PART 3 ANTI-ANTI-NAZI BARBARIAN HORDES ARE KNOCKING DOWN THE

[admin]

Qatar cuts government budget amid massive hit from US war on Iran
Saturday, 22 August 2026 6:33 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 22 August 2026 6:33 PM]
https://www.presstv.co.uk/Detail/2026/0 ... ttacks-LNG

Qatar has slashed its government budget by up to 30% this year as its gas production and exports have been severely hit by Iranian airstrikes and Persian Gulf blockades linked to the US-Israeli aggression on Iran.

A Saturday report by the Financial Times (FT) showed that Qatari authorities were also cutting the country’s overseas aid spending by roughly 85% for 2026.

The report quoted statements from three people briefed on the matter who said the budget cuts were a direct result of the collapse in Qatar’s income from liquefied natural gas (LNG) production.

Qatar’s main LNG production facility, known as Ras Laffan, which is the largest of its kind in the world, came under Iranian attacks during the US-Israeli aggression against Iran that began in late February.

Authorities at the time said the attacks had knocked out some 17% of production at the facility and that repairs would take up to five years.

Iran attacked Ras Laffan to retaliate against US attacks on its energy facilities, after Iranian authorities warned that they would retaliate against any energy facility in the Persian Gulf where US companies have a share.

Iran has imposed tight restrictions on energy transit via the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, making it almost impossible for Qatar and other countries in the region to export oil or LNG.

FT’s report said Qatar’s 2026 budget amounts to $61 billion but said it is not yet clear how much the planned cuts to government departments would reduce the total budget.

It also estimated that cuts to Qatar’s foreign aid spending would seriously undermine the small but wealthy country’s contribution to international programs, including aid to the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which reached some $1.5 billion in 2025.

[admin]

Israeli military conducts new ground incursion in Syria’s Quneitra, ransacks house
Saturday, 22 August 2026 7:46 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 22 August 2026 7:46 AM]
https://www.presstv.co.uk/Detail/2026/0 ... acks-house

Israeli forces have carried out a new ground incursion into a village in Syria’s southwestern province of Quneitra amid heightened military activity near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, according to local media.

Al-Ikhbariyah Syria television news channel reported that an Israeli military convoy moved into the village of al-Basali on Friday, and ransacked one of the houses before withdrawing from the area. However, no abductions were reported.

The development came a day after Israeli artillery fire struck agricultural land south of the town of Jubata al-Khashab. They simultaneously launched a number of illumination flares, which sparked a fire in the farmland.

Earlier, Israeli forces had raided the town and abducted two people.

On Tuesday, Israeli warplanes carried out eight airstrikes on the runway of the Abu al-Duhur Military Airbase in the northwestern Idlib province, damaging its infrastructure as a Turkish military delegation was visiting the site.

Following the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s administration in early December 2024, the Israeli military has been conducting airstrikes aimed at military sites, facilities, and stockpiles that were formerly managed by the Syrian army.

Israel has faced considerable criticism for ending the 1974 ceasefire agreement with Syria and taking advantage of the chaos in the war-torn nation to seize territory.

https://www.presstv.co.uk/Detail/2026/08/21/774792/Israeli-forces-expand-ground-incursions-in-southern-Syria,-advancing-with-tanks-
Israeli forces expand ground incursions in southern Syria, advancing with tanks to Quneitra countryside
Israeli occupation forces have expanded their incursions into southern Syria, advancing with two tanks and three military vehicles toward Tal al-Dariyat in the southern countryside of Quneitra.

The United Nations and several Arab nations condemned Israel's actions, labeling them as breaches of international law and violations of Syria's sovereignty.

Even though Syria’s ruling Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) regime has made promises of collaboration with Tel Aviv, Israel has consistently refused to depart from Syria.

The two parties have engaged in sporadic discussions aimed at establishing a “safety pact,” but no agreement or notable advancements have been reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has directed his military to push deeper into Syrian territory beyond the Golan Heights, which have been occupied since 1967, with the objective of seizing several strategic locations.

The majority of Israeli airstrikes have concentrated on the southern Syrian provinces of Quneitra, Dara’a, and Damascus, accounting for approximately 80 percent of all recorded Israeli attacks.

[admin]

Without a binding ‘no aggression, no threat’ US guarantee, no war-ending deal with Iran can make headway
By Press TV Strategic Analysis Desk
Saturday, 22 August 2026 7:18 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 22 August 2026 7:18 AM]
https://www.presstv.co.uk/Detail/2026/08/22/774836/without-binding-no-aggression-no-threat-us-guarantee-no-deal-make-make-headway

In the aftermath of the 40-day Ramadan War – the unprovoked and illegal joint US-Israeli aggression against Iran from February 28 to April 8, 2026 – both sides, with Pakistani mediation, discussed the contours of a potential agreement to end the third imposed war.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed in Islamabad, outlining a framework for ending US-Israeli hostilities on all fronts, lifting illegal and draconian US sanctions, withdrawing US occupation forces from Iran’s periphery, and addressing other outstanding issues.

On paper, the document promised a comprehensive ceasefire on all fronts, the dismantling of US military infrastructure in the region, and a multibillion-dollar reconstruction package.

Yet, as the 60-day window for final negotiations has expired, the prospect of sustainable peace has grown perilously fragile, primarily because the American side has so far refused to honor its commitments, which, in effect, amount to an acknowledgment of its defeat in the war and growing desperation over the losses it has suffered.

Iran has maintained that any war-ending deal that does not provide for a definitive end to all acts of aggression against Iran and its allies in the region, as well as ironclad guarantees against any future acts of aggression or threats, is destined to fail.

Lesson of war: Security cannot be negotiated under fire

The Ramadan War left more than 3,500 Iranian civilians martyred, including over 270 schoolchildren. The ghastly terrorist attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' school in Minab, where over 168 students were killed on the first day of the war, became a symbol of the brutality of the unprovoked and unjustified aggression.

In the words of Iranian officials, this atrocity "cannot be justified even by the most barbaric standards." The war demonstrated, in the starkest terms, that the United States and its allies are willing to strike anywhere, at any time, to accomplish their sinister objectives.

That the US war machine failed to achieve any of its stated objectives, suffered catastrophic human and material losses, and was ultimately forced to propose a ceasefire through Pakistani mediators is another matter entirely.

For Tehran, this experience crystallized a strategic insight: any war-ending deal without sufficient security guarantees is not enough. The MoU may have promised an end to “military operations,” but within weeks of its signing, US forces struck Iranian vessels near the Strait of Hormuz and carried out a series of airstrikes on civilian areas in southern Iran.

Iranian armed forces also retaliated against US assets across the region, warning that it reserves the "legitimate and definitive" right to respond to any ceasefire violation.

This pattern – ceasefires followed by renewed aggression – is not an anomaly. It reflects a deeper problem, which is that the United States has treated negotiations as a tool to manage war rather than resolve it. Any military escalation reinforces concerns that Washington could once again violate or withdraw from future deals, as it previously did with the nuclear deal.

Hence, without binding and enforceable guarantees against future aggression, any deal is merely a pause in hostilities, a lull before the storm. The United States and its allies must commit that Iran's land, sea, and air borders will not be violated, and that the territory or bases of regional countries will not be used for military aggression against the Islamic Republic.

https://x.com/PressTV/status/2076997974152933783

Press TV
@PressTV
Analysis - Iran’s decisive response to fresh US aggression signals no red lines in defending national security, strategic interests
By Press TV Strategic Analysis Desk

Read more: https://presstv.ir/Detail/2026/07/12/77 ... -interests
5:51 AM · Jul 14, 2026

The integrated security vision: A war on one front is a war on all

To understand why Iran insists that any peace must address all fronts of aggression – from Lebanon to Yemen, from Iraq to Palestine – one must grasp the logic of the Axis of Resistance. This is not a loose alliance of convenience but a strategic partnership built on mutual interests.

The architecture of this network has been decades in the making. From the establishment of Hezbollah in Lebanon in the 1980s to the integration of Iraqi Hashd al-Shaabi, Yemen's Ansarullah, and Palestinian resistance groups, a multi-front defensive network is in place that operates in coordination but retains independent action capability.

This integration is not merely military but strategic. As Iranian officials have made clear, regional security is an interconnected reality. A separate peace on one front while aggression continues elsewhere is a trap. For Iran, security in the Persian Gulf cannot be separated from security in Lebanon, and security in Lebanon cannot be separated from security in Palestine.

Iran has made its position absolutely clear, and the world would do well to listen. The end of the war against Iran must mean the end of the war on all fronts of the resistance axis. An act of aggression against one component of this axis means an act of aggression against all components, from Iran to Lebanon to Yemen to Iraq and Palestine.

A ceasefire cannot happen in the Persian Gulf while aggression in any form or manifestation against Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq or Yemen continues. It is a strategic doctrine established in clear terms by the Islamic Republic after the recent two US-Israeli-imposed wars.

The United States and Israel have pursued a strategy of fragmentation, seeking to isolate Gaza from Lebanon, separate Ansarullah from Hezbollah, and drive a wedge between Iraq and Iran. The recent war brought the Axis closer together. Instead of fragmenting the resistance, the US-Israeli aggression forged a more cohesive alliance with clearer operational coordination.

The United States has also employed what it calls "diplomatic pressure" on Iraq to disarm its resistance factions, and has carried out false flag attacks in Iraqi Kurdistan. In Lebanon, persistent calls for Hezbollah's disarmament are not expressions of concern for Lebanese stability but a ploy to expose the country to Zionist aggression without resistance. In Yemen, the US-backed Saudi-led coalition has bombed schools, hospitals, and markets while maintaining a crippling blockade. Each of these acts of aggression is a component of a broader campaign to weaken the entire resistance network.

The price of a real peace: Ending all aggression and threats

The MoU signed in Islamabad reflected the recognition that peace requires more than a ceasefire. The document includes provisions for the end of aggression on all fronts, guarantees for non-aggression, removal of illegal US naval blockade, the withdrawal of US occupation forces from the vicinity of Iran, war reparations and the lifting of all sanctions, including UN Security Council resolutions and all unilateral US measures.

Yet, as the final negotiations have stalled, Iran has signaled that it will not wait indefinitely for the United States to meet its commitments. In the event of any fresh aggression, Iran's response will be severe. It has switched from a defensive to an offensive posture.

The problem here is that the United States and Israel have consistently demanded that Iran abandon its allies, dismantle its deterrence, and accept a regional order designed by and for its adversaries. Iran cannot, on one hand, commit to restraint and de-escalation, while on the other, witness the concentration of US naval vessels, fighter jets, bombers, and military infrastructure along its borders and across the region.

From Tehran's perspective, genuine de-escalation must be accompanied by the end of America's threatening military posture and the gradual withdrawal of its forces from around Iran and the region. Foreign military presence must not become a tool for encirclement, intimidation, or laying the groundwork for yet another war.

https://x.com/PressTV/status/2089720620296688123?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2089720620296688123%7Ctwgr%5E9678c33d58f47c1ee319b9440da9e43376d39726%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.presstv.co.uk%2FDetail%2F2026%2F08%2F22%2F774836%2Fwithout-binding-no-aggression-no-threat-us-guarantee-no-deal-make-make-headway
Press TV
@PressTV
Analysis - Why expelling US military and dismantling their assets are key to regional peace and stability
By Press TV Strategic Analysis Desk
From presstv.co.uk
8:26 AM · Aug 18, 2026

The way forward: A deal without aggression, threats

A war-ending deal requires more than a piecemeal ceasefire. It requires a definitive end to all acts of aggression against Iran and its allies, backed by enforceable guarantees and a clear mechanism for addressing violations.

It requires the United States to commit, in clear terms, that Iran's land, sea, and air borders will not be violated, and that the territory or bases of regional countries will not be used for military aggression against the Islamic Republic and its people. It requires an end to the strategy of fragmentation and the recognition that a war on one front is a war on all.

The resistance will not be bullied into disarmament and surrender. The Lebanese people will not abandon their Hezbollah allies to face Israeli aggression alone. The Yemeni people will not accept the continuation of a brutal blockade while a ceasefire is negotiated elsewhere.

And the Palestinian people will not accept that their cause is separable from the broader war for regional self-determination. The United States and its allies must ensure that the blockade of Yemen and the military aggression that has spawned a humanitarian catastrophe ends immediately. They must ensure that Israeli aggression against Lebanon ends, and that Hezbollah is not forced to disarm while the Zionist regime remains a threat.

The choice before the United States and its allies is clear. They can continue their policy of aggression, fragmentation, and pressure, in which case the war will continue, not in its current form, but in a cycle of confrontation that will draw in ever more actors and devastate ever more lives.

Or they can choose a genuine deal, one that respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries in the region, that ends all acts of aggression, and that allows the peoples of the region to determine their own futures without foreign interference.

One of the most important lessons of the war is that any deal without security guarantees is not enough. This guarantee must be accompanied by a clear mechanism for addressing any violation of the deal, because the aggressor cannot hit and simply walk away.

Any war-ending deal that does not include a definitive end to all acts of aggression in the future and a binding commitment against any future threats against Iran and its allies is not a deal that would be acceptable to the people of Iran who have been on the streets for over 160 days now.

The choice is not Iran's alone to make. If the United States and its allies want the war to end and the Strait of Hormuz to reopen, they must ensure that no act of aggression – military, economic, or otherwise – continues against Iran or any member of the resistance axis.

They must provide ironclad guarantees that no future threats will be issued, no future strikes will be carried out, and no future attempts will be made to destabilize the region through force.

[admin]

UK judge blocks sentencing Palestine Action activists under terrorism-related charges
Saturday, 22 August 2026 5:45 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 22 August 2026 5:45 AM]
https://www.presstv.co.uk/Detail/2026/08/22/774827/UK-judges-blocks-sentencing-Palestine-Action-activists-under-terrorism-related-charges


From left to right: Mohammed Malik; Alma Yaniv; Hmeera Atiqnisar; Amanda Kelly and Brendon O’Hagan (Photo via social media)

A British judge has ruled that five members of the Palestine Action group convicted over an attack on a Barclays Bank branch that caused damage of 212,000 pounds ($290,000) will not be sentenced under terrorism provisions.

Brendon O’Hagan, 28, Amanda Kelly, 31, Hmeera Atiqnisar, 31, Mohammed Malik, 28, and Alma Yaniv, 70, were convicted in June of causing damage to a branch of the bank on St James’s Street in the town of Burnley in Lancashire in August 2024.

The five defendants, known as the “Barclays five,” said the action was intended to pressure Barclays to withdraw financial support for Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems.

As Judge Robert Altham announced his ruling at Preston Crown Court on Friday, scores of their supporters gathered outside erupted into cheers and pro-Palestine chants.

https://www.presstv.co.uk/Detail/2026/07/31/773427/Chaos-London-court-Palestine-Action-cases-

Scores arrested outside UK court as 1,500 Palestine Action cases cause meltdown
Chaos has erupted in London after more than 1,500 peaceful supporters of the banned group Palestine Action had their cases listed for hearings in a single day.

In a joint statement, the activists said they were “extremely relieved that the court has seen sense and decided not to sentence us as terrorists.”

“This should never have been an option,” they said. “We were on trial for charges of criminal damage, for damaging some windows and spraying red paint on a Barclays branch. At no point during the trial were we, or the jury, informed that, if convicted, we could face being sentenced as terrorists.”

The five defendants are due to be sentenced for criminal damage at Preston Crown Court on September 4.

Palestine Action was not a proscribed terrorist organization when the attack took place.

The UK government proscribed the group in July 2025 following a series of direct-action protests targeting Elbit Systems over its links to the Israeli regime’s military.

The High Court ruled the ban disproportionate and unlawful in February, but the Court of Appeal overturned that decision in June.

According to the rights group Defend our Juries, more than 3,500 people – many over the age of 60 – have been arrested for expressing support for Palestine Action after it was proscribed by politicians in July 2025, placing it on the same legal footing as al-Qaeda and Daesh terrorist groups.

Rights groups have long decried the ban on Palestine Action as an illiberal overreach by the British government, calling on the ruling Labour Party to lift it.

[admin]

Trump ORDERS DOJ to Not Produce Handwritten Notes of his Alleged 13 year old Abuse Victim?!?
Legal AF
Aug 21, 2026 The Intersection with Michael Popok

Popok reports on the bombshell new filing by Katie Phang's lawyers to inform Senior Judge Sullivan that the DOJ lawyer representing Todd Blanche did not tell the truth in court about handwritten FBI interview notes about Trump's accuser who told the FBI in 4 interviews that he sexually abused her at 13. Popok has a pretty good sense of what is going to happen next!



Transcript Search transcript Search transcript Federal Senior Status Judge EMTT Sullivan has just issued an order giving the Department of Justice until early next week to tell him whether he's been lied to by the Department of Justice because Katie Fang's lawyers have made a very good point in a filing that they just made a notice to the court that when Andrew Block on behalf of Todd Blanch about the Epstein file and the production was asked questions about the handwritten 302 to FBI notes of interviews of a person who said she was sexually abused by Donald Trump when she was 13 years old. They said the reason they can't produce the handwritten notes is because they don't produce the handwritten notes. The typewritten notes should suffice and they don't generally produce the handwritten notes. Except they do, except that was a misstatement or a lie in court to a federal judge.

The notice to the court filed by Katie Fang's lawyers just in the last uh couple of hours says that when he was asked when Andrew Block was asked by the judge, the court asked defendants council whether defendant has produced other handwritten FBI interview notes that form the basis for 302 reports. Defendants council said to my knowledge not with respect to 302s. And then Katie Fang's lawyers proceeded to provide at least over a hundred examples in the Epstein files alone where the handwritten 302s not about Donald Trump were produced. And now they've asked the judge to find out why he was why he was lied to effectively in court.

And the judge has turned around with a new order and said, "Yeah, I want to hear from everybody and I mean you, Mr. " I'm Michael Popach. here on legal a on Friday. We just got this hot off the presses and I wanted to jump on here.

This is a case that was brought by Katie Fang a couple of months ago in order to get the complete production of the Epstein files and to have a special master appointed by a judge in order to do it. Not just a couple of million that have been produced, but the several million that haven't been produced. The couple hundred thousand pages that have been blacked out and not given to the American people. The documents about Donald Trump that have not been produced.

the documents that are in a foreign language that haven't been translated and so on. She's one on a preliminary injunction about five categories of documents and yet still the Department of Justice refused to produce documents and they keep telling the judge to go pound sand. At last week's hearing, uh, as you know from my reporting, the judge was not happy. The judge was perturbed.

The judge was angry. The judge said, "Why, Mr. block, are you here without the information that I've demanded and I've commanded you to bring with you? He said, well, if you just issue another order, he said, you should my next order say I really mean it this time.

And then he started using the contempt word like I'm going to find the Department of Justice in contempt. He then turned to the lawyer for Katie Fang, Brendan Belaloo, who's been on with me before, and said, "Why don't you draft the order? " No, no, you don't have to show it to the other side. Just you and me.

send it to me and we'll see what happens. That's always a good sign when a law when the judge tells you and not both parties to draft the order, you hurry up and draft your order. So, I was expecting the proposed order, which and kudos to Brendan Belaloo's team at public integrity. They actually use the same font as this judge loves courier font and they put it in courier.

Such small things, but it really matters. You're on legal a YouTube channel by the way. Hit that free subscribe button. So, I see it and it has to do with the redaction log, you know, like did you prepare the redaction log and if you didn't, why didn't you and if you did, where is it and how many people are involved and let's get an affidavit with somebody by not with knowledge.

And I'm like, well, this is interesting. This is one part of the redaction log. If you want to know more about what happened at that hearing, here's a clip of my interview with Brendan last week. Play the clip.

Talk about what went down at that hearing. It was a pretty crazy two hours, you know. So just to set the baseline here, the department of, you know, we want a preliminary injunction requiring DOJ to produce a whole bunch of information or show cause why they couldn't. DOJ has just repeatedly failed to comply with the court's order here and has failed to reply to comply with follow-on orders.

And so this was really uh a chance for the judge to bring the parties in and understand, okay, why Department of Justice, are you not following these orders and what am I, Judge Sullivan, going to do about it? Um, and to your point, you know, I I want to be diplomatic here. I want to be respectful, but it was um a shocking sort of experience for me having been at the Department of Justice to see the arguments that they were making or the arguments that they weren't making. Uh, in that, you know, they really didn't seem to have a plan for the hearing or for what the judge's arguments were going to be, questions were going to be, sort of basic questions about the case, what their responses were.

Um there were 5 minutesjust long periods of silence in the courtroom as as the Department of Justice I think struggled to articulate why it couldn't follow the law here. Um so I I had never really been in a hearing like that uh where where one side was just silent on their own arguments just saying that they were going to do things and wouldn't explain why. And I think that made the the follow-on conversation, which was Judge Sullivan's essentially halfhour long description of having previously found the Department of Justice in contempt, you know, more than a decade ago, I think really chilling because I think he really made clear the profound professional consequences that follow you if you are in fact held in contempt. I am certain that Judge Sullivan does not want that to happen.

Um, but I am hopeful that his message resonated with the government lawyers. And then I get this notice to the court. I'm like, what is this? Oh, wait till you hear.

We'll post it up on Legal AF Substack for your review. It says on page one, in the June 25, 2026 preliminary injunction order, which I um which we were just referring to in the hearing, the court ordered defendant to either produce to the public the handwritten FBI interview notes that form the basis for certain 302s. Those are official FBI interview forms. These are all have to do with Donald Trump and that one witness who says that when she was 13, she was sexually abused.

Defendant claimed that he did not produce the notes for two reasons. This is Blanch. One, they're duplicative of what the typewritten notes say. Well, that's not what the Epstein uh Files Transparency Act says.

That's not an exception. Well, if something's typed up, you don't have to also do the handwritten notes. lots in the handwritten notes that are not typed up. And two, there's a risk of inadvertent disclosure of victim information.

Okay. So, they remind the court and they provide the transcript that during the hearing that happened last week, the court asked defendants council whether the defendant had produced other 7 minuteshandwritten FBI interview notes which form the basis of 302 reports that don't relate to Donald Trump. " Here's how Katie Fang's lawyers addressed that. Defendants council is not correct.

See, they're a lot nicer than I am. I would have said defendants council lied. Defendant has in fact produced handwritten FBI interview notes underlying 302 reports. And then they proceed to attach them.

I'm going to read from some of them just so you get the sense of what not everything in a handwritten note ends up in the official typewritten version because the person that's doing the interview notes uses their discretion on how they're going to rewrite them. That's why you want to see the underlying handwritten notes and then they attach them. They also say plainif has identified nearly 100 additional examples of handwritten interview notes produced by the defendant and then they give a table on exhibit D. " Right now, the additional documents, the small binder of material that Todd uh Andrew Block brought with him for Todd Blanch is with the judge, and they want him to know when reviewing it.

There are other examples. Let me give you an example. We'll put up exhibit A on the board. Well, exhibit I'm sorry.

Exhibit A is the um is the transcript from the hearing. Let's go up to exhibit B. Again, this is not revealing any um victim identifying information. Uh and I'll skip the part that does.

Do you like teachers or classes? I give scholarships. Where are you from? Uh Palm Beach.

Brothers poor. Didn't have a lot of money. Said they could help. Perfect grooming.

a 14-year-old is the first time on a flight. They took me to see Lion King 2001 approximately stopped contact, but I turned 21. , etc. This goes on for pages and pages and pages.

And then when you and talking about how that she was attacked and felt paralyzed, how much she was paid for sexual encounters that were arranged by Jeffrey Epstein. And this goes on, this was produced, this is produced already. Exhibit C is the handwritten version of that which shows how much was left out between the handwriting and the typed written report which is why Katie Fang's side wants it obviously. And then you've got all of the examples.

If you go to exhibit D, we can put that up on the screen. all of the examples where the handwritten 302 reports were produced except not what it relates to Donald Trump. Now, the judge um you never can tell from how he writes because he keeps uh he keeps his cards very close to his his black robe, but he's not happy. I can tell you that from having appeared in front of judges just like Judge Sullivan.

and he has told the Trump side they have until the middle of next week to respond to the proposed order about the redaction log and to respond to the new notice of of filing uh to the court about the handwritten 302s and the misstatement that was made by the lawyer in the courtroom. We are moving one step closer, folks, to having Judge Sullivan take this task away from the Department of Justice and assign a former federal judge to serve as special master and officer of the court to review not just the documents that still exist that haven't been produced, these fights over the 302s and other things. Oh, no. to go back since Genesis 1:1 and look at every document and source material and file to make sure that the prior production was appropriate, which we know it wasn't.

Make sure the things that were redacted are unredacted. make sure that every electronic filing cabinet or real filing cabinet was searched and make a report to the judge because the Justice Department has forfeited its right to continue to run the Epstein document production. This is what we've wanted since the very beginning. This is the only way to to do justice, not just for journalists and commentators, but for the survivors first and foremost, is to get everything.

And this judge, I think, is doing this in in in the steps necessary to support a record on appeal. Answer the questions. Tell me why uh you produced handwritten notes in the past, but not related to Donald Trump. Let's all get together.

You can brief the issue in front of me, and then I'm going to issue my order. I think the order is going to be an order of contempt. I think the order of contempt is going to bring sanctions against the Department of Justice. I think it's going to be an order to show cause why a special master shouldn't be appointed to take this task away from the Department of Justice.

I think all of that's about to happen and this is the first step. I'll continue to follow it. You're here on Friday afternoon. Just came hot off the process.

I wanted to jump on and talk to you. Hit the free subscribe button here on Legal AF YouTube channel. Until my next report, I'm Michael Popok.

[admin]

https://x.com/HormuzLetter/status/2091161654058762505

The Hormuz Letter
@HormuzLetter
37m
BREAKING: US House Speaker Mike Johnson says the Iran war is going to enter a "new phase very soon," declaring "we'll get this finished."

The Hormuz Letter
@HormuzLetter
53m
BREAKING: Iran views the war as restarting in the coming days, with Marandi saying "In the coming days, it is very likely that the military conflict will be renewed."

Marandi directly warns "any regime that cooperated with Trump and Bessent to starve Iranian civilians will be dealt with brutally" and that "the global economy is on the verge of collapse," as Bessent is set to announce "the toughest sanctions in history" on Iran tomorrow.

The Hormuz Letter
@HormuzLetter
2h
BREAKING: The Trump administration has asked Pakistan to send a new peace deal proposal to Iran to keep Iran’s "IRGC backchannel" open, coming as a senior Iranian official says Trump is using Pakistani officials to announce fabricated talks rumors to stabilize the oil market, per Reuters and a senior Iranian official in Tehran familiar with the matter.

As surging oil prices and the November midterms increase pressure on Trump to find a way out, Pakistan’s Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir is set to visit Tehran on Monday, during market hours, for high-level talks, with an Iranian source telling Reuters he will discuss peace under Islamabad’s MoU, Trump’s sanctions threat, and to request Iran return to the negotiating table.

Iran, however, continues to refuse reopening the Strait of Hormuz or return to negotiations unless Trump agrees to all of Iran’s conditions, including $300 billion in US compensation, the lifting of all US sanctions, the release of all Iranian frozen assets, and the end of the US naval blockade of Iran.

The Hormuz Letter
@HormuzLetter
3h
BREAKING: Iran announces the discovery of major gas reserves worth over $165 billion, containing more than 7.5 trillion cubic feet of "sweet" natural gas, the highest quality type with close to zero impurities, plus significant gas condensates, Iran’s oil minister told IRIB.

The field, located in southern Fars province, has recoverable gas of approximately 5.7 trillion cubic feet, equivalent to 15 years of production from one phase of the South Pars gas field, the world's largest, shared with Qatar. Iran will now accelerate planning and operations immediately to bring the field onstream as quickly as possible.

The Hormuz Letter
@HormuzLetter
15h
BREAKING: U.S. service member casualties in the Iran war have just jumped to 774 wounded or killed, after the Pentagon added scores of new troops to the wounded list in the last few days, per WaPo.

The Hormuz Letter
@HormuzLetter
15h
BREAKING: The US military has permanently lost access to 15 Persian Gulf bases, with Iran now poised to control access to the Gulf states, and the US having to negotiate new access in western Saudi Arabia, Israel, and southern Europe, per retired four-star US Gen. Barry McCaffrey.

This comes as the Trump administration is already weighing a smaller US military presence in the Persian Gulf due to damaged bases, and the Pentagon saying it might not rebuild its US bases as they were before the Iran war.

The Hormuz Letter
@HormuzLetter
20h
BREAKING: Iran's IRGC has successfully shut down a UK power plant for 4 days in an unprecedented cyber attack, believed to be the first time Iranian-affiliated hackers have successfully shut down a UK facility of this kind, per The Telegraph.

The UK warns businesses should be prepared to protect themselves against cyber attacks without needing the option of paying ransoms because the UK could be targeted "at scale" if it were to become involved in an international conflict like Iran.

The Hormuz Letter
@HormuzLetter
21h
BREAKING: Trump made over 1,000 stock trades in June alone worth up to $263 million tied to market events he created, often buying and selling the same security on the same day after the event was over, per new government ethics filing.

Recent purchases include Visa, Berkshire Hathaway, Mastercard, and Cintas, following 3,642 trades involving stocks of public companies between January 1st and March 31st. Trump also made more than 21,000 securities trades in 2025 in bursts tied to market events he created, with the total value between $600 million and $1.86 billion, occasionally buying and selling the same security on the same day.

The White House claims Trump's trades pose "no conflict of interest" as they are "independently managed," coming amid Trump already being sued in federal court over Trump Media selling advance access to his Truth Social posts to subscribers paying up to $100,000 per month via Truth API.

The Hormuz Letter
@HormuzLetter
23h
BREAKING: Iran warns it "will respond with an earthquake-like retaliation" in response to Trump's economic warfare, directly warning all Gulf countries not to join the economic war, and saying Iran will strike all US-backed Gulf energy infrastructure and Hormuz bypass oil routes, including Yanbu and Fujairah, Iran's SNSC chief Rezaei told IRIB.

Iran adds "if neighboring countries of Iran join the economic war with the Americans, not a single drop of oil will leave the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, and we will also target other routes through which oil is exported from the Persian Gulf."

Iran says it has "so far only targeted military bases" and has not attacked any US economic interests, but "if they choose to escalate to an economic war, we are prepared to target all American oil and economic companies in the region."

The Hormuz Letter
@HormuzLetter
BREAKING: Iran directly rejects Axios's claim and says "Trump is lying" about 16 million barrels of oil exiting the Strait of Hormuz on Friday night, saying Iran only allowed 3 Iraqi tankers to exit and explicitly blocked any other, including Chinese ships sailing on behalf of sanctioned countries, five Iranian officials told Magnier.

This directly confirms Kpler satellite data showing zero west-to-east tanker crossings on Friday night and zero barrels of oil exiting through the Strait, as well as SAR image data and Sentinel-1B radar images from early Saturday morning, which all do not show that 40 oil tankers have crossed or are in the process of doing so, contradicting Barak Ravid’s claim of 40 tankers and 16 million barrels transiting.
12:06 PM · Aug 22, 2026

The Hormuz Letter
@HormuzLetter
Aug 22
This is false.

Axios claims 40 oil tankers crossed the Strait of Hormuz through the southern Omani corridor last on Friday night, carrying around 16 million barrels of oil out of the Strait.

However, Kpler vessel-tracking data, which uses satellite imagery rather than just AIS status, shows completely zero west-to-east tanker crossings on Friday and zero barrels of oil exiting through the Strait.

Barak Ravid's Axios once again not only exaggerates, but makes the number up.

The Hormuz Letter
@HormuzLetter
Aug 22
BREAKING: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain are now privately reaching out to Iran for new security arrangements, sending multiple messages almost daily to Iran out of concern that the US cannot protect them anymore due to interceptor shortages and the vulnerability of hosted US bases, per Iran's Parliament Speaker Ghalibaf and a senior Iranian source in Tehran familiar with the matter.

Ghalibaf says "we've received numerous messages from neighboring countries about shaping new security arrangements and economic cooperation in the region. The United States put the security of every single one of its allies at such risk, through bullying and pure disregard for their interests for the sake of Israel that they briefly saw their entire existence on the line."

The Hormuz Letter
@HormuzLetter
Aug 22
BREAKING: The Iran war is now delivering a massive economic shock to the Gulf, with Qatar facing an 8.6% GDP contraction in 2026, the sharpest decline among the 6 Gulf economies, against 5.4% for blockaded and sanctioned Iran. Kuwait also expected to contract, per IMF via FT.

Both countries have suffered major damage and severe disruptions to their energy infrastructure and export routes, with Qatar forced to halt its LNG production, its main source of revenue and export earnings, because of war damage inflicted by Iran and the difficulty of shipping gas through the Strait of Hormuz. Qatar has slashed government department budgets by up to 30% and cut overseas aid funding by ~85%.

That means US ally Qatar is contracting 3.2 percentage points more than Iran, the target of what Trump called the "MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY."

The Hormuz Letter
@HormuzLetter
BREAKING: The UAE has finished building massive metal "cope cages" over Abu Dhabi oil and fuel tanks after four months of work, claiming they will stop Iranian drones.
https://x.com/HormuzLetter/status/2091161654058762505/video/1
7:52 AM · Aug 22, 2026

[admin]

PEPE:Maximum Pressure Just BACKFIRED in Bessent’s Face. Iran Secretly Invited Into the MECCA PACT
Transition Protocol
Aug 23, 2026

Ten minutes before we went to air, sources inside the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader told us that Speaker Ghalibaf was discussing Pakistan’s invitation for Iran to become the fourth member of the Mecca Pact — hours before Field Marshal Asim Munir landed in Tehran. In this emergency Sunday broadcast, Pepe Escobar and Zulfiqar Ali break two source-based bombshells and then work through what Munir is actually carrying into Iran: the collapsed MOU, Scott Bessent’s economic pressure campaign, the terms of any return to talks, the Mecca Pact invitation itself, and Yemen.

Also in this episode: the Crown Prince of Bahrain — whose country hosts the largest US naval presence in the Gulf — reported to be in Islamabad negotiating entry into Pakistan’s joint defence agreements with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. A target of raising Iran–Pakistan trade tenfold, from roughly $10 billion to $100 billion in three years, settled outside the dollar with Chinese and Russian backing. Why Tehran has told Washington that Qatar will not replace Pakistan as mediator. Why Escobar expects the New Delhi BRICS summit to end without a declaration. And why he believes the United States is closer to losing South Korea than anyone in Washington has noticed.

Pepe Escobar has reported on Eurasian geopolitics from the ground for three decades. Zulfiqar Ali hosts Transition Protocol and Power Shift. This broadcast contains source-based reporting that is not yet independently confirmed; claims are attributed on screen and their verification status is stated. Transition Protocol is a serious, source-driven geopolitical and economic analysis channel covering de-dollarisation, BRICS, the multipolar world order and the financial consequences of shifting global power.



Transcript

Hello everybody. Today is the 23rd of of August. It is a Sunday. We are here because we promised you that anything explosive happens.

Regardless of what else we are going to do, we are going to be here informing you about it. And we do have some very explosive news that just received we just received literally ago uh to break it all down. U my dear friend and colleague internationally recognized respected journalist Pepe Escobar is here with me. I'm very grateful that he has agreed to join us even though it's a Sunday.

And uh if you like what we do, please hit the like and subscribe button. Go to Substack, become a paid member so that you can support the efforts we do to bring you information that is available literally nowhere else to you Pepe. Thank you. Thank you, Mr.

Z. Thanks, everybody. Yes, this is Sunday. It's uh off the charts in terms of our regular programming, but it's absolutely essential.

First of all, because uh I'm going to bring it back to Mr. in one minute because he has two backto back breaking news bombshells to give us and then we can analyze that with uh a little bit more time and this uh and this is all connected to what's going to happen tomorrow which a key visit by Field Marshall A Simon to Theran to discuss like a gigantic list of issues all of them immensely important but first of Back to you, Mr. Z. And please give us these two bombshells backto back.

Thank you. Uh, thank you. Thank you very much, Pepe. These are indeed bombshells.

And for my global audience, uh, we are very grateful to you for your support. Literally ago, literally ago, came to us and we are happy to bring it to you. And this is why we do this. Well, the first most important news is from inside the office of the supreme leader.

We bring it to you with their permission. Speaker Galibav, the number three man in Iran, was discussing uh with another party whom we cannot name inside the office of the Supreme Leader the invitation extended by Field Marshall Aimir to to Iran to become the fourth member of the Mecca agreement. This is extraordinary news. Extraordinary news.

And when Assam Munir is in Thran tomorrow, which is Monday, this is going to be at the top of the list of discussions between Aim Munir and all of Iranian leadership. Every single person except the Supreme Leader. Of course, the Supreme Leader is informed about everything that happens. Uh he's going to meet with Mosen Razai, the right-hand man of the Supreme Leader.

He's going to meet with Galibah who was discussing this position president uh Arachi the foreign minister and other civilian leadership as well. The other breaking news which is equally significant, very significant in fact is that I can report to you that as I speak the the crown prince of Bahrain is in the office of the number two military person in Pakistan having detailed talks about joining the agreement that Pakistan has with Kuwait, Pakistan has with Saudi Arabia. In terms of joint defense, this is not a Mecca agreement. This is a joint defense military agreement.

Very very significant because Bahrain as everybody knows who is uh who's a who is on the audience here uh has been a stalwart of the United States but now breaking away. Back to you Pepe. Well, it is there's no question about that. These are game changers in themselves.

There was already since uh yesterday Saturday a lot of talks but unconfirmed talks, rumors and innuendos that this invitation was already on the table. The official Pakistani invitation for Iran to join the Mecca pact. The Mecca pact by itself and and allow me to be slightly discordant on it. The huge problem of the Mecca pack is that nobody knows the actual text because the text was never leaked, the full text.

But what's behind the possibilities of the Mecca pact are already starting to make a lot of ways waves across um Eurasia. It's not only this invitation uh to Iran which now we know it's already on the table and will probably be discussed officially probably no it will be discussed officially by a Simon in Thran face to face with the the big players but other nations who are starting to manifest interest to join example Bangladesh and there's the case also of Ejid And it's not clear exactly uh the position of at least two of the three members of the of the Mecca pact visa v Egypt. So we should not get into speculation about Egypt but the possibility of Egypt uh joining later is to say the least diplomatically controversial. So we leave it at that.

What we do have in fact is that the Mecca pact is uh possibly expanding and it may have new members within the next few weeks or the next two or three months coincidentally before the midterm elections in the United States which is three months from less than three months from now. So a lot of stuff is going to happen within these uh within this period as the whole months of September, October and early November which by the way coincides with Iran basically holding the fort and not only that going on the offensive and to put it in a pop star way of a possible headline, do everything to basically freak out Donald Trump and his administration and make him lose uh the midterms. This is the official unofficial underground direct indirect uh policy of u the Iranian government now that they are it's over the the the era of strategic patience now is officially over. Now Iran is going on the offense.

And by the way, when you look at what Moshen Reszai has been saying lately uh o over this weekend for instance in terms of if there are any any provocations or escalation from the US, we're going to respond in a really hardcore way. This is a direct message to the Trump administration. And the the most extraordinary thing before we get to uh Munir in Thran uh this Monday is that the Trump administration asked Pakistan again which is something that we have reported here over and over again. The Trump administration and Trump himself calling a simonir always, "Okay, get me an off-ramp.

Get me a different off-ramp. Get me anat off ramp. Get me any offramp. As long as I look good like a macho macho man, which is, as we all know, is practically impossible.

But once again, the Trump administration asked Islamabad to send a proposal to Iran to keep the back channel open, which is completely absurd when we compare to Soros uh asset, the ghastly Scott Bessant who thinks that he can turn 90 million Iranians into baggers in the streets. and he actually believes in that when they are starting a so-called selfadvertised total economic and financial war against Iran, you have the president of the United States asking the previous mediator which he the president of United States himself demoted diplomatically only a few days ago. This is something we also reported here in the past few days. Please do anything to get Iran back on the table.

As if Iran was interested in talking to somebody who breaks any commitments. Uh the latest one big big time of course the mo the deadc cat mou. So some sort of communication in the back channel may survive in the next few 10 minutesdays. But the most important element uh in in this new reconfiguration of the chessport is indeed this visit by a simonir to Theran because the list of important issues that he's going to discuss and uh okay he can discuss this with Galibbah he can even discuss that face to face with uh Mosen Resai if not with Ahmed Vahidi of the RGC but there's a possibility that Munir will meet face to face with Mosen Resai and all that of course will get straight to the office of leader Moshaba Kame and we'll get his approval all these discussions there are okay we can identify I would say we have more or less five main items that they are going to discuss tomorrow in ter first of What about the dead cat?

Is it Is there any Is that the dead cat is always Is there any possibility of resurrecting the the dead cat has not nine lives by now? He has 1,500 lives at least. But considering that the Trump administration is actually is actually begging Pakistan to resurrect the dead cat, this is something that Munir once again he have to bring that to the table tomorrow when he's discussing with the leadership in Thran. Okay, assuming we get theou back on track, is there anything else you'd like to add?

And obviously we already know the Iranian response. They're going to say no. Everything is in theou if he wants to go back to the negotiating table and theou it's very simple he has to follow the commitments the 14 points established by theou that he as president of the United States signed so we're going to we're going to see if this evolves or not tomorrow of course they're going to dis discuss the new uh uh Scott bessent lead and this uh character is so ghastly that I prefer to reframe myself for now. Uh because he actually thinks that he's smarter than anybody else anywhere and his uh total economic financial war is going to uh force Iran to fold.

So obviously this will be discussed at the table tomorrow. Uh and this is directly connected to how a Simon is going to frame to the Iranian leadership this possibility of everybody going back to the negotiating table. But to negotiate what? There's nothing to negotiate.

And the Iranians once again going to say there's nothing to negotiate. We're not going to do a newou. Everything to be negotiated is in the MOU. So, it's the MOU or nothing.

Okay. And now we're getting to point number four, which once again, as Mr. Z uh in the beginning of his talking about the two bombshell news, the Mecca agreement. There may be a detailed explanation by a simonyer to his interlocators in Tehran of what is involved in this invitation for Iran to join the Mecca pact and under which conditions.

Obviously, we're not gonna have uh an immediate decision from Iran tomorrow or in the next few days, but uh arguably the best uh political, military, and geopolitical figure to explain this in detail to the Iranian leadership is a simun himself. So this is something that he's going to have to uh his performance has to be absolutely faultless to convince the Iranians that this would be in the Iranian national interest because a pact such as that which is very vague so far we don't know the terms of the final text. We don't know if this text is going to be modified or not. We don't even know uh against whom is this pact.

It could be against anybody. So uh if a simonyer is if there's anybody who has who may have a very clear idea of what the pact is about is a simonyer. So he's going to explain this to Iranian leadership. So the ramifications depending on the Iranian uh response they are going to be earth shaking to say the least.

And the number five point which will be discussed is of course Yemen. This is an enormous issue for Saudi Arabia, not for uh Turkey and not for Pakistan. This is a a a problem that Saudi Arabia created for itself and they simply cannot find a solution apart from a diplomatic solution which uh obviously MBS will see as losing face or something similar. No, they have to behave diplomatically.

Otherwise, if they could if they if there any a simple Saudi attack on anything in terms of Yemen infrastructure in the port of Oda, in 16 minutesNorth Yemen, uh in Sana, etc. The response is going to be even more devastating than before. And then that will include Yemen Yemeni attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure including the east west pipeline not only refineries like in Jizan or in Yamu port. So uh a simony can hear the Iranians about Yemen because of their close relationship.

a simonyer can learn from Iran on how to deal with Yemen and this is something that he can pass over back to MBS when he returns to Pakistan. So these are essentially the five main points that are going to be discussed at this extremely important uh trip tomorrow. And then there's an extra issue which is directly related to everything but uh probably won't be discussed face to face tomorrow which is the UAE. And this is something that both Iran and Pakistan know very very well because they are examining the UAE's actions micromanaging them.

In fact, the UAE for all the supposed um uh attempts that they made to gather some sort of goodwill from Iran like you know the sending of those $3 billion in cash plus two tons of gold for instance. The fact is that they remain inside the Israel security architecture. So, it's US, Israel, and Abu Dhabi. And this is not going to change anytime soon.

Uh, the UAE is not batting on Eurasia integration to say the least. To go straight uh to the point and that's a completely different position from not only Iran but also Russia and China. So, we cannot say that. And and the craziest part in fact which makes even it it doesn't make sense they are all fulltime members of bricks which is going to meet in three weeks from now in New Delhi.

This is going to be one of the most contentious uh bricks summits in history if not the most complicated of them all because there's nothing that they can decide together when we have among other problems Russia, China and Iran as full members and on the other side you have a UAE allied with US and Israel. So expect major trouble in New Delhi. Expect no final declarations. The only thing that will matter in New Delhi during the brick summit which many of us in fact we're not even going because we know nothing important is going to come out of the summit is the bilaterals and the bilaterals are going to be something to watch especially Russia, China uh and Iran.

the bilaterals among themselves and of course uh the bilaterals involving India if there is a bilateral between India and China for instance which will be broken by the Russians and of course the bilateral between Russia and India where the Russians are going to try to instill some sense into the Indians so this is all interconnected from this trip tomorrow by Munir to Thran to what's going to happen at the brick summit three weeks from now. These are three absolutely crucial weeks uh to follow and we're giving you basically the layout what could happen or may happen within the next two weeks starting tomorrow with a simul in terra. Back to you Mr. Z.

Well, uh uh another very very important uh uh set of discussions that I know for a fact will take place tomorrow because I've been privileged to that information is that Pakistan and Iran are going to talk about a 10fold increase in trade over the next three years uh going from 10 billion approximately 10 billion to a 100red billion in in three years. Three years. Now this is yeah in three years. Uh and this is easily easily doable because there is a lot of things that that Pakistan and Iran can trade together.

A lot of things and there is tremendous goodwill and there is tremendous groundwork that has taken place already. There is a delegation existing today in Pakistan in Islamabad uh of the what is called the secretariat level coming from Thran uh including uh the the trade ministry including commerce ministry including foreign ministry talking to their counterparts in Pakistan about exactly how this is going to go about. Now the reason why this is so important is because uh before all of this Pakistan used to be under the thumb of the IMF. Pakistan used to be under the thumb of of United States Washington and it did not do anything that would upset them.

Now that has completely changed. It has completely changed. Totally totally changed. And the reason for that is that China has given Pakistan asurances that if it continues to support Thran, if it continues to support Chinese policy 22 minutesuh which is uh to stay away from the United States to get the United States out of the region that China is going to stand behind Pakistan and also support has come from Saudi Arabia in terms of financial support.

Uh so Pakistan is doing exactly the opposite of what Trump wants Pakistan to do. Trump is in a bind. Trump cannot actually get rid of Pakistan because that is the only intermediary that it has to have any kind of back channel talks with with Pakistan it has nothing. Qatar is not going to replace Pakistan because Thran already told Trump that Qatar is not acceptable.

Qatar is a friend. They talk to Qatar. They talk to Oman. But they say if you want to to get back to the MOU, it is the Islamabad MOU and Pakistan is our intermediary.

So uh Mr. Aimari is going to be talking about that the the extensive trade that is going to take place as well between the two countries. Now as I said earlier, the second bombshell news was Bahrain. Bahrain as everybody knows uh who follows our channel, who follows geopolitics has been a center of the US naval power, extension of power, projection of power in the region.

one of the largest one of the one of the largest places in the region where the United States Navy has bases and Bahrain is now in Islamabad talking to Pakistan about becoming another member of the of the Qatar of the Mecca agreement not the Mecca agreement sorry of of Saudi agreement military yeah military agreement So the bottom line is this. US is being defeated. US is getting out of the region and what is emerging in its place is a extraordinary relationship between Iran, China, Russia, Pakistan, uh the rest of uh the Gulf countries except the UAE and there is really no place for United States to be there. petro dollar is being impacted because one of the most important things that Iran is going to do is to make sure that the trade is not done in dollars.

China is going to support that. Russia is going to support that. So be on the lookout of the dollar not being the kind of reserve currency that it has been two years from today with $40 trillion in debt. Not having the petro dollar as a reserve currency of the same stature as has existed since World War II means devastating consequences for the United States in terms of how it how it is able to finance its $40 trillion of debt.

Nobody no other country has this. So the world is changing. extraordinary events are taking place and and uh I'm honored that people like Pepe Escobar who has traveled the world for decades for decades understanding at the ground level exactly what is going on and has been talking about these shifts but now we see these shifts taking place now we see now we see the the new world order taking place so back to Okay. Uh ju just to wrap it up, Mr.

Z, uh there's an absolutely fascinating element in terms of the organicity of this planet increase of trade between Iran and Pakistan because this is intrinsically linked with China. This is a graphic demonstration of the new Silk Roads in action. So it's the meeting of two of the top belt and road initiative partners of China going west. This is part of the Chinese geopolitical and geoeconomic policy of going west.

These are two of the western side partners destinations of the new silk roads from the beginning. And now we see a conjunction that didn't exist until a few months ago. Um, in many aspects, Chinese policy towards Pakistan and Chinese policy towards Iran, they were not completely integrated and now they are. So now we have a movement that is uh geopolitical, geoeconomic, diplomatic and military at the same time and all of that uh organized in terms of this organicity in terms of trade and commerce especially which they are perfecting day by day between East Asia, China, South Asia, Pakistan and West Asia.

IA, Iran, three of the top members in a great deal of Eurasia. So to see this coming together and in a situation that is very well described in Thran as neither war nor peace. This is the situation we are now and Iran wants to get out of it. The best geioeconomic way to get out of it is to improve their geoeconomic uh relations with Pakistan and China altogether.

Not to mention with the central Asian uh uh partners as well. And all that for all of you is how the integration of Eurasia which can be sometimes almost metaphysical concept. This is how you see it in practice. This is how it works in practice.

And and in my case, I've been following this story for since since this even before this new silk roads were announced in 2013 by Ciinping in Kazakhstan. I was already following this on the ground in my travels across Eurasia. So now it's from our point of view as as reporters or analysts, it it's wonderful to see this actually happening in practical terms in front of us and it's getting more organic day by day. Well, that's my little wrap-up.

Thanks, Mr. Z, please. Well, it's an extraordinary day, Pepe. It's an extraordinary day because uh uh I mean today is Sunday.

Uh tonight as will be in in Thran talking about all these issues and coming to an agreement on these issues which we will be hearing about in the coming weeks in the coming days and as a result of that uh Trump will be out of luck literally out of luck. He has tried the maximum military pressure did not go anywhere. Bessent the ghastly Bessant tried the maximum economic pressure and we already know that it has begun to collapse. I mean that is the best way I can I can describe it.

It has begun to collapse. No way. Pakistan has opened its doors even wider. Even wider.

China has said no. No way. So I before you go, I would like to ask you because I'm sure our global audience would like to know where does Trump go from here. But this goes way beyond uh Trump uh Mr.

Z. This is the lack of strategic planning by his ad by as president and by his administration as well. they uh they cannot even begin to comprehend the enemy that they have in front of them. The enemy is not Iran.

The enemy is Eurasia integration. The enemy is these three uh civilization states which are conducting the process of Eurasia integration. Russia, China, two superpowers and a new big power, regional power and also an important power across the global south uh Iran and how these the way the chess board moves all the time. everything.

If we see some sort of convergence long term is the convergence of most important actors across Eurasia, we need to work together and we need to have we need to protect themselves from an empire on the loose which is getting more and more dangerous and we need to integrate the different parts of Eurasia with each other. For instance, this uh increasing trade and commerce between Iran and Pakistan is linked to three nodes of Eurasia, East Asia, South Asia and West Asia. And this and when we add Russia to it, Russia is the great Eurasian nation by the definition. And we look at how Turkey is absolutely desperate to be part of it.

And it's not because virtually nobody trusts uh Erdogan and his administration and his neotoman dreams, but they're going to have to bend over backwards to be part of this integration of the whole mega continent. And who's outside of all that? That peninsula of Eurasia called Europe. It's their own decision and they're going to pay a unbelievably high price for their lack of vision and in fact stupidity.

There's no there's no other way. For instance, uh little little extra details that uh every every week we have on the chessboard this uh America the Trump administration antagonization of South Korea. What is it leading to immediately? South Korea is getting closer to China immediately.

Immediately the the Americans are on the verge of losing South Korea. I would not say immediately but um mid you know in the longer run this is it you know and obviously it was not by accident that Wangi was already saying it look we're brothers of course this is the the integration of Northeast Asia and it would include uh reapproximation between uh uh North Korea and South Korea in the long term the Chinese can work on it the something that the Chinese can work diplomatically very very well and all these movements happened before of before no I'm sorry because of the lack of a preparedness and strategic myopia to be very diplomatic about it of the Trump administration they are accelerating the process of Eurasia integration if you demote Pakistan even though that you you need Pakistan as the only offramp for the war that you initiated. 34 minutesWell, we cannot even qualify this as as strategic lack of vision. This is beyond stupid for that matter.

You know, a student of politics will never do something like this. But that's the problem. There is no unifying uh geopolitical vision in this uh administration and there's no guarantee that the next ones is going to be any better. So they will keep making mistakes.

So empires when they make mistakes they make serial mistakes and when they accumulate that's the downfall. So we are already in this process. It may be a long downfall. They're going to try try to drag the rest of the world with them.

Uh they will inflict a lot of pain to the global south especially. They will continue to interfere everywhere in the global south in Latin America especially which in their minds they already conquered almost everyone apart from Brazil. They will they going to continue with the war against Russia. They helped a process that we can qualify bluntly as a sort of renazification of Germany.

And now they are trying to conduct a process which we can describe also bluntly as a renazification of Japan. They're going to pay a very very heavy price for it because the when they did that in the past the 21st century is a completely different story. Uh the driver of the 21st century is Eurasia as a whole as an organic body. Uh the supra mega continent which was the most important superc continent in the history of humanity for everything except the last two centuries, the last 230 20 years.

And now they are, you know, they're getting back together again. And they will drive the geopolitical destiny for the foreseeable future. And there will have been this little interval where the America thought that the the rest the rest of history was theirs. No, your history lasted only 70, 80 years.

Bye-bye. It's over. Extraordinary submission, Pepe. Extraordinary submission.

and I'm so privileged to have you here to hear what what you had to say because uh this is really what is going on right now. Anybody who has uh the depth of knowledge and experience on the ground as you do would agree with you and those who do not uh those are mostly the corporate paid uh commentators uh you know engaged in propaganda and for that reason we are here so that we can provide uh the actual news. So, uh, thank you so much for taking time on a Sunday evening away from your family to be here. I'm so grateful.

I I I'm I'm privileged to have you here. And for our audience, please hit the like and subscribe button. We shall see you again tomorrow with Larry, with Pepe again on Tuesday and the three of us on Wednesday. We keep on bringing you this news because it is so important that you know exactly what is going on.

So, thank you very very much. Bye-bye. Thanks everybody. Cheers.

[admin]

Part 1 of 2

Iran SMASHES Trump's 'Economic D-Day,' 15 US Bases DESTROYED | Patrick Henningsen
Danny Haiphong
Streamed live 3 hours ago #iran #bessent #iranwar

Geopolitical analyst Patrick Henningsen discusses the devastating Iranian response to Trump and Bessent's "financial offensive" plus the major backlash this dangerous new phase of war is set to bring to US empire & the world.



Transcript

Welcome back to the show everyone. Patrick Henningson will be joining us in just a minute. But first, the breaking news. We have Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessant on behalf of Donald Trump launching the unprecedented, it is being called Operation Outcast against Iran.

On what this day is now being called, economic D-Day against Iran, the US will enforce zero leakage approach to Iran sanctions. Trump is currently making phone calls to world leaders to cut economic ties with Iran and countries will have a finite timeline to shut down activities identified by the sec by the secretary of treasury including closing Iran's branches abroad. Now there was an extraordinary threat made by Scott Besson that those who facilitate any trade and quote unquote money laundering with Iran will be completely cut off from the US dollar system. Here's what Scott Besson said.

Branch of Bank Melee must be shuttered and dark. And let me be clear. Any entity that facilitates money laundering on behalf of Iran will be removed from the US dollar system. The clock just started ticking.

Well, Iran has essentially smashed Donald Trump and Scott Besson's threats because that's what they are right now. as countries are given a so-called cure period in order to get their uh order their things together to sanction Iran. Uh Muhammad Ali Bah the head of parliament in Iran said Americans know that no one buys their bombass. The United States is not in an economic position to further restrict its relations with other countries.

Iran's trading partners both in the media and through messages sent to us have made it clear that they don't take these statements into account anywhere. in China, which was subject to many questions by the press after Scott Bessant uh gave his announcement on economic detail, said it rejects US economic warfare in Iran and vows to protect it protect its own interests. Iran has gotten busy threatening 40 plus tankers in the straight of Hormuz, saying that they are on a blacklist now over alleged violations of the Straight of Hormuz. It adds that any vessel found transferring cargo with the name shits on ships on that list will also be added to the list.

Now, I'm going to play you this. This was a question, a few questions to Scott Bessant. One on China, which I believe shocked Scott Bessant quite dramatically. David from Reuters.

Hi, thanks XJ. Um, one of the most powerful tools you have at your disposal is the ability to impose secondary sanctions on on banks and financial institutions that facilitate transactions for Iran. Um, Chinese banks uh have often been talk talked about being targeted, but we don't see any any of those institutions targeted here. Is that something that is coming in this campaign or is is the uh very delicate trade truce with China something that that could prohibit you from you know going that far and taking that very big step?

We want to make clear to here today that no one is above the reach of US sanctions that if they facilitate transactions and are part of the ecosystem that turns Iranian oil into money into repression they will be targeted. We find that the best way to engage with countries is through quiet diplomacy and we are level setting with every country to tell them our expectations. We know who they are. They know who they are.

So when the hammer of US Treasury actions falls upon them, they will have no one to blame but themselves. He went on to say that he doesn't plan on blowing up the global economy. We have with us uh Patrick Hennington, 21st Century Wire uh independent journalist and geopolitical analyst. Patrick, thanks so much for joining me today.

Wanted your reactions first to economic D-Day, Operation Economic Outcast, and I'm just wondering who the outcast really is. Uh Patrick, because it seems like Trump is going to be on hours of worth of calls to every single world leader trying to get them to cut off ties with Iran. Iran has said it will militarily retaliate against countries that actually participate in this and is saying they've received many messages that they will not get any cooperation aka the United States with this. What's your thoughts on what's going on here?

Uh sorry you're muted, Patrick. I don't know if you uh Yeah, there great to be with you, Danny. Sorry about that. Good to see you.

No, it's okay. Well, uh I can't say I'm surprised because uh I don't know how many rounds of uh economic uh pain that has been 5 minutesannounced by this administration and how many rounds of military pain have been announced by this administration over the last 6 months. And you know, this is just the latest and um so I I don't know what they can possibly do sanctions wise. I mean, sure, sure, they can uh they can turn the screws uh on on Iran and and on their allies and, you know, people trading with them.

I think it's pretty clear the number one uh target uh from Washington is China uh with this and it you know these things this type of economic warfare does work over long term but um it it works in diverting the flow of of capital and resources um you know against uh whatever the US target state is and it certainly works um in in the case of Venezuela uh uh in that it provided uh the military and the economic uh threats and and pressure 6 minutesprovided uh total uh compliance and subservience and ultimately surrender by uh the Venezuelan government. But they had to kidnap their head of state to make that work. Uh now look at Iran. They think they can repeat that.

They're not gonna, you know, they tried. They killed the head of state. that had no no effect whatsoever. It it not to the advantage of the US.

It quite the opposite. It galvanized the Iranian population. Okay. Uh so that removing the head of state did not work in Iran.

It had the opposite effect. Sanctions did not work. uh the very punishing round of rounds and rounds of sanctions well over decades and intensified in the last year uh by the Trump administration hasn't had a desired effect. Uh Iran's trading partners and allies haven't haven't really complied with threats of US secondary sanctions including China.

China did the opposite. it it it invoked uh its own legal mechanism to uh not observe threats by the United States and they will continue to buy oil from Iran if that's what China needs, if that's what is the best for Chinese interests and there's not a lot the United States can do. They can't they can't declare a full-blown economic war with China in order to strangle Iran. It's impossible.

um the mil increased military threats those have haven't had any effect whatsoever on Iran. So there's no there's no expectation that any of this is is going to net anything but I think further pain uh for the US dollar. Uh this is just going to further accelerate dolization. If you look at uh recent statements coming out of the BRICS network of nations um they are invoking international law.

They're invoking sovereign rights. They're invoking the UN charter uh to oppose and defy this type of economic warfare and co coercive measures by the United States. What's the basis of these sanctions? What's the basis?

Is it that Iran must uh surrender? Basically, they're not because they're not fully capitulating to the demands of the United States. But on what basis is the US issuing these demands that that changes it's changed so many times from from the US point of view like what's the justification? It's not that Iran can't have a nuclear weapon but that seems to be the only sort of thing I hear on on repeat on rinse and repeat from Washington.

Uh, so is it that so you need to destroy the Iranian economy? Besset is saying that if we if we continue strangling them, the withering regime, quote, withering regime will not be able to hang on much longer. Uh, but what's the basis for it? Did did Iran start a war against the US and Israel?

That would be the first question. I could see maybe they could use that as justification, but no, the opposite was true. The US and Israel started an undeclared war of aggression against Iran on a fake weapons of mass destruction charge. Hello.

Deja vu alerts going on in the Middle East. Again, uh what was it? Was it the peaceful protesters that Trump said 50,000 were gunned down in cold blood in Tran? Now, that's another lie.

Atrocity propaganda. Allah 40 beheaded babies and babies and incubators. So, what is it? They just Iran's evil and the country must be destroyed.

I mean, if we go by Jonathan Pard and other Israelis, then yeah, the should be wiped off the map. Iran should be wiped off the map. I I honestly I think that's what they would like to say in Washington, but they can't. They can't they can't say that.

That's probably what they're saying behind closed doors, but they can't say that publicly. Basically everything that Washington and the Trump administration does and says mirrors the Israeli regime right now. So in that sense, the United States is kind of a I guess a finger puppet, a massive finger puppet of Israel because they can't defeat them uh conventionally. Israel can't defeat Iran conventionally.

Iran's able to defend itself and able to punch back around the region at US targets and and Israel. Not a lot not a lot left. So I um the secondary sanctions yeah we can talk about that th those could work uh with India but not not for it's not indefinite only temporarily because India has to do what India does. India is a very very massive dynamic economy.

They want to buy oil via third second and thirdand sourcing and just as they were doing with Russia uh or anything else it you know Pakistan I mean how how is the US going to enforce an embargo halfway around the world. Do they think that Iran is Cuba? I don't know. I think they do.

Yeah. I mean those are all really good points Patrick. Well, you know, uh, what is not being talked about is the context from which these sanctions or D-Day economic outcast operation, whatever it's being called, uh, Barry McAffrey, a former uh, you know, decorated general, said that in his judgment, US armed forces have probably permanently lost access to 15 US bases in the Persian Gulf with Iran now poised to control access to the Gulf States And so this is a much different context on a lot of times when the US ramps up sanctions. But what's so interesting to me, Patrick, is that uh Besson announced here that we're going to see a major announcement of a financial institution being sanctioned by the end of the week.

I don't know what he's talking about, but what we do know is if the UAE and especially Saudi Arabia, which is critical to the dollar system, all these threats about cutting off the dollar, cutting off countries from the dollar could have major ramifications for the US itself on very fragile uh sitting on a very fragile foundation. For example, Iran has said that it is going to hit militarily countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE if they participate in this. So this is uh this seems to have a lot of landmines for lack of a better term uh involved in it, Patrick. So what do you make of are the is this just threats and bluster?

Because Trump has a lot of phone calls to make. China's already said no and Iran is saying they've gotten uh you know they've gotten word from a lot of countries that they don't want to participate in this at all. It seems like the the situation's quite dicey. Yeah.

If if if the United States really comes good on these threats, and I I have every reason to think that they might try to in the short term, uh it's going to trigger a global uh economic meltdown, quite frankly. And the other thing is this is happening concurrently with what looks like a trade war between the United States and Canada on the basis of what? Canada can't be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. I mean, what uh what exactly is it that the the trade trade and tariff wars the the tariff wars by the Trump administration have been an unmitigated disaster for the US economy, for the global economy, for US businesses, and if they're going to do something that could impede the flow of Canadian oil in into the US and petroleum products, that's that will create a massive uh uh perturbation economically in the United States for for a number of reasons.

Parts of the US economy are completely reliant on Canada because of the pos because of the regional positioning and how is I'll give you two examples. One is the uh uh oil that heats uh US homes and businesses uh in the in the northeast of the country. Okay, that's regionally based uh that's supplied regionally and much of that comes from Canada. The other one is the fact that I mean is it any surprise to anybody that the United States economy runs on trucks, right?

That's an 18-wheelers is the number one method of uh product distribution in the United States. What does that what does that uh fleet run on? Does it run on uh uh gasoline coming from Corpus Christi or Texas? No, it runs on diesel.

And where where are the regional uh uh processing and fuel distribution, the supplies uh for the US trucker fleet run through the middle of the United States and also uh uh to through the the Midwest corridors via Illinois uh and and servicing all the different parts of the United States market and is heavily reliant on Canadian heavily reliant on Canadian uh uh oil and refinery capabilities for for the US diesel fleet. The US diesel fleet is massive and it's it's organized on a regional basis. Um so there will be that that basically this is going to mean that there's going to be uh a shortage of delivery of fuel and that that will mean a price hike um in terms of inflation. It's going to affect the price of everything and also it's going to slow up delivery times and supply chains will be was strained as a result.

That's a that's a that's just a fact. The United States is completely reliant on diesel, the the internal US economy. So I don't I don't know. I So you you you put these things side by side, the timing of this, wanting to start a war with China, thinking that they can due to China uh in the way that they uh restricted China's ability to buy oil from Venezuela and how that was a huge win in Washington.

And I mean they're like celebrating this as this genius move by the Trump administration and they think they can do the same thing visav the Persian Gulf and Iran. So maybe there's a method to the madness. Danny, maybe they think this is all worth it uh in terms of strangling and isolating China in terms of you know uh strangling its energy needs to power the modern Chinese economic revolution. While China's in the ascendancy economically, the United States is in the descendency clearly.

And maybe this is a price worth paying uh from this this myop myopic myopic uh US administration that's really kind of fancies itself with all of these moves like you know bond buybacks, bond buybacks. What is this? What is this? but kicking the can down the road to the next administration and adding more debt onto the US balance sheet.

That's all that is. Scott Besset has just basically built out the liabilities ledger of the United States government. I mean, what did we hit? 40 trillion last week.

40 trillion. We were supposed to hit 40 trillion uh in January of 2027. Hold on. So, what Hey, we're Bessent 6 months ahead of schedule.

We're early. Yeah. Congratulations. I think he should get like a promotion or maybe the medal of freedom from Trump.

He could Trump could give him the medal or give him a FIFA medal for economics. Um get FIFA get uh uh what's his name? Giani Infantino. I forgot his name director.

He he can give best at an award six months ahead of schedule hitting the $40 trillion deficit market. All of these things are going to get uh u progressively worse as a result of the the horrible timing of all of these right ahead of the midterms. They must be really confident um the Republicans for some reason. Maybe they know something we don't.

71 days until the midterms, Patrick. just 41 days until the uh crude inventory the that strategic reserves that the US is pulling from in order to keep oil prices relatively below what they really should be but still marketkedly high given that diesel prices you just mentioned diesel trucks Patrick in the United States diesel prices are $55 a gallon about which is incredibly high especially for this time of the year but here you have uh the strategic reserves They're about to hit zero far before the midterm elections. And so you have also Iran saying that they can squeeze the energy markets even further if they want to. Uh it's a it's a big disaster.

Terrible timing. Now I want to play this for you, Patrick. this whole concept of D-Day, a reporter at the very end, they didn't even name who it was because it was outside of the uh predetermined list of agencies and multin you know multinational corporate media uh entities that were allowed to speak. But the very last question to Scott Bessant was interesting.

I want to I want your reaction to it. Here's what uh was said. Let's see. Uh you you in the front.

You described this as an economic D-Day, but D-Day wasn't a threat of an invasion and the US didn't give a timeline to Germany. So why not impose the sanctions today? Well, we we are giving everyone the opportunity the to remedy bad behavior. Why would I want to blow up the global financial system?

We believe that it is important to level set and give people a cure period, but they should know that that will move very quickly and that we are serious. Secondary sanctions are a very powerful tool and we here at Treasury uh this is Gene Lang the acting under secretary for terrorism finance and in the terrorism finance department and at OFAC the reason we are able to use secondary sanctions is because we do not take their use lightly. So we believe that a warning shot and a level set of expectations is appropriate and if people do not want to meet our expectations then we expect and they should expect that they should we'll leave the dollar system. Okay.

So uh Patrick he he doesn't want to blow up the global economy yet will do it anyway if uh if the world doesn't meet US expectations. I mean the hubris while also sounding incredibly uh uh in lacking confidence there is is quite something to uh to behold. But your thoughts on his reaction to this because yeah there is this use of you know D-Day and financial offensive and all these fancy words but at the end of it right now what we have are a set of threats that obviously have to be carefully managed if the consequences of them are going to be mitigated. Your thoughts?

Well, normally normally uh secondary sanctions are uh last resort um when you're trying to uh engineer uh a type of um a siege or economic embargo um ahead of military action, not after. This this is the problem. Uh it's you're effectively declaring war on your allies. That's that's kind of what it is.

But it's never to to m to maintain a global hegemonic status. Um secondary sanctions are only strong in in terms of u they're threatening when when you're threatening u an ally or an a nation let's say that maybe not your ally but you're not hostile towards or you haven't declared war on yet like China as an example. It's not regarded as a US ally, but yet um it's uh you know the US would like to hurt or punish China and they use stride and rhetoric towards it. So, but they've they've already they've done this before.

They've done it previously. They're going to uh they lifted sanctions on Iranian oil temporarily to cure the market uh previously and then they revoked that quickly. Uh and so now they're going on to secondary sanctions uh to remedy bad behavior. Whose bad behavior?

Again, it's it's Iran's bad behavior. It's people trading with Iran, according to Washington. So, they're wanting to impose uh uh pain and suffering on the on the global economy, including their allies. Now, if they go through with that, that'll be very interesting to see if they'll actually go through with that.

It seems like they're threatening to create a negotiation position. That's what it looks like because the reporter asked the right question, you know, why haven't you pulled the trigger already? Well, and Scott Besson said, "Well, we want to give him time to, you know, remedy the situation. e.

the Islamic Republic of of Iran. But the the what what was more revealing in that clip, Danny, and I don't know if you can play that specific 24 minutespart again, but it appeared to me that Scott Bessant alluded to look um anybody who doesn't comply is the way I read this anyway when I heard him say this now, anybody who doesn't comply should expect to leave the dollar system. So in a way what he's what he's doing will be pushing people out of the dollar system and that's the if you look at the pattern of the US statecraft um in in the instrument instrumentalization of sanctions and tariffs too because tariffs this this US administration's the first the first US government in history to use tariffs as a as a form of sanctions. This is the first and this has huge implications in the market.

It also has massive implications in terms of US relations with all of these countries that they're engaged in tariff wars against. And they've used this many times and the threats of of of punitive tariffs as a type of a deterrent um to to deter people from having relations or trading or commercial activity with an enemy of the United States. That's a huge thing that that's a massive red line in international relations. I mean, sanctions are one thing and they are sanctions are regarded um they're prohibited under international law, these types of sanctions and outside of the UN consensus.

So, it's it's uh it's economic war. It's regarded as a hostile economic warfare. It's a prelude normally to military warfare. And in this case, it was and it and it did and it happened.

But now they're coming back uh for successive rounds after the fact merely to punish, destroy, and achieve um regime change. But uh it's it's it's accelerating everything all the trends that we've seen in terms of ddollarization. It's and Besset seems to admit that that's that's the case. So what what what will be the result if he's good on those threats?

Let's just game this out. um economic bulcanization in the global economy. So economic iron curtains dropping all over the place. So the bulcanization, so this is delobalization.

When I say globalization, I'm talking about um uh global free trade. Um Allah WTO. Um so this is bulcanization economically and this is a flight of u uh a flight of capital and a flight of reserve status of the US dollar. Not not completely but this will just continue that trend.

e. uh things that are being used by China right now and also and if China's trading with the with Russia trading with Iran and they're using those payment rails between them whether it's um the chip system or Alip pay or there's just alien number of new alternative payment rails that can come online but the thing is you're not going to be able to stop every other country whether it's in Europe or South America or Africa or Asia from complying with uh that sort of economic bulcanization. They're going to be able to bypass all of these things. China has 101 different ways to to to bypass any secondary sanctions as does India and other countries and countries that the United States claims to have total dominion and control over like the Gulf States as an example uh and Pakistan as as another example.

What about Turkey? Turkey shares a border with Iran. um you know would will would this apply to Turkey? They're wanting to shut down travel.

They're wanting to shut down telecoms. Basically, anything. e. the enforcement arm of the US government called OFAC.

Um but they've they've already been I mean how they have thousands upon thousands of individuals, companies, entities from Iran, thousands and thousands from Russia, thousands and thousands from Syria. Uh so each administration has just added and added to this just infinite number of sanctioned persons and entities um of of target nations uh that the United States regard as a flagrant violation and then reserve the right to freeze accounts and assets all over the world. And they do that by direct pressure either onto those governments as they have in the Gulf States with Iranian assets uh or institutions or they'll just go right in and just basically grab it uh as they have with Iran. Even on the uh example the crypto uh crypto wallets that uh Iranians were using um possibly report suggest to collect uh tolls and fees on the straits of Hormuse.

Scott Besset bragged that um the if those transactions were done, they went directly to Tether, stable coin uh organization, and were able to grab um you know, I don't know, hundreds of millions of dollars uh as reported uh from those. So they using all of the United States using all of its economic muscle to push on all of these pressure points and and and seize and steel as much as they possibly can in terms of um of assets and freezing assets and so forth. And if this is the way it's going to go, sure, it's going to damage Iran Iran's economy further. Iran's uh Iran's economy is under severe stress.

It's continual severe stress. And Washington believes, the hawks believe that they can eventually strangle it and it will collapse from within because it worked in Syria and it's it's half worked, you know, in other countries like I said in Venezuela. But there there's no guarantee they're going to get that result. Not in a timely manner.

Certainly not under this administration. It won't happen under the Trump administration if it if it ever did happen. Maybe not under the next US administration. You're talking 10 years down the 10 years down the line.

Maybe if if what they plan happens the way that they think it'll happen, it's going to take a long time. It'll take 10 years plus, maybe more. But that's on that's under optimal ideal situations. They've blown it.

They've absolutely blown it because you can't alternate military and economic uh warfare waves successfively be and and still maintain legitimacy as an international actor because it is all those countries in the gray area. all those countries and governments in the middle that will determine whether this is a successful uh or another um misadventure by the United States. And so the United States is wanting to attack the global economy and then somehow squeeze tribute from all of these countries either in terms of tariffs or frozen assets or something else, some other sort of form of coercion like they did with Spain for instance. Spain didn't want to host US bombers um in in like the other um subservient supine European countries like Germany and Italy like Maloney and Mertz um in Britain as well with the new prime minister Andy Burnham first thing he did was give the green light for the US to use British bases to bomb Iran and of course the United States did that why because they wanted to lock down these countries they wanted to make them the plan by the US was to make by using the European countries you've made them now accompllices in illegal undeclared war of aggression, a war crime.

And by doing 32 minutesthat, you lock in those governments and those prime ministers or those presidents. You lock them in because now they're they're they're complicit in a major crime. They're they're they're now in the war. They're in the war.

So then for their own political survival, they will do whatever it takes to double down on that policy and probably follow the threats and dictats of the United States government going forward. Um and uh and also declare uh Iran's IRGC as a terrorist entity and maybe even the Iranian government at some point will be declared a terrorist entity. So they don't they won't be able to have dip diplomatic relations with them or or or members of the Iranian government uh as they've done with uh or tried to do with Russia as an example. So that that's why the US have done that.

It's it's to bring them into the crime and but and the weak spine the average European weak and spineless uh technocrat bureaucrat will double down on the policy rather than push back against the United States or god forbid Danny the worst possible sin of the modern politician is to raise your hand and say you did something wrong. I mean, it's like that's I mean, that's the equivalent of just uh you know, suicide, Harry Kerry on a galactic galactic scale. That's never going to happen, is it? So, that's it's it's um it's a hell of a situation uh that I think a lot of these countries are in.

And it it it really is the sec it's all about the secondary sanctions. Theoretically, that's the only those are the only sanctions that have ever worked in history. Um, direct sanctions have never worked in history in terms of a co coercive measure against a target nation. Uh, the the academic literature is very clear, Danny, on this.

Every single case study from Rhdesia in the in the mid1 1960s to the present, it's only been secondary sanctions that have 34 minutesworked. And you know sanctioning a country uh for apartheid uh Allah Rhodesia or South Africa for instance that's completely different politically as well that's a different political context. So I mean the the e even the the success of or the relative success of let's say South Africa that the the collapse of the regime in South Africa basically was a culmination of a multi-year a decadesl long uh international public relations campaign and human rights campaign. Um, and you know, Winnie, his wife, Winnie Mandela, was doing stadium tours in the United States because the US and uh, Britain were the were some of the some of the final holdouts in terms terms of like not recognizing the South African regime.

That's a totally different political context than this. And so this is this is just, you know, Trump, let me just say the last thing I'm going to say. Donald Trump is an amazing piece of history because he has blown up the US economy. Not in a good way.

He he has Donald Trump wrecked the United States economy in his first term. And he doesn't get a lot of credit for this because everyone's afraid to mention it because both parties were totally on board with this. Donald Trump put he he began a process that put eight over eight trillion dollars initially on the Federal Reserve's balance sheet because of COVID. Okay, that that created an inflationary cycle and pressure that we're that we are and all the experts will say this began during the COVID ferago and Trump was the president.

So he he ruined the US economy through the Biden administration. 0 0 because you can't just print $10 trillion out of thin air and shove that on the Federal Reserve balance sheet and expect that there's not going to be an inflationary perturbation and that that's not going to basically keep rolling for years and we're stuck in a inflationary spiral in the United States that we haven't been able to get out because they did record-breaking emergency maneuvers during his first term the likes of which the system has never caught up with. And then you add what he's done foreign policy-wise by starting world trying to start World War II in the Persian Gulf and uh believing that somehow you can manage this with all these cheap sort of cowboy tactics that Scott Bessence is uh has been is hired gun George Soros's banker has been hired by Trump. The globalist banker is is using these short-term uh band-aid tactics bond buybacks is pathetic.

But but they're the right-wing press or Fox News are saying this is a genius move by Scott Besset. Genius move. He's just refinancing the next generation's debt. That's all he's he's reorggaging that is exactly what Trump did in his first term.

And guess what? You know what the you know what the remedy for this is going to be? Another bailout. Another bailout to for what?

To pay for what? To to to all this to what? make Iran comply or all this to defend Israel, you're going to take down the whole US economy, the global economy to defend Israel. That's kind of what it boils down to.

If you zoom up to the sort of, you know, 50,000 foot view or 100,000 foot low orbit Starling satellite view, it kind of boils down to that. Yeah, very well said, Patrick. Well, uh, you said earlier Scott Besson was essentially saying, uh, that he was going to remove, uh, entities, countries out of the dollar system. Well, he exactly, that's exactly what he said at the end there.

I'll just play it really quickly one more time so people, uh, hear it. So, we believe that a warning shot and a level set of expectations is appropriate. And if people do not want to meet our expectations, then we expect and they should expect that they should will leave the dollar system. Okay.

So they should expect to leave the dollar system, which in effect would weak would weaken the dollar system, but that's a that's that's a whole other story, I guess. Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead, Danny.

Go ahead. No, I was just going to say let's say Saudi Arabia was convinced to get on board with these kind of sanctions. Saudi Arabia is literally the bedrock of the taller system. So, uh, that would be quite the quandry.

But no, to to you uh Patrick, I can't believe he said it. So So the Scott Besset just said whether subconsciously or intentionally, he said the quiet part out loud by So if he's pushing people out of the dollar system, understand, and I hope Scott Besson really understands, but he's not. Why is he in charge of foreign policy, by the way, because that's kind of de facto what we're looking at there. Why is the US Treasury Why Why isn't Isn't the US Treasury uh a sub a subdivision of the Pentagon, the Department of War?

Because it should be. This the the US Treasury has done more. This Scott Besson is just the worst in uh the latest wor the worst and the latest in a long line of abusive Treasury secretaries that have basically instrumentalized and weaponized the the the United States dollar as a sort of uh uh instrument of war against target nations. And let's just say yeah okay the collapse of Venezuela the collapse of So what did you get from Venezuela?

Sure. You deprived China of like maybe 15% of its, you know, global crude supply, which it can replace from multiple different sources. Um, okay, fine. Did you did what what's that done to the Chinese economy?

Um, it's maybe inconvenient, but they'll recover from it. So, uh, what have you done to the Venezuelan economy? Oh, you stolen, you know, they probably stolen the equivalent of 20 billion 20 billion US from so far from Venezuela by stealing his oil. By the way, how much that's what they've collected.

[admin]

Part 2 of 2

That's what the US has stuffed away in its uh in its uh uh special account handling Venezuelan oil. Um, and I will I will bet I will I will wager that none of the money has been repatriated back to Venezuela. None. by the time the US deducts and, you know, pays pays off its uh big oil partners and uh whatever else that they pilfered out of that money, there's nothing left to give to the to feed the Venezuelan people, you know, oh, we're going to feed the Venezuelan people.

That's what they're saying. So, the they they think they can do a an Iraqi style sequestering of funds through US dollar account on Venezuela. And you but you can't replicate this with Iran. That's pretty clear.

So, and you've Okay, you destroyed Syria. That's great. Great for Israel. Uh what else?

Um Russia, that's not going super well. Uh they haven't brought the Russian economy to its knees. How long are we? 6 years in, right?

With with with Crimea sanctions, 2014. Uh yeah. So, now we're 12 years into that round of Russian anti-Russian sanctions. And then the the the hyper super round that began in under Biden in February of 2022.

They blew up the Nordstream pipeline. I guess you can put that under sanctions as well. The type of a sanction blowing up the Nordstream pipeline. Um by the way that story is completely collapsed uh in the German prosecution case in Hamburg which we reported on at 21st Century Wire.

And also uh it it was further it was f the Ukrainian diver story was further undermined by the findings of the court case in the U in the commercial court in London but where Nordstream a AG sued Lloyds of London uh because Lloyds of London the insurance company for the Nordstream refused to pay out by the way. um they sued them. They brought all the expert witness testimony that completely again says is basically saying that the Ukrainian diving story was a red herring. It was a decoy story to to take attention away from uh what NATO did during well what it's implied what NATO did during Balltops 22 uh uh in 2022.

They they wired up the Nordstream. Why am why am I saying this? Because all of these things are directed at the same targets. um which are the the economies.

You mentioned Saudi 43 minutesArabia, Danny. Okay. Uh but you know, the petro dollar itself isn't completely reliant on the Gulf anymore. Um at one point that that was definitely the driver of the uh post Bretonwoods uh you know US reserve currency renaissance uh solidifying its status as a global reserve currency and really the engine ultimately of US deficit spending and US with US deficit spending comes US uh overspending in military that's all financed from deficit spending.

5 trillion a year, um, and Congress goes along with that, that's that's that's money that's coming from the, you know, Federal Reserve magic money tree. It's not coming from anything the US is taking in in terms of revenue. U, it's coming from, it's being printed out of thin air. Uh, because the dollar is is the world reserve currency.

Hence, there's an artificial demand for the US dollar globally because the US enforces that everybody uses the US dollar to buy and sell uh commodities on the global market and then so they that allows them to keep printing dollars without the dollar collapsing in value and then affords the military which the US goes out to shoot and bomb people who don't comply with the dollar hedgeimony etc. Danny and you can see that's the feedback loop that just keeps going on and on the but what Besset should know maybe does know maybe this is the plan but this the power of the United States as an imperial power does not it does not lead with military power it leads with financial power it leads with dollar reserve status power and it it's backed up by military power so by by pushing people out of the US dollar system which he just admitted on video. I can't believe he said that. By doing that, that basically it u that's basically Yeah, it's that's that's calling for the downgrading of US hedgemonic status globally because that's where the US power comes from.

And interestingly, the uh the countries that they would be threatening and targeting with secondary sanctions, the types of companies, it doesn't end with Iran, by the way. This would keep going to they'll keep they'll keep going with this for other products and countries and resources. Um but some of those targets of secondary sanctions will ultimately be or threats will be European countries as well. And uh the euro the euro dollar market is the number one dollar sync in the world.

That's the biggest uh sort of pillar of the US uh you could call it energy pro or US energy dollar system. It's Europe and you know Europe is completely reliant on US energy to boot. not even just transacting in dollars for oil and gas globally, but they're also paying o over the odds um twice as much for US LG after the US or NATO blew up the Nordstream pipeline uh in September 2022. So uh yeah, the the Euro dollar market is and and reserve accounts are massive and that helps to float the US system and so does India and so do all these other countries.

So basically, Bessa is pulling the plug on US power by by doing this. At least he admitted it. He admitted it. It's the It's an incredible clip.

Was that a Freudian slip? It's maybe maybe that's a Freudian slip. But but what's interesting, Danny, is that journalists won't press on that point that if you're a really good journalist from the Financial Times or you had a g you you got to be geopolitically minded, then you press you you press hard on that. You follow up on that.

Did you say you wanted to drive people out of the US dollar system and that they will be driven out of the US dollar system? Mr. Secretary, can you clarify that point and really push on that because it sounded Danny almost like a Freudian slip. There's a lot of those going on by the way uh right now in Washington.

Yeah, that's for sure. Patrick, what's so interesting too is uh the arch neocon uh Mr. Mr. Kagan here.

He is Robert Kagan in the Atlantic. Again, talk about Iran unleashed. There's many in the neocon circle, Patrick, that are not so enthusiastic not only about the economic warfare shift by the United States, but by the just the overall situation and where this is all going. Uh this is the last paragraph.

He says, "A regime that survived what much of the world believed would destroy it and then force the world's dominant power to retreat will likely emerge strengthened, at least for a time. Such success tends to breed confidence, perhaps overconfidence, but it's not likely to make Iran's leaders less ambitious ambitious or less committed to the faith that saw them through this miraculous triumph. Recently, senior Iranian officials began publicly talking about adapting a fully offensive posture, and reports have emerged of Iranian plans to expand its targets to include European countries hosting US bases. Uh to see stories in the New York Times asking who will blink first is amusing given that the Iranians until now have never once blinked while the Trump administration has done nothing but blink.

Iran may even start fighting again to force the US to lift a naval blockade and now we can include sanctions on this. Given the American administration's proven fear of escalation, the hope is not unreasonable. The world has spent decades worrying about what Iran might do if it acquired a nuclear weapon. It should now worry about something even more consequential.

And Iran that has defeated the United States, no longer fears American attack, and controls the access to the Persian Gulf. Nuclear weapons alone could never have given Iran this kind of power. Only the failed US and Israeli war has. What's so interesting about that, Patrick, when I read that, I'm like, well, I don't know if we should ever we should really fear that, but that that is their part of the world.

U you know, we're over here. You're in the UK. I'm in the United States. I don't really fear that.

But uh Patrick uh your uh your thought your reaction to this. This is a narrative. It it gets louder and louder and I think it has somewhat to do with partisan politics. But uh there are some there are some facts there that are painted of course with neocon uh branding.

But your thoughts? I mean his words could have been taken completely quoted from John Mirshimer or you know Alistister Crook or me or anybody else on your podcast or anyone else is a Judge Nap show or whatever for like the last what two years or whatever year and a half we've all been saying this exact things but so Kagan's finally come out and put it put it down on paper succinctly and clearly 50 minutesalbeit quite late in the game But still um that so and you know that would be a good op-ed uh for the president's advisor you know foreign policy adviser Robert Kagan Donald Trump's foreign policy adviser has just written this uh very candid and sobering oped in the Atlantic that would be great but that's not the case he's completely on the outside. So what are they doing on the inside? That's the question.

Everything he said there, Danny, makes perfect sense. It all lines up very nicely. He's got it correct on everything. Um, again, mainstream Atlantic Council probably begrudgingly having to admit that and publicly and in print begrudgingly, uh, because they were that that publication were cheering for the war from the beginning.

if you if you and all of the the other ones as well um were weren't weren't against Trump and certainly they weren't pushing back in any any meaningful or significant way. Um so so on the inside I think again I I I I refer back to the the trade war with the current trade war with Canada which is kind of completely bonkers like by all objective measurements. the United States. If you ever had the the perfect ally is gonna be Canada is in terms of a strategic and regional trading partner and it a total win-win for America and Canada.

Maybe the United States is getting a slightly better de a better deal from that. Um but ca Canada trading with the United States they can get absolutely favorable favorable terms and the United States has always needed Canada for the reasons I said earlier because of the regional positioning in terms of energy especially diesel diesel market but Trump the way the Trump administration framed this and before I was just laughing this off I thought no they're just being they're just being dumb and you know maybe they're just doing bluster But they Trump himself has said that Canada um you know it it needs it needs the United States that it somehow um it's it wants the benefits of uh being a state without being one. He's he he's talking about Canada as a 51st state, I think, or he's still he's looking at it through that uh insane lens that somehow Canada as a a sovereign state, a member of the British Commonwealth. Um it would like nothing more than to be subsumed by the the United States south of the border.

And that's not that's not definitely not the case. There's no way the average Canadian may maybe you might find a few in Alberta, but even then Albertans are big sovereigntists as well. They probably are not completely on board with this type of uh uh rhetoric and threats and belittling of Canada and the country and Canadians and so forth. But but maybe Trump believes this.

Maybe the people in the Trump nation really believe that that they are history's actors. like Carl Rove famously said during Bush two Bush Jr's term that that they are the the greatest country in the history of of of the galaxy and the United States is God has imbued with all these endowed with all these god-given uh privileges and resources and powers. They really believe that everybody including Canada is is secretly is secretly imagining uh and and waiting for the day when they'll be uh uh get ascension to to accession to the United States of America as a 51st state that I think they kind of somehow believe that secretly everybody wants to be part of the United States uh in the world and specifically want to to join the family under the godfathership of uh his uh his royal majesty Donald J. Trump that secretly this is this is a a dream everybody's harboring including the Canadians and I can tell you nothing could be further from the truth.

So my worry here Danny we reason I'm saying that is not just um uh you know political pmics but uh if if if some of these things are instructing policy in other words these ideas of US dominance and power are instructing actual policy then it's almost certain that these policies are going to fail because the they're not happening in a vacuum. they're happening. The the other the the one the important point is a lot of people will say international law is dead and they'll say international institutions are dead. They'll say that um because of what the United States has done it's proven that the WTO is dead, the United Nations is dead and they killed the UN Security Council, etc.

I go on and on. Okay. The the fact of the matter is, Danny, it's not and they they are not. It it is dead to the United States.

It's dead to Israel. All of these institutions, international law is dead to Israel. It's dead to the US. But everybody else on the planet abides abides by it because there's a reason why it came into place to begin with.

It was it was the harmonization of of global trade and economic activity. And by the way, who was the biggest driver of this was Wall Street and was the United States and the city of London. They are the biggest drivers of uh globalization and the postworld war II global US-led international liberal international world order liberal international world order. United States drove that and the re and you you saw unprecedented unprecedented wealth creation um and unprecedented economic um uh corporate and you know remarkable 56 minutesgrowth in profits by western corporations as well as Chinese and others but that happened under that regime so now they're wanting to undo it because they're not they didn't win that race they weren't first US did very well out of that.

But the US Wall Street did well out of that. Not not US workers. Trump campaigned on he he he pandered to the rust belt and the poor people of Ohio and West Virginia and he courted all the hillbillies and he sung the elegy as well and appointed JD Vance as his vice president. That was very strategic.

But it was all fake. It's all fake. JD Vance's story is slotted into Trump's rust belt uh romance. It's fake.

The whole thing is a facade. It's a marketing exercise. It's a political marketing exercise. And no one will admit the reality.

The reality is the United States will never get 57 minutesmanufacturing back ever. Why? Look at the wage that's demanded by a US worker. And now compare that to any other country in the on the planet.

How in the world can US be competitive? " No, the the economy is not going to run on robots next week. Despite what Elon promised uh at Madison Square Garden or wherever when he said we're going to be on Mars, you know, by 2030 or whatever he said. I don't know what he exactly gave a timeline.

It's not coming back. The rust belt will never get those jobs back. You can get carrier air conditioned to move from Mexico to Indiana. You get what?

2,000 jobs there. you might get another 10,000 jobs by strongarmming someone else to come back and open their factory in Ohio um and and Michigan or something like that. It's not even going to put a dent in the fact the United States is no longer competitive, no longer competitive. And the reality is as much as you want to bulcanize the global economy, we have a globalized economy nonetheless.

International you can't stop international trade and there will be the pursuit of competitive advantage in terms of resources and labor and utilities. All of which are priced out of the market by the United States because ultimately Wall Street sucked sucked all the value out of the real US economy. and they did so to get share prices that would pay good dividends and and all Trump cares about is the S&P 500. He's all in on the stock market as as the number one barometer of economic activity, but any economist worth his salt will tell you that the stock market does not reflect the fundamentals of a real economy.

Not the economy Trump is promising to build to make America great again, which is a manufacturing powerhouse. It cannot happen. It will not happen. I'm telling you, the US is losing jobs by the day.

Yeah. 23, wasn't it? 20 23,000, I believe. They had to correct the numbers.

It was a massive number of job losses that they were trying to hide, but they now these are Denny, these are trends that are irreversible. Why? Look, I mean, you What's a good union manufacturing job for the hourly rate in the United States? Are we above $50 an hour yet?

Are we getting there? We're close. Yeah, there's so few of them now. Yeah, there's only union density so low now in in large part because uh you know manufacture but even you know even the average wage the minimum wage of Amazon um to monitor you know automatic shelf stackers and delivery drivers and all that it's it's it's I don't know how many ffold higher than a number of other countries that uh you know are are are basically providing the manufacturing for the US commercial market.

There's no way they'll catch up. Why? because nobody spends like the United States does a deficit spending. Nobody's can consistently drive up inflation like the United States.

And it's it's never going to be competitive. Not not with the current US dollar and US government deficit spending system, which Trump has done nothing but increase the deficit. So, he's going to do what the last president did and what he did in his first term and what Obama did and that kicked the can down the road in new and creative ways, you know, to bond buybacks. Genius.

It's genius. Imagine if we as individual citizens were allowed to do what the US government does or that what Wall Street's able to do when it gets into credit bind. uh you know, we can just like spin up Magic Money Tree and bail bail ourselves out and then award ourselves record bonuses and then you know uh get the government to buy buy a failing industry like General Motors or you know Lehman Brothers or whatever is is an example but uh so the game in the US is there's a whole different set of rules in the US when it comes to anything economic and they're trying to use this to project power uh through through the foreign policy uh lane and and and they're doing it in ways that have never been done before and the results are already horrific and instead of pulling back they're doing they're doubling down on it. So the this latest move, these latest announcements, Danny plus concurrently a trade war with with Canada, uh trying to play chicken with Canada in terms of uh the economy.

Uh no, no one's ever done this before and the results are just going to continue to be bad um for for America. I can't believe you pull this one before the midterms and I really think maybe these these people are are in such a bind and have pained themselves into such a corner that they have no other choice but to double down on the same failed policies. Yeah. Yeah.

Those are great points, Patrick. I did uh want to uh get your very brief comment on I promised a Patreon subscriber that had asked their question. Are they going to take any money in their bank, the US, that belongs to someone else? I mean, they've done this before in terms of stealing assets.

We know about uh for example uh what's happened to Venezuelan gold and UK banks. Um so your answer to that and then my my one comment on the whole economic question is if the US is ever going to be competitive, it's going to have to uh the the it's going to have to cut prices dramatically, make things far more affordable. uh and then a and also uh ensure that uh uh people can uh in 3 minutesorder to be productive, in order to invest in anything that they have the capital to do so. But that would be against everything that Wall Street is about.

you know, you're not going to be slashing the price of education, slashing price of health care, all of that which is needed in order to get workers to be actually productive and uh then to attract investment which is going to look to not have to cover these kind of costs. You're ever going to have uh and then of course the dollar system itself creates those huge gaps in uh the uh you know uh currencies and and value of currencies in the underdevelopment of one part of the world versus the US. So it's it it's a very big bind uh nonetheless and uh we're not going to see that change. But do you see the US maybe in this case now that it is so desperate with Iran?

Yeah. Looking at assets from other countries. I mean I don't know who that would be because you can't do China. Uh I mean Russia's already sanctioned.

You can't do China because of the global economic fallout of that. Uh uh you do that to your own pals like in Saudi Arabia and the UAE that could cause backlash. Uh what do you what's your thoughts about this question? Well well the one strategy that's that that clearly the White House was was pursuing I think may is continuing to pursue is they think that it's basically an accounting trick where if you devalue the dollar um that's one way you can pay down your deficit quicker.

um that's one way you can make your um exports more uh competitive and more attractive. uh and they it looked like they were attempting to engineer that kind of a trend um last year but I think it's failed miserably uh for many of the reasons which you just uh mentioned Danny right there which are basically the fundamentals of the US econom economy will will prevent them from getting the type of result that maybe a smaller country could do by you know pursuing a devaluation strategy in order to let's say um kickstart give a shot a shot of adrenaline to their export economy. The US the US system is it's way too big and the no president uh is going to want to preside over I mean Trump will try it with lower interest rates. e.

you know, cheap money into the US and the global system and that will sort of temporarily inflate things and um make a lot of these problems may maybe uh go away relative relatively speaking. They're not going away. But if it if the if what we're all talking about, the gloom and doom we're talking about today is then coinciding with a fake uh growth bubble which is based on slashing interest rates and you know uh going into deeper mortgaging out the future uh uh bond markets by you know buying uh buying up uh the government buying up more of its own uh future uh bonds and future debt then yeah it it could work in the short term at least I think it could work till the end of Trump's term and then he would be handing um a nuc economic nuclear bomb to to the next president um to manage somehow and they'll probably do exactly the same thing or very similar strategies in in the next administration. And to them, it's just a question of oh well, you know, we're up to 40 trillion now and you know what's a few more trillion over the next four years and that's not going to be so bad.

And then maybe they'll pledge to reduce the deficit or or say that do or or we're going to bring Elon back to doge and that's gonna and Elon will put up some tweets about how he's got a new idea. um he uh he had a really interesting creative you know whatever Hayawasa journey or something like that came up with a new plan to uh reduce the federal deficit. Now Elon was putting out all these crazy tweets um during the uh transition period after the election as he was courting and and and also at the beginning of the year he was all about we need to we need to stop government deficit spending. This is this is unsustainable.

it's going to ruin the country. We won't survive as a nation. And that was his sort of entree to come in and then claim to be cutting government spending. Um and then that didn't work.

This government has over spent more than any other previous administration. By the end of this year, um in the first two years, uh this will be easily the highest spending government in history. Easily. And what are the what are the people getting for that by the way?

What are the people what so how's that shock a lot of people to hear given uh h how's that materially improved the lives of of a workingclass American or uh somebody who is trying to hold you know is holding down three jobs which is not unusual to have two jobs and a side hustle or two side hustles in America that's totally normal how how have they materially benefited from that because at the end of the day Danny what Trump did and I'll I'll hearken back to this as a as Perfect example when Trump during his first term to to pay pay businesses to shut to pay people to stay home and not work during COVID. All of that cost trillions and trillions of dollars and all the all the the PPE scams that everybody was running and getting rich off of. All that cost trillions and trillions of dollars. And then the government sent out this little check to everybody.

Remember that couple checks and and it was it was a meager amount of money. I mean, you're talking about $1,200. Um, maybe it's enough to buy off the rust belt or the poorest communities in America where they're happy to get a little bit of trickle down. But the problem is it wasn't just for them, Danny.

Everybody got a check. So, everyone got one. So, everyone got their participation voucher in the economic demise of the United States because the minute everyone cashed that check in, it guaranteed that if they cashed in a $1,200 check, you've already paid fivefold in inflation for that money, that free government money you got, all those that those two or three checks, you've paid for it fivefold in inflation already. It's it's cost you that.

If everyone burned that check, burned it, took out the cigarette lighter and burned it on on put that up on Instagram or Tik Tok, um, you would have that would have saved you that would have saved you thousands and thousands of your hard-earned dollars. Does that make sense? That's how the That's how the That's the economic math of the situation. You increase the money supply, you put inflationary pressure on the system, and everyone's poorer.

It's it's a kind of a way for the government to give you money, but they're really taxing you. It's it's inflation is a is a stealth tax basically to to paper over really really lousy and reckless government fiscal policy. That's kind of what inflation does. And because it's it's it's because it's delayed for the next four years normally or the next couple of years, whoever instigated that policy isn't going to be around to have to be held accountable for it.

Trump's got a second term, but no one's holding him to account for the fact that he trashed and ruined the US economy during his first term. So, and I'm just saying that's just a fact. And Biden didn't help because Biden continued the same failed policies during his term. Yeah.

Everything bad that Trump did, Biden then doubled down on. Yeah. So, I mean, I I hate to have to point these things out because I know they're so far in the rearview mirror that nobody wants to to bother because we all got over that nightmare. But we're still living with that nightmare.

That's the problem. And if they keep doing this now, then we're basically saying it's okay. We'll suffer in five years. Thank you.

We'll suffer in five years. Please, Donald. You do what you have to do what you have to to make sure Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon. you know, or to defend Israel or whatever, or make America great again.

Uh, and we're happy to suffer this in five years, you know, so bring the pain. Yep. Yeah. Prices, it came out today, 48% increase since February 28th, the beginning of the war.

So all of what you just said that uh I guess we could call it even just short-term historical context you gave uh just since 2020 or so 2018 2020 uh that compounded with uh 6 months now of absolute economic onslaught on uh the world and especially uh US uh workers pocketbooks. Uh that yeah, that's only that pain is only going to get uh worse, Patrick. Um for as long as this goes on uninterrupted and unchallenged. Everybody uh this was a great show.

I want to make sure you hit the like button. Uh before you go, everyone should know that in the video description, you can find Patrick's YouTube channel, 21st Century Wire, as well as a Substack. So you should subscribe to both of those. Uh make sure that you watch 21st Century Wire.

It's a great program. Um, and be sure you're subscribed. Hit the notifications bell on that. And, uh, all the plays support this channel are in the video description below too, as well.

Patreon, sub, stack, and more. Patrick, any final words for the audience before we head out of here? No. Uh, no.

Um, uh, no final words. I think we we covered a few important topics uh this week and we got to have these uh difficult conversations uh now and and hopefully we can head off some of these issues uh in the run-up to the midterm elections because um this otherwise I think we're going to be the the United States and the global economy is going to be in really really bad 13 minutesshape in 2027 and and everything that's being decided now and being done now I think is going to have a direct it's going to directly feed into that possibility. But it's still not too late, I think, to try to reverse and mitigate some of these bad moves um through the uh the opportunity of an election cycle. One hopes, but I'm not holding my breath, unfortunately, just to be skeptical there, but um it's there's still an opportunity to do it.

Yeah, totally. Everybody hit the like button before you go. Thanks for all everyone who gave super chats today. I put you up earlier.

Thank you to all the moderators and of course all the viewers. After this show, hit the like button. Go to the video description to check out Patrick's work. All the place support this channel are in the video description below.

Tomorrow I'll be back 2 pm Eastern uh with uh Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, so for another update. All right, see you then August 25th. Bye-bye. Sync to video timeently I made them noise.

So, you guys have a wonderful night. We'll see you soon.

[admin]

Is War Between Israel And Turkey Inevitable? w/ Vanessa Beeley
Reason2Resist with Dimitri Lascaris
Aug 24, 2026

Following Israel's bombing last week of a Syrian airfield which was expected to house Turkish forces, there has been rampant speculation that Israel and Turkey are about to go to war.

But is that fear supported by the history of Turkey-Israel relations?

Dimitri Lascaris speaks with British investigative journalist, Vanessa Beeley, about the true agenda of the Turkish government and the realities of Turkey's dealings with the genocidal Israeli entity.



Transcript

Good day. This is Demetri Lasceris coming to you from Montreal, Canada for Reason to Resist on August 24th, 2026. What you just saw was footage from a meeting between Turkish President Reep Erdogan and uh the child murdering war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu in late September of 2023, less than 3 weeks before Israel's genocide in Gaza began. After that meeting, Netanyahu's office issued a statement in which it disclosed that Netanyahu had told Edawan that ties between Israel and Turkey were improving.

And the Israeli PM statement also said the two leaders quote decided to continue advancing bilateral relations in trade, economic matters, and energy close quote. " Uh but I say not so fast. By the time this meeting occurred, Israel had committed countless war crimes and crimes against humanity, against the Palestinian people. Uh not the least of which was the crime of apartheid, as was well documented years before this meeting by Western human rights organizations like Amnesty International and Israeli human rights organizations like Betelum.

Israel was committing the crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people for years prior to this meeting. Apartheid being the second worst crime against humanity after genocide. I could literally sit here for hours cataloging all the crimes and war crimes that Israel committed not only against Palestinian people but other peoples of the region prior to that meeting between Erdogan and Netanyahu in September 2023. So what happened on October 7th, 2023?

Did Rip Erdogan suddenly develop a conscience and begin to feel compassion for the Palestinian people? Or was it something else? And why did his regime just issue an arrest warrant for Netanyahu nearly 3 years into this genocide? To help us unpack all of these interesting questions, we've invited back onto the program the one and only Vanessa Beely.

Vanessa is a British investigative journalist who is now based in Beirut, Lebanon. Thank you very much for coming back onto the program, Vanessa. You're welcome, Dimmitri. This is going to be quite interesting to unpack all of the kind of Kabuki theater that's ongoing in Syria at the moment.

Yes, it's Kabuki on steroids. So, just to set the table, Vanessa, for a conversation, I wanted to share with our audience and with you. You may well have seen this already. The results of a poll that was done in the spring of 2025 by Pew Research in 24 countries, about half of which were in Europe and North America.

And it asked people for their view on Israel. And the median response across the 24 countries uh was 62% had a negative view of Israel and 29% had a positive view. I imagine those numbers are even worse for Israel now. But what I really want to highlight for you and our audience was that by far the most negative result for Israel in this 24 country survey was Turkey where a whopping 93% had a negative view of Israel and a poultry 4% had a positive view.

Uh and so with with that as background, the world just learned as I mentioned at the outset, the Turkish authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu accusing him of genocide and other crimes against humanity. Uh here you can see a report uh by Ajance France about this arrest warrant. And uh so Vanessa, what do you make of this news? And why do you think Turkish authorities have issued this arrest warrant now almost 2 years after the International Criminal Court issued its own arrest warrant for Netanyahu and his former minister of war Yuf Galant?

Well, I think the arrest warrant um is related to the global Sumud flotilla and 5 minutesthe boarding by the Israeli occupation forces of the flotilla and then the following torture and abuse of the captives from the flotilla. But my first question would be, knowing full well the history of Israeli um savagery against any kind of attempt to break the siege on Gaza, why didn't Turkey send any kind of uh naval protection for the flirtillaa when they knew perfectly well that it was heading into international waters where Israel again would flaunt international law and board the boat. That's number one. And number two, um I look, I think what we're seeing right now, um let's go back also um not only to what happened in Gaza, but also what happened in Syria and the collaboration between Israel and Turkey in the downfall of Syria, of course, alongside the Zionist Arab Gulf States and the entire Western Neocolonialist um alliance.

But for example, in November, just prior to the attack by Al Qaeda or as it's now known, HTS, um they the put in power government in in Syria. There was a meeting, you're talking, sorry, you said November, I assume you were referring to November. November 2024. Yes.

Sorry, my mistake. Um there was a meeting between secret meeting between Ronanbar of Shinbat, he was the head of Shinbat then and Ibrahim Khalen the head of the uh internal national security intelligence forces uh in Turkey itself. Shortly after that, of course, we know the history, um, Galani led an attack against first of all Aleppo and then, 7 minutesuh, rapidly moved down to the south of the Syrian territory and effectively took control of Damascus. And what we've been seeing in in my opinion is this kind of kabuki theater between Israel and um Turkey as to who has control of what spheres of influence within Syria itself.

And this has been a kind of ongoing dialogue between the two. There have been previous attacks on Turkish installations and attempts to expand um their bases into central Syria just after the fall of Damascus. So this was uh I think in 2025 they tried to establish something in Palmira and in the former T4 air base and Israel bombed it. right now.

Um, we have this story of Turkey apparently trying to establish some kind of air base and military position at the Abu Dhur uh air base which was uh taken over by the terrorist forces and then retaken by the Syrian Arab army a number of times during the 14year uh regime change war that was waged against Syria. And during those battles for the airport, the runway had been very badly damaged. It was then repaired once Galani was put in power. But the interesting thing is, Dimmitri, there were eight strikes, air strikes on this air base, apparently targeting the runway.

So pres one presumes redamaging the runway and making it impossible to use and hitting warehouses that Israel claimed contained weapons and potentially air defense and that um Turkey was intending to enable Galani to establish an air force and an air defense base at Abu Dhour but there were no casualties. So if the Turkish were building up such a you know contingent of uh military uh personnel alongside Jalani and bringing in the equipment that would be required to establish a proper working air base which would one presumes would also include planes. Um the fact that there were zero casualties means to me that this was a cosmetic bombing raid. Now what do I actually think is going on?

I think at the moment there is huge pressure on Galani to normalize with Israel and I think the threat of there being any kind of conflict between Israel and Turkey on Syrian soil is about the last thing that Golani needs right now. So both countries at the moment are 10 minutesbringing pressure to bear on Galani to accept some kind of partitioning in Syria which would in my opinion be Israel in the south. that has been made very clear um through the uh negotiations between Assad al- Shyani the foreign minister uh and representatives of the Zionist genocidal regime for some time now that they want a buffer zone in the south. Of course, we know this has been Israel's intention for decades to take control of southern Syria in order to be able to establish the David's corridor, which would stretch up the eastern flank of Syria to the Euphrates in Iraq eventually.

And so it's been very clear from the beginning whether you look at greater Israel, the map of greater Israel um or the Odinon plan, this has been extremely clear. But there is to some degree a conflict with Turkey because Turkey wants to maintain the territorial integrity of Syria and it wants control of Syria as a protectorate of Turkey. That's effectively why Erdogan agreed to uh recruit, train, arm uh and establish the terrorist forces inside Syria from 2011 onwards. They were trained on on Turkish territory.

And so now we have this situation where both Turkey and Israel have uh an agenda inside Syria. And to some degree they are needing to bring Galani under control to accept both aspects of it because Israel in the south but even Turkey in the north because the um Syrian National Army which was previously the Free Syrian Army is of course formerly Muslim Brotherhood the political Islamist movement that was very much weaponized by the West from the 1960 60s onwards in Syria to overthrow successive governments including Hafis al-Assad, the father of Bashar al-Assad. Um and this would effectively mean dominance for those factions if Turkey extends its control and expands its sphere of influence inside Syria. At the same time, Galani would lose of course control over the south.

So this is just my opinion, but it's also the opinion of people that I've been talking to for the last two days that that this is very much a kind of an agreement between Turkey and Israel to bring the pressure to bear upon Galani and you know the handlers of Galani's government whether that's MI6 or Washington. We've also seen some contradictions uh contradictory statements from representatives of Trump for example. We can come on to that. So where is this heading?

I don't think it's heading to a hot conflict. I think there might be more cosmetic strikes by Israel to reinforce the message that they are trying to send to Galani's government who is making a kind of again another theater of saying well we don't trust Israel now. We have effectively agreed to the the original security agreement on paper, but now we don't trust Israel. So now we've uh had the meeting in Jordan between Assad al-Shibani and Roman Gooffman um the of Mosad, right?

So Vanessa, I put up on the screen here a map published by the economist. I don't know whether there's this accurate or not, but I I just want to sort of to orient our audience, but also I'm curious, is it your understanding that this is more or less accurate or was as of April 2025? So what this is showing is that the uh Golani terrorist regime uh that's in I don't know it's red or dark orange but uh the part that includes Damascus that that's what they control along with a narrow strip of land uh through Palmira uh to the Euphrates and then you know they show a gray area which I don't know what the gray area is that that's contested Turkish that's the SNA no that's the Turkish Syrian nationalist army which I mentioned which is the former free Syrian army mostly Turkmen and Arabs between it's estimated between 25,000 some estimates have put it at 80,000 I'd say somewhere in the middle numbering. So those are effectively the Turkish um proxy forces that Oh you're you're talking about the dark gray the gray area.

Yeah. Sorry. Which area is Oh okay. I was I was I was referring to the say so the dark gray is this SNA that 15 minuteswhat what do you understand the light gray to be?

Is that contested the light gray? Um I'm trying to see where it is because it's not it's not it's not indicated. Yeah. Strange.

Um no I don't really know actually. I'm not sure why they've left. And is it your understanding that this area under control of HTS now? Right.

Is your understanding this area in yellow in the upper right hand corner of this map that it actually continues to be controlled by the SDF uh led by Kurdish militia? No. Um well there there have been um further clashes quite recently but in theory that they have been integrated into the Syrian Arab well no not the Syrian army the new Syria army which of course is made up 40% of foreign mercenaries and terrorists that form part of the militia that um brought Galani to power. Right.

So down in the lower leftand corner you can see uh in a kind of darkish gray there right next to Israel uh the portion of uh Syria that uh Israel currently occupies. And um just to go back to what you were saying a few moments ago. You said I if I recall correctly that Erdogan wants to maintain the territorial integrity of Syria but he wants it to be a protectorate. Does this mean that he wants to push Israel out of the Goland or do you think he's willing to tolerate Israel's confis illegal confiscation of that territory?

I think as part of um the deal, of course, nothing has been published, but I would say as part of a deal right now between Turkey and Israel, Turkey is prepared to let the southern uh part of Syria go and the Golan territory potentially, and we talked about this before, there may well have been a deal at the NATO summit in Anchora. And I think Trump may have given uh Erdogan guarantees of maintaining a sphere of influence in northern Lebanon for example in Tripoli where Erdogan has been building up a kind of soft power occupation through NOS's uh education centers and so on and he does have strong influence there through Galani because Galani is basically currently infiltrating ing uh some of the Sunni Muslim communities in northern Lebanon that have a history of supporting Galani. I mean, you will have seen during the time you've been in Lebanon that there have been celebrations of Galani being brought to power, particularly up in Tripoli. So, in in my opinion, there's a lot of negotiation going on right now.

Now, that doesn't mean that long-term there isn't going to be conflict between Turkey and Israel. That's very important to make clear because I think ultimately if Israel extends or expands into Syria and up that eastern border towards the Euphrates for example and of course we know that the Kurdish separatist project was part of a settlement project for Israel also. Israel was backing the the Kurdish separatists in Syria um and actually across the region in order to have um a preformed settlement program which they can benefit from by being able to to move through and maneuver through that territory um with ease. Plus, you know, the Israelis don't have the manpower to occupy the territory that they're effectively expanding into.

So like in the south they need to be able to weaponize the Drews. That's why they orchestrated with Golani. There was a meeting in Baku just before all the attacks against the um Drews in the south of Syria in in the kind of where it actually says other rebels are occupying. So to the east of the red area that extends down to the southern border there.

Um and basically Galani unleashed the tribal factions that are very much kind of transactional factions um against the Drews in order to push the Drews to effectively call for Israel's protection. And that and that's pretty much exactly what happened. Um actually Israeli uh occupation has extended quite a bit further than that. Um it's they're about 10 kilometers now from the outskirts of Damascus.

So they've they've established occupation further into Syrian territory than this map which was April 2025. Right. So switching to uh uh the Turkish uh theater uh as you know I'm sure uh Vanessa the BTC pipeline runs from Baku and Aabaijan through Georgia then uh eastern Turkey down to the Turkish port city of Seahan on the Mediterranean Sea. And uh this pipeline um is providing oil to Israel.

The oil is uh you know uh shipped from Seahan to the genocidal entity and uh is a major source of energy for Israel. Now, in January of this year, uh Reuters reported that although official Turkish data showed the trade between Turkey and Israel was zero from June 2024, uh the maritime shipping uh firm Kepler uh widely uh respected in the industry showed that Israel's imports of Azerba crude from Seahan jumped 31% yearon-year to 94,000 barrels per a in 2025 and here's the uh the report from Reuters and this was the highest level of imports uh from Seahan of oil to Israel since 2022 and uh and uh so Azer Bahan widened its lead over Russia as Israel's second largest supplier of crude oil. this all at a all at a time when Erdogan was claiming there was zero trade. Uh now Turkey's government said uh that it did not control where the Azerbaijani oil went.

But in November 2024 uh the Erdogan regime said that exporters using the port of Seahan quote respected Turkeykey's decision to end trade with Israel close quote. Uh what do you make of all of this? Uh Vanessa, what's the reality of the uh energy relationship uh and just overall trade relationship between Turkey and Israel? Well, also let's not forget that um Erdogan's son-in-law uh was purchasing oil, stolen oil from Syria, stolen by ISIS and then selling that to Israel also very early on in the regime change war against Syria.

Um, Israel I think takes around 46 or 47% of its crude oil from Aabjan which takes the route that you've shown there on that map and from my understanding Turkey is transporting the oil and there is no way Turkey for sure Turkey is taking a cut um out of this um and the the the ships are basically turning off their GPS PS, they're turning off their transponders, so they're not able to be tracked. Um, so and and as far as I know, Turkey has also continued to supply metals and weapons to Israel, but very much through similar kind of methods because in in a sense um and this is where also this is important for the future of Syria is Turkey has always established itself as the head of the political Islamic movement. In other words, the Muslim Brotherhood. And we know historically in Syria, the Muslim Brotherhood factions within uh Syria have been weaponized by the US, the UK and and the multiple enemies of Syria against successive governments beginning, as I said, in I think it was 1957, but going forward to the late '7s, early 80s to try and overthrow Hazelad and then again in 2011 obviously to to overthrow Bashar.

Assad. Um the fact that Erdogan has established himself very much as the head of of the Muslim Brotherhood worldwide movement and when uh Israel bombed the negotiations in Qatar, there was a transfer of the Hamas leadership to Turkey. Right. So, Khaled Mashal, uh, who was leading Hamas when Hamas actually effectively betrayed Syria.

This is part of the history that people are maybe not aware of. Um, and up until 2017, Hamas were effectively working with Alqaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood inside Syria to try and overthrow Syria. from 2017 uh when Yakya Sinwa took over uh the military leadership, Khaled Michelle was very much sidelined. Iran and Hezbollah played a huge part in negotiations and effectively in 2021, Hamas as it is now inside Gaza fighting Israel came back to Damascus and there was a degree of of normalization despite what had gone on historically inside uh Syria.

But in my Sorry, you mean normalization with Assad, not with Right. Right. Yeah. Sorry.

No, with with Assad in 2021. Um, and but now there is a push for Hal Mashal and the new leadership of Hamas from inside Turkey to try and normalize relations with Golani. So in my opinion, this is part of Erdogan's bigger plan to retain Syria as a protectorate to have a Muslim Brotherhood uh regime in power there. And not forgetting this was also the CIA prospectus for Syria.

They didn't necessarily want a Muslim Brotherhood government, but they wanted a Sunni Muslim government that would be prepared to do business with them and would accept, you know, IMF loans and World Bank and etc, etc. so would be completely debt enslaved to the US. Gelani has achieved that. Perhaps he's not quite the representative that they wanted in power in Syria.

So I think this is what Turkey is heading towards and that includes with Qatar of course because Qatar was very much a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood. Saudi Arabia was more a backer of the Wahhabi ISIS uh style elements within um Syria. Would that work with Israel? That remains to be seen.

What it might do though is to provide uh somewhere for Palestinians that are driven out of Palestine to come to. Mhm. This is my spec because that idea has already been floated. Right.

Right. Right. Yeah. So, so that's it would kind of make sense to me just when I was uh looking through everything this morning.

um the fact that that Hamas and and there are by the way statements coming out of um Israel from lunatics like Amitai Chickley who's basically saying Syria and Turkey are are actually worse than Iran. So, but you know, Dimmitri, what what kind of made me so suspicious of all of this? There's too many statements and the hyperbole is kind of off the scale, you know? I mean, Netanyahu basically saying Erdogan genocided the Armenians and he's anti-Semitic.

And I mean, I'm not saying he didn't, but it's too much. you know, if you're gonna go to war against against a NATO member state, you keep quiet. You prepare for it, but but you you don't basically announce to the world that that's what you're going to do. Yeah.

And we were told that there was a report that Netanyahu's cabal was carefully studying article 5 of NATO to figure out if they attack Turkey, would NATO come after Israel? I mean, it's laughable. And there was like NATO is going to attack Israel. Seriously, they had to study article.

I mean, and and Napali Bennett has been pounding his chest. Uh, you know, they all have. They all they all have. And and it's a bit too much.

Like channel 12, Channel 14 have all been putting out. It's almost hysteria in the corporate media too in the West, Vanessa. They're like they're making it sound like there's a war between Turkey and Israel about to happen any day now. I mean, it sounds to me like you're about as skeptical as I am in that regard.

Is that fair? I am. Uh, short-term and midterm, long-term. " I said, "Not now, because right now they need a stable Syria and Turkey can offer them a stable Syria for now, right?

But at some point, of course, Israel is not going to accept um the biggest military, I think it is, in the Middle East on its doorstep with a with a Muslim Brotherhood government. No. Right. And you know, Tur Turkey is kind of we know what Erdogan is like.

I mean, he's pumped up enough that he'll think he's done a great deal. And and also Turkeykey's in economic dire investment in the regime change war against Syria. He literally has nothing to show for it. He doesn't have control of resources.

He doesn't have the gas on the Levant coast. He hasn't achieved the 30 minutesMarvi Vatan doctrine which is control of the eastern Mediterranean. Um economically they're still hemorrhaging support really for Galani. So he can't afford to keep this going without showing some kind of result for it.

right now. Uh earlier you mentioned I think you you brought up the name of Tom Beric and I did want to ask you about that as well. Uh now, uh Vanessa, as you know, uh the Trumpian ambassador to Turkey, Mr. Bareric raised eyebrows yet again with some recent commentary on Mario Nala's program.

Uh among other things, Bar Burick said that Turkey was exercising restraint in response to the Israeli bombing of that Syrian airfield. But he had more to say than that. And just before I share with you and our audience the commentary uh on Nefal that I think raised eyebrows, I want to remind everyone that this scoundrel Tom Bareric was a bosom buddy of the notorious Zionist pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. And if you don't believe me, just check out this article from Politico.

Uh this is from uh February of this year. And uh I'll read it to you. US ambassador to Turkey Tom Bareric had a year-long friendship with convict convicted sex off years long I'm sorry yearsl long friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epste but their ties have not generated the same firestorm as others in Trump's orbit. Bareric exchanged numerous emails with Epstein over more than a decade including writing him in September 14th, 2009, two months after Epstein was released from jail following his sex offender conviction.

And Bareric wrote, "Thinking about you. " Uh, and then uh he sent another email. " That is the current ambassador of the United States to Turkey. He considered Epstein to be a role model.

So here's what Bareric had to say or some of what he had to say on Marfal. I think this was on Friday in the Golan with Syria. They still occupy the Golan against the UN resolutions, against all of the international order. Or actually, are you confident that Israel has no intention to annex Lebanese territory or won't annex any Lebanese territory or that there there is still that possibility that you're obviously against that they their intention may be maintaining the status quo for 10 years and then after 10 years time as they've done before they start talking about enexing the territory.

Is that a genuine concern? no matter what they want to do, right? In the long run, I think they're looking and saying that's probably unlikely that anybody is going to allow us to do that. America's support is waning.

Even the young Democrats are coming against them. Um, President Trump has drawn a line of of attempting to go moderation. October 27th, this election will will be over. No matter what, you're going to have a different say.

So I just think that regardless of what their intent may be now, they know that that's not likely. Now saying that in the Golan with Syria, they still occupy the Golan against the UN resolutions against all of the international order which has said the Golan is serious. So, how long do these incursions go on until the the the temperature comes down? I thought that the Trump regime had recognized Israel's illegal annexation of the Syrian coloniz.

What do you make of this? I just I don't know. I really am I'm bamboozled by Tom Bareric. Well, you know, you know what he is.

I mean, he's not only kind of an Epstein acolyte, um, but he effectively lobbed the UAE to put Trump in power, the first administration, so in 2016. And then, of course, what he does, um, is he'll then make sure that Trump invests in the UAE. So, he he's a, you know, he's a merchant basically. Um, and pretty much what he was uh doing in Syria is exactly the same thing.

He was coming in with the deals, the deals that are never going to come to fruition. Most of the companies that were being brought in to invest in Syria. I've written about this were shell companies, facades, fake companies. So, it's just about getting the money in and him putting the money in his back pocket.

So, I think now basically he's ambassador to Turkey. So, if you ask me, there was a bit of um greasing his palm at some point. And so he made these statements and then basically he got his knuckles wrapped because he's backpedled on it very quickly. I think within 24 uh he spoke to AFP and and he basically always said yes of course you know um Trump in 2019 basically agreed that the Golan is uh belongs to Israel and of course that was based on money coming in from Miriam Adelstone.

Um, no, he backtracked on everything. He, you know, he he basically um renegadeed on on absolutely everything he said. And one thing actually that I must have missed first time around, what does he mean by a different setting after the election is he saying Netanyahu is not going to I'm presume he's talking about the Israeli elections. That's what I understood as well.

I I think he's saying that the composition of this child murdering Knesset is going to be significantly different and probably will not increase as prime minister. Yeah. Yes. That that is the reality.

Although I don't know it would be worse from his perspective, but yeah. I think that's what he was referring to. But as if that's going to change Israel's approach to well exactly or Israel US approach anyway. You know, it's not it's it's pretty much you can't divide it really.

And Lebanon is already annexed, just not officially. It's already occupied in in the south, you know. So, that was very odd. And a couple of people sent it to me as if to say, you know, wow, look at what Tom Barrick said.

And it's just like, it's meaningless. It doesn't mean anything. He's either going to backtrack, which he did, um, or it's part of the kind of stirring up the hornets's nest and making everyone think that there's some kind of, um, conflict between, uh, Israel and Turkey. This whole episode just drives home what an evil clown show the state department has.

It's horrible. Yeah, it really because ultimately Demetri what it is it's playing with lives because I mean you know we're kind of smiling about it because it's so absurd it but it's obscene because what it actually means is the suffering of the Syrian people the suffering of the people of this region whether it's Palestine, Lebanon, um Iraq, Syria is going to continue while they play these games um over their heads basically you Mhm. So, Vanessa, the last thing I wanted to talk to you about was this Mecca defense. So, uh just to recapitulate for those who haven't been following, uh the most recent developments.

So, reports surfaced about three days ago, I guess, that Iran had been invited into the Mecca defense pact. Um, and I think I saw a report that the origin of this story was an an Iranian official. I don't know if the uh report identified the official, but apparently that's where uh the claim came from. And then today I woke up and uh uh the as soon as I uh opened opened up my YouTube app, I saw a report uh on an alternative media program that I watched from time to time that Iran had accepted an invitation, not only had received but it had accepted an invitation to join the Mecca Defense Pact.

And then uh just before I started interviewing you today uh Vanessa this happened. So the Iranian foreign ministry uh denies receiving formal invitation to join the defense pact and uh the uh spokesperson of the uh Iranian foreign ministry Esay whom I had the privilege to meet in Iran uh last month said as follows. " Close quote, which I mean, there's, I think, always been dialogue, at least at some level, between Iran and these countries about collective security. So, what do you make of all this, Vanessa?

And do you find it even remotely credible that a serious invitation would be extended to Iran to join the Mecca Defense Pact? But to join what Dimmitri, we still don't have in writing what the pact means. I mean, this is kind of insane, you know, and honestly, everyone is writing about it. I saw an article in responsible statecraftraft that was based on um a statement from a a foreign ministry spokesperson in Iran, right?

But I can't find and I've actually asked a few Iranian uh friends, have you seen this statement? Is this actually being talked about in Iran? And they're all scratching their heads. So um it's very odd.

Uh I I mean the the only reason I could think of why Iran might be invited into it is because uh Yemen and Sula are really punishing Saudi Arabia at the moment. Um you know they're targeting uh as you've talked about the uh oil facilities east and west. So they're effectively disabling the East West pipeline which is supposed to be a sort of an alternative to the closure of the Hormos Straits even though it's only I think around seven million barrels per day that can actually go across that East West pipeline. Um and they've shut down the bubble mandub straits to Saudi ships.

They're targeting uh Saudi ships that are trying to get through there. So, it's a bit like going back to the Beijing agreement of 2023 when China uh initiated discussion or negotiations between Iran and Saudi Arabia which effectively managed to bring in a ceasefire between Saudi Arabia and Yemen at a sort of fairly critical point. And so, I wonder if that's why it's been floated, but it it seems to have no substance to it. And ultimately, I can't see Iranians joining a pack that doesn't have any conditions set to it.

I mean, there's nothing in writing. And what benefit is it to Iran when Saudi Arabia, as soon as aggression is reinitiated against Iran, Saudi Arabia will be basically back in the war, the USIsraeli war against Iran. So, what's going to happen then? Mhm.

Absolutely. I mean it's the Are the Saudis going to attack the US military bases on their soil if the US attacks Iran? I mean it's just it's l and Turkey has US military bases and but it's very odd. Yeah.

I I I'm not quite sure if it was a rumor. I don't I don't understand who would really benefit from circular other than we discussed the fact that the pact was very much a Sunni Muslim pact and appeared to be very much um excluding any uh Shia Muslim I mean Iran or or Yemen to a degree. Um, now are so are they putting that out to try and kind of scotch that? I I did actually see an article written by an American uh former kind of security intelligence guy basically saying that's what it was.

So he was mocking the fact that people had said, well, this is a this is a Sunni pact, right? It's isolating the the Shia Muslim uh countries and movements. and and he was so he was celebrating the fact that now they've invited Iran it's all nonsense but then the reality is that I don't think one that Iran has been invited and two Iran in a million years is not going to be part of something that there's absolutely no conditions that there's no um you know there's nothing to actually sign that has any substance not going to happen especially not right Now and I just want to point out to our audience uh I'm not sure if you're aware of this Vanessa that just today uh after that's we're now weeks beyond the formation of this pact according to which we are told Pakistan and Turkey are supposed to come to the defense of Saudi Arabia if it's attacked and just today there was a report that yet again Ansadala attacked Saudi Arabia in fact what it did was quite uh impressive from a technological perspective and this is coming from independent uh you know firms in the maritime transportation industry. It struck a vessel uh just off the port of Yanbu in the Red Sea which is like a thousand kilometers from Yemen.

So somehow they managed to pinpoint strike a vessel. This is huge uh in terms of the oil crisis because that would mean if you know if the ships uh leaving the port of Yanbu are not safe then they uh can't you know they're not even going to be able to deliver uh oil through the uh the Suez Canal uh let alone you know through the Bama Strait. So the but the main point here I you know I just want to stress is that multiple attacks on Saudi Arabia and Saudi assets since the Mecca defense pack came into effect and I've seen no indication I don't know if you have uh Vanessa that either Pakistan or Turkey uh have sent forces to defend Saudi Arabia since then but uh you know No exactly and I I think there was um someone told me there was a rumor of a statement saying that if Israel strikes Turkey, then Iran will intervene. And and my Iranian friend was saying like what you know after everything Turkey did in Syria, which of course also led to the uh deaths of IRGC uh fighters who were defending the country um and um fighters also resistance inside Syria.

I I mean, you know, this is so I don't know. It's it's um whether it's trying to kind of seow confusion create these certainly what does seem to be happening these these weird kind of triumphalist narratives are suddenly like you said, you know, we're seeing it on YouTube certain podcasters are suddenly saying, "Oh, that's it. " So, but when you break it down, it doesn't make any sense. Yeah.

Do you have the sense, this is my last question to you, I'm curious if you have this impression too, that even that even by the standards of um this region where there's so much misinformation that we are dealing at this particular moment in a particularly uh propagandistic environment like some of the crazy ass stories I see coming out and they immediately get uh you know stamped with the impremature of credibility. people start talking about them as they're absolutely true and like you said they just don't make any sense. So I I don't know. Do you feel like we're in a really uh an extraordinarily uh misleading uh sort of uh narrative and uh informationational environment right now?

Yes, definitely. Um and and it's incredibly difficult sometimes because you know these these threads do get picked up by certain um media outlets and so on and and then they're blown out of all proportion before you can actually start investigating it and saying well hold on this doesn't make any sense because of XY Z or or even logically and rationally it doesn't make any sense at all right so yeah I mean Definitely. Yeah. Yeah.

Only advice I can offer in that regard to, you know, our audience is, you know, just when you don't have any objective evidence to rely upon, you see these stories, just ask yourself, does it add up? Does it make knowing what you know about the actors that are involved in the story, is it logical? And uh a a lot of the time, I think that'll give you a good sense of what the what the reality is. But in any case, uh, any final words, Vanessa, before we sign off today?

No, just as as you said, I think take a deep breath before before buying some of the wilder narratives that that are being circulated at the moment because um, you know, they just don't make sense in in the overall bigger picture. Absolutely. Don't rush to judgment. In any case, always a pleasure speaking with you and I look forward uh to continue the conver conversation in future.

Thanks, Demetra. It's always good to be on with you.