Iran FM: US troops using Arab civilians as human shields Thursday, 26 March 2026 9:45 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 26 March 2026 9:46 PM]
Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi
Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said that US soldiers have abandoned their bases in the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries since the very beginning of the war, seeking shelter in civilian hotels and offices while turning local populations into human shields.
In a post on X on Thursday, Araghchi stated: “From outset of this war, U.S. soldiers fled military bases in GCC to hide in hotels and offices. They use GCC citizens as human shield.”
Araghchi drew a comparison to practices inside the United States, noting that American hotels routinely deny bookings to military officers whose presence could endanger civilian guests.
“Hotels in U.S. deny bookings to officers who may endanger customers. GCC hotels should do same,” the top Iranian diplomat urged.
Seyed Abbas Araghchi @araghchi From outset of this war, U.S. soldiers fled military bases in GCC to hide in hotels and offices. They use GCC citizens as human shield.
Hotels in U.S. deny bookings to officers who may endanger customers. GCC hotels should do same.
The New York Times Iran's Attacks Force U.S. Troops to Work Remotely Iran has severely damaaged several American military bases in the Middle East, officials say.
11:02 AM · Mar 26, 2026
Despite Washington’s aggressive posturing and a war of aggression on Iranian territory that began on February 28 — which targeted civilian sites including schools, hospitals, and sports facilities — American troops have shown little resolve to defend their forward positions.
Instead, they have retreated into densely populated civilian areas, recklessly exposing innocent Arab citizens to potential retaliatory actions.
Iran’s firm and precise response to the unprovoked US-Israeli aggression has repeatedly demonstrated the strength and determination of the Islamic Republic.
While Iranian forces continue to inflict defeats on the aggressors on multiple fronts, US commanders appear more concerned with self-preservation than with protecting their allies.
By hiding among civilians, the US not only violates basic principles of international humanitarian law but also endangers the very populations whose governments have hosted American bases and facilities long used to threaten regional stability and Iranian sovereignty.
The US and Israel launched an unprovoked war of aggression against Iran on February 28, assassinating Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, along with several senior officials and military commanders, as well as hundreds of civilians.
The Iranian armed forces have responded by launching almost daily missile and drone operations targeting locations in the Israeli occupied territories as well as US military bases and assets across the region.
They have also blocked the strategic Strait of Hormuz to oil and gas tankers affiliated with the adversaries and those cooperating with them.
Trump pauses attacks on Iran's energy plants Reuters Mar 26, 2026 #News #Reuters #Newsfeed
President Trump said the US would pause attacks on Iran’s energy plants for 10 days at Tehran’s request, claiming talks are going ‘very well,’ though an Iranian official rejected a US proposal as one-sided.
Transcript
US President Donald Trump on Thursday said he was pausing attacks on Iran's energy plants for 10 additional days at the Iranian government's request, adding that talks are going very well. Trump's social post came after he stressed at a morning cabinet meeting that Iranian officials were desperate for a deal to end the war that he and Israel launched last month. They now have a chance to make a deal, but that's up to them. A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Thursday that a proposal they received from the US for ending nearly four weeks of fighting is quote one-sided and unfair. The official said the proposal conveyed by Pakistan lacked the minimum requirements for success and served only US and Israeli interests. We have along with your foreign policy team presented a point action list that forms the framework for a peace deal. US special envoy Steve Whit confirmed that the US had sent a 15-point action list as a basis for negotiations to end the war. Pakistan's foreign minister said indirect talks between the US and Iran were taking place through messages relayed by Islamabad. Trump has tried to portray Iran as begging for peace after being decisively defeated. They've been obliterated. Who wouldn't negotiate? They are begging to make a deal. We'll see if we can make the right deal. If they make the right deal, then the then the straight will open up. Armu straight will open up. Tehran has downplayed diplomatic progress. On Thursday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps released footage of fresh missile launches. The war had effectively closed the straight of Hormuz, a maritime corridor for nearly /if of global oil and liqufied natural gas. Thrron has said it would allow what it called non-hostile vessels to transit the straight if they coordinated with Iranian officials. Malaysia's prime minister said on Thursday that after discussions with Iran, Egypt, and Turkey, his country's vessels would be allowed through the waterway. In the meantime, we'll just keep blowing them away unimpeded, unstopped. Well, there's not a thing they can do about they can't do anything about it. You know, I tell you, if they could, if they could, you'd be hearing about it. A Western diplomat said it was not clear if Washington was seeking to end the war or to calm markets before a potential ground operation. Trump is expected to send thousands of troops to the Middle East, driving expectations of a ground invasion.
Iran Downs F-18, PUMMELS Gulf States & Israel as US Ground War Looms Danny Haiphong Streamed live 10 hours ago #iran #trump #israel
Iran has downed yet another US fighter jet, answering Trump's ceasefire with a bold warning: "let the US negotiate with missiles." Waves 79, 80 and 81 have hit Israel and Gulf states hard as US assets continue to take a pummeling now admitted by the New York Times. Danny Haiphong breaks it down.
Transcript
Welcome everyone. Welcome back to the show. George S. Hi Fong. Hit the like button as you come on. Helps boost this program. Well, let's get started on the latest updates. Okay, so we are on wave and of Iran's Operation True Promise And we have to first begin of course with what happened during uh wave number which was the downing of the F-over Iran. This contradicts of course the uh uh constant statements and uh uh assertions by the United States administration by Sentcom uh by Donald Trump that Iranian air fences are indeed completely obliterated. So, the F-was downed over the port city of Chabahar, which is in Iran's souththeastern region. And I just want to pull up a map of where Chabahar is. Okay, this is where Chabahar is. This is off uh the uh the Arabian Sea, uh Iranian's southeastern most province. And as you can see, Chabar uh is right at the coastline, which means that the United States does not have air superiority as it claims. It does not have the capacity to bring its fighter jets deep into Iranian territory. This actually indicates that uh the longer this war goes on, the longer that uh the United States fires off its Tomahawk missiles and other long range missiles, the longer uh it goes on, they run out of these missiles and they have to creep closer and closer into Iranian airspace in order to uh hit their so-called targets. But of course, we know that it's been uh mainly civilians that have been uh uh been uh hit the most by uh the US's uh bombing campaign. Now, in other strikes that were hit during these waves, we saw in Jordan, the Alazra base was hit. US forces and aircraft were actually hit aircraft that were stationed. So, F-s, As, Cs, uh they were stationed there and targeted. and Bahrain. The Shikisa air base was targeted in Kuwait, which we will get to Kuwait in a minute because the New York Times just had a major revelation about just how devastating Iran's air strikes uh I mean Iran's missile strikes have been during this war. The Ali al- Salam air base was targeted um as well as aircraft that were stationed there and the camp Aphroden in Kuwait was also targeted. Now, a big part of this uh war uh has been Iran's coordination with other resistance factions in the region, including Hezbollah and the Iraqi resistance forces, and that continued into these waves. Um not only was the F-down during these waves, but we saw a massive number of coordinations with the uh resistance uh factions. So the axis of resistance conducted over operations between Iran, Hezbollah and the Iraqi resistance. Hezbollah carried out operations alone. The Iraqi resistance and this is all according to Iran and Lebanese sources and uh they uh uh coordinated together hit major targets all across uh Israel especially Tel Aviv and central Israel. So this uh operation true bombers continues unabated. The downing of the F-F-indicates that Iran indeed has air defenses working. This was at least the th aircraft. I've seen up to aircraft if we include MQReaper drones among other uh you know jets refueling tankers like the KC s and others about I've seen other estimates up to that have been lost so far in this conflict. Uh and and other targets that were hit during these waves also include Patriot air defense uh system in the Shik issa assa area uh a base uh a P reconnaissance aircraft fuel depot supporting US operations MQuh Reaper drone airfields and a satellite communication station in the Al Salam area. again Kuwait ended up being a major target during these latest waves and this has been a pattern. Okay, so the United States now is admitting uh through the mainstream media that there have been major problems uh dealing with Iran's missile attacks during these waves. And I'm just going to pull up this. Uh so it's not just that the F-aircrafts and F-uh just several days ago among others have been targeted by Iranianes, but really the main bulk of these operations have been missile and drone attacks on on Israel and the Gulf States. So these attacks have actually forced US troops. The to that we've heard about on these bases. Yeah. They're not operational. These troops are working from home or shall we say they are working in hotels all across the region because the bases have been completely destroyed. This is from the New York Times. Okay. And I'm going to pull up uh this quote uh from the New York Times which said has bombed US bases across the Middle East in retaliation for the USIsraeli war, forcing many American troops to relocate to hotels and office spaces throughout the region. This is according to military personnel and American officials. So now much of the land-based military is in essence fighting the war while working remotely with the exception of fighter pilots and crews operating and maintaining warplanes uh and conducting air strikes. Now uh that activity also can come of course from the US Abraham Lincoln which according to Iran uh they continue almost daily to target with anti-ship missiles, drones and other missile firepower uh causing it to retreat almost on the daily and there's some estimates it's hard because sometimes it turns off its uh transponders and its radars but uh there are those who believe that uh in Iran often says that the Abraham Lincoln is actually, you know, about if not km away from the Iranian coastline, making it uh far enough so it cannot get directly hit by these missiles, but also makes its operations increasingly difficult. So if one of these F-fighter jets like we saw shot down over uh Chabahar uh has to travel that far, Iran is definitely aware of this and is able to coordinate its air defense systems uh with uh increasing effectiveness. So many of the military bases in the region according to the New York Times used by American troops are uninhabitable. This is directly from the article. uninhabitable with the ones in Kuwait especially uh suffering perhaps the most damage. They cite that six US uh personnel were actually killed in a strike at Porsche that destroyed an army tactical operations center. Iranian drones and missiles also targeted and they continue to. I just read in the latest operation Ali Al Salam air base damaging aircraft structures and injuring personnel in Kuring damaging and uh maintenance and fuels facilities and we saw uh imagery of this over the last hours these um these fueling centers being targeted. So, the New York Times is admitting what we've been covering here every single day and about the F-being down, being hit by Iranian uh air defense systems ultimately demonstrates, which is there's no air superiority and there's also no air defenses in order to uh be able to defend these bases and US assets and Israel from these constant uh bombardments, from each of these successive waves. And this is uh being record uh uh reported more and more now uh by the mainstream media. According to officials close and sources close to the US military, the Pentagon is actually reconsidering or considering diverting Ukrainian military aid to the Middle East. It would be a shift, according to the Washington Post, that highlights growing trade-offs required to sustain its war with Iran as the conflict depletes the military's critical munitions. And in this article and in what I've seen in Jerusalem Post and others, it's going to take uh upwards of four to eight, some say even more than this years to replenish what has been used in this war. Because early on in the conflict and even into uh recent days, we see Israeli air defenses, we see US air defenses working overtime in the Gulf States, for example, to try to knock down one, two, uh uh three drones or missile attacks. So, it's becoming uh very untenable for the United States to continue this war. Uh, and you have US troops huddling inside of hotels in places like Bahrain and places like the UAE. And mind you, this really this really equates to the United States using these countries as human shields. I I mean they are uh uh forcing Iran now to target uh civilian areas when they uh you know abandon these bases and go into the uh you know commercial areas into these hotels in order to continue their operations. Again this is uh what I mean what does this signify? It signifies that the United States will do anything it can to maintain this war even when they are literally forced on the retreat. So the F-was down. The Gulf States in Israel were continuously pummeled. There were blackouts reported in Tel Aviv. Um, there's also reports that Iran was able to successfully strike a facility in the Ngev Desert area that produces white phosphorus, which is this horrific chemical weapon agent that has been used in Palestine. It's been used in Lebanon. It's been used uh by Israel all across the region, and it has the effect of essentially burning the skin when uh the munitions release it. And uh it it has been used to terrorize civilian populations for a very long time. And so now we are in the uh situation where Iran is targeting these facilities in Iran, Hezbollah, the Iraqi Iraqi resistance. They're working together to target US and Israeli assets all across the region. That is uh that is essentially the summary of what's happening in Operation True Promise Now, how is the United States responding to something like the F-being downed and of course Iran's missile and drone attacks continuing? Well, SenCom has denied the F-They've said actually not only have they denied the F-um uh being hit by Iranian air defenses, but they're also denying that any aircraft has been hit and forced to land downed as uh we should call it really, regardless of of whether it crashed or regardless of whether it's forced to land. Uh it is being downed. They've denied all of this. And as they've denied this, of course, we have this continuous ultimatum by Donald Trump. Now it was pushed from hours to now days uh as of yesterday and uh over the straight hormuz Iran has to reopen the straight hormuz or it's going to face a massive military attack by the Trump administration by uh sentcom and according to reports now the United States is seeking a quote unquote final blow for uh four options from which Donald Trump can choose from as these US forces in this looming and ground war uh begin uh their uh approach to the Middle East. They are now I believe just a a day away from uh reaching the Middle East uh from Japan or I mean I should say from Okinawa which isn't Japan and then uh uh from San Diego uh they are going to reach I think it's about Marines. They're thinking about a couple more thousand paratroopers. So there's going to be a significant number although not a huge number of US troops at least a huge number for what is needed uh in this kind of war uh that are going to reach there Friday. And these are the four options that Donald Trump was given from those close to the Pentagon. And so uh Donald Trump could choose to invade or blockade Car Island which is uh is uh exports about % of Iran's oil. uh invading Lorra, an island that helps Iran solidify its control of the straight of Hormuz. Uh this strategic outpost hosts Iranian bunkers, attack aircraft, I mean attack craft that can blow up cargo ships and radars that monitor movements in the straight. Uh he could choose seizing the strategic ally island of Abu Musa and two smaller islands which lie near the western entrance of the strait and are controlled by Iran but also claimed by the UAE. or he could choose to block and seize ships that are exporting Iranian oil on the eastern side of the straight. So these are the options that Donald Trump and the United States administration are being given by the Pentagon and by US military strategists. So overall, the reaction is now despite unfavorable conditions all across the region, unable to defend oneself from Iran's missile and drone attacks, unable to defend Israel from these same drone attacks, the Gulf States taking a beating, the economy, brunch crude is up to $now uh per barrel. The conditions are unfavorable. Only about % of Americans support this. So yes, perfect conditions for a ground operation. and a ground escalation. Well, how would this work out? Okay, because uh when we take the totality of what is going on, we see that now the mainstream media is coming to the conclusion that it's not going to work out well. And this is from CNN. Iran is building up defenses of Kar Island to protect against potential US ground attack. So essentially uh what CNN reported here is that uh there are shoulder fire drones, there are uh short-range ballistic missiles, there are mines laid across uh the coastline and into uh the uh territorial waters uh that that uh border Car Island. There's so many things that Iran is potentially doing. They're saying Iran is doing them already in order to uh ensure that a maximum level of pain is inflicted on the United States should uh it decide to try to occupy and invade Iranian land. Now, it gets even worse. Okay? Because in this the speaker of the parliament in Iran said that not only this that Iranian intelligence has uh information that a country in the region is going to operate uh as a potential forward base in order to launch this ground operation. And many are speculating that it's the UAE because the UAE has been talking a lot lately. Uh, we've had the ambassador to the UAE here write a whole opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal essentially arguing exactly what the United States and the Pentagon and Israel have been arguing about Iran at this very late stage in the war nearly a month in. And in this article, of course, it's all the same talking points, right? Iran is this big threat. We need to get rid of the nuclear capabilities, the missiles. we need to get rid of its support for regional players uh that resist the United States and Israel and affirming that the UAE is a strong partner of the United States. And the UAE has several islands uh off of its coast and off of the Iranian coast. Mind you, these two countries are very close together. Um you know, and essentially make up a key uh part of the water right of the straight of Hormuz. Uh there are islands actually that uh the UAE and Iran have disputed claims over which could potentially be the uh uh way the uh area in which the United States launches this disastrous or this attempted disastrous ground war. And what the speaker of the parliament said is that if this were to happen, Iran would respond with ceaseless attacks on this country and essentially uh make it impossible for the UAE to function or any country that participates in this to function as a state economically, militarily uh and of course politically. Okay. And it gets even worse though because Iran announced uh here is an analyst saying that uh on Irani TV that Iran will take the UAE in Bahrain should the US invade and that uh they have knowledge of the Iranian military actually training for this scenario. So the Iranian military is training for the scenario of invading Bahrain and the UAE coastlines and essentially changing the entire calculus of the region. I mean this would be a complete and utter disaster for the United States. It would force the United States into an impossible situation where it would have to decide to continue to fight a long war now at an escalatory level that just is not not sustainable. Especially when you have Donald Trump on the one hand deciding between these options, these very bad options which even Israel has said are not good options uh for the United States. They are deciding between these all of them lead to some kind of major confrontation with Iran. While at the same time, Donald Trump is saying we want to end this war quickly. Donald Trump has told his adviserss privately according to Axios that he wants this war to be wrapped up in two weeks time from March th. So sometime uh in the beginning and mi middle of April. These options however ultimately could lead to and likely will lead to military and political scenarios which make that untenable. Right? So if we have massive US forces killed or injured during even lowlevel retaliation responses by Iran, shoulder fire drones, these kind of things. Uh that creates a political crisis, that creates a military crisis. Uh if you have the United States trying to bombard Iran uh by getting closer and closer to Iranian airspace, well, you have maybe even uh more aircraft in a single day downed uh by Iranian air defense systems. Now, this is something that I said from the very beginning of this war would become a crisis. If Iran can retaliate in a way that makes it difficult for the US military to assume an asserted superiority that that alone is enough to make the United States to make Israel not just it's not even about thinking twice. They're continuing to go go forward escal in terms of escalation but it will make them very desperate. It will make them do things that actually hurt them in the long run. And that's what we've seen. And with the clo with the so-called closure of the straight of form which isn't a closure but with what Iran has done with the straight formoose it has actually uh done placed so much economic pressure on the United States uh that it is seeking now to try to get a swift end to the conflict where there really isn't one unless and this is the only offramp that the United States actually has which demonstrates that this war is not going in the favor of the United States or Israel. There's only one way to get a swift end to this war and that's meeting these conditions. And even these conditions are not a swift end to the war. So this is what Iran is saying. Its five-point plan to end this conflict would look something like this. A complete halt to the aggression by the enemy of the establishment of concrete mechanisms to ensure that the war is not imposed on Iran. Guaranteed and clearly defined payment of war damages and reparations. the conclusion of the war across all fronts and for all resistance groups throughout the region and international recognition and guarantees regarding Iran sovereign right to exercise authority over the street of hormuse. Uh these are not conditions that have pleased the United States. Even Donald Trump himself said took the tooth Donald Trump himself took the truth social and said all Iran is begging us for a for a deal but they're not putting terms out that are going to lead to a deal from the US side. So uh and it's because Iran has demands which are ultimately within its right to assert but uh wounds that the United States are just not willing to meet especially when it comes to the notion. It's not just the straight of horses, right? Because Donald Trump has said maybe he would seed some control over the straight of horror moves because the United States didn't really control the straight of before this, right? It's just that uh they have such a strangle hold over the pro economy in the world. Uh especially when it comes to the petro dollar, Saudi oil, Qatari gas, all of this, they have a strangle hold over it. Uh and they dictate the terms over it. uh and they had of course the United States has its own domestic production capacity which also gives it leverage in the oil and gas markets but uh it never really controlled the strait. So when Iran asserted control over the straight of Hormuz, the United States could do nothing about it. And now we see uh that Iran is imposing tolls. There are reports in the straight of Hormuz actually that not only is Iran imposing tolls on those who um who are using the straight, but uh they are actually asking for very detailed information about who is sailing on these aircraft. uh I mean on the who is sailing on these vessels uh what these vessels are all about who are they connected to it's all part of the strategy to ensure that US and Israeli linked tankers and vessels cannot pass it straight over from mus and that's exactly what's happening and this is what Donald Trump called a gift Donald Trump took to the media and said this is a gift to the United States Iran is making such good progress with us in talks by allowing us they allowing ing uh tankers to go through. He didn't mention that it's not US or Israeli affiliated tankers. And this was always the plan, right? There's always the plan to strangle the US economy while giving Iran more leverage internationally and globally to show that it is not only an authoritative player over the strait and over the global economy, but that it is not an enemy to the rest of the world, that actually it's simply defending itself. And ultimately, this strategy is working very well. Iran is uh shipping out and exporting record amounts of oil. The US even had to let go of sanctions temporarily in order to manipulate the markets. You have the United States doing everything it can to manipulate oil markets while Iran just continues to export its oil. So again, this is why the mainstream media continuously now is saying Iran has the advantage. Just check the economist out. Go Google it. The economist say Iran has the advantage. This isn't my words. This isn't something, you know, this isn't me promoting Iranian propaganda. This is simply the facts. So, uh, this is where we are at in the war. It's becoming increasingly clear that the United States is is seeking and desiring an off-ramp as quickly as it can while doing what is very dangerous. And this is the big the dangerous part about what's about to happen, especially as we go into this coming weekend, which is the United States is seeking an off-ramp, but the Donald Trump administration needs to make it look like a win. So, what does that mean? Well, it's going to have to uh fire off as much power as it can. It's going to have to launch as much firepower as it can at Iran and try some kind of operation that will make it look like the United States has uh took taken the upper hand while it hasn't at all. And now the question is going to be what happens next? Because Iran is certainly going to respond in kind and it's promising to respond in kind to any attacks on its territory, to any escalation of strikes on the state, on the government, and of course on the people who are paying the ultimate price for this war. We have to remember that's Iranian civilians that are dying in the thousands uh in order to defend their sovereignty uh from this criminal war of aggression. So uh Iran's going to respond. They're going to retaliate against the regional countries helping the United States conduct any kind of escalatory operation, especially a ground operation. And if it gets to the point where Iran finds it necessary to occupy parts of the UAE, parts of Bahrain, they're going to do it. You cannot uh no longer say over the course of this war that Iran is bluffing because what have we seen? Iran every time it says something, it does it. Right? When it's it's when it said if its energy uh facilities were attacked, it was going to attack regional oil facilities and gas facilities, it didn't. and it cut out % of Qar's gas capacity and Qar at this moment isn't even producing isn't even able to export gas at all. Right? So it has uh always followed up with a response. These are just the facts. This is what we can garner and glean from the uh uh from the the course of this war and the shape of this war and how it has gone. So uh uh we have a situation now where the United States and Israel are finding themselves increasingly cornered. Uh you have mayors across the Israeli uh colony crying and tearful and in panic over what's happening uh to Israel. There are thousands upon thousands, sometimes thousands alone in a single day being reported or a single number of days being reported as injured in these missile attacks. Iran has targeted especially its most powerful missiles, hypersonic missiles at the Israeli colony um for good for for good reason for Iran because Israel has uh made it known that it is uh a principal actor. It is side by side with the United States from the very beginning from February th when you had US and Israeli fighter jets uh conducting massive numbers of standoff strikes to decapitate the leadership of Iran. Iran has said, "Well, the Israeli colony is going to uh get the brunt of the damage of these attacks all across central Israeli, even the West Bank, the Palestinian uh occupied the occupied territories of Palestine. It has uh fired off on. It is hitting targets that are very precise. It is hitting military intelligence. It is hitting uh military facilities. It is also of course hitting uh very close two days in a row. It has hit the Deamona uh uh uh uh town where the nuclear facility nuclear research facility is and there reports that it's unclear what facilities were actually hit there uh because there was definitely in institutions connected to the research and development that occurs at the Deamona nuclear site uh that is not being reported and of course censorship is at an all-time high here on YouTube. You can't even publish, that's why I didn't publish the video of the downing of the F-Um, I didn't publish any uh uh missile strikes or anything like that here because lately I have seen the suppression go up. There are uh more penalties being leveled upon videos showing these things and uh we see that you know Planet Labs has censored its satellite imagery. Even in articles like the one I showed you with the New York Times, they're not even publishing the imagery of this. It's very few and far between. Uh they publish old satellite imagery that has already been uh making the rounds for many weeks now, but new imagery of these attacks not coming out. Uh Israeli and Gulf state media is playing their part and of course US media is playing their part to hide it. Even though even Fox News and other uh in outlets, MSNBC, etc. on the ground in somewhere like Tel Aviv, they haven't been able to hide it. Sometimes the the missiles go off uh right behind them. They're falling. No air defense air defense interceptors are able to take them down. So what does all this mean everybody? What does all this mean? The the entirety of the landscape. What is the full landscape and picture of this war really mean for the future of the world? because we can start getting into this kind of analysis as uh we see the shape of it uh go become very very clear. Okay. Well, what it means is that the United States is essentially gambling everything on Iran right now. Forget China, forget Russia. You see that Russia uh they are going to have to move weaponry and other munitions and other and air defense systems etc away from the Ukraine front. Uh that is of course only going to make things harder for Ukraine as if they weren't already hard enough. And that conflict is all but sewn up. Uh it really is just a matter of time until Russia uh you know uh completes its war of attrition. uh in the direction of victory and uh China, forget about it. Donald Trump has had to postpone his visit to China to May now because China is not going to host. They say it's because the United States can't be, you know, Donald Trump is too distracted by the war in Iran. That of course is a factor. Uh but China is not going to host Donald Trump when it's uh in an active war with Iran. And we are going to have to see what happens in May because it all depends on how this war concludes. If this war concludes with the United States or at least if this iteration of the war concludes with simply the United States um uh you know saying it's going to do a ceasefire, it's going to stop hitting Iran. Well, there's no guarantee that that's not going to happen again. And uh it's it's really about whether Iran can actually achieve these objectives especially the international guarantees and the mechanisms in which that can be made possible i.e. uh the US leaving the Middle East in a significant if not full way uh after this uh uh kinetic element of the war is concluded uh that uh we should we might see China maybe consider a meeting but if it's just a pause it's it's hard to see that meeting actually taking place even in May and I think another big factor that we have to watch out for here is even if the United States does what it says it's going to do, right? It's going to it's looking at the the the losses. It's looking at the damages. It's looking at the future of the global economy in a complete shipwreck situation. And even if it does what it's going to do, right, the big bang, the final blow, the uh conducting as many air strikes as many strikes from the air as it can while the US Marines and paratroopers, etc. conduct some limited operation on Iranian territory. Even if that occurs and that leads to the Trump administration saying, "Well, we're going to stop firing. We're gonna stop uh uh we won. There's no guarantee that Iran is going to stop." Actually, there's no guarantee that Israel is going to stop. And that's a I think that is a uh really big element to watch here because Benjamin Netanyahu has just given instructions to his defense ministry which is then giving these instructions to the Israeli occupation forces to ensure that Iran's weapons capabilities, missile capabilities are destroyed in the next hours because Donald Trump could abruptly stop. It's hard to it's hard to know whether there's anything to these kind of reports regardless of whether they come from Netanyahu or simply sources in the Israeli regime itself. Uh regardless of where they come from within the Israeli regime, it's hard to ever trust anything the Israeli regime says. But it indicates that these reports are getting out this kind of messaging that Israel wants the general public in the world to hear. It's obvious that there is a panic and a concern that is very real. And it is very and it's been the case since really Hezbollah entered the war because when Hezbollah entered the war that ended up demonstrating this was not going to be a two to four day operation like they thought it was going to be. And Israel has very limited everything right. It has limited uh capabilities militarily to strike at the uh you know to strike at Iran for many many weeks. It also has limited capabilities to hit uh yeah it has limited capabilities to defend itself from the air. Uh so uh with these air defenses you know AIron Dome uh all of these uh the Patriot Systems TAD they're all running out. So, you know, uh, Israel is very desperate to to continue hitting as much as it can because it's overall goal at this point. None of them, Israel, the United States, they're not looking at regime change anymore. That's over. You have Iranians circling their energy facilities in rallies to protect their uh uh to protect their energy, to protect their infrastructure. Which means, what does that mean everybody? That means that Iranian people are not just railing on the streets saying stop bombing us, but they're putting their bodies on the line. We see long lines uh uh you know uh in the queue to for Iranian men to join the military. And you have the Iranian military itself through Tasnim News. They published an image which I won't publish here because uh of censorship but they published an image where it was essentially Iran coast and uh oil a barrel of oil on the street of Hormuz and there was a coffin uh American uh soldiers coffin a cartoon you know this is all a cartoon uh essentially blocking the uh oil and essentially what it said was uh come closer right so this is Iran to the US military come closer. So this is the level of confidence that Iran is operating under. And there's no guarantee and Iran has said it that this is going to stop just because the United States stops firing and there's no guarantee Israel will stop. So that's something we have to watch out for in the coming days and weeks. Uh because Iran has objectives now. Iran has said it's no longer on the defensive, it's on the offensive. And really, this is the broader picture of the world right now. The United States is actually on the retreat and on the defensive. How many years have I been saying on this show that the US empire is in a state of crisis, contraction, and decline? It is not about uh you know this maybe myth and image that people have in their head when they think of this. When they think of collapse, they think of an explosion. They think of everything falls down. They think you know Rome crashed in a day. But that's actually not what happens. That's not what happens. What we see is all of the signs that the US empire is in a state of collapse and that it is actually in the final stage of its life which is why it's taking the actions that it's taking now in order to buy itself more time in order to maintain its gemony and potentially expand it so that this decline does not happen um and does not uh occur in such a rapid fashion and in such a fashion that leads to the rise in an alternative. Right? If you can't win, then you destroy the whole board. And I've been saying this on this program with friends like Brian Berlettic uh from the very beginning is that this is about destroying the whole board. It's not about chess. It's not about checkers. It's not about any kind of strategy. No, it's about destroying the board so the US is the only one left on it. And that's becoming increasingly, if not entirely, impossible because China and Russia are never going to disappear. And Iran has just shown over these last three and a half weeks that it's not not only is it not going to disappear, but it might actually become stronger out of this. And that's the mainstream media. Again, don't persecute me here for those watching. This is the mainstream media saying this. Go look it up. Actually, type in those words into Google and type in those words into whatever search engine you use. Um, you know, uh, that is, uh, that is what many are saying in the mainstream that Iran is becoming stronger out of this. So this war has actually strengthened the multi world war strengthened China for sure. This energy market business Donald Trump keeps saying, "Oh, China's energy markets, they rely on the straight over." China's been trading with Iran. China's fine. China is not going to um uh uh really experience the disruptions. And China has a good negotiating position with Iran as a friend to the point where if it needs gas and other resources from other countries, it can ask Iran to help it out. Now, it's always it's also going to understand and not fight with Iran. If for example Qatari gas and other things cannot pass through the straight of hormuz it will um you know it will rely on its reserves for a period of time up until uh things get back to a stable uh rate. But not to mention this, it's not even just about dipping into these reserves because this is what a lot of people don't pay attention to when talking about energy and the world situation. They don't talk about it's not just that China has oil reserves that they've been stocking up for years and now can um you know go for quite a long time months a year plus uh using those reserves if everything were to go into collapse which it really hasn't. Um but if it was all to collapse uh and the straight actually had to be closed in a wartime situation you go months to a year uh doing that just uh for its old oil production needs. But China also is the world leader in renewable energy consumption, production and export. So what that means is that those markets are going to boom. Solar energy, wind energy, uh hydrogen energy, also of course uh electric vehicles and and highspeed trains and all of this that is going to boom in China as it already has been for many many years. and they're just going to continue to shift in that direction and they'll also provide it to the world at a higher rate uh for those countries that want to move in that direction and lessen their reliance on uh oil and less than a reliance on crude and and this kind of thing. uh China is not in a major crisis over this war and whether it's the Atlantic Council or other uh inside sources who are saying that Russia and China are coming out stronger from this they are. All of the attention is off of the Ukraine conflict. Russia can just move in that war in a way that allows it to focus on itself and to bite its own time and to develop its own strengths. China is in a very unique uh position where the entire world is watching the United States uh essentially commit economic suicide and homicide to itself and on the world. It is destroying everything. It is risking the entire global found the entire foundation of its own economic hegemony of the dollar for a a war of aggression on Iran and of course for short-term profits for the gas and oil companies which demonstrates to the world that yeah China is a more reliable partner. So everything that China has been doing with the global south, with all countries in the world, integration projects, all of it, expect that to accelerate. And also expect China and Russia now to be even more ready for a conflict with the United States, should the United States go down this disastrous path in the years to come. So expect that China has through providing these satellite radars, etc. to Iran to now understand the US fight way of war even more so than it ever has before. Expect the same from Russia because Russia's been finding similar technology as well as the reports that it's now shipping even drones and food aid etc to Iran. uh you better believe that Iran that Russia has deep knowledge now of how the United States fights in a war in in its current condition and they're likely not impressed by what they've seen uh because whatever Iran is doing to deter to fight back and push back the US and Israeli war machine a similar kind of conflict against Russia and China would be far more disastrous because China and Russia have more than what Iran has in air defenses, ballistic missiles, but they also have aerial power and naval power to a degree, especially China with naval power and air power for Russia. uh these two countries have far more and are geographically situated to make US assets in this part of the world you know in Eastern Europe and on the European flank uh Eurasian flank of Russia and uh in the Asia- Pacific with China it would be even worse right forget Taiwan forget about it thei China knows now what it needs to do to ensure that Taiwan is uh not subject of some kind of uh military operation by the United States. The United States has shown all of its cards and in the coming days it might show even more cards about what it can do in an amphibious assault, what it can do in a ground operation. And it's likely that we're going to see that it's it's it's going to be limited, right? That this is going to be a very ugly part of the war. It's going to lead to higher single number casualties than we've seen or at least we've seen reported uh by sentcom. This is the direction and China and Russia are taking deep note of this. And another big implication of this that we are all that is not going to change. just mark it down here is that we are never going to say that the resistance in the region is weak that the resistance in the region is uh not moving forward in achieving its objectives of course of sovereignty of expelling the Israeli colony etc because you don't see Hezbollah you don't see the Iraqi resistance you don't see Yemen you don't see any of these forces crying panicking any of this on the Israeli side you do regardless of maybe whether it's their mental health going completely out of out of control because of the crisis that they face or whether they we should take their word and say, "Well, this is very real. This is very real. The Israeli colony's future uh is is not very long for this world." But regardless of any of that, we can see that if a if a riarch resistance is uh conducting on average nearly an operation an if Hezbollah is conducting sometimes plus operations in a single day, firing rockets and ballistic missiles that many believe they didn't have at all into Israel. if uh they're conducting ground operations where they're hitting Mccurva tank after Mccurva tank destroying Israeli military assets trying to invade uh the um you know invade Lebanon that means that uh the resistance is not weak. These are some of the lessons we are going to continue to learn from this war is that uh the resistance is now weak. the multipolar world is actually moving forward and it's likely to be strengthened by this uh uh by this war and uh the United States is on the back foot economically the the level of contraction that is uh possible from this war is astronomical and even if it doesn't lead right even if in the next weeks we see of course high oil prices uh continue and then maybe they drop off a bit and there's market manipulation that doesn't tell the whole story of anything economically because we know what has happened to the United States over decades and that is economic contraction. Its share of the global economy is much less than during World War II. I believe it makes up less than a fourth of the world economy now when it was nearly half after World War II. So uh uh the share of the US is of the US economy in the world uh in terms of its global um you know predominance over the markets has shrunk and that's going to continue. So if that continues that means the US dollar regardless of its world reserve currency status is going to continue to decline. trust in the United States economy is going to be at an all-time low. And even countries, right, these countries that have uh been severely hit by uh Iran's response in the Gulf, all countries now, regardless of their allegiance, whether they lean more toward China, Russia, uh or whether they are completely in the dominion of the United States as a puppet state, now they're all going to have to think twice about whether US protection, quote unquote, we should really say US occupation and US dominance is really beneficial for them. We might both states sing a very different tune in the coming days and weeks after the full scope of the damage is assessed. Truthfully, right now, what is happening is that the Gulf States have a gun to their head. The leaders, they do. Look at the way the UAE is acting. Literally given a script. the ambassador to the um US from the UAE given a script and he had to read that script verbatim to the Wall Street Journal and they typed a little article for him saying Iran bad, Iran bad, Iran bad because uh the UAE has to do what the master says and this is true for the entirety of the Gulf States. Saudi Arabia has said we want to join the war. You don't you heard that a couple days ago or a day ago. You don't hear that so much now. What are they going to do? They are literally just following US orders. Um even though they've seen what's happened to the Prince Sultan air base, they know that both Iran and Yemen have the possibility of completely obliterating their entire oil industry, not just through the closure of the street of Formuz, but what's coming, Iran has just promised this, which is the closure of the Baba Mendab straight. They promise that that will be closed if there is an invasion in an attack and Ansarala is going to come to their aid to help them do this because they already did it for over a year from uh I believe it was November onward for over a year they closed it and they sunk the port in Israel closed down it's closed down because of that activity alone so that could happen again so factor that with the assertion of dominance over the straight form moves and you have a complete u strangle hold by the axis of resistance over the economic water waves that are so critical and crucial to not just energy trade but the entirety of the global economy. Uh so these are the lessons and these are the developments that we're going to have to watch out for that only uh can be gleaned from actual analysis rather than simply uh reading the headlines and understanding what's happening on the battlefield. It's why I begin with this and end with this because this is how we put together the pieces of history. And um ultimately the biggest lesson out of all of this, the biggest one that no other channel will tell you, no other geopolitics channel will really tell you this. I have to say none. But the real big lesson of this is that you have a worldwide struggle continuing which is the struggle against US empire, US imperialism versus the forces of resistance seeking self-determination, independence, true independence and of course the economic independence and development projects suited for their way of life for their material conditions on the ground. That is the shape of the global struggle. It always has been, but now we are seeing it take a form we've never really seen before because Iran has been forced to um not only build capabilities but now demonstrate them on the world stage which hasn't really been um you know uh I don't think we've seen a country that has developed these kind of capabilities from a position that it's in right uh uh call an oppressed country uh a proud country but one that has been sanctioned uh to an attempted death. It has been um you know kept in a state of relative underdevelopment uh while impressively developing its economy in a very self-reliant way uh to make advances in education field, technology field and of course the military field. Um but nonetheless we haven't seen a country under this amount of pressure that's considered a weaker state. It doesn't have economic predominance. It doesn't have a currency that's a world reserve currency status. Doesn't have a massive uh air force or any of this. But we haven't seen a country have to demonstrate capabilities, build them, and demonstrate them against the empire really in history because remember the Soviet Union, it never really fought a war in confrontation directly with the United States. It was always a cold war and it went immediately nuclear. uh which is why the United States attempted to do what it does which is to it try to destroy any country that would build a type of society which would then ally with the Soviet Union to uh develop itself right so that's all across Asia Latin America Africa that's what the United States Empire did during the cold war when it had uh far a more powerful status in the world and was you know a more stable hegeimon should we say Um, that was ultimately why we didn't see the Soviet Union have to demonstrate its capabilities after World War II, right? It did during World War II. It liberated the world from fascism, but we didn't have to see it um uh essentially use the weapons to a far to a great degree that now we see actually Russia using on the battlefield and unfortunately even Ukraine used on the battlefield. They didn't have to do it to a huge degree. So, um, we're seeing Iran be forced to do it. And now we are learning what that looks like. And it looks like, yeah, Iran had to take hits, uh, like all countries that have to face down what the US empire has left at its disposal, which is, um, a massively bloated military budget that has been used to, uh, derive limited munitions to to produce limited munitions, but a focus, a heavy emphasis on this aerial power. in really what I call the cowardly way of war, right? Air power that can strike at long distances and uh that leads to heavy losses. It leads to heavy losses uh in terms of the civilian casualties. Um but in terms of militarily, it doesn't really do very much. and Iran and the Iranian people have said just like the people of Palestine and Gaza said during Alaka flood, just like the people of Lebanon uh when Hezbollah got into this war again um after many iterations in the decades that have passed uh just like Yemen, right? They they all took uh a risk. They said we are going to put our bodies on the line to defend people, to defend sovereignty, and it's going to mean we're going to take hits, right? Yemeni people had to suffer from the March bombing campaign. They've had to they had to suffer for a decade plus from Saudi US terror uh terror campaign war which was a huge humanitarian catastrophe. The people of Gaza of course we all know how much they have suffered for the sacrifice of the resistance to elevate uh that struggle to a new level um during all the flood. And of course the people of Lebanon cannot forget the people of Lebanon who have had to suffer to such a huge degree in order to continue to try to assert their sovereignty out of this attempt by the United States to establish a puppet regime there for the Israeli colony. That is um that was the calculation and Iran made a similar calculation just with far greater resources than any of those other sources other um other forces. Right? They said we are going to yes we are going to uh ensure that our sovereignty is protected and that uh we do not submit to threats and to aggression and that will be an enduring lesson for the entire world of what the uh of what the world situation what countries in a ituation possibly subordination or they're being attacked um uh this will be a huge lesson. People are going to take note and they're going to attempt to build a similar model. And now others might say, well, people shouldn't emulate Iran because of the nuclear question. And indeed, many who watch this program say uh states that are under fire should develop nuclear weapons to ensure that invasions like this do not happen. That's not always going to be possible first of all for a lot of countries in the world especially those who might not have the economic technical and developmental capacity to do that at this time and you have Russia and China who want to see uh the country the world not move in a nuclear proliferation direction. Ultimately, most of the world does not want to see nuclear weapons get in the hands of everybody because um ultimately when you have nuclear armed states like the US and Israel willing to use them, then that means you are going to have to be willing to use them as well. And so it ultimately becomes uh uh I think the ultimate lesson that we're going to we're going to take away from this is that we're need a world situation that is far more favorable, united and linked together on a common basis of solving the problems of humanity which then will uh create the impetus right that create the impetus for a stronger level of defense. But that means countries and systems and states around the world are going to have to either one um if they're let's say of the oligarch or elite side, they're going to have to see their self-interest as being greater than let's say the interest of their masters. More likely what we're going to see is we're going to see revolutions all around the world that uh create governance structures which allow for this level of cooperation. Um, that's a more long-term project and that's one that is going to continue, right? Because I've had analysts like Scott Ritter and others on this show say, "Yeah, the regime change may come in the Gulf." The regime change may come in countries that uh bow at the feet of the United States and uh paid the ultimate price for it and ultimately created conditions for their own demise, which is possible, right? because we know that the people in Bahrain, we know especially ethnic minorities in countries like that in the UAE. Um we know the level of catastrophe that people in these countries have to live when there's no war and we know that in places like Jordan and Bahrain, we've seen people cheering and clapping when Iran is striking their targets in these countries. So, you know, I had to, you know, people close to me have asked Danny, well, if Iran has to go like occupy the coast of Bahrain, UAE, cut out their lights, hit their water desalination plants, all this stuff. Um, doesn't that just uh mean the citizens have to pay the price? It it it indeed could mean that. Uh civilians, yeah, it could mean that. Um, but ultimately what it means is that we all have a responsibility, especially Americans and Westerners, to bring this war to a just end so that that doesn't have to happen and that something as cataclysmic and catastrophic as this war has been to the world situation at least um uh economically in particular, but to people's lives. Ultimately what matters the most is the Iranians and and those who have had to die uh Lebanese etc have had to die needlessly and ceaselessly inhumanely war crimes right in a genocidal war criminal fashion that's what really matters stopping that because only when that stops can we actually build a new world this is the weight and the burden right this isn't the white man's burden anymore in the US this is the imperial burden that every person in the United States really has to cope with whether they ignore it, don't know anything about it, or whether they are actively, like many of you who watch this show, actively um considering this. So, that's where we're at. That's the burden, the actual burden that uh Americans and Westerners face. So, I want to just thank all of you for tuning in today. Um I know we're doing daily updates. I want to thank everyone who gave memberships. Thank you to all of you who became members. a lot of members. I want to thank uh Zakius uh for that. Maria for your membership. Reg for your membership. Thank you, Sparky. And thank you, Kier Brown. Thanks for all your hard work, Danny. You've been a vulnerable resource of independent throughout this entire saga. Well done. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. I do my best uh to ensure that you not only have daily updates, but um that we ultimately are not just getting the information that we need, but truthfully that we are getting the analysis that we need. that we are getting an understanding of the entire picture so that um we can come out of this ready to build something different. That's really the ultimate goal here. So, if you really appreciate this work, hit the like button where you go all of you. If you have not yet, please do just go and hit the like button. It's completely free and that helps boost the show once it is over. It tells YouTube, "Wow, people really want to see this. They really like it. So, let's show it to more new people." And that that that actually plays a role. So, if you really care about the information that comes out of a program like this, hitting the like button uh just allows for these very stringent YouTube algorithms to say, "hm, we really like that show." Um, people like that show, so we should like it, too. And, uh, we'll make more money out of it is essentially what they say. But, uh, ultimately, if we can get more people watching it, then, uh, that's what really counts. And then, of course, you can go to the description, Patreon, Substack, and so much more. um is where you can find uh places to support this show. You become a member monetarily. That really helps out if you a paid member and you become a free member. All of you become free members because if you can't become a paid member because you get all the updates and of course with censorship, you never know what happens. Um in the video description below, you can also subscribe to Rumble if I have to go over there uh more commonly, more frequently because of censorship. I don't know. I don't know what this war is going to do and especially if there's ground war. You don't you never know. So, without further ado, everybody, um, thank you for all your support. I'll be back tomorrow. I believe Pepe Escobar is going to come on with me at the same time tomorrow. Uh, my last day traveling. So, I'll be back um in my general location um at different times, snot at this ungodly hour that I am uh streaming now for my location. Uh, but like the uh more to the general times that I stream in the middle of the afternoon, Eastern time. Without further ado, tomorrow, same time, uh, March th, sI almost said a.m., but it's a.m. Eastern time, p.m. Central European time. Pepe escar. Bye-bye. Sync to video time
