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
Fear of Iranian retaliation forces Trump to withdraw; IDF on verge of collapse | Janta Ka Reporter Janta Ka Reporter Mar 27, 2026
US President Donald Trump has been forced to extend his deadline on Iran for the second time. This is largely due to Iran's warning of retaliate against any strikes on its energy infrastructure by the US military. Elsewhere, the IDF chief has publicly admitted that his force was about to 'collapse in on itself' due to manpower shortage. Rifat Jawaid says that Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu made a serious miscalculation on Iran.
Transcript
Despite Donald Trump's repeated claims to have won the war against Iran, two developments have further established their undisputed fact and that is that they are not looking good for Trump or his war criminal Israeli boss Benjamin Netanyahu. First, Donald Trump has once again extended the deadline to bomb Iran's energy infrastructure by more days. His earlier -day ultimatum was expiring today. Then the Israeli terrorist outfit, the IDF, has made a stunning confession about its rapid disintegration as a result of Iranian onslaught. This would be the broad focus of my video today. Also in my video, another Lego bombshell by Iran on the topic of Trump's desperation to look for a ceasefire. So please stay tuned. So moments after the deranged occupant of the White House claimed for the millionth time that his military had won the fictional war against Iran, he took to social media to announce the postponement of his threat to Iran for the second time. Remember he had first issued a -hour ultimatum to Iran, threatening to commit a war crime by bombing the Islamic Republic's power plants. But when Iran threatened to blow up the energy infrastructure across West Asia in retaliation, Taco Trump developed cold feet and said he was postponing his threat by days. That deadline was expiring today. And even before the expiry of that deadline, Trump wrote this on his social media platform, Truth Social. And I quote, "As per Iranian government request, please let this statement serve to represent that I am pausing the period of energy plant destruction by days to Monday, April the th, at p.m. Eastern time. Talks are ongoing and despite erroneous statements to the contrary by the fake news media and others, they are going very well. Thank you for your attention to this matter, President Donald J. Trump. End quote. Trump is deluding himself once again by falsely claiming that he has done so at the request of the Iranians. The fact remains that no one in the Iranian government has approached him with any such requests. This is just Trump trying to calm the nerves of his support base in the US and also the sentiments in the international oil market. He realizes that unlike him, the Iranians do not make empty threats. Iran stands today amid the throats of an illegal war imposed by two bullying nuclear armed regimes, the United States and Israel. This war of aggression is blatantly unjustified and brutal. They initiated the this aggression on th February while Iran and the United States were engaged in a diplomatic process to resolve Americans alleged concerns over Iran's nuclear program. They betrayed diplomacy for a second time in the course of nine months by torpedoing the negotiating table. Among the most harrowing manifestations of this aggression was the calculated phased assault on Shajarat Haybea Elementary School in the city of Minab, south of Iran, where more than students and teachers were slaughtered in cold blood. This barbaric attack is but the visible tip of a far bigger iceberg, one that conceals beneath its surface far graver catastrophes, namely the normalization of the most abhorrent violations of human rights and humanitarian law and the audacity to commit atrocity crimes with impunity. Mr. president. At a time when the American Israeli aggressors in their own assertions possess the most advanced technologies and the highest precision militarian data systems, no one can believe that the attack on the school was anything other than deliberate and intentional. Targeting Shajay school was a war crime and a crime against humanity. one that demands unequivocal condemnation by all and unambiguous accountability for the culprits. This atrocity cannot be justified, cannot be concealed and must not be met with silence and indifference. The attack on Shajra school in Minab was not a mere incident nor a miscalculation. The United States contradictory remarks aimed at justifying their crime could not in any manner elude their responsibility. To denounce such a merciless assault on a place inherently civilian, a place where the most innocents reside and pursue knowledge, is not merely a legal obligation under human rights frameworks. It is a moral and human imperative. Our conscience will judge us more profoundly than any tribunal ever could. Distinguished delegates, Shaj Elementary School has not been the only casualty of American Israeli atrocity crimes during the past days of their illegal war. Human rights and international humanitarian law have been massively and systematically violated by the invaders in an unprecedentedly brutal manner. They are targeting civilians and civilian infrastructures with no regard for laws of war and basic principles of humanity and civility. More than schools have been demolished or damaged across Iran and more than students and teachers martyed or wounded. As as the result, the aggressors who are arrogantly shouting no mercy, no quarters, and threatening to strike Iran's vital infrastructure have been attacking hospitals, ambulances, health workers, red crescent rescuers, refineries, water sources, and residential areas. War crime and crime against humanity are not sufficiently describing the gravity of the atrocities they are committing. Digressors targeting pattern accompanied by their rhetoric leave little doubt as to their clear intent to commit genocide. Distinguished colleagues, this unjust war of whims by the United States and Israel against the noble nation of Iran is the direct result of silence in the face of earlier manifestations of lawlessness and atrocity in occupied Palestine, Lebanon, and elsewhere. Indifference and silence in the face of injustices would bring no security and peace. It would invite more insecurity and right violations. The United Nations and the core values it embodies as well as the overall human rights framework are at serious stake. You all need to call out the aggressors and let them know that the community of states, the human collective conscience, hold them accountable for the abhorrent crimes they are committing against Iranians. Iran has never sought war. Iranians are a peaceful, noble nation inheriting one of the richest civilizations on earth. Yet they have demonstrated absolute resolve and determination to defend themselves against the brutal aggressors who know no boundary in perpetrating all sorts of crimes. A defense that shall persist as long as needed. Watch this US Marine veteran share his analysis with Tucker Carlson. The problem of taking Car Island is twofold. uh one that it lies uh a long way on the other side of the straits of Hormuz where we have no ships. Um we have no logistical capabilities. Um it is closer to Kuwait than it is our where our current troops are located or marines are located. Um there's another place which is called Kasham uh which is located literally right in the middle of the streets of Hormuz. Uh but that is a or so square mile island uh that is effectively in a U in the straight. Um if I was going to try and reopen the Straits of Hormuz and you know I'm not some grand tactician, I would think that's a pretty good spot to go. Um which also means your opponent knows exactly that. Um that being said, is there the potential for us to land troops in either one of those places? Um, yes. Could we do a contested landing into those areas? Possibly. Um, there would be casualties in my assessment. Um, but speaking to Carg first, if you drop a bunch of guys into Kar, which is a, I believe, square miles, it's a small spot, you are assuming that they can hang out there and shut down the Iranian oil exports um without receiving any kind of counter fire. um you're banking on the Iranians deciding not to destroy their own infrastructure uh when you've already signaled to them that this is an existential fight. So to me that makes no sense. It seems the entire US administration is run by a bunch of morons and drug addicts who have no idea what they're doing. Yesterday, Trump's deputy JD Vance claimed that Iranians was sending suicide bombers to the US wearing vests that had nuclear bombs hidden inside them. Have you seen any bigger lunacy than this? And these are the clowns who the Americans have given the control of their nuclear arsenal to. When I say options, I think it's important the American people know options for what? And it's options to ensure that Iran never has a nuclear weapon. You talk about people who walk into a crowded supermarket and have a vest on and they blow up the vest and a couple of people get killed and that's a terrible tragedy. What happens when what's on the vest is not something that can kill a couple of people but can kill many many tens of thousands of people. That is the most important American national security objective that exists for any administration at any time is you don't want the worst people in the world to have a nuclear weapon. That's why the president is doing this. That's why the president cares so much about this particular issue. That's where the Israeli terrorist outfit, the IDF, has made a stunning admission of their defeat against the Iranians. For the first time in history, the Israelis are publicly accepting their weakness and potential defeat against a country. They were so used to bombing and killing helpless Palestinians that they thought they could replicate their barbarity against the Iranians. But they miscalculated the tactfulness of the proud Persian race. You only have to read what the settler colonist leader of opposition Ya laid wrote on Twitter. He's the same guy who cheered who celebrated the bombing of Tehran and the assassination of Iranian leaders and massacre brutal massacre of Iranian school children in Minab. Today his tone has changed after learning about the warning from the IDF chief al Zamir. He wrote, and I quote, "On the eve of Passover, I want to warn the citizens of Israel. We are facing another security disaster. For years, I have been a member of Israel's security cabinets and the most sensitive security forums. As prime minister, foreign minister, finance minister, member of the foreign affairs and defense committee. In all those years, I don't recall a warning as grave as the one issued last night by the chief of staff, left general, Aal Zamir to the political security cabinet. Anyone who heard him yesterday will not be able to say, "I didn't know. I'm raising red flags." The chief of staff said, "The IDF is on the verge of collapse." End quote. The problem is that Western media outlets have been quick to parrot the insane claims made by criminals Trump and Nathan. These propaganda outlets are still busy repeating their fake claims about having degraded Iranian military capabilities and yet they have been unable to end the blockade of the state of Hormuz. Iran has been firing a barrage of sophisticated missiles in all directions with regularity. Even when I speak to you, they're busy firing missiles to all those targets. People in the settler colony are going nuts because of the frequency with which they have to rush to bunkers during the day and night both. But America and the settler colony are winning. America is winning, but his secretary of state or secretary of Tugri I should say, Marco Rubio still moans about the fact that the Europeans have chosen to not help the most powerful army in the world. The United States is constantly being asked to help in a war and we have more than any other country in the war in the world on a war that's happening in another continent in Ukraine. But uh but when the US had a need, he didn't get positive responses. So right now he's just making the observation that you know I think there was a couple of the leaders in Europe who said that this was not Europe's war or Ukraine is not America's war and yet we've contributed more to that fight than any other country in the world. So it'll be something to examine uh the president will have to take into account down the road. I will leave you with the latest release of the Iranian Lego video. See how brutally they are trolling Trump for his fake claims on being approached by Tehran for peace talks.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. That's it for me. Thank you very much for your support of this platform and our journalism. If you haven't subscribed to my channel, please do so because that's one of the many ways you can support independent journalism. God bless you all.
Pepe Escobar: Iran RAINS Missile HELL on Israel & Gulf, Trump's Invasion COLLAPSES Danny Haiphong Streamed live on Mar 27, 2026 #israel #trump #iran
Pepe Escobar joins the show to break down Iran's shocking response to Trump, who is now seeking an off-rap through desperate escalation that could spiral into full-scale catastrophe. Iran has called Trump's bluff and we analyze what you need to know to cut through the fog of war.
Transcript
Welcome everyone. Welcome back to the show. It's your host Danny Haiphong. As you can see, I am joined by Pepe Escobar, geopolitical analyst, independent journalist. Pepe, good to see you, my friend. How are you? Good to see you, Danny. Yeah, tell me about it. We are all completely nuts, but good to see you and good to talk to your audience again. Yes, everyone hit the like button as you come on. We're going to get started right away. So Pepe, you've written a number of columns just in the last few days about what's happening, the latest updates in the Iran war. Uh Iran once again, you know, Pummel, Deona, Tel Aviv, Israel. It struck two ports in Kuwait overnight. But I wanted to ask you also about, you know, the straight of four moves. There's reports even just in the last few hours that Iran has started to uh uh push back uh the remaining ships there and say, "No, don't you can't cross right now." Many believe it's probably because there is an operation that's about to begin launched by the United States as they send thousands of troops, uh, Marines, they're coming on, uh, likely today or tomorrow. And, uh, are supposedly going to be deployed very soon. But according to US officials tell talking to Donald Trump, they're saying none of these options for ground war look very good. I know you've been covering all of this. Where where do you see the war right now as of uh us speaking here as we enter the month-long uh uh period? This has gone on for nearly a month now. Yeah. Uh well uh what's happening in our moose today it's slightly different to what was happening until yesterday. So the column that I published yesterday, uh, a great deal of the column is explaining how it works, which is a relatively simple but quite complex for the owners of the tankers. In fact, three stages. First of all, they have to submit all the data to a broker connected to the IRGC. It can be a broken in Iran, uh, all across West Asia, in Asia, in Islamic countries or it doesn't matter. As long as this broker is working, uh, linked to the IRGC, then uh, the IRGC vetos all the info. And of course, if you are linked to the US, to Israeli interests, or to the hostile nations, and there are quite a few, forget it. your tanker won't go through. Uh if that's not the case, no problem. But first, you have to pay the toll. And the toll is $million per tanker. How do you pay the toll? Well, they accept cash. Preferably uh you won cash, of course, but they accept crypto. So, you pay through the Tron uh uh crypto blockchain. did three uh it's three seconds to clear it very very fast. Uh the um identifi the ID check is extremely simple. Uh you need a receipt then you you give the receipt to the broker. Once again this goes to the RGC and you get the go ahead. But when you get the go ahead, you have to uh uh sail you through a very specific maritime channel. It's uh kilometer large, not more than five miles, not more than that. And very very important and that's what gets important considering what's happening today. uh north of the island of Kash which is a big big island and then between Cash and Larak which a very very small island to the northeast of Kash. So this is the maritime corridor and guess what? If there is uh a marine uh Normandy style landing, one of the top candidates is the island of Lac. But to get to Lac, they would have to land in Kashm and then from Cashim go by sea to Lac. And that's why the rules they changed from yesterday to today. And no uh ships are apparently no ships are crossing as we speak. Until yesterday it was fine. uh uh ships from um from or going to uh China, India, uh Pakistan, um Iraq, Bangladesh, they were all uh crossing and some that had uh governmentto um conversations to strike a deal. Example, Sri Lanka and Thailand, they were also crossing. Today apparently nobody's crossing because they expect something to happen. But the rules this new uh dispensation in uh the straight of our mus it will continue to go on and it's uh it's being ratified by law by uh the Iranian parliament. It's the new the new rules of the game to cross the street of Hormuz. Uh you can say it's a privatization or nationalization of the street of Hormuz. Yes, it applies. But most of all, they are doing what the Egyptians do in Swiss. You don't cross the the the Swiss canal for free. You have to pay as well. So Hormuz, they never never forced anybody to pay in the history of the straight of Hormuz. Now it's different. And the straight of Hormuz basically they control it. So, of course, they're entitled to uh you have to pay a fee and people are not complaining. Uh on the contrary, there were people lining up to pay the fee and and cross as long as you are not one of the hostile nations. But that brings us to uh how the situation uh today is Friday. There is a possibility that something might happen during the weekend. Every everybody's talking about it all over the planet in fact. So obviously the IRGC Navy that controls sorry not only that the territorial waters where the the tankers are navigating but also the wider perimeter which includes south of Kashim the rest of the Persian Gulf to the west of the straight of Hormuz all the way to the island of Kar which is in the northwest part of Hormuz and also the uh integration between uh Persian Gulf straight of Hormuz and the Sea of Aman to the right all the way to the system Baluchistan coast and then all the way to the Iran Pakistani border the RC navy controls all that so obviously they are on maximum alert because anything can happen or might happen this I'm sorry. No, that's all right. That's all right. Yeah. No, these are are great points, Pepe. And I'm curious on what you made of Iran's response to all of this outside of even the straight of horses because according to US intelligence, onethird of supposedly one-third of Iran's missile system can be accounted for as destroyed. Uh which contradicts Donald Trump's claims alone that everything has been destroyed. Yet every single day we see Iran hammering Tel Aviv, hammering Israel, uh the Gulf States, uh every single day. But yet you have a situation, it seems like Pepe, that this is all causing Donald Trump to escalate further and the United States to escalate further to now pursue uh what seems to be limited operations that even his people are telling him do not have very good uh prospects in terms of achieving any objectives. Uh what what's your reaction to this in terms of the state of the war? You have Iran the Iranian military taking selfies while they launch missiles. I mean it's there social media has definitely been lost by the United States in terms of the narrative war. Uh, how have you been seeing just the overall shape of this war now as we move into, as you said, what could be this weekend or when soon a um an attempted ground operation of some kind against Iran. Well, the level the the theater of the absurd around the whole thing, it it's beyond any absurdist play. You know what just showed up in my inbox like five minutes ago before we start our conversation. Donald Trump is bored with the war in Iran and he wants it to finish and move on. Can you believe this The proverbial US official, you know, talking to America mainstream media. It's absolutely mindboggling. Okay, it was already mindboggling when he described this as a excursion and now he's bored with the excursion and he wants to move on. What is this? This is you know we we need the whole day to start reflecting upon it to come up with a with a half response and considering what happened since at the beginning of this week which is a roller coaster in itself. you remember now the first um ultimatum which was supposed to expire on Monday and then obviously it didn't because he postponed it for another five days and everybody think of course because you know the markets close on Friday and then there's going to be something during the weekend that's where we are now but we still don't know if that's the case and the negotiations the negotiation story is one of the crazy the most absurdist parts of the theater, the larger theater of the absurd. We we we knew via Omani diplomats that they translated from Farsy to pigeon English. In fact, the Iranian proposals to be handed to the to Heckle and Jackal. Yes, I'm I'm calling them now Heckle and Jackal, not Twiddle Dumb and Twiddle D with Kof Kushner. So all of you uh of my generation you know who heckle and Jackal is right okay the young ones you know search on the net you'll find who heckle and Jackal is okay so uh heckle and jackal they cannot even understand pigeon English translated by the many diplomats were very competent uh by the way so they didn't understand what Iran was actually offering which was quite generous in terms of Iranian enrichment caps etc so that was in in the beginning of the and then uh when the uh Iranians learned about that they say we're not going to talk to these idiots anymore so the narrative changes say okay uh the white house is going to send JD Vance to talk to Galibah in Islamabad it should be today in fact Friday today why the whole thing didn't happen first of all because the Iranians then sent via the usual u diplomats Omanis but also the Pakistanis which started to pose as um uh mediators. There's a trio of mediators that came up this past few days. Turkey, Egypt and Pakistan. But the Pakistani positions themselves say as okay we are the top mediators and if there is a meeting it's going to be here in Islamabad. So everybody was okay it's going to be in Pakistan. And at the same time, the Pakistanis betrayed Iran because the you know, you know what Trump said this week that he got a a gift from Iran of eight uh uh tankers full of oil. Guess which flag they were sailing? Pakistan. So this means that they never went to Pakistan. It was in fact a trick. And then when they crossed the straight of Hormuz because the Iranians believed this was a friendly Muslim nation uh the Americas went there and took the whole thing. Result uh Pakistani flagships are not transiting the street of Hormuz anymore. The Iran is immediately cut them off. But the problem is during the week they were positioned to have this uh uh uh let's say the the the the first part of the new non-negotiation non plan with the point plant the American proposal and the Iranians of course look we we said what we want from the beginning let's repeat so maybe you understand that now in plain English everything that we already know more US bases uh in West Asia, payment of reparations, war damage, reparations, and of sanctions. Uh the nuclear program, the civilian nuclear program continues, uh no restrictions on the missile program and no restrictions on collaboration with the Hezbollah and Ansarala etc. So obviously the two positions are beyond incompatible, right? But then the narrative changed completely again during the week because now everybody is waiting for the Normandy style uh landing and then ah it's going to be in car it's going to be in um uh system Baluchistan near the port of Chabahar. Ah, it's going to be in uh Larak. Ah, it's going to be in the Abu Musa island which is Iranian but is also contested by the UAE. And now the I would say the really hair raising point of all that of all this uh back and forth is that the UAE for all practical purposes has already announced that they are entering the war side by side with the Americans. It started with that uh op ad in the Wall Street Journal published by the UAE ambassador in uh in the US Yousef Alibaba was an absolutely ghastly op ad but it was pretty obvious that that this is what they want. And why is that? Um Danny and all of you follow the money. The UAE committed four trillion dollars of deals with the US in investments in the American economy. Uh AI, semiconductors, you name it. So this it's they have to follow their money and for that to happen they need to have the economy of the Emirates back online and at the moment is a total disasters. Dubai as we know it, the business model of Dubai is already dead. Abu Dhabi very very similar. The port of Jabel Ali is paralyzed and Jabel Ali is one of the key ports in the I would say the mini empire of ports of the UAE. They have port deals everywhere. Haifa Haifa, I'm sorry. uh uh in Syria. Uh what's the name of that that port? Uh Danny, it escapes me now. My my brain is turning to mush. Me too. Exactly. The port where the Russians uh there's a naval base of the Russians as well in Syria. Oh my gosh. Uh I'm sure all of you watching, you know where that is. I I have a blank now. and also in uh uh Akaba in Jordan, which is the only cargo port in Jordan. Uh the the Amiratas are there as well. I think it's Tartis Tartis. Tus I'm sorry everybody. Yes, Tartus. So uh the thing is they need to keep their empire of ports the especially these three because these are three key ports for Asia to Europe maritime connectivity corridors. So it's all about their ports and their money and the fact that they are being sidelined especially by the Saudis. The Saudis have other plans about uh cargo between uh Europe and Asia going through the Persian Gulf. So they are desperate and so they need of course and it's in the OP ad and it's in uh what UAE officials are saying that we need to um contain the Iranian threat. It's total So because they're losing money and their business model is collapsing in front of them. So if they do that, the fascinating Iranian response is already on because they already publish a list of five mega targets that are going to be hit if the UAE enters the war. So the situation is even more complicated than in the middle of the week. So we have the Pakistani betrayal, the Pakistani positioning as mediators which which collapsed completely and we have the economy of the Emirates collapsing at the same time. But now their solution is okay, let's get into the war. So so it gets worse and worse. I defined it in the beginning of the week as the infernal escalation machine. And the infernal escalation machine gets worse day by day. We have no idea what can happen or may happen this weekend, but something will happen in the next few days that is going to be catastrophic. Whatever that is. If it's going to be a mini Normandy landing, it's if it's going to be like the secretary forever OS is saying that uh it's going to be a mega bombing campaign to inflict the final blow. I guess they already defeated Iran as we So um and and obviously all of us we we barely keep up with it because it's a uh the speed is completely out of control. The level of dementia is completely out of control and of course there are very few rational actors intervening. Uh the Russians are not saying anything. They're just watching. The Chinese are just watching. The Europeans don't exist. Of course, they they're already buried. So that's it. We continue to be hostages of the deranged baboon of Barbaria. What is going to come up next? Well, what's shocking, Pepe, is that the the scenarios here, not only are they being admitted as not having any really good outcomes, but the the overall landscape seems to contradict the very actions that are being pursued. Whether it's the UAE, Saudi all wanting to get further and deeper into the war, Trump and the US wanting to conduct some kind of ground operation, it doesn't conform with reality, which is that they're even the US officials, to the New York Times, elsewhere admitting that the US posture in it's its very presence in the region has been almost entirely destroyed. Uh that was admitted by the New York Times. Israel is saying their military is on the verge of collapse very soon if they have to continue to fight Hezbollah which is kicking their behinds. I think something like some ridiculous number of tanks almost almost just ridiculous numbers. So they're they're dealing with that curio shimona under Hezbollah and Iranian missile fire. uh they're saying the chief of staff is saying the Israeli military could collapse any minute if this continues onward u this war. So the the the situation doesn't look good and Trump said he doesn't he's not desperate. He said this to the media he's not desperate. He just doesn't care which is a shocking statement to make when the reality just doesn't look good in front of the US Israel and the aggressors the hostile parties as um they're being called in the straight of Hormuz. Why then move in this direction? It seems like it's almost like a a a collapsing situation that only gets worse from here if these moves are taken. But maybe I'm wrong. Pepe, what do you think? No. No. In fact, anything that he's going to do from now on will worsen the situation. And the only thing that he won't, in fact, he might do, he could declare victory tomorrow. After all, he's already bored with the war. Why not declare victory? After all, I destroyed everything. So that's it. I declare victory and I leave. Is this going to change the out of control casino that he installed on the global economy, not only in the in the Persian Gulf? No. Iran will continue to do what they're doing. They will continue to devastate what is not already devastated in terms of US interests everywhere. The bases are all practically gone. Uh apparently uh it's over % of everything in those bases is destroyed already. But there are other US interests uh around the Persian Gulf and that includes for for instance data centers and that's where the UAE comes once again into the picture and of course if the UAE decides to enter the war then Iran has a second win to go after the UEE and destroy their economy completely just like they are destroying now from now on the new missiles. extremely precise and obviously with no more Arrow three, David Sling, Thad, Patriot, all that crap, they can, you know, attack Israel at will, the way they want it every day uh two or three times a day, which is exactly what they're doing now. They will continue to do that because it's part of the let's say the two top priorities inflict major damage to Israel possibly uh irreversibly and destroy all US military bases in West Asia. So they won't they cannot be rebuilt and they won't come back. Everything else is interconnected. Of of the everything else interconnected, the most important part is what is already in effect in the street of Hormuz. Let's say until today. Uh the free passage for all those tankers who feel the the three conditions, it will be back because now it's being formalized by the Iranian parliament. is the new rules of the grain industry of hormuz and of course it's a excellent source of a petro for the IRGC and for the Iranian uh government so it will come back to to normal and and of course they know that all the other stranded tankers they will and and they will pay the $million which considering the situation is not much. So uh the key point which this is the game changer in geoeconomic terms and in terms of the construction of you know the much debated multipolar world. We have an alternative payment system working around the pro Uestablished and working in the most important choke point on the planet. This is the big big big fact of this war and obviously Russia is looking at it, China is looking at it. Um I would not say the bricks in deep coma are looking at it but maybe some bricks members and partners of the bricks are looking at it and the whole global south paid attention to it. So there's no turning back on this one. This is already in effect. It's what a zillion bricks summit could not achieve. It was achieved with one move by Iran. So the repercussions are going to be immense. It's the petrol you want in effect for everybody to for the whole planet to see the tall booth the petrol you want and then you can sale no problem no extra problem no problem uh later whatever. So this is the most important thing and Iran after they establish that they will defend this new models operandi with everything that they have which by the way they have not used yet right then very very important. Yep. Very very all those u invisible underground missile cities they most of them are in the southeast of Iran in the eastern part of Iran near the Afghan border. The Americans don't even know where they are. That's why they have not been uh bombed by the pushup clown secretary of wars yet because they don't know where they are. So Iran has not even used them yet. So, so the way they are tweaking their decentralized mosaic strategy, there's always a little tweak every two or three days, but it's, you know, the incrementally the pain is getting more and more unbearable, especially for Israel. And it's no wonder that now they cannot even censor and disguise what's happening inside Israel. Even with that mega censorship, it's too obvious. It's too blatant. And anybody anywhere with a cell phone can film the missiles arriving practically non-stop. So that that already changed. And if the UAE they make this supreme blunder of getting into the war, what's happening to Israel now is going to happen to them. Exactly the same thing. And their economy is going to be paralyzed. And it's not going to be only the Dubai bling bling money model that is kaput which is already it's going to be the whole Emirates model including everything uh the AI centers the data centers the ports the airports you name it those gleaming airlines which by the way are quite decent that's it over. Yeah. And Iran also uh has warned that uh you know I've saw reports especially coming out of Iranian media that uh if the UAE if uh Gulf states get involved in any kind of ground operation any kind of attack on Iranian territory the UAE and Bahrain could be occupied that that Iranian forces are willing to because I think Bahrain was once part of Iran uh not too long ago. Was part of Iran before Uh Danny, just like by the way, very few people know the Emirates. Yeah. Was in that there was this split. The Emirates were part of a man. And that's great. This is something I I I put in my latest column. I heard from Iraqi scholars. I was watching a debate with Iraqi scholars. Absolutely fascinated. And the Iraqi uh analysts and scholars are wonderful. They have a sense of history. Absolutely impeccable. very detail and they were saying openly, oh of course what's going to happen uh Kuwait is going to be back to us after after all Kuwait was was part of the province of Bazra so it's going to come back to us uh Bahrain is going to come back to uh uh Iran uh the Emirates probably going to come back to uh Oman the thing is Saudi Arabia what are they going to do they could even in the long run annex Qatar It's not out of the question. Carter uh they they have been very very clever.Qatar and Oman are the only two of the GCC who actually on the record said look we condemned everything that is happening. We are not uh we want a coexistence with Iran and our territory is not being used to attack Iran. very clever move because they literally they see which way the wind is blowing. So later on they're going to have Iran is going to treat them favorably to say the least. Right. Well, especially Qatar because of what happened to Qatar Energy not too long ago. I think they well they understood exactly in the flesh literally right Danny what what happens if you if you mess with especially if you mess with the energy infrastructure of Iran and this is exactly what's going to happen with the UAE much much worse this list that now it's already published it's it's everywhere of the five targets it's everything and includes the desalination plants as well not only power stations but also desalination plants. So MB well MB as we all know of course all of you are audience you know MBZ is a bloody gangster you know that everybody knows that uh in fact he's the gangster that taught MBS to be even more of a gangster. It's one gangster uh advising another. NBS is uh apparently he's better at juggling the whole thing. He knows that if he antagonizes Iran directly, the consequences for the Saudi energy infrastructure with the help of Yemen s which is over there, you know, ju just looking at everything with their missiles, including their own hypersonic missiles. So he has to be very very careful even though we all know uh all their money is in London and New York. So he cannot antagonize the the the Americas by definition. And of course NBS still believes that the IMAC is going to work just like the Emirates both still believe that the iMac is going to work. The IMAC the name is extremely misleading. It's not uh India Europe Middle East corridor. In fact, the most important player in this scam is not even named is Israel. This is a corridor so Israel can be at the center of trade between Europe and Asia in this case India with the help of the Emirates and the Saudis but but they will have to build a lot of in infrastructure sorry linking Israel with the Emirates and Saudi none of that has been built yet so IMAC at the moment is completely stalled and that's another reason for the Emirates to enter the war side by side with the Americans. The Saudis for the moment they are on they're masters of hedging. They're not saying anything explicit. We all know that before the war NBS was telling via his uh super poll on WhatsApp Jared Kushner uh NBS was telling Trump go for it, attack Iran. And now there are echoes coming from different parts of the Persian Gulf that yes, this has not changed at all. But it's not explicit. That's the difference from the UAE now is explicit. Everybody knows that the EOE is ready to enter the war. Saudi, they are slightly more discreet. Although they are already part of of the war. No, no, no question about that. But if this becomes blatant from a Irani point of view, Wow. If you are in Saudi Arabia, better leave as soon as you can. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's I mean, it's it's it's stunning, too, because the Iranian military also put out word, and I think this shows where things are at. They put out word that uh they have million uh troops. They have million forces ready to confront the United States. Mind you, the US is talking about at some point in the future, couple of thousand paratroopers, or so Marines. They're talking really small numbers. And we know, Pepe, that all of this has to do with the straight of Hormuz. It all has to do with uh trying to gain leverage overrun through energy. So, Pepe, what does this do to the oil markets and the entirety of the uniolar controlled financial system? because we've already saw like a trillion dollars wiped away from Wall Street in a day just because this war continues to go on and there keeps there, you know, Donald Trump's uh hedging and bluffing and threatening and, you know, um claiming that there's a pause to this war coming and Iran is graveling at his feet. None of this seems to be it seems that the oil markets and the general financial system controlled by the United States is really teetering on disaster and these attempts to manipulate it are becoming less and less effective especially given the fact that Iran is putting in very concrete moves uh on the geo as you said the geoeconomic scale to uh essentially uh manifest as the kids say these days a reality that uh very contradictory to what the US aims ultimately are because some have argued that this is really great for the US empire and in many respects there's a lot of problems arising out of this. What do you make of Iran's posture even just on the sense of its confidence militarily? They're they're inviting them saying come please come closer. We're ready. They said that we've been training everybody too. We're all ready. Everyone is ready. We are ready. Iran Iraq is ready. Yemen is ready. Everybody, Hezbollah, of course, is like everyone's ready to uh fight a ground war. What do you what do you make of this posture from Iran? Because I think it um some would say it's propaganda. Uh it's hard to it's hard to uh believe that Iran is bluffing here given what we've seen over the last plus days. There's no bluff. Uh it's it's their strategy and it's their incremental strategy following the same uh principles tweaking the decentralized mosaic but the objectives the targets uh remain the same and and these are the key uh targets. We have to repeat it over and over again. establish their deterrence which has already been established for the whole planet to see fighting the so-called uh biggest army in the history of the galaxies. Number two, expelling the US from the Persian Gulf little by little. The first part, let's say the first segment is destroying the military bases. That's practically accomplished. And number three, establish their deterrence visav Israel. This is something that nobody expected would be so fast. They did that in three weeks. Israel is in total disarray now and the situation can only get worse day after day. So these are the main objectives. So it's when you when you look at it as a holistic uh organic mechanism it makes total sense and they are applying uh pressure in all the points that really matter. So uh if UAE wants to enter the war this has already been gamed by terror no problem. If the whole of GCC wants to enter the war, they also gain that. If if there is the attempt of uh uh a land bridge leading to a mini ground invasion later, same thing. it's already gained the I would uh it's more complicated visa v the um the toll boos in the straight of hormones of course they thought about that before but nobody could pro possibly expect that they would implement it in a matter of three or four days up and running and until today was up and running with no glitches and every and everybody accepted because Okay, we need to go from A to B via the straight of Wasn't that the That was Iran's gift to Trump, right? Donald Trump was talking about this big gift gift to Trump. Exactly. You bet. You bet. Uh, okay. Okay. Now, let's look at the other side to Let's look at the uh megalomaniac narcissistic psycho killer who is now bored with the war that he started. why he backed off uh in the in the beginning of the week because he was looking at the oil market at the numbers and he was looking at the bond market much more important in fact than the oil market because the bond market can tell the US that u you cannot pay for anything anymore and you're going to collapse. So before the end of the ultimatum, the -year yield on the US treasuries was approaching %. In fact, it went over %, then it got back it got back to after his uh uh postponing and now it's back to again and going up little by little. So if this happens next week with the possibility of a mini land invasion, he's going to have to back off necessarily. So in fact, uh it's fascinating because the bond market may in the end save all of us literally from a bigger catastrophe. Not the oil market. The oil market, everybody now is starting to live. Okay, oil is going to be around then there's nothing we can do about it. Between and all that. Okay, but if this if things get much worse next week, it can get to And after the sky's is the limit. Okay, switching back to that character who has his hand on $ trillion, Larry Frink from Black Rockck. The guy gives an interview to the BBC where basically he says there are two scenarios. One, we're going to have oil at $a barrel. Two, we're going to have oil at $a barrel. He's he's not betting on anything. He's hedging. Black Rock doesn't bet like that. Black Black Rock hedges all the time. But at least he said out loud, if it's $a barrel, this is a global recession. What he did not say is that at $a a barrel, which we are on the brink, it's also a global recession. And the global recession has already started and the disturbances in different latitudes a little bit everywhere uh here in Southeast Asia in India are already on in Europe. Wow. When it breaks just wait in Europe it's it's going to be within the next months or so considering that they have no gas now. They don't have gas from Qatar and they don't have gas from Russia and okay Heckle and Jackal. Uh how how can we call those those two female idiots over there? We have to find out something for the moment. Is the the Estonian chick with an IQ uh comparable to a discombobulated worm and the toxic medusa? Okay, these two, they're stupid enough not to backtrack and try to find a way of getting more gas from Russia. They won't do that. So Europe is going to pay the price for these two idiots. That that's where we are. But but this is Europe has already committed political suicide. Everybody the whole planet people in the subsahara Africa desert already know that. Everybody knows that. So the uh the cascading effects are already most parts of the planet are already suffering and all that everything that is happening was caused by one fateful decision. The guy who is now bored decided to launch a war because the Zionist donors and the Zionist inter international axis told them to. Yeah. What is this? Yes, I know. I know. I know. It looks like we're talking about a Montipython sketch, right, Danny? But but the reality in front of all of us. Yeah, definitely. And I was going to ask you Pepe what does this say about the limits of uh US imperial especially on the military front power given that the volatility of it the global financial system that the US dominates via the dollar is very much teetering on a monumental crisis already in one as many have noted as you uh outlined there. This this seems like something that uh you put two and two together doesn't really comport. It's you have the United States uh wanting on the one hand to uh follow along and and work with Israel to destroy Iran and the entire global economy saying well if you try to do that and and you're failing and you fail and you don't do it quick enough and you don't have any plan in place and uh you attack the energy markets then it all goes up in smoke anyway. So it does feel like uh we are in a moment of a dead end and that Iran potentially has wiped away. A lot of people thought from October th onward that Israel and the US gained a lot via you know the genocide what happened in Lebanon um you know Syria all of this. It seems like Iran in just a three or four weeks has wiped away any of those gains with all of the destruction they've caused to the Gulf to Israel and the political and geopolitical implications of this not to mention the straight of Hormuz which has created a pro- yuan uh disaster in front of the empire. What do you make of this broader picture of how this changes things geopolitically given that there are no good outcomes here? the very financial markets and the very financial system the US dominates is in crisis and Iran's maneuvers, its strategy has essentially, it seems like, wiped away, at least what we're hearing from the New York Times, even seems to have wiped away a lot of the gains that uh the US and Israel were claiming they had made up until February th. The most extraordinary thing is that they did this by themselves, Danny, alone. a nation years of absolutely horrible nasty uh sanctions. When you visit Iran, there are so many places that you see the effects of nearly five decades of sanctions in front of you. And it's I saw this in my latest trip. I saw this in in ports, uh, in airports, in urban infrastructure, uh, in old hotels, you name it. In, uh, lots of houses, old houses that are falling apart. It It's sewage systems. It's It's heartbreaking. And And you know that all that is because of years of sanction. And still they have immense human capital. Some of the best universities in the world. The quality of their engineers, technicians, mathematicians, physicists is absolutely outstanding. They built an enormous hidden industrial military complex that is scaring the out of the superpower. They are fighting by themselves against one nuclear superpower and another nuclear very very strong regional power and you know and they they're playing their game and they wow they're inflicting serious punishment on both of that is immensely impressive. So it's so it's no wonder when when you see reactions from uh Africa, from Latin America, from Southeast Asia, from Central Asia, people are absolutely amazed and and even people who don't follow politics, they you know they have to confess in public their admiration to Iran and they understand that Iran is fighting for the absolute majority of the planet. There's no question about that. this this is the larger I don't want to get into the scatological aspects I think and this for most people it's um people are are are looking at the practicalities of this war so on on a practical level and on a uh in in your face level this is something that nobody could possibly expect to happen until three weeks ago it's so so so the planet is stunned by the resistance by the fact that we are talking about a sovereign resistance, a sovereign nation, uh a regional power, uh harassed, attacked, bombed, uh you name it, but still they resist and they are turning the game around against uh the aggression. It's it's absolutely extra. It's going to take us a long time to process that study that this will be for future historians probably. But but but the point of inflection of the st century, it's going to be now. Everybody thought it was Uh obviously it was not. was the beginning of the end of the American century or American hijgemony. The real point of inflection is now because we have one midranking regional power turning the game around by themselves. Amazing. Okay, you can do that because you have years of history. Don't mess with the Persians. If you do, this proves that you are beyond stupid and you didn't do your homework. And of course, these people in Washington, they don't even know what a homework is for. JD JD Vance said that uh Iranians were going to strap nuclear vests, nuclearpowered vests to their chest and uh that Americans. Yes. This is this is part of the uh this guy. What the did he study in Yale? It's the carousel of uh this is why we're at war with Iran. You know, it just constantly changes. But I think it demonstrates exactly what you said that um there's not even a desire or you know an attempt to understand uh what's going on here. And um and I feel like and I'm wondering your reaction to this as we get to the last five or minutes here. the um you know Russia and China's posture. It seems to me that in many respects uh their uh relative quiet in this war could be that they see Iran resisting and uh they've provided assistance in areas that they can and that they're willing and uh see it seems like everything is working and they stand to gain out of this because despite all of the the the damage and of course it's horrible what's happening to Iranian people. Um the aftermath that's already building up appears to be that these three powers not only uh remain and that Iran remains but that there'll be a major consolidation toward uh the direction of Russia and China given that the US alone is blowing up his reputation. Uh I mean we already knew me and you and people who watch the show, we knew that you know the US uh has no interest other than uh elite interests. But uh now we see the entire world has watched as uh the US blows up the entire glo global financial system just to pursue the aims that you know Zionists and the oligarchs and etc. want to pursue that that's a huge thing. So your thoughts about Russia and China's posture and and how the RAI as you've called it the real RAR uh uh fares from here as uh this war will likely drag on some to some point but it will eventually the strikes will eventually stop and uh there will be an aftermath. Well Russian China they are elevating something to a form of art. Never interrupt your enemy when he's making a serious mistake. And that explains why they are so silent. It is a form of art beautifully. Of course, Putin and she talked about there's no question they talked about that first of all because of the interlocking strategic partnerships at various levels. the the the RIC they have strategic partnerships the three of them uh it does not include a military pact very very important but includes uh discussions at the level of ministry of defense at the highest level and includes what the Russians will never of course forget about any leak from Moscow specifying how they are helping uh Iran. Not going to happen. Same thing about China. We all know what China is um supplying Iran with. But forget about uh a specific admission coming from Beijing. They don't need to. The results are there. you know, the level of accuracy of uh the targeting uh the set intel information crystal clear identification of uh war plans of the Americans with the Russians provided to the Iranians before uh the all that we know all that. But they don't have but just just watching and what what should they say? They know that for instance even if they try to make a move in the UN security council nothing will happen because the UN is already dead as we all know the the UN is walking dead. So Russia and China don't even bother about that. They're looking at the practical results in the battlefield. Uh for instance the Iranians learn a lot of lessons that the Russians learned by themselves in Ukraine. So this level of information was transferred from Moscow to uh Thran. No question about that. And of course the Chinese in terms of uh the reorientation of uh uh moving from GPS to Beu for instance essential. So they are uh integrated with the uh Chinese info in real time. And of course there's the matter of uh especially the Russians they know that which is something that even Putin said on the record the Iranians didn't ask us for anything which was a very clever way of saying if they do we will provide it but they didn't. And in fact uh what they ask was started I would say around around this past three years because there were always Iranian missions going to Moscow and they were discussing with the ministry of defense as well. So obviously they had a list of stuff that they were interested in and the Russians said no problem. And at the same time when we start to discover that uh the shahids used by Iran in the battlefield are in fact geraniums with the comet antennas from Russia. Then everybody could establish the pattern. Okay. From the Shahid the Shahids sold to the Russians. The Russians perfected the Shahids. they turned them into geranians or latest generation and the geranians went back to Iran and now they are in the battlefield this kind of stuff but it takes quite a while to certify that this is happening so u they don't in fact they don't need to do anything of course if if they see that Iran reach which all the indications that we have at the moment it's on the contrary that tan has his backs against the wall obviously Russia and China will do something more forceful perhaps even more visible but that's not the case on the contrary on the contrary and on a geoeconomic level wow for China what's going on is beyond precious the whole pro angle wow it's something that China could not achieve with I would say with years of diplomacy of geoconomic diplomacy they achieved in three weeks and and not themselves one of their allies gave this on a platter to China. Okay, we have the Petro one working as an alternative payment system in reality not in brick summits. Yep. You cannot beat that. You cannot beat that unless comparisons. Uh then okay, we would need an extra conversation about the interaction of the war in Ukraine and the war against Iran. That's an extremely complex subject. And for instance, there are some echoes in Moscow. uh for instance uh a lot of stuff that was uh planned to take place in Moscow these next few weeks and that's one of the reason where where I will probably be back there uh next months uh along with Larry Johnson some of our friends is not happening because it they were cancelled because the attention of the Kremling and it's on the war they are studying the war by the mm you see and and of course very ve very very very interesting there was a meeting uh today's Friday I think this meeting was yesterday or or uh Wednesday night if I'm not mistaken there was a private meeting between Putin and top businessmen including oligarchs and after the meeting the head of the federation of Russian industrialists, entrepreneurs. Schski Shski is a very clever guy. I met him in Moscow three years ago, more or less. He said that Putin is convinced that the war will finish in maximum four weeks. So obviously he has information that none of us have. And this is what he told the oligarchs and the industrialists. So for the next four weeks there are total attention is what could come next and obviously we know that there are all those oligarchic channels US Russia and they are talking to each other. The oligarchies on both sides are talking to each other and obviously they talk about the war as well. But uh what is going on in the war on Iran? How could it affect the war between NATO and Russia? That's a completely different that's a very volatile story. And I I'm sure uh you and uh many of you our audience know that uh there's a serious discussion in Moscow after those attacks against Primosk Luga uh you know basically the Russian energy infrastructure export infrastructure ex oil exports in the Baltic etc and a lot of very well-informed and well-connected people He it comes back and he always comes back and comes back to the same point. It's time to cut off the head of the stick. This has gone on too long. But at the same time, we all know that this is not the way Putin runs business. So, this is going to be very complicated. I'm very curious to see how this is going to be discussed in Russia, assuming the war goes on for another four weeks after that, right? Yeah. Well, we'll have to uh keep in touch with you, Pepe. We'll definitely be back on this program as things develop on all fronts. Uh I want to make sure everybody knows that your um X and Telegram are both in the video description for people to check out as well as your column that's published um I I make a lot of suggestions, reading suggestions, links, etc. So, it can be helpful to all of you. Yeah, everyone check that out. hit the like button as you go uh because that will help keep the conversation going for new viewers who haven't to watch this yet um in YouTube's algorithm. Also, thanks to everyone who gave a super chat. Thanks to all the moderators, of course. I'll be back tomorrow with our mutual friend Muhammad Morandi about p.m. Eastern time. So, be ready for that March th. Until next time, everyone. We're head out together. Take care and thanks Pepe again. Thanks, Danny. Thanks, everybody.
John Mearsheimer: "Iran Holds All the Cards" - The Strategic Defeat of the U.S. Glenn Diesen Mar 27, 2026
Prof. John Mearsheimer explains why Iran holds all the cards and could devastate the US and the global economy by going up the escalation ladder. A U.S. defeat in Iran, which appears inevitably, will also result in a much wider strategic defeat of the US position in the international system. John J. Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, where he has taught since 1982.
Transcript
Welcome back. We are joined again by Professor John Merchimer. So, thank you very much for coming on the program. I um I was hoping today we can uh yeah maybe first take a step back and look at the wider strategy of uh the United States under Trump because uh I was quite optimistic about his reelection. that is he seemed to be capable of breaking from you know narratives and ideologies which I think the political west followed blindly over the past decades and this seemed to be a requirement to navigate uh or adjust at least to the new realities of the world which was that the unipolar distribution of power was gone. So he recognized the US couldn't be everywhere. So he's more or less suggested you know we have to go to the western hemisphere and east Asia which means we have to pivot out of the Middle East and Europe and uh that meant ending the war with Russia. This trapped US resource in Europe and it pushed the Russians towards China and also in the Middle East he was quite consistent on ending the forever war. So uh overall what I'm trying to say is although you know he's you know a man who's not very civilized in his demeanor what he said was a lot more rational than what I heard from other politicians. So uh that's why I wanted to hear from you. What do you make of his direct his direction now? What's going to happen to the pivot to Asia and this wider strategy which we saw outlined in the uh national security strategy of December ? I think Glenn uh the best evidence of what you're talking about regarding how people like us thought about Trump uh initially in terms of foreign policy uh and what people think now is uh reflected in the lineup of people uh on judging freedom judge Npalitano show and of course both you and I are regulars on the judges show I think if you go back to the first maybe six, seven months after President Trump was elected, uh, virtually everybody who appeared on that show was quite optimistic that Trump would represent positive movement in terms of American foreign policy. Uh, that there would be no more forever wars. Uh, he wouldn't start any new wars period. uh and there would be much le much much less emphasis on a militarized foreign policy and I think most importantly at the time I think we all thought that there was a reasonable chance he would shut down the Ukraine Russia war so there was a lot of optimism about him and of course a lot of the people on the show the Americans didn't vote for Trump some did but everybody I think was generally pretty enthusiastic about the direction that he was going to take the United States. I think now if you watch uh Judging Freedom, almost everybody on that show is uh and I'm choosing my words carefully here, very critical of President Trump. Uh that he is seen to have blown it uh to missed a terrific opportunity uh to change the direction that American foreign policy was going in. And if anything, he's on the old path. Uh I think the key issue today uh is the Iran war. And all I can say is it's truly remarkable that he allowed himself to fall into this trap. Uh this is much worse than Afghanistan, much worse than Iraq. Uh I mean if you think about the Iraq war in at least in the initial stages uh George W. Bush could land on the aircraft carrier and effectively declare mission accomplished which is another way of saying we won. Trump can't do that. It's been clear almost from the beginning uh that this is the lost cause. Uh but more importantly uh the potential for really serious damage here uh is enormous. Uh and here we're talking mainly about the international economy but not only the international economy. So, he's entered a war that he can't win and could have and one could argue is likely to have catastrophic consequences uh for the world uh not just for him and his presidency. So, it's really quite remarkable when you think about it where he has ended up in a in in a in a quite short period of time. uh you know he was put in office January th of and the war started against Iran on February th, That's effectively months after he's in office. So he starts off looking like he has a winning strategy. Uh but months later, uh he's jumped into a huge quagmire that he can't get out of. uh truly amazing. Well, regarding the optimism though, it's I wouldn't say that it was rooted in being naive because if you look, he did have a first term and unlike all his predecessors uh you know, going back to World War II, he didn't start any new wars. So, he seemed to follow through on his uh rhetoric. So that that's why this has come as a bit of a surprise how many you know his his foreign policy in the second uh time around why he went down this path. But how how do you make sense of the demands he's making now? Because you said he can't really get out of this. But if you listen to his language, he suggests that the Iranians are now begging for a deal. They're offering him all these ships full of oil if they just uh you know he will be so kind to give them a deal. and the Iranians are simply saying they're not even talking to the US at the moment. So, how how do you make sense of it? Because the demands he put for the Iranians, it was essentially full capitulation. It was uh no nuclear enrichment. Uh it's no ballistic missiles, no partnership with regional allies. It's uh yeah, capitulation, I think, would be a good description. Well, I think the words that he used that always stick in my head, Glenn, are unconditional surrender, right? And by the way, if you look at the point plan that he's now putting forward to the Iranians uh as the basis for working out a deal, it looks like unconditional surrender. And when I first saw the point plan, I thought it was a joke. I I thought that, you know, uh this was disinformation that the Iranians or the Israelis had put out. I couldn't believe this was a serious plan. Uh but as you know, some days, President Trump thinks uh that we've won a great victory, that the war is over with, and we just have to uh sign the documents of surrender. Uh other days, you can tell he's quite desperate. uh and uh he understands that he has made a huge mistake and that he's got to find an exit strategy and he really can't. So he goes back and forth. Uh his rhetoric just changes all the time. It's quite remarkable. But the fact is Glenn, he is and we are in profound trouble. Now what's going on here? We started this war thinking that we would win a quick and decisive victory. When I say we, I'm talking about the Trump administration because people like us of course understood that this was a cockami strategy from the get-go. But the West, the United States and Israel started this war thinking that they could employ a shock and awe strategy uh built around decapitation. We decapitate the regime. we'd shock and awe the uh Iranians and people would rise up in the streets, they'd overthrow the regime and we would live happily ever after. This was the basic strategy. We had to win a quick and decisive victory for this to work and it failed. Uh and by the way, uh anybody who has a basic understanding of international relations unders should have understood that this would fail from the get-go. it was just not going to work. And it didn't work. But then we found ourselves in a protracted war. Here we are. And I don't think most people fully realize it, but the Iranians hold almost all the cards in a protracted war. Uh first of all, there's no real good exit strategy for Trump. And if he goes up the escalation ladder, which is the other alternative, the Iranians beat him at almost every step of the ladder. Uh I think it's very hard for most Americans to understand this, especially people who watch Fox News and are loyal supporters of the president. They think that we're winning. They listen to him say that, you know, we've already won. Why haven't the Iranians signed the surrender papers? But if you look carefully at what's going on here and you have a basic understanding of military history and military strategy, you see very quickly that we are in terrible shape as you go up the escalation ladder. So again, the point I'm making to you is he has no exit strategy. He can't he can't find the exit ramp now. And if he thinks about going up the escalation ladder, he he gets stymied uh on every rung. Now, why do I say that? First of all, Iran can wreck the international economy. It can wreck the international economy. And one could argue that we're sort of heading in that direction. I like to say there's an iceberg out there in the water and we're heading towards that iceberg. We are the Titanic. And I think President Trump basically understands that and I think his advisers understand that and they're trying to turn the ship so that we don't hit the iceberg. But anyway, my point is my first point is that Iran can wreck the international economy. Furthermore, it can destroy literally destroy most of the Gulf states because those states depend on desalination plants uh and they depend on oil infrastructure and those targets are easy for the Iranians to hit. And if the Iranians decided that they were going to go after a country like Saudi Arabia and take out all their desalination plants and take out their oil or energy infrastructure, they basically wrecked Saudi Arabia as a functioning society. Uh then there's the whole question of the Israelis. The Israelis are running out of defensive missiles. The Iranians obviously have lots of missiles. They can do enormous damage to Israel. I don't think they can do to Israel what they could do to countries like Saudi Arabia or the UAE, but there's no question that they can do enormous damage uh to uh to Israel. Uh then there's the whole question of uh ground forces. We should talk more about this. We don't have any serious ground forces option. This is this is a joke, right? there's just no ground forces option there. And in fact, if we go down that road, uh we're just going to make a bad situation even worse. Then to take it a step further, what we have to do, what President Trump has to do to avoid a catastrophe in the international economy is he's got to make sure there's a lot of oil out there in the global market. There's got to be a lot of oil. This is why he took economic sanctions off of the Russians. Just think about that. We have taken sanctions off the Russians so that their oil can get out into the market. More importantly for what we're talking about here, we've taken sanctions off the Iranians and we're allowing, just think about this, we're allowing Iranian ships to go through the straight of Hormuz because we want that Iranian oil out there in the market uh the global market. So what's happening here is although we are bombing the Iranians and doing significant damage to their country and murdering innocent people uh at the same time the Iranians are not suffering economically. Uh so what this tells you is that President Trump has to be extremely careful that he doesn't go up the escalation ladder because if he goes up the escalation ladder, the end result is that the Iranians will win and we will lose in a truly serious way. So we're in deep, deep trouble. Yeah, that's a good point with the escalation ladder because like the Iranians have a lot of cards to play here. That is not just to have shut down the straight of Hermoose, but if they use Yemen to shut down the Red Sea as you mentioned with Saudi Arabia, now they're cut off from all axis. If you destroy their disselination plants, easy, no water hit their energy fields, the no energy. And in places like Qatar where to % of the population are foreigners, they would begin to leave and it would only be a desert left which is how they found it. So it is it's probably one of the most vulnerable countries of the world uh this uh this state. So it is uh but you would have thought they would have considered this before going into this war because the Iranians were quite open about what they could do and what they would likely do. I know Trump said, you know, who would have ever ever have thought that they would strike US bases around the region. You know, they they kept saying though, this is what we're going to do. We're going to shut down the straight moose. We're going to attack your bases. And uh even now in Iraq, I'm not sure if there's Americans left, but the Europeans are pretty much all out. So after years, so they they seem to be able to at least so far achieve some of the objectives they set out. Um, but you often made the point that in Ukraine a political settlement is unlikely because the different sides they're, you know, they're too far apart. There's nothing to agree on. But in this instance though, um, you know, even if this would only be Trump's opening position, you know, demanding full unconditional surrender, uh, the Iranians also have their own conditions which makes it very difficult even for, you know, Trump to declare victory and go home. So, how how do you see this playing out then? Is is there any solution to this war at all? I mean, can Trump go home? Uh, here's the problem. I think, Glenn, it's twofold. First of all, as you noted, the two sides are miles apart uh on in terms of their demands, right? There's no bargaining space here. And of course, you and I have made this same argument regarding the Ukrainians and the West on one side and the Russians on the other side. There's just no bargaining space. The demands of each side are so in uh so at odds with the demands of the other side, you just kind of can't see how you get a deal. That's point number one. Uh the second point I'd make is that if you're playing Iran's hand, you have no interest in cutting a deal. Now you have huge leverage now. Uh for the reasons I described before, and the longer the war goes on, the more leverage you have. The longer the war goes on, the more desperate President Trump is going to get. uh he has to you know the Titanic is heading toward the iceberg and you have got to start changing course now otherwise you're going to hit the iceberg. That's where we are. Uh all you have to look at is the yields on -year Treasury bonds in the United States. uh which many people view as being in a danger zone and uh in a situation where it's only going to get worse, right? This is really uh potentially disastrous, right? We have to do something to fix this problem. Uh this is why President Trump said on Monday uh that he was not going to attack Iran that evening. Remember he had promised that he was going to attack uh Monday evening. I think that was the rd, March rd. And the day of March rd in the morning, he called it off. Uh and he said, "I'll give him five days." and he's just said, "Now I'll give them days." What's going on here? It would be suicidal for President Trump to launch an allout attack on Iranian energy infrastructure. This would be nuts. Again, as I said before, we have a deep-seated interest in making sure there's as much Iranian oil out in global markets as possible. By the way, just parenthetically, you know, there's all this talk about us conquering Car Island and uh people say, "You want to understand that % of Iranian oil goes through Car Island and we can conquer it?" I don't think we can conquer it, but let's assume we conquer it. What are we going to do? Conquer Car Island and cut off the flow of oil into global markets? We're not going to do that. You remember when President Trump said that we bombed Car Island? He emphasized very clearly that he only hit military targets. Why did he do that? Because he understands again that you have to get uh you have to get that Iranian oil and you have to get that Russian oil. You have to get all the oil you can out into global markets because if you look at what's happening in the straight, right? Remember about % of the world's oil comes through the straight. I would argue that today it's been reduced what comes through the straight has been reduced to about % of what it was before February th. Just think about that. % of the world's oil comes through the straight. And we're not even talking about fertilizers here, which is another huge problem, but just oil. % comes through the straight. And at this point in time, only % of what was going through the straight on February th is now going through the straight. This is a huge problem. So this tells you that we cannot go after Iranian oil and wreck their energy infrastructure. And that means the Iranians have huge leverage over us. And the longer this goes on, when you think about the consequences for the world's food supply of all these fertilizers not making it through the straight, and then you think about the consequences of only % of the pre-war flow of tankers through the strait is now taking place. You see that the potential for disaster is huge. And the Iranians have a vested interest in stringing this out because the more they string it out, the more desperate President Trump gets. And the more desperate President Trump gets, the more leverage they have. What's really going to cause President Trump to cave in a major way is when he comes to understand that if he doesn't shift course, the Titanic is going to hit the iceberg and the pressure is already there. Again, that is why I believe he did not attack this past Monday, gave them five more days and has now given them more days. And what happens at the end of days if the Iranians don't cave to his preposter preposterous point plan? Is he going to bomb Iran? Is he going to bomb their energy infrastructure? I don't think so. uh he he has no option here. You know, just getting back to your original point about five minutes ago to how we got into this situation, how we could have allowed ourselves to be put in such a vulnerable position. The fact is again, Glenn, they thought they were going to win a quick and decisive victory. Uh I've studied a lot of military history. You see this in so many cases. Countries go to war and they go to war because they're optimistic about their chances. It makes perfect sense. You don't go to war if you think you're going to lose. President Trump didn't go to war thinking he was going to end up in the situation that he is in now. He went to war thinking he was going to do another Venezuela operation. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, bring the Iranians down, be able to proclaim victory, have a parade in New York or something like that. That's what he thought. Uh but once that doesn't happen and you're in a war of attrition, oh, you are in deep trouble. And you are especially in deep trouble in this case because the Iranians hold so many of the cards. And again, the point I'm making to you is we want a deal. Now, Trump wants a deal, but he wants a deal on his terms, but he can't get a deal on his terms. And in fact, again, just to repeat myself because I think it's such an important point, the Iranians have a vested interest in just letting this one go and at some point down the road when they have much more leverage then they do now then trying to work out a deal on that's favorable to them. I think that's an important point which um important that people also understand that the idea that time is on the Iranian side because if you look at the military component the Iranians can continue to just uh pump out these very cheap drones you know you can it is easy to manufacture they're cheap the industrial potential can remain and uh and these you know $drones are sent and the US has to use this million dollar interceptive missile so they they continue to pump them drones while the US diminishes its potential. So again, time is on their side and also as you suggest no suggest said uh in the economic era they they're actually making more money now that the prices are going up. So while the US is uh you know going somewhere very dark and dangerous. So it it does I can see you know if you were advising the Iranians you know you would say you know you're not in a rush to to wrap this one up especially when these are the deals or the terms they're putting on the table but um but I was wondering when he started this countdown first hours and days then days it reminded me a little bit about what he did with the Russians he was also putting I think days then this went down to days you know when the countdown was over uh they were Russia was going to be hit by the toughest sanctions ever and when the clock finally ran out instead, you know, he's called Putin and they agreed to meet in Alaska. Uh so, you know, he just pushed the whole thing aside. But is this something similar that can happen here? Because I guess the difference is that the Russians really wanted a deal. But for the Iranians, it's unclear what Trump can actually deliver because if they hold on to Hormuz, they can they can, you know, essentially put up a toll booth. They can get reparations from the Gulf states for this attack. They can demand that they expel the US bases which have already been many of them blown up. And they can even compel them to ditch the dollar in their energy trade. So which links the US financially to the region so they can get everything they want with military means which means Trump really has to have something else to offer if he wants to get them to the table. I'm just wondering what is it if again Trump calls you, how do we, you know, avoid the iceberg? How do we get out of here? What can he do at this point in time? The truth is he is going to have to make major concessions to the Iranians. Uh, and it will be clear when he makes those major concessions that the Iranians won a clear victory. It will be a humiliating defeat for the United States. Um, if he wants to end this, given what you and I have been saying about what happens is you go up the escalation ladder and the fact that there is no easy uh exit strategy here. uh he really has no choice in the final analysis uh but to cave in to most of Iran's demands and accept a humiliating defeat and uh that will be extremely hard to do. U and it'll be extremely hard to do in part because of Israel. Uh the Israelis will not want us to make any concessions. The Israelis will want us to continue the war. Uh but I think this will be a case where we will be so desperate to avoid a global catastrophe that Trump will ignore the Israelis uh and do what he has to do. Now he may not do that, right? He he may feel that he just can't make the necessary concessions that the Iranian demands are just too outrageous. And those Iranian demands would be hard for anyone to swallow. Anybody in the White House, whether it's President Trump, President George HW Bush, uh Ronald Reagan, Franklin D. Roosevelt, uh the demands that the Iranians are making are really quite amazing. Uh so even if you accept uh only, you know, % of them or even % of them, uh that would be very difficult to do. And this is this is the enormous problem that he faces. And one can easily imagine uh let me take away the word easily. One can imagine him not accepting a deal and just thinking that he can stick it out uh and the end result is will basically go off a cliff uh economically. uh uh you know I think a lot of people don't see that as a serious possibility at this point in time but I think if you look um at you know newspapers like the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal carefully you look at the business section u the articles that are written about the economy uh and uh about fertilizers and food and so forth and so on. you see that we could very easily go off a cliff here. We're talking about a serious situation and uh and it's not clear what President Trump will do. Uh as I like to say, Glenn, I think that when you study international history, there there are these handful of cases that stand out where policymakers get into desperate situations. And when policymakers get into desperate situations, they sometimes roll the dice, they do things that lead to catastrophe. And my favorite example here uh is the Japanese decision-making process that led to Pearl Harbor. Uh the United States was squeezing Japan economically uh between actually between uh the summer of and uh Pearl Harbor, which was December th, And we really began to squeeze starting July th, Uh this is shortly after the Vermacht invaded the Soviet Union and we were really putting pressure on Japan after that. And the Japanese were desperate because they were heavily dependent on the United States. They were remarkably dependent on the United States for oil, scrap iron, and scrap steel. and we had basically uh made it impossible for them to import those things from the United States. We had frozen their absets, their economic assets, and they they were just desperate. And they understood full well that attacking the United States at Pearl Harbor was likely to end in catastrophe. It's very important to understand this. The Japanese understood that they were attacking Godzilla and that it was likely to end in disaster, but they did it anyway because they were desperate. And when the level of desperation reaches a certain point, states, countries, leaders sometimes do uh remarkably foolish things that end up with uh catastrophic consequences. And this of course is what happened with the Japanese. So the question you have to ask yourself is what is President Trump going to do uh as his level of desperation increases? And by the way, you you catch glimpses of how desperate he is on occasion when you sort of watch his body language and you watch what he's saying about the war against Iran. He he understands full well that he's in deep trouble and I'm sure his adviserss are telling him that if we don't shut this one down, we could go off a cliff. uh his adviserss, especially his economic adviserss, are not fools. They understand what's going on here and they're looking for an exit ramp and they can't find one. And they understand full well that the Iranians are playing hard ball with them. And I'm sure they understand full well that the Iranians have powerful cards to play. And what's happening, I'm sure, behind closed doors, I I'm sure that behind closed doors, the level of desperation is increasing every day. And they're searching, you know, they're they're looking for a solution here. Uh, but as you and I were saying before, where is the solution? Where's the exit strategy? You know, a number of my friends who I talked to about this say, what President Trump should do is declare victory and get out. He can't do that. Who's going to believe that uh uh that he achieved a victory? Furthermore, the other side gets a vote in this one and the other side's not going to quit, right? Uh they're going to continue to put pressure on the United States and they're going to continue to put pressure on Israel even if we say we won. Uh they want us completely out of the Middle East. This is truly remarkable. One of their demands is they just want us to go home. Uh, is President Trump going to declare victory and go home? I don't think so. He may declare victory, but he's going to stay there militarily. Maybe not employ military force against Iran, but we'll be there and the Iranians will continue to attack us. So, declaring victory and getting out, so to speak. Where does that leave you? Nowhere. So, he's got to figure out a way to shut this one down. And that means reaching some sort of modus motus for then die with uh Iran. How does that happen? You know, again, this goes back to our earlier discussion of those that point plan that Trump put forward and then the various demands that the uh Iranians are putting forward. Uh you know h how do you find some bargaining space there? And again, I don't see how you do it. Uh it, you know, the Iranians have no incentive. No, the well, Iranian demands, they seem uh excessive. However, they they're also achievable, it appears, because not only can they strike the bases, but as I mentioned, as long as they control the straight of moose, they can squeeze the Gulf States to decouple in terms of either, you know, not rebuilding the bases or hosting the troops. they can, you know, decouple from the petro dollar. There's a lot of things they can do which, uh, you know, they can continue to do even if Trump goes home and declares victory. So, it is a difficult position. But in terms of the pressure though, I think this is also a problem with all the pressure which has been put on Iran cuz not only do they have a lot of cards to play if they decide to go up the escalation ladder, but also they they can't really afford though to go back to this status quo either. I mean, they've been living decades under this crippling sanctions. they had two surprise attacks on their country only a few months in between they don't want another one and also if even if they get an agreement saying oh we promise not to attack you know there was just these surprise attacks happen during negotiations there's no trust anymore so so I think they are in a position where not they only have a lot of cards to play but they're willing to absorb an immense amount of pain in order to to to put a final end to this which as as you said would be to expel the US bases. And again, it sounds excessive, but they're already pulling out of Iraq and this is after years. So, it's not um inconceivable. Uh again, they as we, as you said, they can shut down the Gulf States as well if they don't fall in line. So, it's just hard to see except you know, if he's reaching for a nuclear weapon, what else he can possibly do to to push this one back? Uh but sorry you were yeah I just want to I want to make two points just to piggyback on what you said. One thing we haven't talked about which is enormously important is the Houthis and the Saudis, I mean the Houthis and the Iranians together can shut down the Red Sea and about % of the world's oil and gas comes through uh uh the Persian Gulf and through the straight or but another % comes through the Red Sea. And if the Houthis join in with the Iranians, which is a serious possibility, and they shut down the Red Sea as well, that will further exacerbate uh the situation. So, we don't want to lose sight of that. Uh but also, Glenn, just building on what you said a minute ago, and of course, I agree completely with what you said, it is important to emphasize that Iran is dealing with an existential threat here. the the Israelis especially, but also the Americans want to wreck their state. They talk about regime change, but the Israelis are interested in more than regime change. They want to destroy Iran. They want to do to Iran what happened to Syria. They want to break it into pieces. They want to make Iran a number of states or one single state that is remarkably weak. This is an existential threat. And when you face an existential threat, and as you pointed out, they've faced this existential threat for a long period of time. They know they can't trust the Americans and the Israelis. Given that given that dimension of the equation, they have a deep-seated interest in continuing this war and pushing the Americans and the Israelis to make huge concessions to them. So, if you look at their incentives and you marry that to their capabilities going up the escalation ladder, which we've talked about and which you were just talking about, again, you just say to yourself, how do you end this one quickly? It just it doesn't make sense from an Iranian point of view. And given that they get a vote, he can't get a deal. Well, this is why it's so dangerous when a strategic situation boils down to all or nothing. Uh this is when countries are willing to do a lot of crazy things. But uh it seems if if there was a possibility though for example if the US realized it can't dislodge Iran from Hermuse if it realizes the difficult position if there was a situation where you know Trump could offer the Iranians you know you can co-manage the straight of Hermoose with the Gulf states in return we remove the sanctions you know Trump can say this you know I'm bringing our home troops our troops home from the Middle East according to our grand strategy you know the the Iranians now have peace with the Gulf States. You know, he sold the Shia Sununa problem. I mean, it it could come as a victory, but uh it seems hard to achieve now that he keeps doubling down on this very dangerous rhetoric that you know, I even watch Sean Hannity on Fox News arguing that the Iranians should also pay for uh the war, you know, for all the bombs we had to drop on them. It's just um I think his rhetoric is becoming a key problem though by overselling this victory he proclaimed. Um I if I can just say something very quickly here, Glenn, I think what happens in situations like this is that when uh when the war goes south, the people who got you into the war don't want to retreat. They don't want to say, "We were wrong. let's uh pull back. That that's not their response almost always. The response is instead let's double down. So the Wall Street Journal, Sean Hannity, Lindsey Graham, General Jack Keane, that whole crowd that helped uh produce this disaster fully understand what's happened and they don't want to retreat now and concede defeat. What they want to do is double down and they are putting pressure on President Trump to up the ante and they are making arguments that we can win. We have cards to play. We can go up the escalation ladder. So the problem that Trump faces is that he and his adviserss surely understand that there is a great deal of truth and what pe in what people like you Glenn Dies and me John Mir Shimemer think they understand that but at the same time they have all these people on the other side and these are their close supporters. These are their compadres who helped get him into this mess who are telling them that we can get out of it. And they're of course spinning all sorts of stories about how we do it. And this will go this this means that the war will probably go on for, you know, a couple more weeks before uh we're on the verge of falling off a cliff. And at that point, it may just be too late. So, this is why we shouldn't be too optimistic about President Trump figuring out that he's in a desperate situation. And in that case, what he ought to do is back off and try to work out a deal. Well, an important component of this war though is um of course Israel. They're the ones who launched the first strike here. And uh you you often make the point that uh you know if uh US and Israeli interests and security was you know completely aligned uh then there wouldn't be a need for the lobby but again there is a lobby which suggests that these differences have to be you know ironed out. Uh how do you see this being impacted by when the US has to get out of this war? Because uh you know the the Israelis have been lobbing for this war now for what plus years for an attack on Iran. They finally got it. If the US leaves now, Iran's going to probably end up in a much much more favorable position. So do you see a break or further break at least in USIsraeli relations as a consequence of this war? I know it's not over yet and you know it can still some unknown directions this war can take but what are the risks you think of the US and Israel I guess parting ways to some extent well as you know I think that in almost all cases certainly in the past when Israel's interests and America's interests pointed in opposite directions uh the United States always did what was in Israel's interest in large part because of the power of the lobby Um, and I've argued or I should say Steve Walt and I have argued for long for a long time that this is not in America's national interest obviously, but it's also not in Israel's interest either. Uh but this could be a very different case because if we're in a situation where it looks like the global economy is going to crash, uh I think that would lead President Trump to just tell the Israelis and to tell the lobby he doesn't care what they think. He's going to do everything he can to avoid going off the cliff. This sort of thing. Uh so this could be uh a different case. This could be a case that in in a sense contradicts the basic argument that Steve Walt and I lay out in our work on the lobby. Uh there's another dimension this dimension to this that bears mentioning. It's a very sensitive subject, but almost everybody I know believes that Israel and the lobby led us into this war. And if it's a catastrophe, uh there is a great danger that people will say that the Jews are responsible for causing this war, which is simply not true because huge numbers of Jews oppose this war. And the Israel lobby is comprised of Christian Zionists as well as Jews. And by no means do all Jews belong to the lobby. So it's just very important to understand that. But nevertheless, there is a real danger here that if this war goes south in a serious way, we go off a cliff, we hit the iceberg, whatever phrase you want to use, uh, and people see it as a war that Israel and the lobby is principally responsible for, that would cause, uh, a wave of anti-semitism, not just in the United States, but outside the United States as well. And I actually think that a lot of people inside of the lobby uh and a lot of Israelis and certainly a lot of American Jews understand this danger here. So I think if it looks like we're going off a cliff u I think the lobby would not put much pressure on Trump uh to cut a deal with the Iranians because of the potential uh threat of massive a massive increase in anti-semitism. uh as a result of a lost war, a catastrophic war that's blamed on uh Israel and Malbi. I think you're probably correct in this and uh but it also has to be said that a lot of the leading critics within the US of Israel uh are American Jews though. It's uh so it's not as if uh and you know a lot of the hardcore scientists are actually Christians. So to to just say you know everything Israel's do is to to compare to to Judaism I think would be a wrong direction to take and um but of course the racist are rarely you know purely rational of course in their rhetoric. So um but no I I see that danger as well. Um how do you see though the the Europeans in this because uh they played a very strange role. Uh they you know they initially they well they weren't invited and then they suggested that they would send weapons. Trump didn't want their weapons cuz he already won. Now he wants them to open up the straight of her moose. They don't want to because you know it's too late. It's, you know, it's I think since you used the iceberg and the Titanic metaphor, I think it was a French general who said that uh, you know, the Titanic already hit the iceberg and now Trump invites us to join, you know, like he says he should have invited us before at least this is more or less the argument. Uh, how do you explain the European position on this? And how I guess to widen it further, do you think this would affect NATO? Because Trump already on more than one occasion argued you know uh NATO now is a paper tiger. Mark my words because he will remember this in a few months time. Uh we will remember you betrayed us. You know you didn't come to help us. We do everything for NATO. Marco Rubio said you know Ukraine is not America's war. It's a European Europe's war and we helped you and you don't help us. So it looks like they're building up a case against the Europeans and against NATO. I was just wondering how how do you see this dimension of the war because it is an important you know it would have further ripple effects is my point. Yeah, there are a lot of points to be made here. One thing that you know gets lost in the discourse today because the focus is laser-like on Iran is the Ukraine war. And uh if the Ukraine war were to go south this summer, uh the Ukrainian military were to start losing in a serious way on the battlefield. uh this would have disastrous consequences uh for Trump uh for NATO uh and for transatlantic relations. So we want to keep in the back of our mind that there is this other I would say impending disaster out there that could make a bad situation worse. But just focusing on the Iran situation, uh, you know, here we are again with the Americans doing something, not consulting the Europeans, getting into trouble, and then asking the Europeans for help. Uh, and the Europeans of course uh, understand full well that this is a lost cause. Uh, and they don't want to get involved. I mean the idea that you know European countries should send their navies uh uh to join the American Navy as they try and push through the straight of Hormuz with naval power alone. Uh this is you know crazy uh the American Navy the most powerful navy in the world won't even go near the straight of Hormuz right for fear that uh Iranian cruise missiles will sink those American naval vessels. uh the idea that the French Navy or the British Navy is going to uh be this huge force multiplier that allows our navy plus their navies uh to forged through the straight is kind of crazy. Who believes that? You know, we're talking about all over again when the British Navy tried to push its way through the dinels uh and ran into mines and had to turn around. I mean, just not going to happen. Uh and you know, there's all this talk about maybe using ground forces. This is not a serious argument. ground forces uh and uh European ground forces few few in number uh do you really think the European armies are ready to invade Iran or conquer you know Car Island or any other island? I mean this is just not in the cards. And of course, what's happening here is Trump is desperate and now he's blaming the Europeans, right? He he understands is he he's going to lose and he's got to blame somebody else. It can't be him. After all, he's a genius, right? He he's one of the great strategists of all time. So, this disaster can't be his fault. So, whose fault is it? Well, it has to be the Europeans's fault. Uh all we needed was for them to come into the fight and we would have won. But they didn't come into the fight because they're useless. They're just free riders and that's why we lost. It wasn't my fault. Uh so that's what's going on here. And the Europeans play right into his hands because the Europeans hardly ever stand up to him. And as the Iranians, the North Koreans, the Chinese, and the Russians have demonstrated, there's only one way you deal with President Trump, and that is you stand up to him. If you behave like Mark Ruda, he's going to walk all over you. He's a classic bully. Everybody should have figured that out by now. If you show weakness, as the Europeans consistently do, with the exception of the Spanish prime minister, uh if you show weakness, if you behave like Mark Ruda, uh President Trump is just going to slap you around and continue to slap you around because again, he's a bully. So I guess uh yeah, the US will blame uh Europeans for Iran. The the Europeans seemingly planning to plan to blame the US for Ukraine. So you know there will be a big blame game going around but it is a it's an interesting dynamic because as you suggest there's a you know if the Iran war which can't be contained it's spreading everywhere. If that was the only thing uh it would be one thing but there's so many other variables at play which won't stay constant at any point we could have an unrivaling global economy. The Ukraine war can go spiraling into a collapse. So it's very difficult to I guess to bet on a wider strategic stability as things in Iran goes uh terribly wrong. Uh but at this point though do you see any final you know if Trump decides to go up the escalation ladder is is there any possible final solution he can go to you you were dismissive of the ground the ground operation sending in you know boots on the ground because this appears to be you know no matter how foolish it is and leaders often double down on you know foolishness but uh but the troops are on their way uh thousands of uh US soldiers. Uh it's unclear how they're going to use them. I thought the way they would the most what would make most sense I guess would be to invade Yemen or something to make sure that their Red Sea wouldn't be closed off but anything else and that as well by the way sounds like a disaster. Uh I'm not sure what do you see the possibility of uh using these troops for? I would just point out to you that when we did Desert Storm back in uh remember we invaded uh or we attacked with ground forces on February th of Uh the attacking forces uh comprised about troops. And of that troops, were American. And a lot of those forces were uh mechanized infantry divisions, armored divisions. Uh then in when we invaded Iraq, uh the total force was about Uh I would estimate about were US troops and probably about so were British troops. Uh and uh again, many of those units that went into Iraq in like in uh were uh mechanized infantry and armored divisions. Uh and as you know, Iraq is a much smaller country than Iran geographically, and it has a much smaller population. Uh what are we talking about here? We're talking about sending a couple thousand troops, maybe at the most. I don't think the number is I think, you know, all total at this point, we're more or less committed to sending probably about five or Uh when you look at, you know, what we're actually doing and just don't listen to the rhetoric. But even if it's they're light infantry. Uh just think about those numbers that I was giving you for Desert Storm in ' and for the second Gulf War in What are you going to do with light infantry? Uh then the question is where you going to put them? You know, we have about bases in the Middle East. Almost all those bases have been evacuated because the Iranians have slammed those bases. They've done great destruction to American military bases in the region. This tells you that our bases are vulnerable. So, where are we going to put these troops so that they don't get hit like the bases got hit? What bases are we going to put them on? Uh, and what kind of equipment are they going to use uh to go into places like Car Island or the Iranian mainland or what have you? And what's going to happen when they get there? Are the Iranians just going to say, "Uh, this is a a fatal comply. There's nothing we can do about it." Or do you think the Iranians are going to fight back? Uh, I mean, we know the Iranians are going to fight back. So, what are you going to do with a handful of troops? Uh, and they talk about taking these small islands in the straight of Hormuz. There are three of them. One is bigger than the other two. Um, I don't think that that's going to work out very well. And the Iranians will go to great lengths to defend those islands. And if we take the islands, they'll pummel the troops on the islands. Uh and furthermore, they've told the UAE that uh if that happens and they cooperate with the Americans and the UAE is bent on cooperating with the Americans, uh they're going to basically wreck the UAE. So, uh what are we going to gain by taking those small islands? Uh well, people might say we can open the straight of Hormuz. I don't think that's true at all. First of all, if you're on the verge, you the Americans are on the verge of opening the straight, they'll mine the straight. And mines are deadly effective ways of preventing ships from coming through the straight. But let's assume that I'm wrong and the ships come in to the Persian Gulf, they can make their way into the Persian Gulf. It'll be like a shooting gallery, right? Those ships are be in a narrow body of water. Uh the Iranians will be on one side of the Gulf uh facing this target-rich environment. They have huge numbers of cruise missiles. They have all these fast boats. They have additional mines they can lay in the Persian Gulf. They can wreak havoc. But let's assume I'm wrong. Then we go to Car Island, right? Uh we have an amphibious assault uh uh on Car Island. To put it in Lindsey Graham's terms, we have EOima What are we going to do then? As I said before, are we going to cut off the flow of oil out of Car Island? No, we're not. Not if we're smart, because we're letting all of this Iranian oil out on the market now because we need it. So, invading Car Island and cutting off % of the flow of Iranian oil into global markets makes no sense at all. Uh, and furthermore, once you take Harg Island, let's say you take it, do you think the Iranians are going to sit there and just leave you alone? They're not going to do that. They're going to bomb the island. They're going to bomb your troops with ballistic missiles, with drones, uh, and make life miserable for you. And furthermore, what's the story as to how taking Car Island or taking those three islands in the straight actually produces uh a lasting settlement here? Again, the Iranians, you don't want to forget, are facing an existential threat. And when you're facing an existential threat, you have to fight to the death. You have to fight to the death. That's the way this works. You're dealing with an existential threat. uh and uh they have lots of cards to play. Again, we were prepared to win a quick and decisive victory. We had this cockami strategy that didn't work out. We ended up in a war of attrition. And once you're in a war of attrition, they hold, I would argue, almost all the cards. And if you don't think they hold almost all the cards, uh they hold many cards. And they have the ability to cause enormous trouble. uh as we've talked about on the show here. So, you know, the ground forces option I it's I don't know what people are talking about. And by the way, Glenn, just to you know, beat a dead horse here. You remember how long we prepared the troops uh for Desert Storm? When did Saddam invade Iraq? I think it was August nd of August nd of And when did we launch those ground troops against the Iraqi army? It was February th, So you went from August of early August of to late February of That was the time it took to build up the force, train the force, uh, and then launch the offensive. That's a long time. And as I said before, it was a huge army, troops, right? And the same thing is true with the offensive. We just didn't do that overnight. President Trump made no preparations for a ground war uh for February th. This is something that he and his adviserss have recently invented as a way to deal with this problem. They just sort of pulled it out of their back pocket. Oh, we'll do ground forces that let's see what we can do to invade Iranian held territory. So that that's what they're talking about doing now. There was no planning for this. Uh there's no no strategy there. Uh we're basically screwed. And as you said, uh Iran is about four times as large as Iraq. It's uh mountainous. It's facing down on the other Gulf states which are essentially flat deserts. Uh they've they have the whole coastline. I mean it's a fortress and populated by more than million people and uh they've been preparing for this ever since Bush called them uh they put them in the axis of evil. So it is and yeah so you're right to put together a few thousand troops and uh you know ship them down there with a you know make up the plan as to sail down there. It it does sound very cartoonish. Uh not the way uh one one fights a war. So yeah, it's it's not reassuring though when you have this kind of desperation, this much at stake and um yeah, it seems like someone's going to do something very rush uh when things start to go very wrong. Uh I don't know. I'm just very Yeah, pray that no one's reaching for the nuclear weapons for a quick fix. But um yeah, but that's another chapter we can look at a different time. Do you have any final thoughts before we wrap up? Just one final thought. You know, people like us are frequently um critical of the deep state and uh people on both sides of the political spectrum are critical of the deep state. But the reason that you have a powerful state uh the reason you have powerful institutions like the CIA and the Pentagon and analogous institutions in Russia, China and so forth and so on is because you need a lot of expertise. You need a lot of people who can help you staff problems. In other words, if you decide that you're going to invade um Iraq in you just can't do it by yourself if you're the president and with a handful of advisors. You have to have lots of experts. You have to have lots of help uh thinking about how to deal with the problem and how to execute the right strategy and so forth and so on. And the problem with President Trump is he doesn't have any respect whatsoever for institutions and certainly for the deep state which he views as a mortal enemy because he thinks the deep state opposed him in all sorts of ways during his first term. So you have this actually very interesting situation where he does not rely on experts at all. He relies on Steve Witoff and Jared Kushner and Lindsey Graham. These people are not serious strategists. These are not people who are capable of thinking through how to deal with major foreign policy issues or questions of war and peace. They can't do that. And again, the reason that you have a deep state is because inside that deep state is all sorts of expertise. I don't want to paint too post rosy a picture of the deep state here, but there is an upside to having a deep state. And Glenn, it is very important to understand that all of the evidence that's in the public record now says that the deep state was was at least very doubtful as to whether this would work, this war, and maybe was even opposed to it. I if you listen to what uh General Kaine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was saying before the war and what he's been saying since the war started, and you listen to what the Pentagon was saying, absent Pete Hexath, of course. Um and you look at what the intelligence community was saying, especially the National Intelligence Council, it's quite clear that the deep state was highly skeptical of this operation. And for good reason, because as you and I know, anybody who understands basic military history knows that the idea that you're going to get regime change with air power alone is a delusional perspective. Right? So the deep state in this case was not consulted, did not provide any expertise. Right? And instead, what President Trump did was he relied on himself because of course he thinks he's a genius. And he to the extent he relied on anybody, he relied on people like Jared Kushner and Steve Witco uh and Lindsey Graham and uh Rupert Murdoch who was calling him all the time and so forth and so on and you know people on Fox News and you name it. it. But you don't go to war relying on people like that. You need experts. You you have to really think these things through. Uh as we know very well, you and I, when you go to war, the potential for disaster is great. It it is the realm of unintended consequences. Right? This is one of the central messages in Clausvitz. For anybody who's read Clausvet, you understand very quickly. Well, going to war is in many ways a giant crapshoot. And you want to do everything you can to maximize the chances that you'll be successful. And the way you do that is you rely on smart people. You tell smart people to turn their critical faculties on and to think about what's the best strategy for pursuing a particular goal and ask people at the same time is this goal worthwhile pursuing. you know, can we come up with a strategy that will allow us to achieve the goal and so forth and so on. But he just had none of that with President Trump in his decision-making that led up to uh the war that's now ongoing. And on top of all that, not to get too carried away here, but he relied on the Israelis who were selling him a bill of goods. Uh really quite remarkable. he was bamboozled by uh Prime Minister Netanyahu. So here we are and uh and again which I just want to say one more time what happened here was foreseeable. It was foreseeable. You did not have to be a strategic genius to understand what was going to happen. And again, the deep state, I believe, understood this. Understand why Trump would have been uh distrustful though of the intelligence agencies and the permanent bureaucracy due to the whole Russia gate affair in his first uh presidential term. But again, I couldn't agree with you more. That being said, you still need those guys. And uh the fact that the idea that you can replace them with a crew of people you trust which consists of your friends from the real estate business, your family members, some people from the media, from Fox News and uh yeah, that this will be the replacement. I mean, that sets up a whole new category of problems. So, no, I it's uh yeah, no, it's a real mess. Uh anyways uh it's uh whenever we talk about the Ukraine war ends on a very dark note. I don't think uh well it's any positive spin one can put on this war. It's uh going to be a real mess. So uh thank you very much for taking the time. Welcome Glenn. All I will say is I hope that before I die, you and I have a conversation where we can have an optimistic conclusion to what we say over the course of the show. Uh it does seem like we're a long way up from that point, however. Yeah, I look forward to that. Hopefully that opportunity. So, thanks. You're welcome.
Iran 'DESTROYS' U.S Military Aircraft In 'DIRECT STRIKE' On Gulf Base As IRGC Unleashes Missile Wave Times Of India Mar 27, 2026 #Iran #USA #BreakingNews
Iran has combined military escalation with increasingly sharp rhetoric, announcing its 84th wave of missile and drone strikes while simultaneously targeting US leadership with direct criticism. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed that the latest operation struck logistical and fuel infrastructure linked to US forces, describing it as a “successful penetration” of American defences. Alongside these claims, Iranian messaging has taken aim at US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, challenging his repeated assertions that American forces are dominating the conflict. Iranian narratives have framed US statements as exaggerated, while positioning their own operations as precise and effective.
Transcript
Iran has sharpened its rhetoric alongside its military escalation with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps mocking US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseath as it announced the th wave of missile and drone strikes targeting American assets in the region. In a statement tied to the latest Salvo, the IRGC claimed it had destroyed multiple US fuel tankers and elements of a logistical support fleet at the Alharge base, describing the strike as a successful penetration of American defenses. The operation carried out using a mix of missiles and drones was framed as a direct response to what Iran calls the US military's use of regional air bases. Iranian linked narratives accompanying the strike took direct aim at Hegathth, accusing him of displaying an inferiority complex, a pointed response to his repeated public assertions that the US is dominating the conflict and degrading Iran's military capabilities. Hegsth has repeatedly projected confidence, declaring that US forces are setting the tempo of the war and have significantly degraded Iran's capabilities. Iran in turn is countering with both battlefield claims and sharp rhetoric portraying US actions as overstated while positioning its own strikes as precise and effective. The th wave thus highlights two parallel tracks. An intensifying campaign of strikes across the region and an equally aggressive battle of narratives where both sides are seeking to shape perceptions of momentum, control, and credibility. Iranian general drops bombshell. All US bases in Middle East wiped out. Iran shatters America's military regional dominance. In a major development, the Iranian armed forces on March th revealed what it called a stunning victory over the US military amid the ongoing war. The spokesperson for general staff of Iran's armed forces, Brigadier General Abu Fazal Shiki, claimed that US military bases in the Middle East have been destroyed. Shiki said the US could not defend their bases and their army from Thrron's aerial blitz, reported Mayor news agency. He added that Iran changed its defensive doctrine to an offensive one after the -day Israel Iran war in June last year in which the US participated by bombing Thrron's nuclear facilities. Shiki further warned Iran has not attacked any country over the past years and will not invade against other countries. Iran's aggressive doctrine means that if a country invades us, we will attack until it is destroyed and will not let it go. He vowed that Iran's defensive strategy will continue until it leads to victory and quote the enemy is punished, adding that punishing and pursuing the quote aggressor unquote will be on the agenda until removing the shadow of war from the Islamic Republic of Iran forever. The explosive claim came a day after Iran's highest operational command unit Katam Elania Central Headquarters said that it is on the hunt for American commanders and soldiers who allegedly took refuge in hideouts outside their bases in the Middle East after they were hit by Tehran. In the name of of God the most gracious, the most merciful. Given the undeniable fact that all of the United States military installations within the region have been utterly destroyed, their commanders and soldiers have consequently fled and sought refuge in various concealed hideouts located outside of those bases and we are now actively searching for them. We call upon the people of the countries in this region to report the locations where they are hiding and simultaneously for their own safety and security to demand the expulsion of all Americans from the region and indeed victory comes only from Allah the Almighty, the all- wise. Referring to the fight between the US and Iran over a key oil trade route, the Strait of Hormuz, Brigadier General Abu Fazal Shakarti warned, quote, "The situation in the Strait of Hormuz will not return to the way it was before. Even if this war ends, we have set conditions and countries should comply fully with our conditions." For more than two weeks now, maritime traffic through the straight of Hormuz has been disrupted. Several vessels have been attacked and many others have been stuck on the two ends of the straight, unwilling to take the risk of passing through. The warning from Iran came as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on March th said that it was in the interest of all G-nations to push for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz currently blocked by Iran. Straight of Hormuz. Well, it's in their interest to help. It's I mean the the other countries get far more of their fuel from there than we do. So, but what kind of help are you going to ask? the wine sweepers, naval help. Well, those specifics I'll leave it to the Department of War as to exactly what, but it's in their interest. It's in their national interest. As Rubio calls on the Gallies to back America's bid to lift Iran's partial blockade of the strait. Reports suggest that the Trump administration is mulling the use of ground troops to reopen the strait. A move that could dangerously escalate the war, which has already engulfed the entire region. This is no longer a warning. This is a surge. A massive escalation is unfolding right now. Iran's Revolutionary Guard has unleashed yet another wave of strikes, but this time the scale is staggering and the message unmistakable. Wave of Operation True Promise has been executed and the targets spread across multiple high-v value locations. Each one chosen with precision. The operation was launched Thursday evening. Coordinated by the naval and aerospace divisions of the Revolutionary Guard. Its code came Abdullah al- Hussein, a phrase heavy with symbolism and intent. Officially, the Guard claims this wave is dedicated to people in the northern Persian Gulf. But the targets suggest something far bigger, far more calculated. Among them, the Ashdot oil storage facilities, a critical artery of energy infrastructure also struck. The Modian settlement identified as a key deployment zone for Israeli forces. This wasn't random. It was a dual strike economic and military delivered in a single coordinated blow. A signal that the battlefield is expanding and the stakes are rising fast. But the operation did not stop there. The revolutionary guard claims it also targeted an American military intelligence exchange center in the region. Alongside that, major US- linked bases including Al Dafra and Aludiad were also part of the strike list. Further targets included Ali Salem base, specifically maintenance and repair hangers for transport aircraft and drones. Fuel depots used by US forces for jets and fighters were also reportedly hit. In addition, the Shik ISA base saw strikes aimed at maintenance infrastructure for the Patriot system. According to the Revolutionary Guard, the operation was executed with complete success. A combination of long range and medium-range missile systems was used in this coordinated assault. These included solid and liquid fuel missiles, precision guided systems, and multi-warhead payloads designed for maximum impact. The use of suicide and loitering drones adds another layer to this operation. It reflects a hybrid warfare approach, combining missile barages with drone persistence over targets. This suggests careful planning and an intent to overwhelm multiple defense layers. The messaging from the Revolutionary Guard is equally stark. In a direct warning, it stated that it will find its enemies and make them pay for what it described as their actions. The statement makes it clear that this is not a one-off strike, but part of an ongoing campaign. The Guard has explicitly said that this wave will continue. that signals further operations could already be in motion or imminent. The tone suggests confidence, escalation, and a willingness to sustain prolonged engagement. The final note in the statement reinforces the ideological framing of the operation. Victory, it says, comes only from God, underscoring both resolve and justification. As the situation develops, the region braces for what may come next in this intensifying conflict. The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, IRGC, has announced the launch of the nd wave of retaliatory operations against the USIsraeli coalition, marking a further escalation in the ongoing conflict across West Asia. In a statement on Thursday, the IRGC said the latest wave involved a combination of missile strikes and large-scale drone deployments carried out in response to earlier air strikes targeting Iran's critical infrastructure and civilian facilities. The operation, which began early in the day, was described as sustained in nature with strikes continuing over several hours.
True Promise 4: Iran and resistance axis ops. against US-Israeli assets on Mar. 27 by Press TV Website Staff Friday, 27 March 2026 7:53 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 27 March 2026 7:53 PM ] https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/03/2 ... tes-mar-27
Iranian armed forces and resistance groups across the region continue to carry out retaliatory military operations against the United States and the Israeli regime.
On Friday, March 26, 2027, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Iranian Army conducted multiple operations as part of Operation True Promise 4, which was launched immediately after the US-Israeli coalition carried out an unprovoked act of aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran on February 28.
Iranian armed forces have so far carried out 83 waves of missile and drone strikes with advanced weaponry targeting Israeli military facilities in the occupied territories, as well as US occupation bases and assets scattered across the West Asia region.
The Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement and the Islamic Resistance in Iraq have also joined the front against the external aggressors, inflicting heavy blows on the enemy.
Hezbollah’s operations have been primarily focused on Israeli military sites in the occupied territories. Its operations are both in response to the assassination of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and the relentless ceasefire violations by the Israeli regime over the past year.
Iraqi resistance groups have also been carrying out daily operations, primarily against American military assets in Iraq and other Arab countries.
Below is a list of operations carried out by the Iranian armed forces, as well as resistance movements in Lebanon and Iraq, against the US and the Zionist regime on March 27:
Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC):
• The wave 83th of Operation True Promise 4, dedicated to the warm-blooded people of the country's southern strip in the northern Persian Gulf, was carried out under the sacred code "Ya Aba Abdillah Al-Hussein (peace be upon him)" against targets of the American-Zionist enemy. • These targets included the "Ashdod" oil storage and depots, the deployment location of the child-killing Zionist army in the "Modi'in" settlement, the US military intelligence exchange center in the region, the US military bases in Al-Dhafra and Al-Udeid, the maintenance and repair hangars for transport aircraft and drones at Ali Al-Salem base, fuel depots for jets and fighters of the American terrorist forces, and the maintenance and repair hangar for the "Patriot" system at Sheikh Isa base. • The operation was executed with complete success, using long-range and medium-range systems, solid and liquid fuel, precision-guided, multi-warhead missiles, and suicide and loitering drones. • The 84th wave of Operation True Promise 4 was carried out jointly by the IRGC aerospace and naval divisions under the blessed code "O Best of Providers" and dedicated to the martyrs of the IRIB organization and all the hard-working personnel of this media organization," destroying the enemy’s anti-missile defense systems and the location of the fuel supply fleet and aerial support at the Al-Kharj base with a barrage of missile and drone fire. • The IRGC Intelligence wing in western Ilam province announced the identification and arrest of 51 American-Zionist mercenaries and spies.
Press TV @PressTV Satellite images of Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia reportedly show a US KC-135 refueling tanker aircraft completely destroyed and several other tanker aircraft damaged.
• The first drone-carrying flotilla of the strategic army navy, composed of surface and subsurface floating units carrying various combat, reconnaissance, and strike drones, was unveiled. • The support base and transportation center of the Israeli occupation army in "Tel Aviv" was attacked with a barrage of drones. • A cruise missile fired from a US-Israeli aircraft was shot down by the Army Air Defense Force systems in the northwest of the country.
Hezbollah:
• In defense of Lebanon and its people, and within the framework of the warning issued by the Islamic Resistance to a number of settlements in northern occupied Palestine, the fighters of the Islamic Resistance targeted the "Kiryat Shmona" settlement with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers and their vehicles in the border town of Naqoura with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a newly established helicopter pad in "Baydar al-Faqani" in the town of Taybeh with artillery shells. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers and their vehicles in the vicinity of the "Malkiya" settlement twice with artillery shells. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted the Israeli artillery positions in the "Eilon" settlement with a swarm of attack drones. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers and their vehicles in the town of Al-Qantara with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the "Shtula" settlement with a swarm of attack drones. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers and their vehicles in the city of Khiam with artillery shells. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers and their vehicles at the "Al-Malikiyah" site with a rocket barrage. • In support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in support of their brave and honorable resistance, and in defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the town of Debel with a swarm of attack drones. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers and their vehicles in the border town of Al-Qawzah with a rocket barrage and artillery shells. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers and their vehicles in the "Shomera" settlement with a rocket barrage.
Press TV @PressTV Iranian air defenses have shot down an American cruise missile over northwestern Iran.
• In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted infrastructure belonging to the Israeli military in the "Katsrin" settlement in the occupied Syrian Golan with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted the Israeli artillery positions in "Odem" in the occupied Syrian Golan with a swarm of attack drones. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted the artillery batteries of the Israeli military in Ma'ilya, west of the "Ma'alot Tarshiha" settlement, with a swarm of attack drones. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted gatherings of Israeli soldiers and their vehicles in the square of the town of Al-Qantara and its surroundings with rocket barrages and artillery shells. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers and their vehicles at the "Metulla" site with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers and their vehicles in the vicinity of the Khiam detention center with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted the industrial zone in the "Rosh Pinna" settlement with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted infrastructure belonging to the Israeli military in the occupied city of Safad with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of the town of Al-Qawzah with a guided missile. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted the enemy's artillery positions in the "Kabri" settlement with a swarm of attack drones. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers and their vehicles at the "Misgav Am" site with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers and their vehicles at Khallat al-Ain in the town of Al-Qantara with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers and their vehicles at Khallat al-Ain in the town of Al-Qantara for the second time with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, and after monitoring the advance of an Israeli force at Khillet Al-Jawhar, east of the town of Beit Lif, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted it with a guided missile. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers and their vehicles near the cemetery of the town of Al-Qantara with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers and their vehicles at the pond of the town of Dibil with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters confronted an Israeli force infiltrating the Taybeh-Al-Qantara road in southern Lebanon. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, Islamic Resistance fighters detonated explosive devices against Israeli military vehicles in the town of Deir Seryan in southern Lebanon. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, and within the framework of the warning issued by the Islamic Resistance to a number of settlements in northern occupied Palestine, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted the "Kiryat Shmona" settlement with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, and within the framework of the warning issued by the Islamic Resistance to a number of settlements in northern occupied Palestine, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted the "Kiryat Shmona" settlement for the second time with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a Merkava tank on the southwestern outskirts of the town of Al-Bayyadah with a guided missile.
Press TV@PressTV War against Iran draining US Tomahawk missile stockpile, alarming Pentagon: Report From presstv.ir 10:56 AM · Mar 27, 2026
• In defense of Lebanon and its people, after monitoring a force from the Israeli army that infiltrated a house on the outskirts of the town of Al-Bayada, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted it with a guided missile. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, and within the framework of the warning issued by the Islamic Resistance to a number of settlements in northern occupied Palestine, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted the "Margaliot" settlement with a swarm of attack drones. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, and within the framework of the warning issued by the Islamic Resistance to a number of settlements in northern occupied Palestine, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted the "Metulla" settlement with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters ambushed an Israeli force as it attempted to advance from the outskirts of the town of Al-Bayyada towards the town of Chama. Upon its arrival at the western outskirts of the town, Hezbollah fighters engaged the force with light and medium weapons. • Targeted a Merkava tank belonging to the Israeli army in the town of Deir Seryan in southern Lebanon with a guided missile. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters clashed with a force from the Israeli army using light and medium weapons from point-blank range in the town of Al-Bayyada, achieving direct hits. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a Merkava tank in the town of Al-Bayada with an attack drone. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters clashed again with an Israeli regime force in the towns of Al-Bayyadah and Chamaa at point-blank range with light and medium weapons, achieving direct hits. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, and within the framework of the warning issued by the Islamic Resistance to a number of settlements in occupied northern Palestine, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted the "Nahariya" settlement with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted the "Beit Hillel" barracks with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted concentrations of Israeli soldiers and their vehicles in the vicinity of the town of Al-Bayyada in waves with rocket barrages and artillery shells. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted the "Gadot" site north of Tabariya Lake with a swarm of attack drones. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted gatherings of Israeli soldiers and their vehicles in the town of Al-Qantara – in the vicinity of the cemetery with a rocket barrage, in Khallat Al-Ain with a rocket barrage, in the town square with a rocket barrage, in the vicinity of the cemetery with a rocket barrage, near the reservoir with artillery shells, at Wadi Al-Araish with a rocket barrage, in the town square with artillery shells, in the town square with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted four more "Merkava" tanks in the town of Al-Qantara with attack drones. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted two more "Merkava" tanks and an armored personnel carrier in the Wadi Al-Oyoun area in the town of Dibil with attack drones, achieving direct hits. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted gatherings of Israeli soldiers and their vehicles at the "Al-Malikiya" site, and at the "Misgav Am" site with rocket barrages. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the town of Al-Bayada with an attack drone. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers east of the "Sasa" settlement with an attack drone. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted the Israeli military’s artillery positions in "Givat HaEm," east of the "Kiryat Shmona" settlement, with a swarm of attack drones. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, and in the framework of the warning issued by the Islamic Resistance to a number of settlements in occupied northern Palestine, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted the "Kiryat Shmona" settlement for the third time. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, and within the framework of the warning issued by the Islamic Resistance to a number of settlements in northern occupied Palestine, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted the "Shlomi" settlement with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers and their vehicles at the "Al-Malikiyah" site with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted the "Tefen" base east of the occupied city of Akka, the air defense system in the "Ma'alot Tarshiha" settlement, and infrastructure belonging to the Israeli army in the "Karmiel" settlement with a rocket barrage of qualitative missiles. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a "Merkava" tank in the town of Al-Bayada with a guided missile. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters engaged a warplane in the skies of Beirut with a surface-to-air missile. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted another "Merkava" tank in the town of Al-Bayada with a guided missile. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters engaged a warplane in the skies of Beirut with a surface-to-air missile. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted two more "Merkava" tanks in the town of Al-Bayyada with two attack drones. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted the "Meron" base for air surveillance and operations management in northern occupied Palestine with a swarm of attack drones. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the town of Al-Bayyada with an attack drone. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted another "Merkava" tank in the town of Al-Bayyada with a guided missile. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, and within the framework of the warning issued by the Islamic Resistance to a number of settlements in the north of occupied Palestine, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted the "Kiryat Shmona" settlement for the fourth time. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers and their vehicles in the Al-Malikiya site for the third time with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers and their vehicles in Beidar Al-Faqani in the town of Taybeh with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the town of Deir Siryan with a swarm of attack drones. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers and their vehicles of the Israeli army in Khallat Al-Ain in the town of Al-Qantara with a rocket barrage. ________________________________________
War against Iran draining US Tomahawk missile stockpile, alarming Pentagon: Report Friday, 27 March 2026 11:21 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 27 March 2026 11:21 AM ] https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/03/2 ... gon-report
Each Tomahawk missile costs between $2 million and $4 million and US military has fired more than 850 of them in four weeks of its war against Iran. (File)
US military has fired more than 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles in four weeks of its war against Iran, burning through the precision weapons at a rate that has alarmed Pentagon officials and prompted internal discussions about how to make more available, according to a report by The Washington Post, citing sources.
The heavy expenditure – a part of the so-called ‘Operation Epic Fury’, which began on February 28 with the assassination of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and some top-ranking commanders as well as ordinary civilians – has raised concerns about the strain on US weapons stockpiles, the report stated.
According to analysts, the US currently produces approximately 90 to 100 Tomahawk missiles annually, meaning that the number fired in the past four weeks exceeds the total output of the past five to eight years, triggering alarm bells.
Each Tomahawk missile costs between $2 million and $4 million, depending on the variant, with some estimates placing the cost as high as $3.5 million per unit.
At that rate, military experts say, the 850 missiles fired represent a cost of up to $3 billion, a fraction of the overall war bill, which is estimated to have exceeded $18 billion so far.
Replacing the expended missiles is expected to take years. Building a single Tomahawk requires between 18 and 24 months due to complex components, including solid rocket motors, advanced seekers, and terrain-matching sensors that rely on single-source suppliers.
Press TV @PressTV Image of the American Tomahawk missile just before it hit an elementary school in Minab, killing more than 170 children.
The fragile supply chain and historically low production rates have left manufacturers struggling to scale up rapidly, according to reports, citing military experts.
In an effort to address these vulnerabilities, the Pentagon recently entered into a seven-year framework agreement with Raytheon, an RTX business, aimed at ramping up annual Tomahawk production to more than 1,000 units.
The agreement, announced in early February, came just weeks before the US and the Israeli regime launched an unprovoked aggression on Iran. Officials acknowledge that even with expanded capacity, replenishing stockpiles depleted at the current rate will take years.
Iranian armed forces have so far carried out 83 waves of Operation True Promise 4, using their advanced missiles and drones to inflict heavy blows on the enemy.
Israeli military infrastructure in the occupied territories, as well as US military bases scattered across the region, have been destroyed and made “uninhabitable,” according to the New York Times and other US media outlets.
Importantly, US military had used Tomahawk missiles in its attack on an elementary school in southern Iran's Minab that killed more than 170 schoolchildren on February 28.
Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses: http://www.presstv.co.uk
Iran’s retaliatory strikes have rendered many of the 13 US military bases in the Persian Gulf region “all but uninhabitable,” forcing American troops to work remotely from hotels and office spaces.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has issued a statement addressing people across West Asia, saying it is obligated to eliminate US and Israeli “terrorist forces” wherever they are found for indiscriminately killing Iranian civilians and targeting key figures.
The statement, released on Friday, urged residents to immediately leave areas where American forces are stationed to avoid harm, stating that the US and Israeli militaries are hiding behind civilians and using noncombatants as human shields.
“The cowardly American-Zionist forces, who lack the courage and ability to defend their own military bases, out of fear of the fire of the warriors of Islam, are attempting to use civilian locations and innocent people as human shields,” the statement said.
Press TV @PressTV RGC to people in West Asia:
The cowardly American–Zionist forces, who lack the courage and ability to defend their own military bases, are trying to use innocent civilians as human shields out of fear of the fighters of Islam. 2:35 AM · Mar 27, 2026
“Since we are obliged to eliminate the terrorist forces of America and the usurping regime wherever we find them, as they recklessly engage in the killing of Iranian civilians and the assassination of key figures, we advise that you urgently leave the locations of American forces so that no harm comes to you.”
The Iranian warning comes shortly after a report by The New York Times revealed that US military across West Asia is facing mounting strain after sustained Iranian strikes rendered key American bases increasingly uninhabitable, forcing troops to disperse and operate from "improvised" locations across the region.
According to the newspaper, the shift has effectively transformed parts of the US-Israeli terrorist war campaign into a remote operation, with personnel working away from traditional command centers.
Prior to the outbreak of war, approximately 40,000 US troops were stationed across West Asia. Thousands have since been redeployed, some as far as Europe, while others remain in the region but no longer operate from established bases.
According to media reports, US forces have established a presence at civilian sites across the region, including a logistics base near Beirut's old airport and advisory operations at Damascus' Republic Palace, the Four Seasons, and Sheraton hotels.
US Marines were reportedly moved this week to Djibouti International Airport via Istanbul and Sofia.
On Thursday, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned hotels in Persian Gulf Arab countries against accepting US military personnel fleeing their bases and using civilian sites as cover.
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
"From the outset of this war, US soldiers fled military bases in the GCC (Persian Gulf Cooperation Council) to hide in hotels and offices. They use GCC citizens as human shields," Araghchi wrote on the social media platform X.
He compared the situation to hotels in the United States, which he said deny bookings to officers who may endanger customers, and urged Persian Gulf hotels to adopt the same practice.
Iran has struck 104 American and regional bases, according to a rough analysis of geolocated strikes by Fabian Hinz, an open-source analyst.
American satellite firms have delayed the release of imagery by at least 14 days, making it hard to assess the damage, British daily the Telegraph reported.
Of all the bases, Ali Al Salem in Kuwait has suffered most hits – a total of 23 – according to Hinz. Camp Arifjan and Camp Buehring follow, with 17 and six geolocated strikes respectively.
Satellite imagery from these three bases, the Telegraph wrote, shows damage to hangars, communications infrastructure, satellite equipment, fuel stores, and – following a strike on Ali Al Salem on Wednesday – a large warehouse.
Press TV @PressTV New satellite images of damage to the US bases and the residence its troops in the region
Iran has hit bases in the UAE 17 times, Bahrain 16 times, Iraq seven times, Qatar six times, Saudi Arabia six times and Jordan twice, according to Hinz’s “conservative” assessment as of Wednesday.
A study by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies estimated that attacks in the first days of the war caused at least $800 million of damage, with hits on an American THAAD (Terminal high altitude area defense) radar in Jordan and other infrastructure elsewhere in the region.
In Saudi Arabia, at the Prince Sultan Air Base, satellite imagery shows a hangar with a pitched roof reduced to rubble, the Telegraph reported.
In Qatar, at Al Udeid Air Base – the largest American base in the Middle East – imagery shows the destruction of multiple antennae and satellite arrays.
In the UAE, at Al Dhafra Air Base, a large hole has been ploughed through a building apparently used to house troops, with a large blast radius of dust.
Iranian sources said the attack was carried out by a Khorramshahr-4 missile, the most advanced in Iran’s arsenal.
Press TV@PressTV Iranian armed forces fired several Khorramshahr-4 heavy ballistic missiles towards occupied territories, reportedly fitted with cluster warheads capable of scattering 80 submunitions across a large area.
On Monday, CENTCOM which is responsible for American forces in West Asia put out an urgent call for contractors to deliver transportable hardened bunkers to Jordan.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has targeted radar and air defense facilities in an attempt to “blind” Washington.
Iran has struck four sites hosting components for the American-made THAAD system, which tracks and intercepts incoming missiles, Hinz said.
An early-warning radar in Qatar and other radar installations across the region were also hit. “That may have made it harder to intercept Iranian missiles,” the British paper said.
More Iranian launches are penetrating US and Israeli air defenses which face acute shortages of interceptor missiles, according to a study published on Wednesday by the Royal United Services Institute think tank.
Kuwait is the country in the region that has been hit most, with 50 confirmed impacts, according to Hinz.
