars, one tactical radar complex. What that means is essentially that Iran is blinding the United States. And as I said, once you know before, you get into a fight uh somebody hits you, you get your retina detached, uh you cannot fight. And I really think that that is making that very very clear for the United States.

Uh I think the other thing we want to look at is um the original battle plan against Iran was also the battle plan against China. It was drafted actually in 2009. uh and it was supposed to give the US overmatch and uh strategic it would give them an immediate strategic win uh over Iran most certainly and certainly over uh China and the under secretary of the Navy Robert Woke uh in 2010 explained it. He said the doctrine of war se battle at its core is about winning a guided munitions salvo competition.

What's very clear is that the United States has lost this guided munitions salvo competition. As I said before in Gulf War I in uh 30 years ago the US was doing 3,000 sorties a day. During these last 14 days, it was doing perhaps 100, 150 sorties a day, trying to escalate up to double that. But it shows that the kind of strategic overmatch and this total and complete air dominance that the United States is used to having is now uh history.

It really is not able to enforce its will. Yeah, I found the report so interesting by NBC News that the Pentagon was allowing they say Iran to hit US bases just to preserve these air defenses and without the radars I mean these air defenses become next to useless but nevertheless uh this is being framed as a temporary pause KJ yet according to NBC News these interceptors and everything else that goes with them, including those radars, they take years to replace. So temporary could be a while. How do you see the United States uh uh you know maneuvering here then?

Because it doesn't seem like Israel uh there are prominent people around Trump's administration who say that this war isn't necessarily going to end because of this. But then what? It it seems like a very big quandry uh that you know you do need these things if you're going to fight a war especially a long war which Iran is now calling a war of attrition in its own right and maybe doing that because it sees it has the advantage in a war of attrition. Your thoughts?

Well you know the US has always had three options none of which are good. The first is bombs. This is the bombing war. This is what uh you know Robert Woke called winning a guided munitions salvo competition.

The US seems to have lost that competition. Certainly does not have aird do. It's not able to assert its will uh in in the standoff contestation. It also has the capacity for boots on the ground.

As we've said before, that would be an act of madness. anything that the United States does in terms of boots on the ground. Let's forget the fact that it doesn't even have, you know, the troops or the capacity. But let's imagine that there are boots on the ground.

That would essentially be a killbox. Uh it would be Denben Fu. It would be Kissan. It would be, you know, one of the great strategic obvious visible strategic humiliations in uh war in the history of war.

And we know that Iran is highly, highly prepared for a land invasion. In fact, that's probably what they want because they're meeting the United States on their ground, on their home court, on their territory, and they are furious uh at the amount of, you know, violence uh unjust violence. Uh let's not forget that this is a criminal, illegal war of aggression. uh but certainly you know the mass casualties that have been uh uh levied on their civilian population.

I think that Iran has much much stronger resolve and as I said you know the different asymmetries it has stronger resolve it has faster learning curve it has a cost asymmetry it has a ge geographic advantage it has a strategic advantage it has uh economic industrial advantage etc etc all the advantages are on the side of Iran so the US has the potential of bombs boots on the ground and blockade none of these things are working. And so what is it going to do? Well, you know, there's uh clearly attempts to engage and solicit proxies to wage some of the war while the US recalibrates, regroups, and tries to restock its magazine. That magazine stocking will take a long time.

You know, they make about 50 Patriot interceptors a month. uh possibly eight uh THAAD missile interceptors a month if even that and uh and uh if you look at the actual procurement timelines you know they take between four to five years to actually go into to to delivery and so I think there's certainly huge uh problems with the defense industrial bases uh as as far as sustainment and logistics is concerned The US does not have a lot of options, but it does have the option possibly of engaging further with proxies using proxies. It does have the capacity to go further up the escalation ladder, meaning using tactical nukes and I think there's a large number of uh you know uh ruling class elites who think that that is the solution. Uh and then it also has you know the option of you know drawing out some kind of strange protracted uh war of attrition which it will lose or it could do the logical thing and come to the negotiating table fully implement theou and make good uh its promises and find a modus vendi in which case the straight of hormuz would be opened up.

The Babel Mandab would no longer be at under threat. Uh the Gulf states would no longer be facing existential crisis and uh globally the economy would sigh uh you know would take a a big uh you know sigh of relief. Right now we have to understand is that Iran has a dog shock collar on the straight of Horus. uh it can shock that anytime it wants and the US has no options as far as that is concerned.

Yeah, there are already reports that even with Oman and Iran apparently negotiating for some kind of final settlement on jointly managing the straight of Hormuz on the Omani side, the so-called corridor the United States was pushing ships through. I guess there was one that was attempting to push through probably at US direction and it hit one of Iran's uh naval mines that it had placed there. So uh that is uh you know that is going to continue uh because Iran has said straight of horror moves is never going back. But as you said, KJ, even just for the purposes of the United States actually getting the pause, actually uh uh getting this p it doesn't want to stop war with Iran.

But if it needs to, if the United States Empire needs to uh build up its stockpiles again, and it takes years, well, then you'll need a pause longer than what was it? I mean there have been now two uh since the ceasefire two flareups and uh both of them require the same munitions that were being used in the initial part of the war. A lot less effective a lot fewer but nonetheless the same munitions. So what do you think about this?

I mean the United States would have to take a a long pause then. No if if it's going to um if it's going to replenish if we're just thinking in the eyes of the twisted empire. If it were thinking logically, that's what it would do. It would take a very very long pause and hopefully that pause would run into some real uh you know self-reflection and the empire would you know stop waging uh aggressive war against uh you know countries that it sees fit to bully and uh dominate.

But I don't think that is in the DNA of the ruling Imperial neocon class. I can't see that happening. Although, who knows? I'm not ruling anything yet.

I certainly hope that the US uh deescalates and negotiates a meaningful diplomatic solution. uh but uh I I think the the the the core thing to understand is that you know if you give the analogy of a chess game you know uh in in chess generally you want to control the center once you control the center you occupy the center you threaten the center then you essentially the game is a foregone conclusion it's very very hard to uh undermine that uh unless you have some extraordinary gambit which is highly unlikely. Uh Iran controls the center. It controls the strait of Hormuz.

Uh and there has been this tit fortat exchange which is you're essentially just losing pieces. And at a certain point you lose so many pieces you you can't continue. You have to resign. And I think the US should resign.

It is at that point where it really does need to just simply back off, go back and um make good and seek a modus vendi. Remember, Iran has not pulled out uh all the stops yet. There is still a lot more that it can do. There have been attacks on Amazon uh data centers.

I think there's been one attack uh on uh energy and desalination plants. But Iran could actually wipe the slate clean. they could wipe out the entire uh you know infrastructure of all the Gulf states in which case those states US vassels US power projection platforms would be no longer viable as countries and along with that also what would be destroyed is the US strategy uh for its you know uh uh AI development because what has been happening is there have been $2 trillion dollar worth of pledges to the Gulf States or from the Gulf States to develop AI data centers in uh UAE and etc. e AI data centers because they have abundant energy and you know vast amounts of space etc.

that entire model is completely uh gone. Uh and uh you know AI data centers require water uh electricity and also humans to service them. If that can't be done then the seven major corporations that are involved in AI that are propping up and that are responsible for almost all of US economic uh development. uh will be wiped out.

And so all of this is to say that Iran has not even begun to start fighting. It has been pulling its punches and it has many many steps up the escalation ladder. Each one of which will be uh extraordinarily uh damaging not just to the United States but to all the global capitalist uh states. And so hopefully the US is thinking about this.

It understands that Iran has a dog shock collar on the global economy, on the US economy, on the future of the US as a viable economic state. Hopefully, it realizes that, but that remains to be seen. Yeah. Well, uh that that is 100% true.

Rationality isn't the forte of the wararmongers. Now uh KJ I think a big also a big problem with a pause uh taking any kind of pause this must be a a kind of competing pressure the pressure to reserve uh military stockpiles air defenses etc the pressure on the economy that builds as you were 17 minutesjust describing if this escalates but then the counter pressure to that the on the opposite end is the fact that Iran gets more and more effective as time goes on with uh its ability to strike back. So you have now this is a Washington Post excerpt uh taken by RT where it's been admitted that they've calculated Sentcom has that it takes only about now for a US strike to be responded to immediately with missile and drone attacks on bases. So that's it's a very short turnaround time and that could very well get shorter if first of all Iran is now battleh hardened and second of all they say all the time that they are perfecting and investing a lot of time energy and resources into improving their own stock piles.

So again, yeah, there this is a major contradiction that the US empire is in and the Trump administration dove right into it. Uh dove right into it and uh now it appears 18 minutesit's not able to get out or or at least uh that's what history has shown us thus far. Yeah, I I certainly think the US is in a quagmire. you know, it has, you know, hugged the, you know, the tar baby, uh, and it it really doesn't know what to do.

It's it's a zuk zang. But, you know, once again, as you point out, notice the rapidity of response that counter battery strikes. Notice the way in which Iran is able to blind and hit US strategic assets. And the US doesn't seem to be able to do that.

Because if it had been doing that, it would mention that. Notice that when Iran talks about its strikes, it gives you very, very clear specifics. As I said, you know, 37 radars, you know, six fighter jets, 12 fuel storage tanks, uh, MQ9 drone hangers, command centers, four high Mars missile launch platforms. Very, very specific about what it's hitting.

Uh and when the US says it has hit things, it just kind of says generic things. In other words, we don't know what it's hitting or if it's hitting anything. But certainly the sorty rate, the lack of specificity, the diminished sorty rate, the lack of specificity and uh Iran's, you know, clear and uh focused uh responses show that uh really the United States is losing this in a very very big way. Um, you know, once again, going back to battle doctrine, um, the United States has had a long history of gaining immediate air dominance and then pummeling countries, uh, into submission uh, and then sending in the military for cleanup.

Now, this works when you're working with countries that are very, very poor that do not actually have real militaries. And we saw this for example with Afghanistan. We saw this with Iraq in you know the first and second Gulf wars etc. But Iran is a completely different animal and they've preparing for three decades for this fight.

Uh and they've shown that their strategies uh and their you know the symmetries are literally unbeatable. you know, as far as I can see, I I cannot see a winning strategy for the United States. And so, the US is in a very very difficult position. Uh, it also, you know, doesn't have uh, you know, the usual uh, capacities that it has.

It has gotten fat and flabby and useless because for two decades it focused on Cohen or counterinsurgency which essentially means that you're bombing uh you know goat herders from the air uh and then and then giving them you know little you know soacia packets and soccer balls uh you know in you know to to counteret that they were doing what they referred to as armed social work uh And that doesn't work anymore. That Cohen paradigm doesn't work anymore. Uh they don't really understand the nature of joint arms maneuver against a peier and they never uh you know saw Iran as a peer. They considered it a non-pierer adversary.

But as I said once again, you know, air sea battle, this is the doctrine of war that they uh planned uh for Iran also what they have planned for China has been shown to be completely ineffective and actually 180 degrees and the inverse in the sense that it is Iran that has blinded them that is Iran that has decapitated decapitated most of their forward assets and that it's Iran which has shown clearly not only uh missile dominance but really you know that they have won uh uh you know the guided munition salvo competition as they call it. And uh to add on to maybe the pain KJ as uh we move into uh the broader situation. But um before that just you mentioned proxies earlier. Iran has this has been the most under reportported part of this war I believe is throughout the conflict through since February 28th but especially since theou period Iran has been preemptively striking uh these so-called Kurdish forces in on the Iraqi border uh in places like where uh the United States has been training forces to act as a 23 minutesproxy even Donald Trump says periodically that we have other people who will do this.

And he's most likely referring when it other people that will do a ground invasion, he's most likely referring to the so-called Kurdish forces which have in the past actually rejected uh going in to Iran and and and wreaking havoc. But that was the plan. But Iran has been striking the US infrastructure, the assets, and the for literal forces there uh every almost every single day since theou uh was depleted. And now they're declaring that it's essentially nearly all gone, if not all gone.

So that's a big hit and that will also take time to rebuild because you know that we know they're going to try. I mean they have a big foot. The US has a big political foothold there. What's your thoughts on this?

Yeah, I agree. First um I think it's very very foolish to try to use uh proxies especially the extremist proxies that the US seems to be cultivating. I have good Iranian uh friends, comrades who actually despise the current regime uh the current government. Uh but they said if the US uses proxies, I will I will go to Iran and I will pick up arms to defend uh Iran.

And so I think you know I think they really really misunderstand uh you know the nature of the resolve of the Iranian people to preserve their dignity uh and their sovereignty. Uh I also think that um as you point out you know US assets are severely depleted. Can the US wage once again Cohen uh this kind of long protracted small dirty wars? They can try.

I mean this has been their modus operandi after it lost the Korean war. The US waged for another two decades dirty war from Myanmar using the stragglers and the remnants of the KMT 25 minutesuh and also inside China itself you know using Tibetans and uh you know other you know um uh uh groups. So the US has a long history of doing that. Uh will it be successful?

I don't think so. I think it will be less and less successful because as the US loses power in general uh even the proxies will understand that it is really not in their interest uh you know to get involved uh in a in a losing proposition. You know once again you know the US the US is used to having dominance and easy dominance. You know, it's like the US has golf courses on all on about half of its military ma major military bases, about 230 plus golf courses.

And you go out to the golfing green and you you know just you you just, you know, take your uh uh putter or your fiveiron or whatever that is and you just kind of slam and you hit out onto this clear uh green uh and and then you feel good about yourself. That's the way the US has gotten accustomed to waging war. It doesn't realize that it can't do that anymore. It's deep in the thicket.

Uh and it's a completely different day. They're not in Kansas anymore. No, definitely not. Yeah.

And now for some of the broader implications, KJ, of uh what's happened. So, of course, we know Yemen got into the war when Saudi Arabia struck it and at this very sensitive time when the US and Iran were engaged in uh war. Uh but two days have passed since uh Ansarala hit Aramco. It hit oil refineries in the Jazan area in Saudi Arabia.

It's still burning. So this had major this caused major damage that's still being uh borne out now. And then we have let's say the wars intersecting to use the the popular liberal phrases. Now you have in the Caspian Sea Ukraine having attacked an Iranian vessel and killing a sailor.

um uh saying that Iran has now notified Russia in the EU about this in the possibility of striking back. And this is this is this is actually quite remarkable. Uh Iran is saying Israel was the one who provoked this saying that you know Israel wants to continue the war so why not try to bring Iran into the Ukraine situation. It's it's very strange.

I wonder what your reactions are to this. You know all these wars are connected KJ and now they're literally bleeding into each other. Well, it's as Curt Campbell said, he says it's one unified field. Uh, and he said that what he would do is he would unleash uh a symphony uh, you know, uh, a symphony of death.

Well, it's it's happening, but it's happening the other way round. You know, once again, you know, US casualties are increasing. Uh, we know that, you know, the casualties are most likely underounted. Just recently, you know, the three uh most recent casualties or actually four most recent recent casualties were removed from the role because they said it quote unquote happened under peace time, which is just, you know, the worst kind of insult.

So, uh we know the casualty counts are increasing. We know that that was the case right from the get-go when when the war started uh in late February. uh Dover Air Force Base uh was recruiting for personal effects specialists. That is to say people whose job is to clean, photograph and mail uh the personal effects of dead soldiers.

You know, they were urgently recruiting for new personnel for this. So we know that there is significant uh casualties. Uh and also you know the Ramstein air base uh you know changed its entire uh you know service uh it cut out its you know it shut down its maternity ward because it anticipated massive casualties that it had to deal with. So all of these things sk uh signal that you know casualty rates are much much higher than are actually uh signaled and it also signals you know it's just once again it's it's more indication uh that the US is in this losing battle.

It's losing on all fronts. uh if Yemen can strike Saudi Arabia's Aramco uh that must put uh you know shock and awe uh into uh the US uh strategic command. Certainly it does that for you know the Saudi and all the Gulf states apparently and this remains to be confirmed is that um Ansarah hit the storage tanks but it has not yet hit the uh processing infrastructure. We'll see if that holds but it shows that first the capacity to hit and also the tremendous control and precision that they have which I think is actually even more frightening.

So once again in terms of you know the the second front and the second choke point Babel Mandeb uh and then uh Iran's capacity to uh raise the costs not simply economically but in terms of actual human casualty costs uh and then also this connection with Israel where the US and Ukraine and uh Israel see this as a single front. Well, I mean it is it shows that it is a single front. It shows the uh Israeli connection as this, you know, kind of uh clearing house for global imperialism and global fascism and global uh atrocities. It shows that how Israel is facilitating all of that.

So, it is not a surprise. But what is surprising is that they're boasting about it and they seem to have no uh issue with you know uh stitching these uh uh you know different fronts together. That will be to the great detriment of Ukraine, Europe and the United States as well as Israel. And um you know on this theme of uh these wars kind of bleeding into each other, there have been many reports and I think when it comes to the United States, the United States is really really really dependent upon military force.

that really needs to exert military force to ensure that a country like Iran and if we talk all the way up to China uh that the United States is able to uh topple them. That's ultimately the goal here. Now, there's all kinds of interesting reports about China in particular right now that they're building full-size models of warships and aircraft to hone their missiles and and there's some satellite imagery of that. They built an array of replica ships, aircraft, and bases in its desert expanse to focus on uh targeting and other kinds of uh data collection.

Uh very impressive feats. And then when it comes to Iran, I just want to highlight this theme of uh like even just innovation, military innovation. The Wall Street Journal's reported that one of Iran's cheapest missiles, the the the Kyber Shakan has been uh adapted and altered so that it can evade uh air defenses uh different flight path speeds and drones uh uh you know attached to uh their launches which have made it very difficult to to intercept even these cheaper models which we don't have the exact cost but Wall Street Journal says uh a fraction of the cost of these millions you know, three4 million uh defense uh systems that the United States has been wasting away on. So, uh K maybe you can talk about this because oftent times we talk about China, we talk about economic might.

When we talk about Iran, yeah, we are talking about the military might, but we also we don't often talk about the the adaptation, the ability to maneuver, the ability to change when conditions change. Uh that's something I think we are seeing demonstrated over and over again is that the these countries are making necessary changes to uh prepare or literally in the case of Iran fight the war that's in front of them. Yeah, I think you're absolutely right, Danny. On this show, we actually have spoken about, you know, learning curves and we've said that, you know, the side that adapts faster, the side that learns faster wins.

Uh war is essentially a contest of learning curves. The US learning curve is essentially flat. As I've said, it's uh air air sea battle from a land battle. They're simply rehashing what they tried to do in 1991 and having less success.

At the same time, both Iran and China and other global south countries are adapting rapidly and transforming. And so the US, you know, have basically cannot deal with the fundamental cost asymmetry. Saudi Arabia, the US vassels, they all rely on these extraordinarily expensive boutique weapons. Um, you know, when I think I think of like Jay Leno's garage, you know, Jay Leno has all these very very expensive uh, you know, foreign cars, but uh, he has all these cars and they're very expensive and they're very impressive.

But Jay Leno is not going to win uh you know a driving contest anytime soon despite you know his expensive uh you know u pan expensive array of cars and Saudi Arabia is the same thing. It has one of the largest military budgets but clearly it cannot win even with uh you know advanced weaponry even with mercenaries. cannot defeat uh one of the poorest uh militaries in the world and Allah once again it shows the failure of air sea battle uh and uh the same thing is that they adapting and learning quickly China is adapting learning quickly as I said the doctrine of air sea battle this war that is being fought against Iran was actually a rehearsal for war against China it is the same war doctrine that the US was going to apply to China. That is to say, essentially blinding uh taking out all of its uh reconnaissance capacities, decapitating its leadership and then uh putting on uh a long and punitive blockade.

All of that has shown to fail on every dimension. uh and Iran has the upper hand and China uh if it comes to you know if it comes to war which the US does seem to be preparing continually preparing against China uh it will be of a magnitude more responsive magnitude more uh powerful than what uh Iran has responded with. And so I think you know once again one would wish one would hope that the ruling elite understand the facts on the ground but it doesn't seem to be the case. They seem to be uh you know above all they seem to be not only fighting uh reality uh but you know fighting you know just uh just basic reason uh and rationality.

Now KJ, when you said the US appears to be preparing for war with China, I I mean that's quite literally over this entire period, including uh this Iran war period. It's not it's just not getting attention. And I want to pull up one example of this that you can comment on. Uh let me get this ad out of the way.

According to CNN, and these have been reports over the past several uh no, over the past week, starting July 21st, there have been numerous instances of the Philippines taking their naval ships uh into uh uh disputed areas of the South China Sea, the Rene Jao, and uh the area surrounding the Thomas Schaw in this instance where there's been confrontations. China, this is they shot a water can. I guess CNN was on board of this whatever that's supposed to uh signify and how significant that is. But in another case, uh a US naval ship rammed into the Chinese Coast Guard and they then of course attacked back.

But it was it was very gentle sticks and and various things like that. It wasn't uh while it didn't flare up into a major shooting war between the two KJ. Uh these provocations according to China are traced easily back to the United States uh and Japan too. KJ talk about this.

This is happening uh these provocations the US making comments about it too uh showing that they have they're giving full diplomatic support and political support to the Philippines. What's going on here? And why? How is it that during the war against Iran, Quagmire 2, and Ukraine, the United States is investing resources, time and uh uh and military resources into another proxy war?

It seems like this time the Philippines, a very interesting choice, too. Your thoughts on this? Yeah, not just in the Philippines, but also on the Korean Peninsula. Right now there's RIMAC going on in the Pacific but there are also constant war games uh on the Korean peninsula including the rehearsal of you know massive logistical lift.

I mean this is very specific and concrete preparation for war. These are not abstract war games that are you know done on computer. This is like the actual dress rehearsal, the tech rehearsal before you roll out the actual uh performance. So there's some very very real and concrete stuff that is going on.

And it's astonishing because even as the US is fighting essentially, you know, full boore or close to full boore war against Iran, it is actually depleting and deploying uh vast amounts of airlift and material and troops and live ammunition uh in for example on the Korean peninsula. So all of this uh signals that US has still not given up on war against China. In fact, very recently, uh, one of the king neocons, um, Eli Ratner, uh, he, you know, spoke about a two-f frontont war, you know, against Russia and, uh, China. And of course, he doesn't even consider Iran to be worth uh, considered as a war.

But all of them see war with China as the main dish. It is the ultimate goal. Uh, everything else is really peripheral. it starter, appetizer or dessert.

And in some sense they're you know they're telling themselves you know like we want to knock out all these rogue states but their center of gravity the the country that is giving them support economic support and uh political support and is functioning really as a center of gravity that allows them to attain escape velocity against the uh you know predations of you know the global uh capitalist Imperial Imperium, the global capitalist plantation. This is China. So they see that they have to quote unquote go and attack the head of the snake. So all of this uh is uh currently ongoing.

It's as I said, it's not to be redundant, but it's absolute madness because if they can't win uh FC battle against Ansar Allah or against uh Iran, there's no way they can be successful against China. But that doesn't deter them. This is the grizzly bear fallacy. The 6% of the US population that believes that they can fight a grizzly bear with their bare hands and defeat it.

Let's just go a little bit into the history and the geopolitics of the South China Sea. The South China Sea is bordered by China including Taiwan province as well as Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunet and Indonesia. It's one of the core geostrategic thorough affairs and it's sometimes compared to the Persian Gulf. About $5 trillion worth of goods flow through the South China Sea annually.

Uh and about 10 million barrels of oil daily. Most of it is destined for China. And so and it's also very resource- richch area etc. And it's also contested.

you know there are multiple islands that are contested by uh the different countries or parties uh their claims bisect tric quadric etc. uh all of the countries have built militarized installations on islands in the South China Sea but only China gets criticized for it. Now the key issue is who owns these islands, reefs, shors etc. And the Chinese claim the islands back to the Han dynasty and they can show continuous historical usage, fishing, habitation, travel, mapping and voluminous documentation.

Uh and they're also independent uh western documents that validate this. For example, from the 1870s until about the 1970s, there about uh you know, there, you know, there's a vast amount of official uh British and French cabinet documents and uh juristpredential rulings etc that corroborate Chinese sovereignty etc. But the Philippines now claim that you know that region is theirs. Uh they claimed that it was Terranlius and that you know they bought it for a dollar from a adventurer who sold it to them.

Uh and the US has been using the Philippines uh and especially their disputed claims over the South China Sea as a way to go provoke uh and instigate conflict against the Chinese. Um this has to do with you know the pivot to Asia. They understand that if they can close off the South China Sea and and choke it off as air sea battle uh you know describes then China can be destroyed. Uh and so uh one of the things that they did was they you know did lawfare and they you know claimed that China was uh making claims to the South China Sea uh you know without justification.

That is a complete PR hoax. That tribunal had no authority to proceed, let alone render a judgment on the sovereignty of the South China Sea. But essentially what has happened is that the US is using the Philippines as the proxy in the South China Sea just as it's using Japan and Korea in the you know in the East Sea. And so US has nine bases.

It has one of the largest naval bases, forward operating bases. That's Subi Bay. It's the world's largest weapons manufacturing logistics hub for US military force. And it is constantly driving into the paint against China and seeing if they can draw a foul upon which they will use that as a quasa spell and escalate even further.

So, China has been very very uh circumspect. Uh it has never used uh military force. At best, you know, it will fire, you know, water against the Filipinos. More recently, apparently, they hit uh some Filipinos with an ore.

And so, they're really trying to keep, you know, things from escalating even further. But the US most certainly wants some kind of kinetic conflict. If there is a kinetic conflict that involves the Philippines, then the US will claim quote unquote that they are mutual defense allies and that will be the justification for escalating to kinetic war. and they've planned it all out in intimate and intricate and incredibly rehearsed detail on the Korean Peninsula in the East Sea near Japan and then along the Taiwan uh uh province and the entire first island chain and then all the way going into the South China Sea and this is you know the first island chain and the scoot and shoot strategy that they have and the dispersion all of this is intimately and explicitly built out and rehearsed.

Uh and they're seeing if they can provoke something. Why are they doing this? Because they're desperate. They know that if China continues to grow and the US does not take China down uh then US hijgemony is uh you know is 47 minuteshistory and they do not want to give up their hijgemony.

They would rather end the planet uh than end their uh than give up their hijgemony. And so that's the really really dangerous uh situation that we're facing right now. Yeah, KJ. And and I think one thing that people don't generally understand when they look at that map that I pulled up of the South China Sea is that essentially if the United States gets its way and if the United States pushes for the claims to uh China's claims to be fully rejected and the claims so-called of these other countries which aren't which aren't all black and white.

They're not all well Malaysia claims this over this island versus China. That's not all black and white. There is a lot of gray. Um but nonetheless, if it's pushed in that direction, what it amounts to is an effective blockade of China.

3 US billion dollars in the first half of 2026 over the course of the war in large part because China is building this kind of green silk road uh with uh partner countries in the Belton Initiative. But it's a it's a huge emphasis for China because it recognizes that uh a part of trying to get these countries uh that have so-called disputes in the South China Sea onto the US's side is to choke off China from one of the key uh points of maritime traffic that in the world but especially for China. But your thoughts on this? Yeah.

You're absolutely correct, Danny. I mean, the South China Sea, in particular, Straight of Mala, which is one of the entry points into the South China Sea, is probably the most important choke point uh in the world. It's even more important than uh the Babel Mandeb and the Straight of Hormone simply because of the volume of traffic that's involved. So as I said the US plan of war is called air sea battle involves decapitation deep into the Chinese uh you know uh inland as well as blockade what they call distant blockade which refers to choking out China at the South China Sea.

It's the literally the carroted artery and the windpipe of China. Now in order to bypass that China and remember air battle was drafted in 2009 2010 the pivot to Asia which is the declaration of war against China was declared in 2011. uh and then around about that time China began to initiate the belt and road initiative and a very important part of the belt and road it's not simply a kind of vascularization of Asia so that all the countries uh on the Asian continent can trade easily with each other as part of a renewed silken road uh a renewed silk road but it was uh a strong component was also geostrategic That is to say, it was a way of bypassing the South China Sea uh and the Malaa Straits. And so the first leg and one of the most important legs of the belt and road that was initially constructed was Cpek, China Pakistan Economic Corridor and China Myanmar Economic Corridor.

So the these uh are both ways of bypassing the South China Sea and coming out into the Indian Ocean. Notice what happened to these uh uh legs of the barrier. uh essentially they were all attacked by US uh funded uh NOS's or even worse by US allied terrorist groups in particular for example you know the Balo liberation front which was uh not only attacking and blowing up uh parts of the China Pakistan economic corps or the CPAC uh but it was also beheading uh you know people and they were killing off Chinese school teachers and you know just sheer terror that they were trying to uh uh trying to spread in order to choke off and prevent this alternate vascularization uh that China was trying to build out in order to avoid confrontation and war in the South China Sea. So from this you can see how deep and determined uh US plans to choke out China are not simply uh over the sea but uh over land as well.

uh and of course you know China's response to that is to see what it can do to build out energy sovereignty because uh energy flows are a key part of the BarRi and the South China Sea. And so one of its ways of building out energy sovereignty is to encourage and develop and offer to the global south as a global good uh sustainable energy. And so you see the massive exportation of solar panels and hydro power and wind power. These things make countries less dependent on oil traveling through these different choke points and arteries which the US has very very definite definitive plans to choke off and control just as it has very very definitive plans to choke off and control as it sees fit the global financial arteries uh moving through New York and through Swift etc.

And so China is helping the global south recover and reclaim some measure of sovereignty uh by allowing them energy sovereignty and financial sovereignty through alternate you know settle settlement and clearing house mechanisms. But all of that is a long and slow process. And in the meantime, you can see that the US is continually escalating to war, continually waging both hot war and small wars, dirty wars uh against any alternative uh plan for development. Any attempt to escape the capitalist plantation is currently as we speak uh being sabotaged and attacked by proxies, by quizzlings, by uh dictators, you know, running dirty wars uh and by quizlings who have cast their lot in with the failing empire.

Yeah. In the last two minutes here that uh we have with you KJ, I just want to show the graphs. uh the BR deals that are surging in terms of total billions of dollars. This is as of June uh then July here's this the following month.

Uh look at how it correlates with the demand for green energy which uh shocker here we have June uh and really all the months uh after the Iran war uh increasing that demand dramatically given what has happened to the oil markets. So that's a big deal, KJ. I think China is always the one that can step in. Uh the United States seems to fight more so by trying to take away, by trying to choke off, by trying to sanction and destroy.

And it's China that seems to be stepping in uh and providing uh you know providing the alternative even on this uh energy front. Uh well, your final thoughts, KJ, as we wrap up the last two minutes here. Yeah, I think you're absolutely right, Danny. I mean to give it a you know simple you know slogan uh the US bombs in China builds and what it is building is it's building an anti-hgemonic system an anti-hgemonic coalition it's building out the possibilities for the global south to escape western colonial capitalist uh subjugation and that is very very definitely tied to the building out of green energy which uh interestingly enough.

Donald Trump is probably more responsible for promoting than any other leader in history. The Biden administration was doubling down on hydrocarbons and they were dead set against collaborating with China on uh moving and developing sustainable energy. But Donald Trump who actually be believes that glo despite their knowing that global warming, global catastrophe, climate catastrophe is a real issue. But Donald Trump who believes uh I believe firmly in his heart that global uh warming, global climate catastrophe is a Chinese hoax uh to undermine US you know prochemical uh uh industries.

uh has done actually more to promote uh green sustainable energies than any president in US history including Jimmy Carter and his you know uh cardigans and solar panels because by choking off the strait of Homus he has made very very clear that nobody can rely on hydrocarbons as uh a form of energy anymore. Right? As I said, you know, the the shock collar is on uh it cannot be taken off. Uh and because of that, they have to diversify into other sustainable forms of energy.

So once again, you know, this is Hegel's cunning of reason. you know, Donald Trump uh essentially uh you know, doing God's work decarbonizing the planet because he thinks that he's going to destroy uh US allies by uh you know, choking them out uh in a place that they cannot be uh that they themselves cannot control. Very well said everybody. Quickly uh I just want to thank uh the singular super chat here, Farzan and Deem.

Thank you so much. Uh quickly just a couple announcements before we head out of here. Uh two shows coming up. So I actually have a membersonly stream uh coming up that will uh if you become a member of this show.

m. Eastern time. Here it is. I will uh do this uh and send out an announcement.

It'll be completely private. So I'm going to uh send out an announcement for members to join that. m. Eastern time today.

tomorrow, uh, Patrick Henning, 1 PM Eastern time, July 27th. And those are the announcements. Everyone, hit the like button, uh, so more people hear what KJ has to say on all of these developments. We're going to keep tracking them.

KJ, any final words for the audience before I hit the endstream button? Oh, I'm going to sound like a broken record, but you know, we all have to do our part uh to resist the empire and its final and lethal thrashings. That means not being suckered in, not being um you know uh taken in by all the lies that we are being fed. Uh and also uh doing your best uh working with other organizations.

That means hitting the streets, hitting the phones, writing, hitting your keyboard, whatever that means. Making some effort uh to prevent this uh murderous murderous uh escalation uh to war. It's it will get worse before it gets better. But in the meantime, we have to be prepared, galvanized, and put uh our everything into it into resisting this escalation.

Yeah, well said. I think that's a great place to end. Everybody, hit the like button. Thank you so much for joining.

Hopefully, I'll see some of you at 7 PM Eastern. For YouTube members, join if you can. And tomorrow, I'll be back July 27th, 1 PM Eastern time with Patrick Henningston. Until next

Is US military rationing weapons? Trump faces scrutiny over Iran war depletion | Janta Ka Reporter
Janta Ka Reporter
Jul 26, 2026

US President Donald Trump faces a massive domestic backlash following reports by CBS and NBC that the US military is running out of weapons in the ongoing war with Iran. According to these reports, the crisis in the Persian Gulf has become so dire that commanders are now forced to ration critical munitions. Meanwhile, geopolitical tensions have escalated on a second front: Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi has issued a fierce warning to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, declaring that Ukraine's recent strike on an Iranian vessel off the Caspian Sea coast "will not go unanswered."

Part 1 of 2

Iran TAKES OUT 200 US Troops, ARAMCO Burns as Trump LOSES IT | Patrick Henningsen
Danny Haiphong
Jul 27, 2026

Geopolitical analyst Patrick Henningsen joins the show to discuss the massive US losses coming out in the Iran war as Trump loses it completely over them, and what comes next.

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/2081727947791020165

DD Geopolitics 10 hrs

Iran reportedly draws up list of EU-linked energy targets over Zelensky provocations

According to reports circulating on Persian-language channels, Iran has compiled a list of European-linked energy infrastructure as potential targets, since Zelensky is a European proxy force whose actions could trigger a response against EU energy interests.

Pipelines linked to Europe:

— Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan
— Baku–Supsa
— Saudi East–West Pipeline
— Southern Gas Corridor
— Trans-Caspian Pipeline
— East Med Pipeline
— Arab Gas Pipeline
— El Arish–Ashkelon Pipeline

Oil and gas fields linked to Europe:

— Azeri–Chirag–Guneshli (ACG), Azerbaijan
— Shah Deniz field, Azerbaijan
— Absheron field, Azerbaijan
— Leviathan field, Israel
— Zohr field, Egypt
— Cronos field (Block 6), Cyprus
— GGIP project, Iraq

LNG facilities linked to Europe:

— Idku LNG plant, Egypt
— SEGAS LNG plant, Damietta, Egypt
— Revithoussa terminal, Greece
— Alexandroupolis terminal, Greece

Other:

— Green hydrogen projects in Oman backed by European investment

Transcript

Welcome back to the show everyone. We have Patrick Hennington back on the show to cover the latest developments. Well, Patrick, since you've come back from Iran, uh we've had Trump so-called taco out of the war, he did not escalate. And now we're finding out many reasons why.

One of which is that now Iran is saying that over the course of the 13 days of strikes, 200 at least US service members were killed by Iran's retaliation. CNN is saying while they're not verifying the number of dead that Iran is claiming, uh the United States Sentcom is saying that 600 US troops uh casualties have been meed out by Iran's retaliation over this period. Now, there's also big news about a Ramco. So, since uh you've come back, Patrick, I'm sure you've seen that Yemen has reentered the war because of Saudi aggression, US Saudi aggression, I should say.

And now it seems like Iraqi resistance has gotten into the mix. Aramco is already burning and now it is burning even more uh according to Saudi Arabia. Aramco was hit last night by Iraqi resistance drones. At least that's what they're saying.

And then Yemen also hit uh Jizan oil refinery uh again with drones and it had been burning for two days straight after the initial strikes of by missile and drones. So, this was a drone attack yesterday and that's the large plume of smoke playing from the or being shown by the satellite imagery. Now, Donald Trump has been losing it, Patrick. He's on AI imagery seeming for the last uh for some reason.

But your thoughts on what's going on here uh the current state of the war and uh why do you believe that now the United States uh seems to be pulling back despite Trump's assertion that uh this won't last very long unless Iran gives them everything they want. [snorts] Well, Danny, [laughter] I mean, I I've been watching this we've been watching this tennis match back and forth. Um and then just let's start talk about theou phase right theou phase and this is this to me is just part of that continuum and what I what I what I believe just by studying the uh the United States actions I'll just firstly start off with it's to me it's very clear now it might not be clear to everybody and I know that uh a lot of podcasters um and channels will are kind of set up to follow daytoday changes um and then sort of say is this a turn is this a pivot what I'm what I'm seeing Danny and we can discuss afterwards but what I'm seeing is a continuum and u the United States is not pulling back uh the the United States has ongoing operations okay we have to be very very cognizant of the fact that these operations are funded. US operations are currently funded right through the rest of the year.

So whatever they've got on the go, um it's going to be continued until it's not until it's until an order has been given by the president to stop operations. And I don't see that happening. So the the the US operations are clearly to attack and to disable Iran's ability to manage physically physically manage the Straits of Hormuse. That means attacking infrastructure.

That means attacking military facilities, radar, port facilities, naval uh resources, uh anything infrastructure, anything along the south coast in and around the straight of Hormuse. And the US has a window to do this that is not confined to this week or last week or during theou phase. It's it's it's going to extend right through the midterm elections right till the end of the year and then probably into the new year. So that's the way I'm looking at it and other military uh analysts uh some of whom we know are also looking at it this way.

And if we look at it this way, then we we we won't be distracted by all of the games uh and propaganda and uh disinformation that's being thrown out by this White House um that that is clearly during this whole process is also playing the markets. So these announcements, this latest announcement clearly that came out last night was designed to hit before the opening of Monday's markets. Um, and so that's so the US has to basically they they they need time to rearm and reload and that's a constant process that's going to take us right through. The opportune moment for a grandstand before the midterm elections to to get a W or at least a short-term media W would probably be some somewhere between the 1st of September and the 1st of October.

So that so in terms of some kind of symbolic ground beach head storming the beaches of Car Island or whatever it is, it's going to be temporary and it's has to coincide in the run-up to the midterms so that Donald Trump can can declare victory. That's the plan. And I'm not saying that any of these are good plans. I'm not saying that they make sense, that they're sane, but they're funded and they're in motion and the US is locked in.

Pete Hagat, the Pentagon, they're locked in. This is their program. The United States fully understand, and so does Israel, that the strongest hand that Iran has to play, aside from their missile deterrence, is the control of the Strait of Hormuz. That is the their strongest leverage.

So therefore, the United States object militarily is to uh remove that card from Iran uh to to to take away that leverage and that and therefore they can reverse the dynamic and then what the US typically will do at that point is to come in with new terms and try to renegotiate the terms of of this uh this deal. So theou for all intents and purposes and and by the way this is what everybody in Iran believes that I spoke to was just a ruse. It was a ruse and the US never had any intention of abiding by any of the obligations within theou. Now I know that's going to upset some people who are JD Vance fans.

Yeah. Or who are hoping to get a position in the Vance administration who are all over the podcasting circuit. By the way, there's plenty of them. I know that's going to upset them, but Donald Trump, JD Vance, and Marco Rubio all actively sabotaged theou.

Literally, each of them were assigned to break or sabotage one point of theou. Marco Rubio took out clause number one. Uh, and, uh, Pete Hegsath and Donald Trump took out clauses four and five, sabotaged those. And JD Vance sabotaged clause 10, which was reparations.

And he did that by announcing that uh Iranian frozen assets would be handed to US soya farmers, you know, and that was a Jared Kushner brain brainstorm. What a brilliant idea. He was boasting about it. So he's using the Islamabad um or or the Geneva sorry forums uh on these negotiations to grandstand for himself trying to kind of big him big his position up for the 2028 election.

He's already started that process because campaigning begins next year next April. So uh but what he did was basically invalidate clause 10. So each of them played a role. If the US were serious about thisou, they would they wouldn't have so systematically dismantled it and done so in a very short space of time like say 3 weeks.

So it's kind of to me that's the way I'm looking at it Danny just to begin with. Okay. So so if we look at it that way then all these pauses are just laying in weight for the next cycle. And the what the other giveaway on this is Donald Trump's letter he wrote to Congress asking for a 60-day extension to the war.

That's a legal way via the executive branch to avoid the War Powers War Powers Act oversight. So, and also it's it has to be funded as well. So, it's a legal loophole and they they'll run this. So, you'll see fake 9 minutesnegotiations that will more or less coincide with a 60-day cycle.

Okay, that's so they cover their you know what uh on on the domestic legal side and then politically they can say it's all all above board and kind of keep the the the the doves in the Democrat party and and the Republican masses at bay somewhat. So that that so we when you establish that framework you can kind of see this is designed to roll over and just to keep going. It's like a lung. it will inhale and exhale in terms of cycles of escalation.

But the US has got very very clear uh target bank list that they're going to continue to hit and they they'll stage any provocation or use any excuse and in this case they stage the provocations for tankers uh violating the the Iranian clause four and five of theou um in order to create a pretext for military escalation which they did. 10 minutesSo that's pretty clear. So I think this is war by deception by Washington. So they they've taken a p a page out of the Israeli playbook which is use negotiations in order to uh provide cover for you to maximize your military objectives.

That has been that is an Israeli tried andrue tactic and the United States has now adopted Israeli tactics which means they're not serious about any negotiations or deals. It's always and then they'll end up going to maximalist demands then they'll walk away then they'll blame the other side. This is what Israel's been doing for 50 years. So this is what the US is doing under the Trump administration.

So that's established. Next, Yemen. So, why on earth would Saudi Arabia want to oblige after a relatively successful armistice from 2023 till the present with with Aner Allah and Yemen? That doesn't make any sense.

Why? What leverage does the United States have over Saudi? was clearly they were pushed to interdict or attempt to create a ma that would have been a major provocation an Iranian passenger airliner coming into Sana airport. Okay, that's what started this round of escalation with Saudi Arabia.

Well, what was Trump doing at the same time? They were dangling a carrot of a nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia. And you notice how they dangled it, then got Saudi to hit Yemen, and then pulled it back and said, "No, no, no. " Did you see that?

So, they just got played. That was a bait and switch by the Trump administration. And and uh and and the White House and Scott Bessett did the same thing to Pakistan at the very same time. They dangled a carrot of an 18 billion dollar bailout of the Pakistani ruby uh and they're dangling that in front of Pakistan as a rescue package.

Then Pakistan obliged by making a public statement about their military alliance with Saudi Arabia and that they would uh if necessary defend Saudi in any kind of skirmish with Yemen. Okay, that was part of this triangular transactional tactical move by Washington. Danny, I'm not saying any of this is going to be like productive in the long term or even the short term for for Saudi or Pakistan or any or even the US, but this is how the Trump administration roll. This is exactly how they roll.

It's all short-term scams and cons and Kansas City shuffle maneuvers is what they do. And it's uh it's and now you can see the result of this. It tell me how this isn't a total disaster for Saudi Arabia. Yep.

I mean, look look at what you the news you just read. That's that to me is just it's devastating. It is. It's it's the Yanbu and Jazan, you know, these are state-of-the-art oil terminals, you know, of very very uh advanced, expensive, economically very crucial to the economy of Saudi Arabia that's already lost a substantial amount of oil coming out of this horm totally relying on the Red Sea.

Why on earth would you want to jeopardize any of that for what? Why? Who? Who is pushing them?

Who threatened them? Who's blackmailing them? You know, this is coming from Washington. And Danny, if it's coming from Washington, where is it really coming from?

It's not really coming from Washington. It's the boomerang that is tossed from Tel Aviv all the way to Washington that boomerangs back to West Asia. And that's how. So, I mean, this isn't good for the US.

It's not good for Saudi. It's not good for the region. Uh it's it's is it good for Israel? One could say they're not and they're and they've got their hands supposedly free from this.

They're not actively engaging in uh you know strikes at the moment. They weren't against Iran uh during those 13 days. And some Israeli officials saying that was preferable for the first time I've ever heard that at least during this war. Right.

They're like, "Yeah, yeah, we got other things we want to take care of. " But, but anyway, it's back to you. This is good. And Israel, it's it's they're out of the out of the crosshairs for the for the moment.

And that suits them down to the ground because they're busy. They're busy with with Lebanon. So they're quite happy to let the rest of the region go up in in flames so long as they can take care of their uh uh near abroad their neighborly their neighborly projects like expanding their borders and occupying Lebanon and running programs in the West Bank. And by the way, there's no international outrage about that.

It's what's going on in the West Bank would have previously hit the headlines and it's caused such outrage and Washington would have been paralytic as well about it but not now. So this is a new kind of you know reality that we're in. Unfortunately the hierarchy of crisis means that what used to be absolutely devastating uh reprehensible acts are now pushed to the bottom of the outrage pyramid. and uh and that who does that suit?

Israel. So, they're able to manage all of these different disasters like Gaza um genocide in Gaza and an active attempting to to do a genocide in the West Bank and an ongoing genocide in South Lebanon. So, so yeah, I mean that's one way we could look at it. I mean, I'm sure that many can debate, but you know this I think there's also this delusion, Danny, that the Abraham Accords in Washington anyway, and I think this is a Kushner-led and a Whitled initiative, that somehow there's there's life in the Abraham Accords, and we just need to give it the the right amount of uh mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

uh albeit kosher resuscitation that somehow it's it's going to like animate itself again. Yeah, that's not going to happen. You know, they they they've got Bahrain locked in. Well, congratulations.

That's a successful project as we can see. Uh they've got the UAE locked in. Well, congratulations. Mo there.

Most people have already written the UAE off as East Israel. Yeah. And is that going to do them any favors in the long term? I'm not sure.

The, you know, jury's out on that. So, forget about Saudi Arabia. Forget about Qatar. You can't have any Abraham Accords without KSA and Qatar.

It's not going to happen. So, and what about the Kingdom of Jordan? They're not doing very well at the moment. Yeah.

Iran took care of them pretty badly. Yes. Um, so I'm not saying this is going well. I [laughter] but but it's going and it's going to go in this direction and you know I don't know what that's going to mean in terms of overall but if if we're save any kind of nuclear escalation by the US or Israel against Iran that would be a gamecher.

Okay. But as long as it stays in the conventional frame, I see Iran winning a war of attrition and there and Iran is at least the impression I got Danny um when I was there is they're locked in for a couple of years on this mode and you know I for for Trump and for the US especially politically for Trump does he want to have it on his resume that he lost control of the region and he presided over this catastrophic shift in the balance of power uh and and towards a new multi-polar order or something like this. He doesn't want that on his resume and he'll probably Iran. Yeah.

No, that's so he's going to do everything possible that that can't be declared during his administration. That means no assets will be unfrozen. There'll be talks or threats of unfroz unfreezing assets. Sanctions will not be lifted.

there'll be talk or maybe even temporary sanctions lifted to keep this this thing going but he doesn't want to give anybody that and so what within the US political frame will be uh dur when 19 minutesthe when the 2028 presidential election debates begin and that conversation starts happening it'll be look uh Donald Trump has not given an inch to these Iranian terrorists it's the Biden administration and the Democrats and Obama that have been weak uh with Iran and that's the reason why we're it's this crisis and Donald Trump was the first president to put his foot down with these these terrible mullas and that will be the paradigm debate for the 2028 election. So when it when it gets to Gavin Newsome and JD Vance, um they'll they'll have at it and it'll be are you gonna be, you know, shrink wrapping cash like Obama and sending pallets of cash to the mullas so that they can build more missiles. Is that what you're going to do, Mr. Nuome?

and it'll put him on the spot and then the Israeli lobby and the Mark Lavines of the world and the the whole machine will be in gear to make sure the Democrat uh leading candidates will be singing from the IPAC him sheet on that and there may be an opportunity to deescalate in the next Democratic administration. But you can be damn sure, Danny, that I don't see anything serious happening for the remainder of the Trump administration. Not anything like a a major ideological like epiphany or anything from the US. I don't see it.

And not from Israel either. This is an ongoing conflict and it will continue to be an ongoing conflict um throughout through through the through the remainder of Trump's term. Those are are great points and you know I've been saying that if a Democrat does win you put up Gavin Newsome that's very it's like Gavin Newsome JD Vance it's like looking in the same mirror. Um but uh you know two incredibly uh well-trained cons but they um but I could see the Democrats just for no other reason as you just predicted this conflict this war will go on all the way up until the election.

So, I could see Democrats trying to stay away from the the war, distance itself just for the sake that it will be even more unpopular than it is now. Given the fact what I said earlier with the US troop losses, the US can't really handle that. The more rounds there are of strikes, the larger those casualty numbers are going to get, the the longer the economic pain is going to be. And so there will be major of course uh attempts to distance oneself and try to frame it on the other side by the Democrats as you know Trump's war failed and will be much much better at being aggressive toward Iran than them.

That will be probably how they'll try to spin it. But nonetheless, uh Patrick, you brought up the Saudi question. You know, this is what Saudi Arabia has been hamstrung into doing. Obviously, there was major pressure.

Uh they're having their oil facilities. They're claiming now Iraq is hitting uh their largest refinery, the resistance uh uh their largest Aramco refinery. Yemen hit it. And you and I brought this up earlier as you were talking and and this feels like almost like negotiating with Tony Soprano, you know, like like Trump literally has Saudi's arm behind their back and twisting it as hard as possible to um to get something from the US, you're going to have to give.

And that's the Abraham Accords. It's it's a disaster. But then I want to put this up because it's the Israeli US connection and who better than Barack Ravi to represent this. He's constantly communicating that connection to us.

And this is what Trump is saying right now. We're having deep conversations with Iran. If they don't succeed, we'll go back to very powerful military action. It's not going to take much time.

These so-called negotiations either moves fast or it won't happen at all. So, it sounds a lot like what you're predicting here that this is just a pause. But pause for what is the question. Because a lot of the losses, you can't get back the troop lives.

You can't get back the soldiers lives. And the weapons, if you want to pause for that, you're going to have to pause for a couple years because it takes couple years to build the pages. So it none of that's not necessarily. No, the p you can pause long enough to get munitions that will get you through uh an exch uh a conflict exchange cycle uh that might last I mean let's just take what's happened the last 13 days.

Let's just call it a 13-day window which isn't that unlike operation midnight hammer. I hate that that name. It's so so stupid but it's just team America. But uh but let's just say that 13 day two week, right?

Two week window. That's all that's that's all that's needed. So that's that's what we've established now. That's the precedent.

The model is the twoe window. I think it's all it's always kind of been that February 28th and the 40 days, you know, war. That that's an anomaly. Um, and I think it's it's all pretty well agreed that that significantly depleted a lot of the US stocks and uh in terms of missiles and interceptors and and and Israel as well.

So, Israel needs needs to be uh fortified temporarily for these conflict exchanges. But the US has shown this is this is the dangerous part Danny is that what we've shown over the last 13 days is that Israel got a pass. So the US took the brunt of the Iranian retaliation and Israel took nothing. So this can be repeated as far as Israel is concerned and quite frankly as far as Washington's concerned.

This is acceptable because they don't have to report their losses. The United States media has closed ranks on the KIA uh or casualties. Um they're not going to push, none of these journalists are going to push hard on that. There's also a national security letter over that story.

So, it's it's it's of paramount national security importance uh casualty numbers that they not be reported or that they be underestimated in the US media. If they if any of that does come out, if there's any leaks, that is devastating for the Trump administration. We all know how important those numbers are in terms of gauging the public buyin for any particular policy or war or whatever. Um so but but now Israel has established that it can basically sit on the sideline and out of out of the maelstrom and the US can continue this kind of you know matador uh uh dance with with Iran.

um they can continue doing this. And the US believes, the Pentagon believes that they can inflict death by a thousand 26 minutescuts to Iran between now and the midterm elections or the now and the new year. And then they can they can just systematically degrade all of the Iranian facilities and infrastructure along the south in and around the straight of Hormuse and that they they're absolutely fine in Washington in waiting to do this over the next 6 months or 12 months and and they could at any point punctuate that with a massive assault or even a a temporary symbolic ground assault. Yeah.

uh and and at any point and it's how they manage that now that could be a huge disaster for the US if they overplay their hand like for instance a a ground assault on any of these islands that could be a massive miscalculation by uh the Trump administration but you know we'll we'll cross that bridge when we get to it but in the meantime they have a they have a strategy it's very clear and uh people need to see that see the big picture and stop, you know, getting too caught up in Trump's just, you know, crazy mems, AI images, tweets, because a lot of this is just theater to to really kind of cover and keep the press at bay and keep people distracted from what they're really doing, which is a kind of really sunken cost into a long-term uh conflict that they're probably not going to be able to win that if the American people or Congress or the Senate had a real dis discussion or debate about whether they can actually gain any objectives or political settlement out of this and the answer being no. Why would you continue doing it? But it's funded. So they're going to continue this game.

I'm telling you right now, it's just going to be lies upon lies and deceit upon deceit to keep this this thing going, this goddy road show of a war that the president has dragged the country in. And you know what's crazy is they've dragged European countries and the UK specifically into this. Yeah. So I'm I've been I've been looking at that very closely and that's a a huge development because specifically because they changed prime ministers and Andy Burnham comes in the new labor leader unelected.

He was just he was a coronation. He was anointed. Didn't even go through a proper party vote of me labor membership. forget about the general election.

And he comes in, his first act as prime minister was to greenlight the US use of uh B1 and B2 bomber runs against Iran from RAF uh bases in the UK. " Now, that that was intentional, Danny. the the US could have used a number of other countries to do that. Britain could have quietly been neutral.

You know, that could have been done by Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, number of other countries. Uh Germany, Germany could have could could have carried the water on that and they have before, but they needed to get the United Kingdom locked in. And the question is why? And of course, we know the answer.

Part of the answer came via Zalinski uh striking Iranian ships in the Caspian Sea and and that would be absolutely Britain and the United States behind that operation 110%. Definitely got the green light from NATO. The implications of that are severe and we can talk later about that. But um so so the war doesn't look like it's going to deescalate.

In fact, it looks like it's going to escalate. It's and so the US by attacking Iranian ships, the US or Britain, let's just say the US and its allies using Iran uh Ukraine as a proxy. Okay. What they're doing is enforcing a wider blockade.

Yeah, that's what that's what they're attempting to do. And the threat is it would drag Russia into this conflict. Russia doesn't want to be dragged into this conflict for many obvious reasons and they'll do anything to avoid that. But it means that if if if if that act does does goes unanswered then the Caspian Sea is now a front and that's you know in terms of supplying Iran and uh trade and you know just normal goods food stuff resources not not even military trade um that's that's now a potential enforcable blockade you have an aggressive Azerbaijan on the border there and you have other uh nefarious actors potentially uh in Ukraine itself you know so it's that what is Ukraine now going to be involved in drone deployment from Azerbaijan you know into Iran and as they played a role in the collapse of Syria Ukraine did very important role pivotal role in Idlib and Aleppo in in totally blindsiding the Syrian Arab army uh with drone attacks.

They didn't know what to do. They they they just retreated immediately. Um and you see the FPV drones how they are game changers on the battlefield. Um not to say Iran's not prepared for a lot of these things.

I'm sure they are. However, it's just an example to say, is Ukraine going to be used as a proxy against Iran? And who's going to be outraged by this in the international community? where is there going to be any opposition to this?

Have you seen any opposition to this so far? Any announcements from any of the European countries like what the hell are you doing? You know, no, I've not seen any. Maybe we'll wait a couple of days and see if there's any statements by any of these NATO countries, but they're trying to paint Ukraine as this, you know, burgeoning democracy with this honorable democratic hero, Zalinski, at the helm.

And here he is trying to basically drag Europe into a third world war with Central Asia. This is insane. Crazy crazy times. Yeah, it is insane.

And it and it also plays along into, you know, how Donald Trump frames the whole proxy war US Europe relationship different, but to me it's the same. rather than try to massage and make nice, it's uh bully and force uh uh uh compliance. And now we're seeing some of the results of this. Getting Ukraine to hit the Caspian the the Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea, kill an Iranian.

They did. Uh and now Iran has an EU target list uh all drawn up, which you know, if Iran retaliates, which it would have every right to since this was an attack. I mean, look at this list. It's huge.

pipelines everywhere. These are all hitable for Iranian missiles and drones. Uh this is the target list that the IRGC has drawn up in response. So yeah, this could very well it Ukraine, yeah, use as a proxy to drag Europe deeper into another war.

So to let the United States get a bit of plausible deniability, that's perfect. I've also found Patrick it fascinating that you know Iran has only been going up in terms of numbers in terms of its estimates of US troops killed but I found so fascinating the lack of outrage over the fact that the US sentcom has been fudging up numbers about what little troop casualties they will report on. Now the total is seen as 600. But you probably saw noticed Patrick that right after those troops were killed in Jordan uh and after the dignified transfer, they were taken off.

I think it was four. It was three in Jordan, one in Iraq because of the drone detonated. Now they're being put back on the total counted list according to CNN now uh through the Pentagon. But all of that you you know it doesn't make a difference in terms of yeah they're they're still dead and everyone can of course count them if we saw the dignified transfer over at the do base but it the United States is showing that it is doing its best to fudge up numbers that already have been counted.

So what does that say about fiddling the ones that aren't that we don't know about given I mean this damage was so extensive Patrick but your thoughts they got caught they got caught fiddling firstly they got caught fiddling uh following the uh attack on the on the Jordanian bases so that's we can all agree the United States be and this is just the typical hamfisted style of the Trump administration because they're they're micromanaging everything all the time and they they feel like they're above it that they can just go ahead blatantly and you know just do open fiddling and they don't really don't have to justify themselves because they'll never really be pulled up by the US media in any meaningful way. Um so we've established that but this is this is exactly so so you remember when the retaliations began after February 28th. Okay. and and we we said at the time and I was recording a podcast at the time uh with a colleague who uh who is a a very good podcaster and I'd say very critical very good uh judicious and critical thinker um who's also a West Point veteran and his contacts told him that uh there's quite a few that were marked as wounded or injured and many they'll they'll immediately be sent to the infirmary uh in Stuttgart in Germany because that's where that facility is and they handle those situations for those troops but the accounting be uh that you see for injured in terms of casualties because casual casies are if dead and killed in action and injured and those who die after from injuries.

That's where the gray area is after they've been shipped out and if they're in stable condition or if they're in critical condition, they're they're they're still injured. 37 minutesOkay? They haven't yet gone into the the dead column. And then from there they're shipped off to North Carolina uh eventually when they're stable enough to make that journey which is a much longer journey.

Okay. So we were told that there was fiddling going on back then at the beginning of March. um that those numbers are actually much higher deaths uh much higher than were being reported which is almost nothing was being reported at the time. I think it was like seven or maybe 13 or something like that.

It's a very small number considering the amount of injured. So this is a huge ratio of injured to killed and massive damage across all of these bases. So it's it's and people will say well they they can't hide that from the families. No.

Yeah, they absolutely can. These this is a national security situation. The these are classified. All of these uh uh reports, casualty reports, medical files, everything, it's it's classified because it's the it's it's it's paramount to national security.

The public relations narrative is paramount to the security of this operation. And that's what will be told to the families. And in some cases, the families won't need to know exactly where they were when they were injured or those injuries that would have eventually lead to them dying. Um if they were working on something that was classified, it's on a need to know basis.

Families don't have to be told everything immediately. Absolutely not. They can they can hold off hundreds of families if need be. That's that that's standard operating procedure.

" It's absolutely how it works. In fact, it work it works more like that now because the US has such a the US public has such a low threshold for outrage when it comes to dead troops. And no president is going to want to own that. No leader in the world wants to own that.

I mean, look at look at the the the the lengths that the Ukrainians have gone to cover up their their their battlefield losses. And everybody knows what the real numbers are because whenever they have the exchange of of dead bodies and the Russian refrigeration articulated 18-wheeler Lori pulls up and the Ukrainian 18-wheeler uh articulated Lori pull up and they do their swap. The Ukrainians don't have anything to give the Russians. It's a 1 to 44 ratio or something crazy.

40 minutesSo everybody knows that was covered up and that be because the minute a country like Ukraine is a perfect example that the true numbers are known and and admitted to and acknowledged, then all of the sudden the the the moral or ethical argument for keeping this war going ends like immediately. It drops like a like a hammer. It's over. it can't be justified on any moral or ethical basis.

So they just covered it up. And in fact, what the US have done is reversed it by putting out fake claims that that and I see it every day. US politicians even do big silly PowerPoint presentations mounted on white foam core board to basically say Russia's battlefield. I just saw one this week after I forgot what senator it was.

4 four million Russians dead on the battlefield. I mean, like, what planet are these people on? These are our US- elected representatives who are completely I don't want to use a derogatory term, but I mean, the stuff this doesn't correspond to reality at all. It's just pure propaganda.

That's the extreme argument on battlefield casualties. This is is much more subtle, but still, Donald Trump could not handle double triple digits. over a hundred, he's done. And they know it.

And I'll bet you the numbers are well over 100. Well over a hundred. Okay. The Trump administration did exactly the same thing.

They covered up after Donald Trump did the bright idea of assassinating Kasamsulammani and Abu Marendez at the at the orders of Israel. Okay. And then Iran responded in January. if you remember in 2020 and they they wiped out the US uh an Assad air base or army base.

They just leveled it with a missile. No one's ever hit a US base like that in a long time. And the US Trump administration his first term, what was their response? Nothing.

They just went oop quiet. No response. And what they did, they shipped everybody out to Germany as I told you. And then a month later, you see this report.

Oh, 50 50 US uh troops had concussions. Everybody had a concussion, a head injury at the same time, same injury. Wow. How does that happen?

Did they all like jump off a building and land on their head at the same time? Like, how does that happen? So, and will we ever know who died? Uh or were they reporting some of these deaths as training accidents later, a month later, two year, two months later or whatever?

In North Carolina, Apache helicopter goes down in training incident. Eight US servicemen die in Germany. And you know, who knows how these numbers are diffused over time, but even if it was five or even if it was three or four or five or six as a result of that Iranian missile strike in January of 2020, that would have been hell to pay for Donald Trump because he'd have to answer to the American people and to all the branches of the military. Why on earth did we carry out a targeted assassination on behalf of Israel killing somebody who was fighting ISIS?

Part 2 of 2

But that's fine. Fox News calls Solammani a terrorist. That's on the IPAC, you know, talking points memo that every US uh lawmaker gets. They have to repeat like dutifully.

Sulmani was a bad dude. I even hear JD Vance saying this few people. He's a bad dude. It's like the team America lexicon comes into action there.

And and they have to then explain why they did this. How was Sulammani? Oh, he was planning an attack on American. We don't know where, but Israeli intelligence told us there was something cooking.

Something was cooking. So, we had to act. And they ended up losing US base as well as a US stroke Israeli base in Herbiel. and all of those injured and possibly dead US soldiers from that base in Iraq.

All of that had to be covered up and it was. So now scale that up. Do that 100x. Yeah.

100x. That's the what they're managing right now. the fallout of this that Washington is attempting to manage with all of these bases in the region and and casualties now as you pointed to Danny the numbers are significantly higher. Yeah, this is this is a huge operation just keeping this managing all this and that's that's to say nothing about the military capabilities and staging areas and resources that the US once had in the region six months ago now they don't have okay that to me I mean from the Pentagon's point of view from a Pete Hagsth point of view this is the worst probably disaster faster since I would say Vietnam for the US.

Vietnam was much worse orders of magnitude in terms of lost aircraft, men, everything like that. But in terms of actual uh uh in a in a very strategically important, I would argue more strategically important than Southeast Asia, the mid the West West Asia and the Middle East. The US has been decimated in six months. And Hegsathth is swooning around bestoning with his stupid American flag handkerchief and his uh Captain Kangaroo jacket with the with the with the American flag silk lining.

46 minutesIt's just like it's like Captain Kangaroo, right? It's like anyway, pretending like none of this is going on and the US haven't. The US have lost more. Just think about this.

We're in Gulf War I big operation, massive deployment, hundreds of thousands of US troops, military assets, like you wouldn't believe, air assets, and the Iraq war from 2003 to to 2010, 7, eight years. Okay. The US has lost more fixedwing aircraft between their attacks on Iran and Yemen in the last 14 months, 15 months than the United States lost in both Iraq wars. I think right now the US is at I don't know the tally is like 130 fixed wing aircraft lost.

In Iraq, both wars it was around 100. That's I mean how is that a success? Like tell me plus 13 or 17 bases now evacuated, abandoned or inoperable. How is this a win?

How is this not an a total abject failure by the Department of War and the Trump administration? I mean, Jimmy Carter is a champion in comparison to Trump. Trump, this is just a disaster. " So now they're in the same trap that, you know, Lyndon Baines Johnson was in or uh some of these other past US presidents, the sunken cost spiral trap where they need more money to to to course correct when in fact the only real prudent option is to basically cut your losses and get out.

That they can't do that. They can't do that. So, we're it's it's so funny that, you know, we we learned all these lessons in history in America and here it is. We're faced with it once again.

And it's like, no, no, no. We're going to do it again. We're going to do it again. Um, it's and it's not as simple as that.

Of course, it's more complicated because you we've got another, you know, you do you ever see Total Recall? Remember that film, Arnold Schwarzenegger? It's a classic that um that one of the main characters had this thing grow he had a an oracle growing out of his his uh side of his his chest called quanto and you couldn't separate quanto from the main guy uh there and so where he went quanto went Israel is like quanto for the United States you just can't get rid of it now Danny the the implications of the UK and the European countries and that list that you showed. Yeah, massive list.

As as luck would have it, if you go to your if you go to your our DM chat, I sent you a video. You can play this. It's just uh a minute and a half. I asked a question two three two or three weeks ago.

I was in Mashad and I asked the head of the parliamentary committee on uh national security and foreign policy. I said, "Does Iran see a difference between the Gulf States you letting America have bases and use the Gulf States as launching pad for acts of aggression against Iran. " And I asked him that question. Ibrahim is easy.

And uh we have that a recording of that. Um, would you if you wanted um Well, is it 50 minutestranslated or Yes, it's translated. Yeah. Okay.

Um, you might want to send it to me a different method because uh I'm I'm connected to the cord. I can't airdrop this uh from my phone. So, uh if you sent it through X, I could probably pull it up. Sure.

Um I can drop it to you on X. And while you're doing that, now I'll just say uh yeah, Patrick, it gets really bad. I can pull up that list of EU targets again, too. But it gets really bad.

You probably heard the report. This was yesterday. I covered it. NBC News through US officials and the Pentagon saying that the United States was letting Iran hit bases.

is they were letting them through because they wanted to preserve the interceptors which means that the US couldn't uh interrupt these missiles and it means that they were they were making significant damage and therefore yeah the fact that uh the US is trying to fudge up the numbers about troop losses is uh likely really significant that the numbers probably closer to Iran because what we've seen over the course of this period is that Iran that what what they say it's not about taking sides. It's that eventually it comes out to be more true closer to the truth than anything the US has said uh anything Sentcom has said. So here's that list again. Pipelines linked to Europe, oil and gas fields linked to Europe, LG linked to Europe, whether it's in Azar, Cyprus, uh we can go on Saudi, middle, you know, West Asia as well as in even in Greece.

But uh let me pull up the the chat here. see if I can um see if uh it didn't it didn't come through. It didn't. It just says vid uh but no video.

Maybe it's loading but anyway. Yeah, it's loading. It's loading. Okay.

Yeah. All right. So, you can you know um you want to comment on this. So, I mean it's Zinski.

I mean that would be a real doozy uh if Iran did 52 minutescome good on any of those threats. Um because who who are you going to blame at that point? Well, you could you could they'll try to blame Iran, but uh Zilinski is going to have to some be answerable and that regime in uh in Kiev and that's going to really hurt their kind of reputation if you if as it were um and their whole position. But yeah, the video's there.

All right. Yeah, it's coming through now. I'm going to see if I can open in a in a tab. So here we go.

But that's I'll just I'll just continue uh while you do that. But and so that's the point is that if you look at the legal argument from the Iranians to strike against uh US bases in the Gulf, that's absolutely admissible under international law. Absolutely ad admissible. Um, so the all of those countries, the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kingdom of Jordan, um, Kuwait, they're being used for acts of aggression against Iran.

They're covered under UN Security Council resolution 3314 in ter uh under the under the uh opaces and descriptions defining acts of aggression. Um, and I believe uh and also under the UN charter as well. Um, I believe it's article 7, but I might be mistaken. Article 7, paragraph 4.

Uh, in terms of UN members have obligations as good neighborly states, not to allow other states to use them to launch undeclared wars of aggression. So, so, so all of the European countries are basically falling foul of the same problem that the Gulf states that facilitated US bases to launch attacks against Iran. 54 minutesThey they fall foul under international law under all of those clauses and all of those international agreements. These are treaties that all of the European countries have are ratified.

That's that is law in Europe. So that that's codified. Those treaties are and and the UN charter everything that there's no escape from this. So if Iran decides to send an intermediate range intercontinental ballistic missile hitting any of these European targets or even hitting Germany or the UK who are who have been or Italy who have been facilitators or Greece who have facilitated an illegal undeclared war of aggression.

The UK is already trying to redefine these as defensive strikes. So they're they've added a new sort of term and uh but I don't think that's that's not going to work. They're they're trying they're trying to say these are these aren't offensive strikes that the US are doing. They're defensive strikes.

ome te tell me how that works, Danny, because I I'm still trying to figure it out. So So this is they painted a target. These European leaders have painted in the by by by uh by succumbing to US pressure. They've painted a target on their own countries in the exact same way that the Gulf Arab states have.

Okay. So again, it's this protection racket has just been exposed this US protection racket. But anyway, yeah. Now here, well, here's that great points.

Here's the video you were referring to, Patrick. You were just in Iran. Um, I hope the volume is good. I hope.

I think it will be. Um, but I haven't tested it yet because sometimes with um playing shared things on Streamyard, it can be a little dicey. But let's see how it works. Maybe you can describe the video once again and so this is a press conference in the second largest city, Mashad, the last day of the Supreme Leader's funeral.

And this is Ibrahim Azizi. He is the chair of the parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy. So he's their top ranking foreign policy parliamentary person uh minister and I asked him about this actual question three weeks ago uh two and a half weeks ago actually and and he gave a very very clear answer. So you could take this to the bank Danny as policy but go ahead.

All right here we go. Thank you. and and briefly the GCC countries when when Iran retaliated at the beginning of the 40-day war and and struck US bases across the Persian Gulf. Um in in terms of the laws of war and the Geneva Conventions, Iran is within its right to retaliate against the source of the threat.

Yeah. And that's why the world community did not really uh push back very hard. However, what is the difference between the US launching attacks from the GCC and the US launching attacks from Germany, from Italy, from Greece, from Romania, from Cyprus, etc. the EU, NATO?

Is there is is Iran how do they consider these two things or is there no difference? any action, any attack on Iran, the result is the same. The origin of hostilities will be targeted. And we have always said time and again if we are targeting USS and region the reason is that they're The region of hostilities on Iran wherever it is in the world, it will be targeted decisively.

Inducting response be time and again and we emphasize again any political that they want to or facilitate US attack on Iran. We consider it as a kind of their complicity. It's our natural rights, legitimate rights. It has a a defense logic behind it.

Thank you. So, uh, yeah, the hit Iran, you'll get you'll get it right back. You'll be targeted that it doesn't matter who you are. And I think that's, uh, it's a pretty stark message.

Uh, but Patrick, you know, last two minutes or so we have here, uh, your final comments and then we can get into on this and then we can get into one there's one question here too that basically already answered, but I'll ask it to you anyway from audience member. Well, uh, yeah, ask me the question and then I'll I'll give a final comment. Oh, yeah. So, here we go.

So, it's how do they keep pulling the 60-day reset if we've been at war with Iran for 47 years? I don't know if it's a uh So, thank you, uh, Sphincter Knuckle Buster. Great name. Um, well, that's, uh, not everybody in Washington counts, uh, sanctions and target assassinations as being at war.

Um, so they don't, um, that's how they're, that's one of the reasons, but yeah, it's a a question that exposes the hypocrisy of the whole thing. So yeah, but yeah, your final comments though on uh the video, your trip to Iran too, we didn't get too much into it, but anything you want to say about that because that was a really a round landmark trip, a groundbreaking trip. Uh and it looked incredible. [snorts] Yeah, it it was uh for me it was a transformational uh experience because I got to see a much deeper level of Iranian society at a very very like emotionally charged critical time and while I was there you know the US was bombing us so I got to kind of me as an American uh that was kind of a unique experience to be in a country while your c your government is bombing you um and and even targeting the actual the actual civilian train line that that we were on the actual the same one.

And so if we had uh been on that track uh or roughly um uh later, we could it was struck at night. Um the train could have been derailed and off of a ravine full with hundreds or thousand passengers. I don't know how many were on it but um a lot of people and uh but so that was interesting to say the least. Um but uh it it it I really got a deeper appreciation for Iranian society and it's very clear that the country has very strong institutions and religious institutions and when I say that the religious institution is ubiquitous throughout society it's not like a separate sort of thing.

It's all politics, religion, the political economy. It's one there. And I'm I'm not I'm not saying that every single person in the Islamic Republic of Iran is a devout religious adherent to Shiite Muslim uh practices. I'm not saying that.

But I will say that based on what we saw that uh 15 million people came out into Iran over the course of the weekend and uh at least I would say 8 to 10 million on the Monday on the streets for the for the last day of the capital the funeral maybe more. The Financial Times says 15 million, although they didn't specify whether that was over the three days or the one day, but that's a leading US or a leading international newspaper UK based uh admitting those numbers. And then nationally over 40 million took part in the various cities uh in this six-day state funeral for the supreme leader say Ali Ham who was killed by the United States including members of his family including a 14-year-old girl his granddaughter and so those bodies were together in in caskets including a tiny casket for the child that came through the processions okay and that were there at the Grand Masala Mosque in Thran and and again in in Najaf and Carbala like they took the the processions went to Iraq as well as in Iran but in Iran over 40 million people that's half the population roughly this is unheard of this is unheard of in history that that half the population would have some in some way or shape or form uh participated in this state funeral. Uh so this wasn't uh an unpopular leader, this wasn't somebody that was regarded as a dictator, none of these things.

Um in fact, it's quite the opposite. And then you really got to to to see the the intensity of the and and also, you know, very widespread but calm but very firm cause calls to avenge the death of their leader. and how that v vengeance is medded out or takes place. And there were many signs, Danny, that said hash k i l trump held being held by elderly people, old o old grandmothers holding these signs and and not just a few, not just a few.

We're talking thousands and thousands of thousands. So, and Americans will be triggered by this and they'll say, you know, the Fox News crowd, the Jesse Waters of the world, they'll have they'll go death there. They're shant Mark Lavine will be hyperventilating. They're they're shouting death to America.

They want to kill us. Yes. But wait, who killed their head of state? Who killed their pope?

You did. The US did. Israel did. And they never gave any justification as to how he was a threat to any of their countries other than he has a turban and a beard and he's a mulla.

So therefore ergo he must be a terror a terror a mastermind a leader. They they claimed that this was going to topple the regime on the first day. That's what the president said publicly. He was calling for Iranians to rise up after the air strikes.

We all saw what happened and but what they did Danny I will say this the last thing I'll say here sure what Trump succeeded in doing and if we're going to give a participation trophy out for the Trump administration we should recognize them for their achievements and [laughter] we should give a medal to do Donald likes medals doesn't he likes the trophies the peace prize he loves all that so let's get let's get uh Mr. in director infantil from FIFA to fashion up a new trophy for Trump. Donald Trump should get a award for systematically and comprehensively dismantling the Iranian opposition. Any liberal westernleleaning pro-American opposition, there are plenty of them before this.

Mhm. Donald Trump and Netanyahu have succeeded in wiping out totally the opposition that the American taxpayer spent billions of dollars building over uh decades. Trump Hegathth Netanyahu, you guys, you you deserve that award. So, I I'm calling on FIFA to have that ceremony and give Trump Donald Trump that award for eliminating and dismantling thoroughly and comprehensively the Iranian opposition because that's what they've done.

I met some of those opposition people on the streets. They're now calling for uh Iraqi and Galibah to stop negotiating with the Americans. They're chanting Arachi Galibah, no more negotiations. So that's the liberal left.

They're now the hawks among that crowd. Okay. Some of the biggest biggest anti-US voices are young former westernleaning liberals. That's a huge change.

Yeah. So congratulations, Donald. You've done it. I'm sure that's what you intended to do, right?

You guys are great. And we should give uh other participation trophies to Marco Rubio, uh Sebastian Gorka, of course, Jared Kushner and Steve Wickoff. Yeah. Shouldn't be left out of the awards ceremony there.

So, this could be great. I think there'll be a fun uh award show. Yeah. You get some of the get the Palavi family to uh hand out the award.

They must be happy. They're too busy now uh harassing Max Blumad Doll on the street uh because because they don't have anyone in Iran to call anymore to uh listen to their uh You're not you're not wrong, Danny. Palavi just just the fact that the US put this nobody likes Palavi in Iran. He has like zero support.

He he's he's uh he he's he's the butt of many jokes in Iran. The fact that the US and Netanyahu were hoisting him up as the successor to the Supreme Leader just galvanized the Iranian public and Palavi became more of a running joke as a as a result. So you're right, Danny. Um Palavi should be there to hand out those those awards with Infantiel from FIFA.

I think that would be great. And they can invite Amad who is like what? I'm your I'm your guy now. [laughter] How'd that happen?

Yeah, just invite Ahmedina Jad and I think Lionel Messi should be there along with Javier Mle as well and they can commiserate their uh terrible performance in the World Cup final. But uh there you are. Yeah, but that is that's a huge change and that's the nightmare change that you know the United States doesn't want to see in places like Cuba or Venezuela. this idea that it's usually the young people that intelligence can try to massage more based on whatever generations removed from revolution from the massive changes uh you know um whatever it is but they can't do that with Iran now because now young people have witnessed what the US and Israel are really all about and yeah firsthand they've lost people they've seen people lose people um they've seen the attacks you can't underestimate the Minab school the effect of that on the country it's huge first day the first hours I mean huge it's unprecedented what um I mean what level I mean brutality and genocidal just but like genocidal maniacal wararm mongering but then just yeah the the thought process of doing that first is something I think the other the other one that will get a trophy at this awards with FIFA alongside Donald Pete and JD and all the rest of their participation medals is Scott Bessett.

If you you listen to Iranian media, they've got Scott Bessett on. They keep playing the clip of him bragging about collapsing the Iranian currency. Before that, there are people in Iran blaming the government for mismanaging the economy. But because Bessant had to publicly boast about it, it destroyed the argument from the opposition that they should be attacking their own government for quote mismanaging the economy.

They basically got them off the hook for all of that. That's Scott Bessett. So this Trump officials can't keep their mouth shut because they're constantly festoning and bigging themselves up on social media because it's such a narcissistic culture in Washington. And this is their undoing.

They have they have capsized their own kind of public relations armada. Their soft power armada has been capsized by their own narcissistic just absolute carelessness and because they're all trying to basically hoist their own brands, political brands, because that's what people do now. And it's just amplified to such a outlandish and kind of crazy degree with the Trump White House than than even with previous administrations that uh it's I [clears throat] mean it's you you would be shocked, Danny, how nuanced the political analysis is on everything the United States does on the media in Iran. They don't miss anything.

Look at their Lego videos. They don't miss anything. They they got they got all the inside jokes in there already. Like they got Marco Rubio at at a foam party in the opening scene of the one of the Rubio Lego videos they just released.

I mean, how did they know about that story? They they they really would have to have followed. They follow everything. They log and and they will argue.

It's a very vibrant uh political culture. Um and there's a lot of debate on policy between Iranians and it's it can be severe. It's severe. um this not friendly debating there.

But Danny, I will argue that that's also a good that's a sign of an actual democracy, right, when you have that level of conflict. And uh we we don't we're not allowed to have that in the West. It's it's it's not polite. So we can't, you know, our mainstream media can't engage in any of that.

So because we're so democratic, right? I mean, so we we accuse them of not being democratic, but actually the Iranian population have more um they're more engaged in the political conversation and the consensus building with visa [clears throat] va leadership than we ever will be with our current system in the US or Europe. Yeah. We we we're not engaged.

We don't have any skin in the game anymore in the West. we've been totally divorced and separated from the halls of power that we're not part of the consensus building conversation. We might be able to make some a few chinks in their armor, maybe a little bit of disruption perhaps with the current internet as as that's still somewhat free. But we don't have near the level of street engagement that the Iranians have with their leadership.

We don't and they do. And that's a that's a massive difference. We don't see that in the West. That's why they're looking at us with all of our our our our high-minded uh you know, democratic values, Western values, and and they're just scratching their heads saying, "Where are you guys getting all this?

That's not how you are. " And so they see this hypocrisy. And again, that's just fueling uh more anti-American, anti-Western sentiments in Iran and more support for their own government by the population more broadly. Our hypocrisy is just so laid out and bare there.

And they see it and they and they repeat it 14 minuteson their their mainstream programs. They they go through everything that that that our media and our politicians say and pick out all the inconsistencies and and the lies and so forth and the Epstein files, all of that. None of it has been lost on the Iranians. None of it.

So, I think it's important to just remind people of that. That that's the reality over there. And so, we think we think we're fooling, you know, the people of West Asia. that they're backwards and they're still developing and they're under sanctions and, you know, and demoralized by our our mighty sanctions, demoralized by our bombs.

Uh, no, they're highly resilient and hugely motivated and totally mobilized because of what we did. Just be aware of that, people of the West. Sorry, I think that's a great place uh to end on. Uh yeah, it we are you know 15 minutesthere's no uh downplaying the of course the tragic losses that Iranian people and people in the region have had to face but the what this war has done to accelerate uh especially the strongest member of the ISIS of resistance Iran into the position that it's in and into uh what you the dynamics you just described that is a major blow to the United States empire.

No matter how uh one twists or turns or how you slice it. Well, last super chat said uh Paul Craig Paul Craig spoke to Nema. Putin should have sent Russian troops to stop the maid on. Okay.

Okay. That's a whole another topic for a whole another day. Um we've heard that many times, but thank you so much Snowy for the super chat. We'll talk about that another time.

Uh Congress literally doesn't care what you think. I just wanted to pull this up as you were talking. um major 2014 research study by a Princeton a Northwestern professor who prof researchers who found that 90% of Americans opinions have absolutely no effect on US policy uh based on 2000 public opinion surveys comparing what comes to law and what people in the United States and various other interest groups think about policy. So that's you just described the dynamic of Iranian society.

Uh yeah uh we've we have no influence over uh what the US does against Iran and not even on our own lives. So it's something to think about, something to chew on. Definitely. Um final final thoughts and then we can press endstream here.

No, thank you. It's another Ivy League institution backing up. Yeah. Yeah.

Thank you, Princeton. Um that's 2014. Uh I'm sure the numbers might be even worse as time has gone on. Well, the the key the key mechanism of that dynamic, Danny, is look at uh a public approval polling.

Um we'll take this president and the last president um you know, averaging around 30% or below 30 in some cases. And so, so we and you do you see so let's say 70% of the American public disapprove of Donald Trump. Do you see 70% of the public on the street calling for his removal? Do you see 1% on the street?

Pardon? No, you don't. So, that kind of proves that Princeton study pretty clearly. Now, in Iran, all of those people, this is the important point people need to understand, that people came out to support their leader and support the government and the country.

And they came out half the population, 50% on the in the summer heat. And I'm talking it was scorching. Okay. It was scorching.

The fire the fire brigades were had hoses out on on every few blocks spraying the crowd. That's how hot it was. So So but but that door swings both ways in Iran, Danny, and the leadership knows that and they understand that. So they can get half the population out to support them and to and to show uh reverence and uh mourn for their their their slain leader.

But the the the state there is very well aware that a large percentage of those people could also mobilize if they're unhappy about something. So that's when I was talking about how engaged the public is. It's there's a much higher level of engagement and the discourse is much much higher in terms of the sophistication, the detail and the nuance of the issues. Much higher than in America.

It it's it's high on your podcast, Danny, and our other cohort on YouTube. Okay. we're in a kind of, you know, special corner here for foreign policy and and geopolitics. But it we can we can both agree that this the mainstream media coverage and the Sunday morning news shows and forums in the US are very lowbrow in terms of the conversation and and very dumbed down.

Yeah. Um, so that's so our mainstream conversation is much more dumbed down in the west than Iran's mainstream conversation is what I'm saying. So I again that just to me was more proof of how much more engaged they are. And they don't suppress high level conversations in Iran.

They don't. They platform them. They platform the smartest people. [laughter] I mean, so, so what do you think that what do you think?

That's the opposite. So, what do you think the public opinion is going to be and the public discourse is going to be a bit better, right? If all the smart people are being platformed in America, they platform the stupidest people, the people who are on the payroll of the defense contractors and defense industry, people who work for the Heritage Foundation or the Atlantic Council, just basically toadies for the military-industrial complex in Israel. that's who gets platformed in America.

So, it's no surprise that the the the level of discourse in the West and is so low and thus the public can't really push back because they don't know anything. They just sit back and just take it and assume that the government knows what they're doing because all the stupid talking heads on CNN and NBC and Face the Nation and all these other Jake Tapper and these ridiculous programs because they're all saying reading off the same IPAC bullet points and so nobody thinks there's anything more to discuss. Yeah. So we are we don't have a democratic system in in America.

We don't. It's a it's a it's it's a it's a farce. It's a bad Villian nightmare at this point. And these maniacs are pulling us towards more escalation and more war.

Yeah. So, and and and talking about our quote adversaries, our quote enemies, like they don't know what they're doing and don't know what they're talking about or somehow not as well informed as we are. That's not true at all. It's not No.

Words of wisdom. This was a great show everybody. Uh thanks so much. Preach says Gina Coleman.

Uh thanks so much for your support. Uh thanks everyone for coming out today. Uh everyone who viewed all the members, all the uh especially the moderators, uh you are very much appreciated. Those who gave super chats, all of that.

Want to make sure everybody knows that you can find Patrick Patrick's work in the video description below. Uh there I believe is 21st Century Wire as well as uh Patrick's Substack. Um, you definitely want to check out, uh, Patrick all over across socials because, uh, so much great content, not only on this, but so many things and also, uh, covering your trip on Iran was a great follow. So, everyone should do that.

Hit the like button before you go. Uh, you can, of course, support this show as well in the video description below and all the various places. m. Eastern time, July 28th.

So, I'll see you then. Uh, Patrick, anything you want to say before I hit end stream here? No. It was great great to catch up with you, Danny.

I know we tried while I was over there, but it was hard. No, no, it's totally fine. I got it. I understood.

It was hard to contact made contact. You guys were so busy. Um, legit. Also, the internet access was was for me on and off.

I've been there. I've I've been there in China. It's the same deal. It can be the same thing, you know.

It's like trying to figure out as a foreigner like what the system is and yeah, how to get access to the best stuff. Yeah. Um, but it's good good to good to catch up again. Yeah.

No, we'll be Yeah, we'll do have to do it again sometime soon. m. Eastern time. Hit the like button before you go.

Check out Patrick's work and I'll see you then. Bye bye.

Resistance Strikes Another Massive Oil Facility in Saudi Arabia
Reason2Resist with Dimitri Lascaris
Jul 27, 2026

Although the Trump regime has suspended its criminal bombing of Iran, the Resistance continues to target Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure.

Three days after Yemen struck Aramco's state-of-the-art refinery at Jazan on the Red Sea, the giant blaze there not only continues, but appears to have grown in size.

And last night, Aramco's giant oil processing plant in Abqaiq, in eastern Saudi Arabia, was set ablaze by drone strikes. The Saudi autocracy has not acknowledged that the drone strikes hit the plant, but it has accused Iraqi militias allied with Iran of being behind the attack on Abqaiq.

Meanwhile, Western corporate media continue to ignore these disasters. Apparently, they don't want the world to know how vulnerable Saudi Arabia is to Resistance attacks.

In this episode, Dimitri Lascaris breaks down all these developments and more.



Transcript

Good day. This is Demetri Lceras coming to you from Montreal, Canada for Reason to Resist on July 27th, 20126. What you just saw was an image of the Saudi crown prince, as they call him, Muhammad bin Salman, yucking it up, having a bromance with the notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. That photograph was discovered amongst uh Epstein's personal effects after he purportedly committed suicide, discovered in his Manhattan mansion, and the image apparently dates from November 2016.

By that point in time, Epstein had already been convicted of criminal offenses involving uh the sexual exploitation of a minor. Uh it was well known to the entire world that he was a pedophile. And nonetheless, as you can see here, uh the so-called crown prince is uh behaving in a quite affectionate manner towards the pedophile uh in ways that you don't see him normally behave. How often have you seen the crown prince uh without uh any head covering and his arm wrapped around somebody as if he's holding on to them for dear life?

Well, why am I showing you this image? I made a decision this morning before uh beginning uh this report which is going to be very much about Saudi Arabia that every time I talk about this vicious, monstrous, genocidal Saudi autotocracy, I'm going to remind our audience of that photograph. This is the nature of the beast uh when we're talking about Saudi Arabia today. Now, they call him the crown prince, but at the end of the day, he's just another depraved, corrupt, westernbacked dictator who serves the interests of Washington.

So, why am I going to talk to you about Saudi Arabia today? Because another massive Saudi oil facility has been set on fire in eastern Saudi Arabia. The Abka crude oil stabilization plant, the largest such plant in the world, is burning after drone strikes launched by the resistance. In this report, we'll explain to you what has happened at this Aramco facility in eastern Saudi Arabia and why it matters.

We'll also update you on conditions at another massive Aramco facility, the Red Sea refinery in Jazzan, Saudi Arabia. as we reported on Saturday. Saturday that facility was struck by the Yemeni resistance on Friday night and was set ablaze as well. Finally, we'll update you on the state of the West's criminal war of aggression on Iran.

Before I begin, please remember to like and share this video if you find it to be informative. And if you're not already a subscriber to Reason to Resist, we warmly encourage you to become one. Please help us to expand the reach of our unapologetic brand of on the ground resistance journalism. And by the way, uh yesterday we uh blew by the threshold of 192,000 subscribers.

Our goal is to get to uh 200,000 by the end of August and uh our audience uh is helping us to get there. Thank you very much for all your support. Now let's uh get into it. So the Abkai Aramco facility is as I mentioned is situated in eastern Saudi Arabia near the Persian Gulf and the island statelets of Bahin and Qatar.

And just to orient ourselves, I'm going to show you uh a detail of a map of the Persian Gulf. uh in the center uh in a dotted red line you can see the outline of the uh the facility the Abkai plants belonging to this massive Saudi corporation at Amco which effectively uh controls the uh Saudi oil assets and is probably worth trillions of dollars at this stage. Uh you can see this is very close this facility to uh the Saudi port of Dam. uh but uh exports from this plant uh have not been going through in significant numbers through the Persian Gulf and the straight of Hormuz obviously since uh this criminal war of aggression was launched by Trump and Netanyahu.

Now the J the giant Saudi oil company which owns this facility describes the facility in superlative terms on its website. Uh here is I'm sorry this is the uh the web page relating to the facility. How 70-year-old Abkai plants transformed to become a 4 Y1R leader. As part of our efforts to become the world's leading digitalized energy company, Aramco renovated and refurbished our oldest oil processing plant, transforming it into a world leader in the use of fourth industrial revolution technology.

And then it goes on to state this. The Abka plant, the oldest oil processing plant in Saudi Arabia, has harnessed the power of digitalization to enhance its operations, utilizing robotics, artificial intelligence, data analytics, and something called ELOTE. I confess not to know what that means. The use of 4IR technology helped free workers from mundane, sometimes hazardous tasks, allowing them take on more rewarding roles.

Oh yes, the Saudi autotocracy is so concerned about the well-being of workers, ain't it? " Wow. The World Economic Forum is in love with the facility. Abkai Plants says Aramco is the largest crude stabilization plant in the world and a cornerstone of our operations.

It provides around 5% I repeat 5% of global oil supplies and stabilizes half of Saudi Arabia's daily oil production. However, at 70 years old is also our oldest oil processing facility. Uh this naturally presented a few challenges on its journey toward becoming more digitalized and blah blah blah. According to Al Jazzer, the Saudis are blaming the drone attack on this facility within the past on Iraqi militias allied with Iran.

And here is a breaking uh Alazer report published this morning. Saudi Arabia's air defense systems have destroyed drones coming from Iraq, the defense ministry says. Notice there's nothing here about any of those drones having gotten through. Okay, it only says it has destroyed drones coming from Iraq.

And they go on and say the unmanned aerial vehicles attempted to attempted to target oil facilities in Saudi Arabia's eastern region. This is a statement apparently from uh Saudi Arabia's depraved ministry of war. The ministry says Al Jazida alleged the drones were launched by Iran aligned armed groups in Iraq. Yemen's Houthi said they targeted oil facilities in Saudi Arabia owned by Adamo in the latest escalation between the two sides.

So as you can see the Saudis have not admitted that Abka has been struck and in fact are trying to convey the impression that the attack was entirely thwarted. Whether this came from Iraq or not uh I cannot say as of this moment I have not seen any resistance group officially claim responsibility for this attack. But that it occurred uh can uh scarcely be denied and not simply because of what the Saudis said. Unfortunately for uh you know the uh broy of uh Jeffrey Epstein the crown prince of Saudi Arabia we live in the era of satellite technology and in fact satellites reveal that the Abka facility is ablaze.

Uh this is an image uh produced by the NASA Ver satellite which I understand collects visible and infrared imagery. When it passed over Abka in the past , it picked up a fire at Abkai, possibly uh several fires shown here in the red squares. Uh and the Saudis uh reportedly began emergency flaring across multiple production sites after the main refinery was damaged. And I think that the flaring might be indicated by the yellow uh uh boxes on this satellite image.

Yellow uh signifying uh fires of a a much lower intensity than uh the fires situated underneath the red boxes. So in addition to the satellite imagery, uh photos and videos of the fire have emerged on social media. Now, I haven't been able to confirm uh that these are in fact from the Al Kaiik fire, but uh they are being posted by people I regard as reasonably reliable. So, here is the first image.

You can see this. Somebody was apparently passing by the facility on uh a highway and shot this uh photograph from uh their vehicle. And here is a second photograph also potentially from the same vehicle. And we also have uh a a video uh which uh is uh much clearer.

Let's uh have a look at this one, shall we? You can hear there a woman speaking in Arabic. I don't know what she's saying. Uh presumably she is uh talking about what she's filming there.

But let's just take another look at this. You can see it's huge uh amount of black smoke billowing up into the atmosphere. Uh not surprising that this would be visible uh to satellites passing over the region. Now meanwhile and uh as we reported on Saturday, Yemeni ballistic missiles struck the Jazzan the refinery on the Saudi Red Sea coast on Friday night.

This is a massive again purportedly state-of-the-art facility which is uh situated just north of the Saudi border with Yemen. And as I commented in my report on Saturday, you would think that the Saudis would not invest $21 billion into an oil facility on the Yemeni border, unless they were inclined to make peace with the Yemenes, who have shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that they can destroy uh with consumate ease just about any Saudi oil facility they wish to target. Um so satellite imagery published today not only shows that the fires at uh the Jazan facility continue to rage but they appear from based on those images to have gotten bigger and uh here is one the many outlets have published uh the same satellite image including the clash report. Uh it said today a major fire still burning at Saudi Aramco's Jizan refinery more than after Houthi ballistic missile and drone strikes overnight on 25 July.

Satellite imagery and NASA thermal data confirmed damage to storage tanks and pipelines at the eastern half of the 21 billion $400,000 barrel per day complex with thick smoke consistent with a crude oil tank fire rather than routine flaring. Now we have another satellite image to show you. This one uh reveals a massive plume of smoke uh going on for hundreds of kilometers uh from the Jazan facility on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia. Uh that uh was taken apparently this morning, this satellite image.

So clearly uh this fire is not under control and may well have expanded at this critically important $21 billion facility. Now one would think that all of these developments would cause upward pressure on the price of oil. Uh one would be mistaken to believe that in today's rigged market. This is uh the price of Brent crude uh on oil markets.

65 when I checked moments ago. 4% reduction in less than one day of trading. That's a pretty damn big reduction. What the hell would cause people in these circumstances uh to believe uh that the apparently as the market does uh by and large that the uh oil crisis is abating that it's being mitigated in these circumstances.

Remember when the markets closed last on Friday afternoon uh these two Saudi oil facilities had not at that point in time been set ablaze. And there also have been other developments uh which I'm going to talk about which would cause a rational investor to believe in my view that uh the oil crisis is getting worse and it's certainly not likely to get better anytime soon. But nonetheless, here we have a yen yet again a highly unusual and quite frankly mysterious reduction in the price of oil uh at a time when you would expect the price of oil to be going up. Now, part of the reason for this is undoubtedly that the corporate media are doing everything they can uh to bury the news about these massive fires at these two key Saudi oil facilities.

And in fact, uh despite the uh availability, the ready availability of uh satellite imagery and video and photographs which uh appear to show large fires at Kaiik and at Jazan. Uh, I saw no reports this morning about either in the corporate media. I should say in the corporate media, I haven't seen any reports about either of these facilities being on fire. But again, if you're a rational investor, you're not going to simply rely upon the corporate media.

You're going to rely on all uh uh credible sources of information, including in particular satellite imagery uh produced by reputable uh satellite imagery providers. And uh apparently uh there are people in the market who are not doing that because if anything these uh these fires demonstrate uh that the war is escalating and that Saudi Arabia's critically important oil infrastructure is uh just remarkably vulnerable to attacks not only by Iran with all of the sophisticated projectiles at its disposal, but also by Ansarala in Yemen, which has a much uh uh larger military budget, I'm sure, than Iran. Now uh compounding the confusion here is news relating to China's imports. It has been reported uh in the last actually today.

8 8 million barrels. According to calculations by Kepler, which is a very reputable oil industry consultant, and as cited by Bloomberg, refiners have been buying more Russian crude and have seen more tankers arrive from the Middle East. 2 million barrels daily that Chinese refiners imported in June. So that looks like an increase of about 25% just uh eyeballing it there uh from June to July in Chinese imports of crude oil given the amount of crude oil that China imports that's a significant number.

Uh so this too should be adding to the upward pressure on the price of oil and yet at the very time that this news is being reported the price of oil is plummeting. Now, uh, a potential explanation, uh, for this price drop is, of course, and I'm going to get into this in some more detail, that, uh, since, uh, the weekend, Iran and the United States have purportedly stopped firing at each other. Uh, Sentcom suspended its uh, bombing campaign uh, its criminal bombing campaign of Iran on Friday and has not bombed Adan again as far as I can tell from uh, the available information. Axios, the ever reliable propaganda organ of the White House, reports that this was done on the advice of Admiral Admiral Bradley Cooper who reportedly told the Donald that the campaign of bombing had reached the limits of its effectiveness.

uh probably reached the limits of its effectiveness uh before it even began. And um uh I'll come back to the reasons for the suspension of the bombing campaign in a few minutes. It's important to note what the media is saying about that. Uh but over the weekend uh I think about after the US announced the suspension of its bombing campaign, Iran announced that in light of Sentcom's decision, it too had suspended attacks on US military bases in the region.

However, there are reports of a drone strike last night against targets near uh US military bases in Edabil in the north of Iraq. And we even have a video. Again, haven't been able to confirm that this is a video of a drone strike on uh an area in or around a US military base near, but here's what it shows. And you can see at the very end there a flash of light uh as the drone appears to strike uh a target on the ground.

I'll show it to you again. Now, even if we ignore that drone strike, why would any rational investor believe that this pause in the fighting will resolve the uh worsening oil crisis? We just saw what happened in regard to the memorandum of understanding. The Trump regime treated it like toilet paper by violating it from the very outset, from the very time that it was signed and doing so in almost every imaginable way.

Uh and there's no reason to believe that uh the Trump regime can be trusted now. There's no reason to believe that it's actually interested in a durable, sustainable, and fair peace with the country that it and its predecessor administrations have tormented for decades. Uh all evidence suggests that uh the Trump regime and the uh the deep state, the neocons, the US military all remain bent on the destruction of Iran and they're just trying to figure out how to do it without blowing up the global economy. I'm afraid that there is no way for the well thankfully there's no way to do it without blowing up the global economy.

Uh sadly I don't know that they uh understand that yet. Now, even if we ignore Trump's decadesl long record of lying and cheating, there are other reasons to expect uh this uh situation the in the oil markets to worsen or at least not improve. Uh and the second of those reasons is that Iran remains in control of the strait of Hormuz. And in fact, Iranian media just reported that in the early hours of this morning, six ships that were violating regulations uh about passage through the straight, these are Adanian regulations, of course, attempted to pass through the southern part of it.

They had turned off their navigation and positioning systems, AIS, and were also attempting to provoke the US Army. I'm not sure what is meant by that, but in any case, one of these ships was involved in an incident and the rest were brought back to the Persian Gulf under Iran's decisive management. That apparently was stated by the Iranian military this morning. On top of all of that, Yemen has declared that it won't stop attacking Saudi Arabia until the Saudi blockade on Yemen is lifted.

This blockade has been in effect for more than a decade. It has caused the deaths of probably hundreds of thousands of innocent Yemenes. It arguably constituted, as I've been saying for a very long time, a genocide. Uh, and it was one that was fully backed by the West, just like the genocide in Palestine and in Lebanon are fully backed by the West.

Uh, and so the Yemenes have set a very high bar for stopping their attacks on Saudi Arabia. That is an end to this uh, you know, interminable blockade. And there's simply no indication that Jeffrey Epstein's bosom buddy, the crown prince, is prepared to lift the blockade. So that means we can anticipate more devastating attacks on uh critical Saudi infrastructure.

So uh there are plenty of reasons uh to be uh very uh uh concerned about uh the availability of oil in the weeks and months ahead. And there's a fourth one I haven't even mentioned yet. And that is of course that the uh the Ansarala movement has imposed a blockade, a retaliatory blockade through the Babal Mandab Strait on Saudi oil tankers. Now reportedly ship traffic through the Babal Mandab Strait fell to 11 vessels yesterday, Sunday, the lowest in recent months following Ansadala drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities.

As I said when the markets closed on Friday afternoon, uh the two huge uh fires in Saudi Arabia were not had not yet been ignited and uh therefore one would think that with this news entering the mix uh there would have been an increase in the price of oil today certainly not a dramatic uh decline. So apparently uh the dumb money does remain quite active in the oil mark markets but there's a question about the extent to which the dumb money is driving uh the downward uh the descent in the price of oil and in that regard uh Chris Martinsson uh an economic researcher and futurist specializing in resource depletion uh made a very interesting statement on uh X this weekend. Um, actually he reposted uh it looks like he reposted something uh from March 13th that he put out FT confirming that people inside the oil trading business were wondering who the mysterious big seller was of oil futures. So, somebody is out there selling massive amounts of oil futures.

I've heard other reports about this. Uh, rigging markets is both illegal and dangerous. If the US loses its position as a legit place to conduct business, it will be because of its tendency to lie, cheat, and steal. And this is an article that he uh an excerpt from an article from the Financial Times that Chris included in his March 13th post.

It says um we were being pushed by clients as to who the big seller was. This is apparently an oil industry trader. The speculation was that it could be from the US Treasury, he added, noting that the government has previously intervened in other markets such as currencies. And by the way, they did that in December.

This was admitted by the US Treasur Treasury Secretary Scott Benson uh to try to uh do severe damage to the Iranian currency and to provoke a protest, which is exactly what happened. And Scott Bessant at the uh the Davos forum was bragging about this. I showed a video of him bragging about it on an episode back in uh January. Uh so this is certainly uh par for the course for the US Treasury.

" So yes uh entirely possible that the US Treasury or some other arm of the US government is intervening anonymously and massively in the oil markets to suppress the price of oil. Now Chris had another very interesting observation about uh the downward pressure on the price of oil. Whatever is causing it is clearly not reflective of uh current conditions in global oil markets. Uh there is something going on here.

Whether it's the complicity of the media, US Treasury intervention, uh just a lot of stupid people trading in oil at the moment and having far too much confidence in Donald Trump's claims that he wants uh to resolve this criminal war of aggression peacefully. Whatever the reason may be, the price of oil is being artificially suppressed somehow. And Chris Martinsson uh apparently in an interview with Tucker Carlson argued, I haven't seen the interview, but I I'm just looking I'm just showing you here the post on X. Oil jumped from $80 to $120 in 2022.

This is when the uh Russian forces intervened militarily in uh Ukraine in February of that year. Uh it went from 80 to 120 when the world thought 3 million barrels of Russian oil might come off the market. The current energy crisis is inarguably far worse. If the price does not dramatically increase, we are simply going to burn through all our supply.

What does he mean? Well, this is a concept known as demand destruction. As the price of a commodity uh goes upwards, even one as uh important uh to uh normal economic activity as oil, uh invariably people are going to consume less of it. And uh you probably are going to end up depending on the extent of the price increase destroying to some degree demand.

Uh and of course if you reduce destroy use whatever verb you want uh demand for oil that means the oil is going to get consumed at a slower rate. Uh however if oil is cheaper uh than um it ought to be. You're actually encouraging consumption. You're certainly not uh discouraging consumption.

And that means that you will burn through your existing inventories faster than you otherwise would. Uh and that's what Chris Martinsson is saying here. He's saying we uh are are simply if the US government by some means or the corporate media or just dumb investors or some combination of all of these things are artificially suppressing the price of oil. uh then we are going to deplete the already highly depleted inventories of oil uh including the strategic re reserves of countries like the United States faster than we otherwise would and then when we get to uh the bottom of what we can do in terms of accessing those reserves all hell is going to break loose.

Uh so I think this is a very uh important observation and one that people need to keep in mind about preparing uh for what is coming. Uh now in any case the question does remain as to why Trump suspended the attacks on Iran and over week over the weekend the New York Times published several articles claiming that a major reason for the suspension is the lack uh of Patriot interceptor missiles in US uh munition stocks. Uh here is uh the main article which made that case. Uh this was published I believe on uh Saturday of this week of last week.

US Iran war pauses for second straight day. 28 minutesPresident Trump put off plans to escalate the fighting in part because of dwindling stockpiles of interceptor missiles, American officials said. Let me just pause there and say any article in the Western corporate media that is based entirely or almost entirely on uh claims made by US government officials should be treated with a very large grain of salt indeed if not utterly disbelieved altogether. But in any case, let's go on see what this article has to say.

Uh this is by Aaron Boxerman and Santa Mahuzi. July 26. The war between the US and Iran remained on pause for a second straight day on Sunday. While the Iranian foreign ministry said that there had been some movement in talks between Tan and mediators over the Strait of Hormuz.

No US strikes on Iran have been reported since Friday. While Iran has similarly held off attacking American allies around the Middle East after about two weeks. President Trump decided last week to put off plans to escalate the US assault on Iran, at least for now, according to US officials. Mr.

Trump and his aids were motivated in part by dwindling stockpiles of interceptors shoot down Iranian missiles, said the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. Mr. Trump has struggled to decisively end the war in Iran that the United States and Israel started jointly five months ago. Uh even as the global economic toll, a number of American casualties have mounted.

And then uh there's more from the New York Times. But by late Friday, Mr. Trump appeared to be temporar temporarily put aside the bigger bombing plans apparently persuaded at least in part by his military advisers assessing assessment of dwindling supplies of munitions to defend American troops in Jordan, Kuwait, Bahin, and the United Arab Emirates whose bases have there have become under heavy Iranian fire in the past two weeks. uh a major attack would most likely have drawn a heavier Iranian retaliation, putting more pressure on US air defenses.

And it goes on and says in late April, the New York Times reported that the Pentagon had used more than 12,200 Patriot interceptor missiles in the war at more than $4 million a piece, leaving inventories worrisomely low according to internal defense department estimates and congressional officials. Now, uh it is undoubtedly true that uh US uh air defense uh interceptor stocks are greatly depleted. Uh but uh there's two reasons to be uh skeptical about this article. One of them I've mentioned is that it's based on the claims of unnamed US officials.

Uh and secondly, uh they simply ignore the fact that the uh Patriot interceptor missiles are woefully inadequate uh to take down uh ballistic missiles. And how do I know this? because uh one of the leading US weapons experts uh Ted Postol uh a former professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, former adviser to the Pentagon, has been explaining over and over again in the alternative media, including on the Daniel Davis uh deep dive program, that uh the Patriot Interceptor missiles take down less than 3% of the ballistic missiles based on the available evidence. And there's now a copious amount of available evidence.

So they may be reasonably good at taking down drones or maybe relatively slowmoving cruise missiles. Uh but uh ballistic missiles which are the ones that appear to be doing the greatest damage uh are uh getting through pouring through these air defenses uh with reckless abandon. And so uh how big a factor can this actually be? You know this article, one way to look at this New York Times article and all of its articles and other corporate media articles which talk about the essential function and the necessity of Patriot air defense systems.

You could basically look at them as free advertising for Rathon, which manufactures these interceptor missiles, because the un the underlying unspoken premise of all of 32 minutesthese articles, and you can find literally thousands of them, extolling the virtues of the Patriot air defense system. The underlying premise is that this thing is actually effective to stop ballistic missiles, but that's simply not true. Uh so how much of a factor is it really at the end of the day uh in terms of Trump's decision to suspend his attacks on Iran? I don't deny it's a factor.

I doubt that it is the main factor. What I think is probably the main factor is that the price of oil hit $100 a barrel right at the moment. right at the moment when Trump decided to suspend the attacks and it hadn't been there in a couple of months and it was absolutely clear at that point that Yemen and Iran were both capable and fully prepared uh to blow up the energy infrastructure of the westernbacked Arab dictators particularly that of Jeff Epstein's Bosen Buddy uh the dictator of Saudi Arabia and of course were they to do this they've surely sent a strong message in that regard over the last few days, then uh the world would be plunged into a prolonged depression and the United States economy would uh go into a tail spin and quite possibly various uh asset bubbles would explode and uh the uh US financial system would lie in smoking ruins. I think that's likely to be the main reason for Donald Trump's sudden uh display of uh restraint.

In any case, uh in my view, it is absolutely vital that Iran and Yemen maintain pressure on the Strait of Harmuz and the Bab al-Mandde Strait. Uh there has not yet been serious lasting damage to the US economy. Uh there has been quite serious damage to US military bases, but that's not some that's something that, you know, tens of billions of dollars could probably uh rectify, and the US is quite willing to spend insane amounts of money on its military. Um really what has to happen for the uh the resistance to establish definitive deterrence is for the US economy to be dealt a crushing blow and probably also the economies of uh the major vassels of the United States uh in Europe, Japan and South Korea.

I'm sorry that that's the world in which we live, but it is. And uh you know, you can't formulate an intelligent and effective uh foreign policy based on the world as you uh dream of it being. You have to deal with the reality of the world in which we live. And that is sadly the reality of the world in which we live.

So I very much hope that the Iranian government will not be tempted to uh open up the straight of Hormuz or to prod its ally Ansala to open up the Babal Mand strait unless and until the US economy has been delivered a crushing blow. We're probably at least a few weeks if not months away from that. I would suggest humbly that the straits uh Babal Mandeb and Hormuz remain closed essentially closed until the midterms. That should do the job.

And if they're going to be opened up in any significant way prior to that time, it should be done only after, I repeat, only after the United States has done the following. Number one, forced its Saudi dictatorial vassel to lift the blockade on Yemen. and that should be uh decision should be embodied within a UN Security Council resolution. Number two, forced Israeli troops to withdraw from South Lebanon and the Gaza Strip and that too should be embodied in a UN Security Council resolution.

Number three, turn over to Iran all of its stolen assets which I understand uh have a value in excess of hundred billion dollars. And number four, uh, withdrawn US military forces from, uh, the Persian Gulf. Only after the United States has actually done all of those things would I, if I were in the position of decision-making in Alan's government, uh, reopen the Strait of Hormuz or request my allies in Yemen to reopen the Bab al-Mandde Strait. uh and uh if and when the US government were to do those things uh then I would suggest it would be well worth it to hazard another uh chance take another stab at a lasting peace deal with the United States.

But anything short of that uh I would uh argue it is absolutely essential that the entire axis of resistance maintain maximum pressure on uh the global economy and especially of course the US economy. Now in that regard I'll just point out that uh the spokesperson for the Iranian foreign ministry we actually met him uh Mr. Beay Dr. Beay uh when I was in Iran uh during the funeral of the martyed supreme leader uh and he delivered a speech which I covered on uh this program.

He has said within the past in a response to a question about communications between Iran and the United States that quote mediators may convey messages regarding current developments, but at present we are not engaged in any negotiations with the American side. Now, it's not the first time we've seen a statement like this from Iran's foreign ministry. I've always find it I've always found these types of statements rather unconvincing to be perfectly blunt about it. With all due respect, I mean whether you're talking to them face to face or whether you're passing messages through the mediator, aren't you in fact engaging at some level uh to some degree in negotiation with the United States?

I don't know what they're talking about. Uh you know, and I can only hope that the Iranian government is not contemplating a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz unless very severe conditions like the ones that I've just outlined have been fulfilled. not only have been uh embodied within some piece of paper that Donald Trump signs but have actually been fulfilled. Only then should there be any reopening of the straight of Hormuz maximum pressure.

You know the United States government for years said we're going to impose and they did impose these so-called maximum pressure sanctions on Iran. Well, it's Iran's turn to impose maximum pressure on the aggressor and the genocidal monster. And I uh with all due respect and the greatest of affection for the Iranian people, I hope very much that that is what their their government does in the weeks and months ahead. In related news, uh the Iranian news agency Tasnium just issued uh the results of a poll which it said it conducted asking uh people of Iran uh whether um Iran must maintain its management and control over the straight of Hormuz even if this issue leads to another war with America.

That was the question. Even if it leads to another war, 78% said yes. So uh if that's the public sentiment at Iran, this is a huge majority feel that way then the obligation of the uh Iranian government if it in fact is uh going to uh respond to the demands of the people is that they will keep control over the strait of Horamuz and that means uh of course uh restricting uh the flow of uh maritime traffic from hostile nations through the strait. um they'll do it even if that means a resumption of the hot war with uh the United States.

The goal not I I'm sure that the Iranian people who feel this way don't want another war. I certainly don't want any more war. Uh but if the alternative is more war now in order to bring the hostilities to an end more quickly or uh delay further war and then have to deal with years of warfare where the United States you know induces the US the Iranian government to enter into a pause uh increase the flow of traffic through the straight of Hormuz relieve pressure on oil markets and then when the situation has calmed down come back hit Iran again and then just endlessly repeat the cycle until Iran becomes Syria. That is the future uh awaiting Iran.

I fear if the Iranian government constantly falls into a trap of opening up the straight of Hermuz whenever the Donald says he's suddenly interested in peace again. He doesn't want peace with Iran, Russia, China, Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen. This man is a bloodthirsty psychopathic wararmonger who is bent on the physical destruction of any and all groups and individuals who resist US global hegemony. It's as simple as that and he ain't going to change before he mercifully departs this world.

I hope that that message has been received by all elements of the resistance to US hijgemony all around the world. Now uh on a related matter I wanted to bring this to your attention. The pathetic uh government of Kyakos Mitzotakis in Athens uh is bragging that it shot down two ballistic missiles from Yemen that were heading towards the Red Sea port of Saudi Arabia known as Yanbu. That is the port through which uh Saudi Arabia has been exporting through the Red Sea millions of barrels of oil per day despite the war.

Uh, and um, the Greek military has long been bragging about the fact that it sent a Patriot air defense system uh, to uh, Saudi Arabia to help protect the uh, the bosom buddy of Jeffrey Epste, the crown prince and his, you know, trillions of dollars of wealth or whatever obscene amount of money uh, he possesses. And uh, frankly, I don't believe a word of this. There's no evidence that has been provided by the Greek government that it shot down these ballistic missiles. No video evidence, no photographic evidence.

Uh there isn't any radar imagery, nothing like that. It's just a claim put out by Greek military sources. I don't even believe the sources identified themselves by name. Now, why would they do this?

Well, because they want to justify uh the huge increase in spending uh that the Greek government is currently engaged in in order to bolster its military. And uh you know, this looks good to the Greek electorate, I suppose, and uh gets them all excited about further expenditures in fancy American weaponry and and causes them to feel that these are good investments of their money. But if they were told the truth, as Ted Postol has been saying, less than 3% of ballistic missiles are shot down, they probably wouldn't be too excited about spending money on more westernmade uh missile defense systems and all of these interceptors which cost millions of dollars a piece. So I think that this is probably uh something that the US uh government asked the Greeks to say, and the Greeks were only too happy to do it because it makes their military look good.

Uh but the goal here was to convince the public that uh Yemen had failed to strike Saudi oil facilities. That's probably why uh the Washington asked Athens to make this statement if in fact that's what happened and I suspect it is. Uh now another important news item, the US casualties have gone up again as reported by CNN and other Western news outlets. Uh the casualty count is now above 600 as the Pentagon quietly changed uh its uh the way it accounts for casualties.

And this is a summary of the CNN article in Taznim. CNN wrote that the Pentagon has quietly revised the casualty statistics of the American war with Iran. And by adding more than 140 new wounded and reregistering four dead soldiers, now the number of wounded in this war has increased to 624 and the total number of dead to 18. And that probably is a vast underground.

Uh, another two other quick uh, pieces of news I want to share with you. I just learned this morning sadly that this hotel in Thran is on fire. This is the uh, Parian Estagal hotel. I believe it's in the north of Tan.

Uh, I actually stayed there the first time that I went to Iran in May of last year. uh that's where the soap media festival was being held and I came to Adan to attend that festival and um you know uh when I uh was about to go to Iran on my third trip uh I was asked by some colleagues who had stayed with me at that uh hotel to inquire about whether it was still standing. uh because uh this was a hotel where international media were uh apparently uh uh they they frequently stayed and a lot of people uh I know in foreign journalists who've traveled to uh Tedan who know of this hotel thought that it might have been targeted by the US uh or uh Israeli aggressor. Uh now what caused this fire is not clear.

It could have been uh purely accidental. I don't know. But uh thankfully uh for the time being it appears that no one has been killed in this fire. And lastly I want to show you another fire a much larger and more destructive one coming out of the genocidal Israeli Now that uh is an industrial facility in the Israeli settlement of Sterot.

Uh Stott is very close to the border with Gaza. Just uh between Stot, I think it's maybe a kilometer or two uh from the border of Gaza. Uh between Stat and the border of Gaza, there's a hill uh called Camel Hill. And when I was last in Palestine in uh uh during Ramadan of 2024, about six, seven months after the genocide began, I went to Stot and then uh was on that hill uh and observed in horror as Israel reigned bombs down upon the Gaza Strip.

uh stut has been notorious for celebrating uh you know residents of this uh this satanic settlement will go out onto their roofs and they'll have picnics you know watching uh gleefully as uh the Israeli military rains bombs down on Gaza. Now what has caused this fire? I don't know. It could be an accident again.

I don't know if there are any casualties. I'm not entirely sure as to what is being produced at this factory. But we do know uh that there are plenty of people out there who have a motive to set Israeli industrial facilities ablaze uh whenever the opportunity presents itself. Hopefully, we'll find out uh in the days ahead exactly what happened here.

And if we do, we'll certainly let you know. Uh that's our report for today. Uh to all of you out there, please stay safe. Uh thank you for watching and we'll be back to you uh tomorrow hopefully.

Uh we'll have the opportunity on Tuesday to interview our good friend John Helmer. Uh, for now I'm signing off from Montreal on July 27th, 2026.

https://x.com/TuckerCarlson/status/2080385647416623547

Tucker Carlson

@TuckerCarlson
Obviously this little freak could go volunteer to fight the war himself, but of course he won’t. He’s got no interest in making any kind of personal sacrifice. None of them do. Israel’s finance minister bragged the other day that having American soldiers fight Netanyahu’s wars “is the best for us.” Smotrich doesn’t want to die for Israel. Neither does Ben Shapiro. Dying for Israel is your job. You’ve got to wonder how people like this — liars without honor, wisdom or loyalty to the United States — wound up in positions of such profound influence throughout our society. How did Mark Levin get the president’s cell phone number? Why is Adm. Brad Cooper, the man in charge of the Iran war, secretly taking strategic advice from crazed Israel shill Mark Dubowitz? It’s all so nuts, and ultimately suicidal. Future generations will struggle to understand it. In the meantime, Trump will likely obey Ben Shapiro, as he has consistently for months. We can predict the results, because every neocon “victory” is identical: huge numbers of innocent people killed, disproportionately Christians, economic destruction, famine, mass migration and deepening authoritarianism at home. That’s what they’re demanding because that’s what they want. What can we do to stop it? Apparently not much. But we can remember what happened and why, so that history records the truth. Otherwise, when the war ends in disaster, as it inevitably will, Ben Shapiro will be able to blame you for it.

Chris Menahan
@infolibnews
Jul 23
Ben Shapiro urges Trump to wage total war on Iran: "No one in America wants American casualties… We do understand that war does come along with casualties … we're willing to undergo those casualties in pursuit of an end and for a victory."

https://x.com/infolibnews/status/208034 ... 58/video/1

NO OIL OR GAS FOR ANYONE': Iran Declares GLOBAL ECONOMIC BLOCKADE Over Trump's Hormuz Move?
Times Of India
Jul 28, 2026

Tensions over the Strait of Hormuz are escalating after Iranian in Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi warned that Tehran will not recognize the proposed southern shipping route unless its own proposal is accepted. He said Iran would make "no concession" on the issue, adding that the Strait would remain closed and warning that the resumption of military confrontations remains possible if negotiations fail. The remarks come as Iran's Foreign Ministry confirmed that Tehran and Oman have held technical discussions on arrangements for the safe passage of vessels through the strategic waterway. However, officials said consultations are still ongoing and that no final agreement has been reached.



Transcript

If they do not accept, then we will not recognize the southern route in any way whatsoever. The strait will remain closed and I inform you that the resumption of military confrontations is also possible and the Islamic Republic of Iran is prepared for decisive defense. What I am telling you is a final scenario, meaning that the Americans know and must know that we will make no concession regarding the the southern route. If the route we proposed is not accepted, then the Islamic Republic of Iran will not accept any other formula and at present we indeed have real security concerns in this regard.

Regarding the strait of Hormuz, military experts must now provide further clarification. In my view, a very important indicator for assessing the success of the Islamic Republic of Iran in this war we fought with our enemies is the arrangements applied regarding the the straight of Hormuz. This will complete our success. If the straight of Hormuz returns to its previous situation, then our success in this conflict will not be complete.

I say this clearly to everyone. Britain and France came and formed a so-called coalition of about 33 or 34 countries for what? To clear minds in the straight of Hormuz. They spoke with us repeatedly and we informed them explicitly that you are not permitted in any way whatsoever.

And I told them, "If your warships approach the straight of Hormuz for this purpose or your equipment or any vessel or anything belonging to you with the aim of clearing minds near the straight, then they will be legitimate targets for the Islamic Republic of Iran. We as a system of the Islamic Republic of Iran must adopt policies and measures that at some stage break the cycle of war, ceasefire, and negotiations. And this requires a decisive decision and practical measures. We did not send any requests to negotiate with the United States during the past 16 or 17 days since the start of these new confrontations.

We did not ask to negotiate with the United States and we did not ask them for a ceasefire. On the contrary, you saw that the Americans sent messages starting about 10 days ago proposing an end to this conflict. For example, if the source of the problem is the straight of Hormuz, then Iran and the United States generally reach an understanding, the Americans sent messages and requested dialogue and resolution of issues to prevent the expansion of confrontations and military actions. But the Islamic Republic of Iran did not do that.

The blockade in fact does not constitute any factor in Iran's decision, for example, regarding accepting proposals for dialogue. Look, this is not the first time we have been subjected to an economic blockade. Since the victory of the Islamic Revolution, we have faced the broadest sanctions regimes. We have learned well how to live, advance, meet our needs, and export our goods despite severe sanctions.

Any other country, if it were subjected to the sanctions Iran faces for just one week, would collapse. We have seen examples of this in different places. Look at the situation in Venezuela. It collapsed within because of the sanctions imposed on it.

If we want to say for example that revenues are not our priority or that this matter is the priority that would be wrong. We have two simultaneous objectives in the straight of Hormuz and I do not place one before the other. The first is effective sovereignty and the second is that we ultimately use this capability for our country's economic and commercial interests. In fact, we said that there must be negotiations with the Sultenate of Oman regarding a temporary route.

So that this temporary route would for the time being be an alternative if an understanding is reached until we see what will happen in other areas and whether it can replace the northern and southern routes. The Omani said that we can come and propose a plan in which 50% is effectively in Iran's hands and 50% is in Omen's hands. That is they accepted the need to abandon the idea that the passage should be entirely 100% within Omani territorial waters. We also informed them clearly that even if peace is achieved and even permanent peace, the Islamic Republic of Iran no longer accepts the previous situation related to the central passage.

the negotiations currently underway with Oman and in light of the closure of the strait. " No, Oman and even the other parties communicating with us have insisted as some come and say, "Sir, at least allow them to pass through this route until you reach your understandings. We do not recognize the southern route in any way whatsoever, not even for . If they do not accept, then we will not recognize the southern route in any way whatsoever.

The strait will remain closed and I inform you that the resumption of military confrontations is also possible and the Islamic Republic of Iran is prepared for decisive defense. What [snorts] I am telling you is a final scenario, meaning that the Americans know and must know that we will make no concession regarding the the southern route. If the route we proposed is not accepted, then the Islamic Republic of Iran will not accept any other formula. And at present, we indeed have real security concerns in this regard.

A major geopolitical shift may be unfolding behind closed doors. Two of Washington's closest Arab allies are now reportedly aligning with Iran in a diplomatic initiative over the Strait of Hormuz, a move that could reshape the balance of power in one of the world's most critical energy choke points and potentially diminish America's military influence in the region. As high stakes negotiations gather momentum, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Arachi has held separate conversations with Saudi Foreign Minister Fisizel bin Farhan and Omani Foreign Minister Bad Al-Busedi. At the heart of the talks is a shared push to restore secure navigation through the strait, a waterway through which a significant share of the world's oil supplies passes.

According to Iranian state television, the three foreign ministers emphasized deeper regional cooperation and a coordinated diplomatic effort to secure the strategic waterway. The broadcaster said they argued that lasting stability must come through regional dialogue while describing what they called insecurity stemming from the aggressive actions of the United States. That wording is significant. Saudi Arabia and Oman are long-standing American security partners.

Yet Thrron's account presents them as supporting a regional solution that identifies US military action, not solely Iranian restrictions, as a source of instability. Neither Riad nor Muscat has publicly announced an alliance with Iran against Washington. Their own positions have focused more cautiously on safe navigation, uninterrupted commerce, [music] and preventing another regional escalation. But the direction of the diplomacy is difficult to ignore.

Oman and Iran, the two countries bordering the straight of Hormuz, [music] have already reported progress toward a mechanism for managing ship traffic. Proposals reportedly include joint regional oversight, [music] designated shipping routes, and possible service charges for vessels using the passage. Iran insists it [music] must retain a central role in controlling navigation. Washington rejects that position and claims the waterway must remain open without Iranian restrictions or tolls.

Saudi Arabia has powerful reasons to support diplomacy. Its Gulf terminals depend on Hormuz, while its alternative Red Sea export route through Yanbu is now threatened by renewed Houthi attacks. Oman, meanwhile, has emerged as the principal mediator between Iran and the United States. [music] It is now discussing arrangements directly with Thran while Washington strikes remain paused.

This does not yet amount to Saudi Arabia and Oman formally joining Iran to expel American forces from Hormuz, but it points towards something strategically uncomfortable for Washington. Its own allies increasingly believe regional negotiations with Thran may offer more stability than another US-led military campaign. The struggle over Hormuz, therefore, is becoming a contest between two security models. American control enforced by warships and air strikes or a regional arrangement negotiated by the countries whose coastlines and economies are directly exposed.

And for the first time during this war, key US partners appear willing to test whether the strait can be stabilized with Iran at the table and Washington kept at a greater distance.

Sabotage Teams Affiliated with Ukraine Dismantled in Iraq
July, 28, 2026 - 17:08 World news
https://www.tasnimnews.ir/en/news/2026/ ... ed-in-iraq

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Several sabotage cells responsible for a series of bombings across Iraq were smashed by the country’s intelligence forces.

The sabotage cells were planning further terrorist acts with backing and sponsorship from Ukraine.

Iraqi National Security Advisor Qasim al-Aboudi stated late on Monday that the intelligence apparatus, through a series of operations nationwide, had detected and neutralized multiple teams affiliated with the intelligence services of Ukraine.

“We have disbanded a number of groups that carried out attacks inside Iraqi territory, and targeted several state facilities. During interrogations, they confessed to affiliation with Ukraine,” Aboudi said.

He, however, did not provide any information about the Iraqi installations purportedly targeted by the sabotage teams.

The senior Iraqi security officials also did not specify whether the Ukraine-linked groups had conducted operations beyond Iraq’s borders.

Aboudi noted that attacks within Iraqi territory constitute “a complex file”, requiring extensive investigations before authorities can determine responsibility or formally charge any party with carrying them out.

There was no immediate comment from the Ukrainian government on the report.

The Iraqi national security advisor’s remarks come as the Baghdad government has consistently reiterated its commitment to the policy of “keeping Iraq away from regional and international conflicts.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has repeatedly stressed that the country’s security and sovereignty require that Iraqi territory must not be a launchpad for attacks against neighboring countries, and that the decision of war and peace is the decision of the state alone.

Iranian Ballistic Missiles Hit US Army Command Center, Air Base in Jordan
July, 29, 2026 - 08:12 Defense news
https://www.tasnimnews.ir/en/news/2026/ ... -in-jordan

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TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A US military command center and air base in Jordan was targeted by Iranian ballistic missiles early on Wednesday.

The Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) IRGC Aerospace Force Command announced in a statement on Wednesday morning that in response to the “aggressive actions of the child-killing US army, an hour ago, the brave warriors of the IRGC Aerospace Force targeted the US army command center and air base in Jordan with several ballistic missiles.”

The statement added that as long as the threats against the Islamic Republic of Iran continue and the illegal and evil actions of the US forces against Iran’s interests are ongoing, the resistance will continue.

“The threats of the US authorities and illegal interventions against our interests must stop,” it concluded.

The United States has perpetrated numerous violations against Iranian territory since April 7, when US President Donald Trump announced a unilateral ceasefire in the latest bout of wholesale American-Israeli aggression targeting the Islamic Republic.

The violations continued even after Washington and Tehran signed a Pakistan-mediated memorandum of understanding last month, whose first clause had clearly mandated cessation of aggression on all fronts.

In line with the MoU, the Islamic Republic also designated a maritime route for safe and legal passage through the Strait of Hormuz. The US has, however, been trying to help ships evade the route by seeking to escort trespassing vessels through an illegal passageway.

Iran’s Armed Forces have staged uncompromising retaliation in the face of each instance of violation, including those taking place in support of illegal vessel movement in the Strait of Hormuz.