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

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Rubio Receives Lavrov's Grim Call: Russia Confirms Massive Strikes on Ukraine’s Capital Core?
Hindustan Times
May 25, 2026 #Russia #UkraineWar #Kyiv

Russia has warned the U.S. that a new wave of “systematic strikes” on Kyiv is imminent after a deadly attack in Starobelsk killed at least 21 people. Sergey Lavrov reportedly told Marco Rubio that foreign diplomats and civilians should evacuate the Ukrainian capital immediately. Moscow said military-industrial facilities, command centres and key sites across Kyiv are now in Russia’s crosshairs. The warning came days after Russia unleashed a massive drone and missile barrage, including reported Oreshnik strikes. Is the Ukraine war entering its most dangerous and destructive phase yet?



Transcript

Are Putin's forces now preparing to hammer KF like never before? Signaling that the next phase of this war could bring an intensity of strikes the city
has yet to see? Is KF bracing for wave after wave of incoming fire as Moscow promises new systematic attacks? Hinting that random barges may be replaced by relentless, carefully planned campaign.
Has Russia quietly warned the US ahead of unveiling a new KF strike doctrine using diplomatic back channels to signal that what comes next could change the
rules of this conflict? Sergey Lavroof has issued a chilling warning to Marco Rubio to evacuate the US embassy in Kief, drawing a red line around American
diplomats and hinting that no one in the capital should feel safe. With Moscow talking openly about hitting decision centers, KF's political and military
nerve hubs are now firmly in Russia's crosshairs, raising fears of direct strikes on the leadership of the Ukrainian state. On May 24th, Putin
unleashed the nuclear capable arrnic system on KF in a night of fire, sending a stark message that Russia can brandish its most feared weapons without formally
crossing the nuclear threshold. Russia has reigned more than 500 drones and missiles on KF in a single massive assault, presenting it as both payback
for recent strikes and the opening act of a broader escalation meant to overwhelm Ukraine's defenses. All of this comes after Putin accused Ukraine of deliberate targeting in a nighttime
drone blast, using that allegation as the pretext for a new wave of punishment that could drag the war into an even darker phase. I am forced to start with
the tragic events that you have surely heard about, namely the tragic events in the Luhans People's Republic. Last night, the neo-Nazi regime that seized
power in Kief carried out a terrorist attack on the student dormatory of the Stero Bell's pedagogical college at night when the students were sleeping.
According to reports, I have been listening to report from the head of the republic, Paseknik Leonard Ivanovich, the minister of defense, the minister of
emergency situations, the director of the FSB. It is currently known that six people died, 39 were injured, 15 are
missing as the debris is still being cleared. We will certainly do everything to help the victims and the families of the deceased. I emphasize this is
important. There are no military facilities, intelligent facilities or related services near the dormiatory.
Therefore, there is no reason to say that the shells hit the building due to our air defense systems electronic warfare. No one can say that they tried
to hit some object and the UAVs were shot down by our own means and allegedly accidentally hit this building. The
strike was not accidental. It occurred in three waves of 16 UAVs in the same place. Of course, we will investigate the details. They will be investigated.
Appropriate conclusions will be drawn.
But it is clear to us once again. It becomes obvious. Who are we dealing with? Who are we fighting against? And
for what? This is a manifestation of neo-Nazism. This once again confirms the terrorist nature of the KF regime. Once
again, I want to in this regard, I have already done this. Appeal to the servicemen of the armed forces of
Ukraine. Do not follow criminal orders, illegitimate, corrupt junter. Otherwise, you yourselves become accompllices in
these crimes. Although the reason for such criminal behavior of the KF ram understandable. You know this better
than anyone else. These are constant failures at the front. Surrendering positions of settlements territories.
The situation at the front for the armed forces of Ukraine is gradually turning from difficult and critical to catastrophic. Neither western aid which
is regularly embezzled helps but they simply cannot resist. They cannot resist nonviolent mobilization. When people are
caught on the streets like stray dogs and then thrown to the front. In this regard, desation is catastrophically growing for the enemy. It is becoming
large scale. The situation for the ruling elite is aggravated by the corrupting all-consuming corruption that is covered by the regime's leaders. In
fact, they themselves are participants in the corruption schemes, which is why they then help each other flee the country, escaping to Israel to other
countries abroad. It is well known to everyone both in Ukraine and the world that the Ukrainian authorities steal from everything, just from everything.
It has come to military property and personal protective equipment intended for those who are driven to the front like cattle driven to die for those who
plunder Ukraine and foreign aid. The K ra undoubtedly need such crimes to divert attention from the events happening both at the front and in the country to provoke a response in Russia.
And then we know this we have been through it many times to blame everything on us on Russia on our country all the escalations and all the
consequences of such crimes. I repeat, we have been through this many times.
Nevertheless, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia has been instructed to inform international organizations and the international community about this
crime. Of course, we understand that in such cases, it is impossible to limit ourselves to statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Therefore, the
Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has been ordered to present its proposals. And now, I would ask you to stand and honor the memory of the deceased.

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Russian Fiercest Warning; Kiev Decision Centres Will Be Attacked; Patience Exhausted; West Quit Kiev
Alexander Mercouris
May 26, 2026

Russia has formally declared its patience exhausted, announcing systematic strikes on decision making centers and command posts while ordering all foreign nationals and diplomatic staff to leave the Ukrainian capital immediately, a declaration Alexander Mercouris argues is not an ultimatum but a statement of intent backed directly by Putin himself. On The Duran, Mercouris provides a full analysis of the Lavrov and Rubio call, explains why China's green light from the Beijing summit has fundamentally changed Russia's calculus, and traces how Riyabkov's nuclear escalation warning, Europe's depleted gas reserves, and the West's critical tungsten shortage all point to a conflict entering a far more dangerous phase. With NATO air forces outmatched, Ukraine's Patriot interceptors running low, and Trump caught between peace and confrontation with Iran, is the collective West finally beginning to grasp the scale of what is coming?



Transcript

Chapter 1: Intro: Attack was not a one-off, a campaign begins
Good day. Today is Tuesday, 26th May 2026.
And before I proceed with this program, let me remind you again to tick the like button and to check your subscription to
this channel. Now, in my program yesterday, I said that the big attack
that took place three days ago by the Russians against Kiev, the attack which involved at least one Archnik missile,
several Iscanda missiles and a variety of hypersonic missiles, um the Cirons
and the Kals that that was in no sense a one-off attack. Everything pointed to
this being the start of a sustained campaign of attacks by the Russians
using Orchnik and other hypersonic missiles and that it was very likely
that Kiev would become a significant and important target of these attacks over
the course of the next few months with perhaps a peak in strikes during the summer.
Chapter 2: Russian Foreign Ministry statement follows within hours
Well, it took no more than a few hours before the Russian Foreign Ministry
published a statement saying that very thing. And one or two or three programs
ago, I also said that the repeated Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia would sooner or
later probably provoke a warning, a direct warning from the
Russians to the United States of potential retaliation that this would
a repeat of the warning that Putin gave to Trump on the 29th of April when the
Russians warned the United States that any attack on the on Moscow and on Red
Chapter 3: Mercouris predicted a direct Russian warning to the US
Square during the 9th May victory parade would result in a massive retaliation by the Russians against central Kiev.
Um the Americans immediately responded to that warning by unilaterally
declaring or rather imposing on the Ukrainians a 3-day ceasefire which
covered the 9th of May preventing Ukrainian
drone attacks or attempted drone attacks on Moscow on that today and I said I
thought it very likely that at some point shortly after Vladimir Putin's
return to Moscow from China, the Russians would give a similar warning to
the United States about the ongoing Ukrainian drone attacks. and I speculated that it might come in the
form of another telephone conversation between Putin and Trump. Well, I was
right also about that except in one important respect.
The warning was indeed given by the Russians to the Americans. It was given
Chapter 4: Lavrov and Rubio call: Putin's instructions made explicit
over the course of a telephone conversation.
But Putin and Trump were not the parties to the call. The parties to the call
were the Russian foreign minister Serge Lavough and the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Now the Russians have provided English translations.
first of the foreign ministry statement about further attacks on Kiev
and also about the warning the Russians gave to the Americans. The Russians have
provided an English translation, English language translation
of the readout of the tele telephone call, the Russian readout of the telephone call between Lavough and
Rubio. Let's start with the statement because it is very strong. Anyway, the
Russian Foreign Ministry statement reads as follows. In the early hours of May 22nd, the Ukrainian armed forces
Chapter 5: Russian Foreign Ministry statement read in full
launched a bloody drone attack on the academic building and dormiatory of a college of the Lugansk pedi pedagogical
university in Starobelsk Lugansk people's republic. It became yet another
glaring manifestation of the terrorist essence of the Kiev regime. And by the way, the Russian
statement also refers here to the ideology that prevailed in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s.
And then it continues the Kiev regime which deliberately attacks civilians and
does not hesitate to kill children coldbloodedly.
the Zalinski Hunter. And again, notice the return of the word Hunter. I pointed
out that in Putin's statement commenting on the Starsk attack, he
referred to the existing Ukrainian government as a hunter language which the Russians used
directly after the seizure of power following the Maidan events of February
2014, but which Putin himself self stopped using some months later when he began
negotiations with the Ukrainians with President Porroenko of Ukraine leading
eventually to the Minsk one and Minsk 2 agreements but Putin has now reverted to
using the term Hunter and we see that the foreign ministry statement which by the way I'm confident has been approved
by Putin himself also uses it. The Zalinski Hunter and his Western sponsors supplying the Ukrainian armed forces
with weapons for committing crimes against our people have shown the whole world their rude disdain for the norms of international humanitarian law.
They are openly trampling upon the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their additional protocols that
regulate the protection of the civilian population during conflicts, the 1989 convention on the right of the child and some other prominent international acts.
Chapter 6: Was the Starobelsk dormitory attack a war crime?
I should say that to my knowledge the Russians are absolutely right here. The
attack on the dormatory building in Star Belk would be
a very severe, a very bad war crime unless the Ukrainians could convincingly
show that it was the result of a mistake.
And even then, it might be that it could still be
construed as a war crime if there were lapses
that amounted to criminal negligence which led to it.
But anyway, the Russians of course have no reason to suppose have been given no
reason to suppose that it was anything other than a deliberate act. The Ukrainians do say that they believed
that the dormatory building was housed a branch of the Rubicon group. It's clear
that this was not the case. enough people have been to the scene, including non-Russians, to make that, in my opinion, certain.
And well, the Ukrainians have provided no convincing evidence up to now to suggest that they had any real grounds
for believing that the dormatory building was indeed used by the dorm by the Rubicon group. There have been some
speculations, which I mentioned in a recent video,
that the building might have been identified wrongly as a building used by the
Rubicon group. If the Ukrainians or to be clear, their American and Western
allies who are providing the targeting data were relying on AI technology to identify targets.
a practice which on the 28th of February of this year resulted in the attack on the
school in Minab and the killing of 170 Iranian school girls.
I would say that so far I have seen no evidence that AI technology
was responsible for this attack. And secondly, even if it was,
especially after the attack on Mina, but even in spite of it, I still think
that there is a good chance that there is a legal case that this attack on Star,
like the previous attack on the Minab school, would be a war crime. Now I say
all of this with the important proviso that I of course am not a law a lawyer
with experience in international war crimes law. I'm absolutely no expert in
this field. But I have heard from those who are and certainly in relation to the
Minab attack, they thought that it was most likely almost certainly in fact a
war crime. And I'm not sure why anyone should think that the attack on Star Belk was any different. Anyway, the
Russians in this statement have set out the case, the case that it was. Anyway,
Chapter 7: Declaration of intention, not an ultimatum: key distinction
the rest of the statement then continues
as follows in this very powerful way. All this has
exhausted our patience in this situation. The armed forces of the Russian Federation are beginning to
launch consistent and s systemic strikes at enterprises of the Ukrainian defense
industry in Kiev, including facilities for designing, manufacturing, and programming drones and preparing them
for operation. The Kiev regime uses these drones with the assistance of NATO specialists who supply components,
provide reconnaissance and target target acquisition data. The strikes will
target decision making centers and command posts. Due to the fact that the
abovementioned facilities are scattered across Kiev, we are notifying foreign citizens, including the personnel of
diplomatic missions and international organizations, of the need to leave Kiev
as soon as possible. We are urging residents of the Ukrainian capital not
to approach facilities of the military and administrative infrastructure of the
Zalinski regime. Now there are some reports that claim that this is an ultimatum.
It is not an ultimatum. It is a declaration of intention. An ultimatum
arises when you threaten to do something unless
someone either fails to do what you demand
or threatens to do something that you object to.
Chapter 8: What Russia is really targeting: NATO personnel in decision centers
what Putin said to Trump on the 29th of April in that telephone call
that if the Ukrainians conducted a drone strike against the victory parade in
Moscow on the 9th of May that would result in a Russian attack on central Kiev. That was an ultimatum.
This is not an alternate ultimatum. This is a declaration of intention. The
Russians are saying this is what the Ukrainians are doing.
They are conducting a drone offensive against us in which they carry out intentionally as we believe war crimes.
In light of this, our patience is exhausted and we're going to take off
the restraints we have imposed upon ourselves up to now. And from this
moment on, we are going to conduct a systematic
air campaign against Kiev targeting
decision making and command decision making centers and command posts. In
other words, those places within Ukraine
from which this drone offensive against Russia and by the way against Donbass
and Crimea and Russian controlled territories in Zaporosia and Herson region
are um um are are are being targeted. So
this will be an attack on those decision-making centers and command posts which are coordinating and organizing this drone offensive.
And the Russians, by the way, say that this drone offensive is being conducted
with the assistance of NATO specialists who supply components, provide
reconnaissance and target acquisition data. So the Russians implicitly are
saying that any NATO personnel who find themselves
who are located in these decision-making centers and command posts providing the reconnaissance and the target acquis acquisition data.
They are in effect targets too because the decision-making centers and command
posts where they are located from now on will be targets as well. So that's
that's what this is. This is not as I said an ultimatum. It is a declaration of intention. Now there is
there are warnings to diplomats and foreign citizens
that from now on Kiev is unsafe and they might be well advised to leave.
And there are also warnings to Kiev residents to avoid approaching
facilities of the military and administrative infrastructure of the Zalinski government. That includes
presumably Zalinski's offices in the Bank of Building, but other government buildings in Kiev as well. Just saying.
But to repeat again, these people, the diplomats, the foreign citizens, the
residents of Kiev are not being provided with an ultimatum.
They are being given a warning in light of what the Russians are saying is now
going to happen. So I said yesterday that the big attack that took place
Chapter 9: This offensive was coming regardless of Starobelsk
three days ago was a pre precursor of more to come and we can see that this
Russian foreign ministry statement says as much. Now it is impossible
that this statement will have been made without Putin's agreement.
In fact, as I suggested earlier in the program,
almost certainly he had a role in drafting the text.
And to repeat what I also said in this program, in my last program,
based on certain comments that the Russian foreign minister, Sergey
Lavough, um um made has made. I believe
that the Russians came back to Moscow from Beijing. By the
Russians I mean Putin, Bellusf, Shyu, Lavough
believing, I'm sure correctly that the Chinese
have given them the green light to start to take this kind of action in Ukraine.
Up to now, the Russians, one of the reasons the Russians have held back is
because they are conscious of Chinese sensibilities. The Chinese have not wanted to see an allout war in Ukraine.
They've instead, as they always do, by the way, sought to broker some kind of compromise or peace between China and
Russia or bait one that would be more favorable to Russia. But now the
Chinese, and this again goes back to Lavough's comments, which I discussed in detail two days ago, the Chinese are now staying. Go ahead.
We have seen and heard from the Americans.
We understand better now the intractable nature of the
challenge you have been facing in your dealings with the Americans and with the
Western powers. And from this point on, we are not going to raise objections.
If you intensify what you do in order
to end successfully the war. So that's the statement from the Russian foreign
ministry. Now, the Russian readout
of the telephone call between Lavough and Rubin
was as interesting. On May 25th, Foreign Minister Lavough had a telephone
conversation with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio acting on instructions from President Vladimir Putin.
Chapter 10: Russian readout of the Lavrov and Rubio call analyzed
So this is in the readout. That is a very unusual statement in a Russian readout. Incidentally, usually there's
no need to say that Putin has given instructions. One can always assume that when Lavough calls
the an official of a foreign government, he's acting on behalf of the Russian government.
and in part on behalf of Russia's president who is of course Vladimir Putin.
But in this case, in this instance, the Russians have decided that the fact needs to be
emphasized and underlined so that there is no doubt that the very
tough message that Lavough is conveying to the Americans
comes indisputably from Putin himself.
A couple of months ago, there was a lot of chatter in the Western media that
Donald Trump had called off a summit meeting with Putin
which was due to happen in Budapest because the Americans had been nonplasted
by the tough language Lavough used over the course of a telephone conversation
with Rubio intended to prepare the ground for that summit meeting in Budapest.
And the western media for a few weeks spread stories that Lavro
was um um was in a bad position in
Moscow, that he was out of favor with Putin, that Putin blamed him for the
failure of the Budapest summit, or to be more precise, for the fact that the Budapest summit was not taking place. I
said at the time that this was complete nonsense and of course Lavough himself subsequently gave several interviews in
which he too said that it was complete nonsense. Anyway, this time the Russians
don't want stories to be spread in the media that Lavough is acting out of line
with Putin, that Putin is somehow more moderate than Lavough, that Lavough is acting on his own behalf and not on
Putin's behalf and not on Russia's behalf. The Russians this time wanted to be want it made absolutely and
completely clear that what Lavro is saying carries the authority of Putin himself.
So that's a critically interesting
sentence in the Russian readout. Acting on instructions from President Vladimir
Putin, Serge Lavrov officially notified the US side that the armed forces of
Russia acting in response to the Kiev regime's continued terrorist attacks on
civilians and civilian facilities in Russian territory. are launching systematic and sustained strikes on
facilities serving the needs of the armed forces of Ukraine in Kiev as well as re relevant decisionmaking centers.
Notice that Starelk is not mentioned in this sentence. Um
the Russians are making it clear that Stubbles is only one of many incidents
and they're not saying also that the
topic of objection of primary Russian objection are Russian attack Ukrainian
attacks drone attacks on pre99 91
Russia rather it is Ukrainian drone attacks on what the Russians call
civilian facilities in Russian territory which of course include Dombasque,
Zaparroia, Hassan and those parts of Sunumi, Harov, Charardig and Neopetros
regions which the Russians occupy and Then the readout continues. Serge Lavough
drew Rubio's attention to the foreign ministry statement of May 25th
which I've just read out which advised the United States and other countries with representative offices in Kiev
ensure the evacuation of their diplomatic personnel and other citizens from the capital of Ukraine.
The minister recalled the arrangements concerning the Ukrainian conflict made at the US initiative during the summit
in Anchorage in August 2025 and expressed regret over the brazen
activities of the European elites and the Kiev regime that are undermining these arrangements which offered a path
towards a lasting and stable settlement based based on a balance of interests.
The heads of foreign policy departments, that's to say um Lavough and Rubio exchange views on
diplomatic efforts to overcome the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz and the situation around Cuba. be curious to
know what Lavough had to tell Rubio about Cuba, but that is a topic for a
different discussion. And then the readout continues, Lavough and Rubio reaffirm their mutual resolve to
stimulate efforts regardless of current differences between their countries to normalize conditions for the work of the
Russian and US diplomatic missions in each other's territories.
So what is going to happen in Kief, the Russians are saying, will not and should
not directly affect the existing, very
tentative, very gradual rapromo between Russia and the United States. Now that
is a very detailed and thorough readout of the sort that the Russians regularly provide.
The State Department has provided its own readout of this call and for completeness I will read it. It simply says this. Secretary of State Marco
Rubio spoke today with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the minister's request. The parties exchanged views on
Chapter 11: US State Department readout: what was omitted
the Russian Ukrainian war, bilateral relations, and the situation in Iran.
Notice that there is no mention here of Cuba, of Kiev, of Starbel,
of uh Russian warnings to US embassies
and US diplomatic personnel, of command centers and decision making centers.
There's no reference to any of that. And that, by the way, is very typical of the style of the US State Department and of
the US government generally. So anyway, there it is. The Russians have said enough.
Um, we've been very patient.
We've accepted an awful lot. But after Starsk,
the point of no return has finally been reached. From now on, we are coming
after the decision making centers and the command posts in Kiev
that are orchestrating this drone offensive which has committed
so which has committed war crimes against us. And
I think, and I'm going to say it again, there is indeed a huge amount of anger in Russia about this. But I must
introduce the caveat that I suspect that sooner or later the Russian intention
probably always was to conduct such an offensive against Kiev. It's been clear
to me for some time that the Russians did not accept the legitimacy of the
government in Kiev of Zalinski as president of Kiev. It's been obvious to
me for some time as well that the Russians do not imagine
a settlement of this war, a conclusion to this war that leaves Zalinski and any
part of the Maidan regime that was established after the events of 2014 still in control in Kiev.
Sooner or later, in light of this, as the Russian offensive intensified,
as the Russians began to break through in Donbass, began to came closer to the end of the
battle of Donbass, began to break through towards the Neper, towards the city of Zaporosia.
In other words, as it became clear that the moment of truth
for the Ukrainians was coming. At that point, the Russians
were all but guaranteed to intensify their air offensive against Kiev.
And of course, they're now doing that very thing. It may be that the Stubbel
event has brought it forward somewhat, but I doubt personally by very much. And
Chapter 12: Russia's missile and drone stockpiles: the military industrial picture
I would add also that technological and military industrial factors have also in
my opinion played a role. The Russians have needed to build up a stockpile of Arashnik missiles, which they probably
have done. A stockpile of Kha missiles, which they clearly have done. If you
look back at the situation um over the course of the war, I seem to remember that the Russians used a Kinjal missile
34 minutesonly once in 2022, whereas they're now using them regularly, confirming that there is a
significant stockpile of these missiles in existence and a stable production
line. And the Russians have also wanted, I am sure,
to develop a proper stable production line for the Tiron hypersonic cruise missiles and a ground launcher.
And it seems that they have achieved that too. And of course there's long
been stable and large production of Iscanda missiles. These
are now used with great regularity and devastating effectiveness across Ukraine
in Russian missile strikes. And of course, get on drone production has also
been increased and adapted to the level
of affecting the offensive, the air offensive, the offensive in the sky as
well. Indeed, yesterday I read an account of the Giran of the Giran 4
drone, which is the jetpowered version of the Geran. It is bigger than the normal, if you like, the original Geran.
It has the same overall aerodynamic form. Um, it carries a significant explosive warhead.
It operates at speeds of, I believe, 500 kilometers per hour. It is maneuverable,
which suggests that it receives guidance from instructors in Moscow. And that
almost certainly means that the Russians have satellite links now to the Gans.
And we saw in recent Geran strikes that the Russians have evolved
technologies so that Geran drones are able to talk
and exchange messages and data with each other which assists in their control and
targeting. So all of these technologies have been developed over the 4 and a half years of the war and they've now
been perfected and probably the Russians have fully
grasped also the immense organizational challenges of conducting drone and
missile offensives. And they've probably reached that point now when they believe they can do it and that they can do it
effectively without causing massive civilian casualties in Kiev or in other
Ukrainian cities which they have shown a strong unwillingness indeed an aversion of doing up to now.
So there are all of these technical and organizational and tactical factors at play which
likely mean that we would have had a Russian drone offensive, missile and drone offensive against Kiev of the kind
we're now going to see happen in any event. But that is not to minimize the
strength of feeling in Moscow and across Russia about the incident in Stubbels.
I received again from my source the s the source who provides
me with information drawn to some extent from the message boards in the Russian parliament the
doomer anyway this source who has been consistently right and reliable he tells
me that the anger in Russia is now greater than it has ever been at any point since
the start of the war. Stars was indeed for many people in Russia, including within the elite, the last straw.
He says that the only comparable period of anger that he can remember
was following the Crocus Hall attack on a rock concert that took place about two years ago.
Clearly at that time the Russians were not yet ready to conduct the kind of offensive that they're warning about now.
But now they are. Now the military situation is different. Now the industrial and technological situation is different.
Chapter 13: Riyabkov warns of nuclear escalation and great power conflict
Now China is more willing
to agree to Russia acting forcefully in this way. And so for that reason the
gloves are coming off. Now on the topic of Russia, a Russian diplomat has actually of China
rather a Russian diplomat has also spoken and has said things which
are very interesting. And it is our old friend, Deputy Foreign Minister Serge Riyabkov,
perhaps the second man in the foreign ministry and an extremely tough
person altogether at least in his statements. I I should qualify that I
understand that those who have met him, including the former US Deputy Secretary of State
Wendy Shar during the period of the Biden administration, all concurred that
in person he is a charming man, but in his statements at least he he is
consistently ly more hardline than most. Anyway, he was speaking at a
roundt meeting on strategic stability at the international security forum which I
take presume is taking place in Russia and he said as a result of the collective west's destructive actions
a deep and highly charged rift has emerged and persists amongst the five
permanent members of the UN security council. all of whom are dejuring nuclear powers.
This leads to an escalation of strategic risks risks which I believe is already evident to everyone that could result in
direct armed conflicts between these countries with potentially catastrophic consequences.
Now that is a very very ominous statement. It's basically saying that we
are at real risk now. The situation in
international relations is now so bad that the possibility of an outright
military clash between the great powers has grown
to the level where it must now be considered a real possibility and a serious risk.
And Riyabkov is also saying that the situation has now become so bad and so
dangerous that an escalation into an all-out nuclear war or an outright
nuclear war must now be considered a serious possibility.
arguably the first time that this has been true since the 1980s, since the Able Archer incident.
And if we're talking about actual war gaming intentions since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.
Now, some may think that Ariabkov here was talking about Russia
and the drone attacks, the Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia and the missile
strikes in pre-991 in in 1991 Russia rather in pre204
Russia uh with the attackums of the storm shadows which have also taken place
where the Russians say that all of this has been done not really by Ukraine but
with the active involvement and assistance of the Western powers of the United States and its European allies.
And of course, if you think that it is about Russia and about these issues, you are partly right.
But don't these words also strongly remind of the warning that
Cining gave to Donald Trump during the recent visit by Donald Trump to China?
Didn't C. Ping in fact say that
Chapter 14: Xi Jinping warned Trump on Taiwan and Japan: what really happened in Beijing
the United States must modify its behavior in relation to Taiwan
and that if it fails to do so, there is a real possibility
of conflicts and clashes between China and the United States, which I pointed
out at the time at the time when that warning was given looked to me like
a warning from China to the United States to Donald Trump himself that the
possibility of an outright conflict a military conflict between China and the
United States over Taiwan was becoming a real possibility.
So love Riyabov here it seems to me is to
some extent repeating Cining's rhetoric
and warnings just as Cining warned of a potent
potential armed clash between China and the United states. So, Riyabov here is
warning of a potential clash between the United States
and its allies and the other two global superpowers, China and Russia.
And of course these words of riyabkov also come directly after the meeting
between Putin and Cinping and between the Chinese and the Russians in Beijing
when the Chinese will have briefed the Russians about their discussions with the Americans and the warnings that
China gave to the Americans. And in fact, what we're learning about all the
time is that the meeting between Trump and Ciing actually went in some ways even worse
than I had previously imagined. I mentioned in my last video that
as well as the warning about Taiwan that the Chinese
have publicized in their readout of Cining's words to
Donald Trump during the negotiations in Beijing.
We now learn from American and British sources. American sources and British newspapers more correctly that C.
Shinping also gave Trump a further warning
about the rearmament of Japan and
that over the course of Sining giving that warning Sining's language
became increasingly heated suggesting something of a row between Trump and Cining.
I've thought about the circumstances in with in which this warning was given and
my own view that is that this warning about Japan was given
at the same time at the same moment as the warning over Taiwan.
In other words, there was a strong exchange about Taiwan.
Ciin Ping warned Trump of a potential clash between the United States and
China over Taiwan unless the United States modified its behavior.
Trump very unwisely then brought up the issue of Japan
saying that Japan was as concerned about Taiwan as the United States.
That infuriated Cining and caused Cining to give Trump a further warning this time about Japan.
And as I pointed out in previous programs, the reality is that the
Chinese consider Japanese rearmament to be
largely the product of American urge urging. So anyway, there it is. Um, the
Chapter 15: China gives Russia the green light: the Beijing meeting's real outcome
Chinese and the Russians have compared notes with each other. The Chinese
are increasingly angry over the Trump administration's
behavior. They didn't like what happened in Venezuela.
They don't like what is going on with Iran. They're perfectly aware that the
attacks on Venezuela and Iran were partly intended to cut off oil supplies
to China. They also understand that the original intention behind the American
blockade of Iran was also to limit the flow of Iranian oil to China. The United
States has trespassed on Chinese economic interests.
The Chinese are furious.
They treated Trump when he arrived in the United States in China rather with a
measure of politeness. They showed him around the temple of heaven and Jung Nanhai, but they gave him nothing,
nothing of substance and in not so private because all of these
hard words appear to have been exchanged with the full delegations present. The
Chinese gave their warnings to Trump about the general conduct of the United
States and specifically the issues of Taiwan and Japan.
And even as the Chinese are fed up and angry with the United
States on all of these matters, even as the Chinese are probably further
irritated by some of the things that Trump might have said over the course of
his visit, Vladimir Putin and the Russians
turn up and the seriously annoyed Chinese
turn around and tell the Russians, "Well, go ahead and win your war then. We've
gone as far as we can with the Americans." We now see that you were right all along
about what impossible and duplicitous people these are. Just go ahead and end
your war. And in the meantime, you have we have we we have your back as you have ours.
and we must each prepare for the possibility of armed conflict with the
Americans and their European allies who are completely out of control.
So this is I think partly what is happening. Anyway, there's been another very interesting
analysis about the state of the war by the Russian commentator Serge Polyayv.
Chapter 16: Polyayev: Europe's only strategy is to exhaust Russia
And Politay also makes the point which I'd made that the Russians now believe
that with respect to the war in Ukraine,
the Americans have significantly reduced their involvement to the point that the Russians
don't have to worry about them so much anymore.
But Polyay repeats points that I've made that by
contrast the Russians believe that the Europeans are completely out of control.
They believe that some people in Europe are indeed aching for some kind of war with Russia.
Putin himself, as I've discussed in several places now, including on X and
on Substack, um is furious and very bitter with the
Europeans. In fact, even as all of these other threats and
warnings are being made by the Russians about attacks on Kiev, the Czech
ambassador has been called into the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow where the Russians have strongly protested
what they say bo are bogus charges brought by the Czech authorities
against a senior Russian Orthodox cleric. Anyway, um the Russians are
furious with the Europeans and
well, we can see that the war continues
and the Russians still concern themselves about what the
Europeans are going to do. Now, Polletif says that he does not believe that there
is any realistic possibility that the Europeans themselves will involve themselves directly in the war in
Ukraine. And about that, by the way, I agree. I think the Europeans understand
very well the extent of their own military weakness. I read again by the way in the Daily Telegraph another
discussion of the state of the Royal Air Force, the British Air Force. It made
some very interesting admissions about various procurement failures. It said that the tornado
fighter and strike aircraft that the Royal Air Force had possessed for many
years is now universally acknowledged to have been a failure, a complete failure.
Um, in other words, it
failed as a fighter. It failed as a ground attack and strike aircraft.
I could remember for years hearing about what an exceptional aircraft it was.
According to the Daily Telegraph, according to this writer in the Daily Telegraph, who is or appears to be
extremely well informed, the truth was it was a total lemon. And its
replacement, the Euro Fighter Typhoon, was when it entered service already out of
date. And though this article does not mention
um Russian fighter jets like the Suhoy 27, it's clear that
this writer believes that the Russian fighter jets, the Suhoy 27 and of course the more advanced ones, the Suhoy 35 and
57, well there is no chance that the typhoon
balloon could succeed in a head-to-head clash with the Russian air air force
equipped with these far more advanced and far more powerful fighters operating far more powerful air-to-air missiles.
Chapter 17: NATO air forces outmatched: Typhoon vs Russian fighters
So the typhoon it turns out has turned out to be something of a lemon as well. Now, I
mention all of this because every so often you continue to read reports about NATO
considering or being asked to consider establishing some kind of nofly zone over Ukraine.
The reality appears to be from this article that the only air force in the
west that would have the ability to take on the very modern Russian air force is
the American and that the German, British and French air forces are
technologically outmatched. So anyway, Bletaya does not believe that the
Europeans have any serious intention of becoming directly involved in the conflict. Their plan,
and I think Polyayif is right about this, is to keep the war going as long as possible in the hope that this will
drain Russia's energies and eventually exhaust Russia and perhaps provoke a crisis inside Russia.
I pointed out some weeks ago that an article in CNN
which spoke about supposed tensions within the Kremlin without any basis in
my opinion. um essentially effectively said the same
thing that the Europeans only strategy
is to try to keep the war going as long as possible in the hope that something turns up in Moscow.
And Pollet unneringly pointed to the obvious weakness
of this approach because as he said, this depends
on an increasingly exhausted and shrinking Ukrainian army being able
to maintain its positions on the front lines.
and politi have said that since this is the European strategy,
this in fact incentivizes the Russians now to continue not only to continue
but to ramp up and to break through and break up the Ukrainian army
as soon as is practical. And I have to say I think this is right. I think that
the Russians surveying this scene, aware of their recent advances in Zaporosia, of the
failed Ukrainian offensives there, aware of the
imminent fall of the city of Constantin,
aware of their further advances in northeastern Ukraine. There have been some reports that the Russians have
captured more Ukrainian positions around the city of Sunumi and that in fact the
Russians now have a clear road to the city of Sunumi itself which is
only a few kilometers away and that they can there's a big area of forest
immediately north of Sunumi and that the Russians
can use the forest as cover from Ukrainian drones to assemble large
forces to capture Sunumi. And the implication is that this might happen
fairly soon. Well, I think that the Russians have every incentive to escalate and to intensify the war, and
that's probably what they're going to do over the next few weeks. The warnings
that the Russians have given, which I discussed earlier in this program, point as much. And the Daily Telegraph also
confirms that the Ukrainians are indeed now desperately short of Patriot missile interceptors.
It insists that Ukrainian air defenses in other respects are in good shape. It
doesn't explain how that can be given that Patriot interceptors are the only air defense
interceptors that Ukraine essentially has. Um, of course, Ukraine does use um,
Hunter killer drones, but these were shown to be ineffective in the Persian Gulf.
And anyway, the visual images from Kiev show that
the drones and the missiles now have no difficulty in getting through.
The Telegraph again claimed that if the Russians
maintain their missile offensive against Kiev, against Ukraine, they in turn will also run out of missiles.
I found that an extraordinary thing for the Daily Telegraph to say given that
they've said this very same thing before. They said in March 2022, as I remember,
that the Russians were about to run out of missiles in part because the engines that the
missiles used were um built supposedly made in
Ukraine. Anyway, there it is. So, we're going to see an escalating Russian drone
Chapter 18: European gas reserves low; tungsten shortage hits weapons production
offensive and I suspect more intensity
in fighting on the front lines and no negotiations
and of course if there is a fall, if there is a collapse in Ukraine,
there is no plan in Europe on what to do about this.
Both Gasprom in Russia and oilprice.com which is an industry journal are
reporting that European gas reserves are at very low levels.
this as the energy shock from the closure of the straight of Hormuse
intensifies and in terms of weapons production not just in the United States but in
Europe too. I've now received further reports that supplies of tungsten
a metal I've discussed in the past or rather stop stocks of tungsten are
now critically low and of course tungsten is indispensable.
It is essential in production of many types of advanced weapons.
and the West at the moment simply doesn't have it.
I suspect that with the Chinese and the Russians in the mood that they are
currently in, we are going to likely see um a further tightening by the Chinese
of control of exports of items like rare earths and of tungsten where they are by far the
biggest producer and exporter which will have an effect an increasing
effect in the west. on that I read this extraordinary paragraph at least I found it extraordinary
um in an article in unheard by the German journalist Wolf Gang Munch
and it spoke about the very difficult relationship that now exists between the
EU and China and it contains this paragraph. It says the Europeans are angry about how China
plays. Sabin Wayan, the EU's outgoing director general for trade, compared the
Chinese strategy to putting a stinking fish on the negotiating table. She was referring to new Chinese threats like
export controls on rare earths, a ban on of the sale of semiconductors
or a ban of the sale of semiconductors to the EU or you can now add restrictions on the exports of tungsten.
The UEU is dependent on China for all of these things. Whenever the EU tries to
Chapter 19: The stinking fish: China's rare earth leverage over the EU
impose some retaliatory tariff on China, the stinking fish returns to the table.
And Wolf Gang Munch says it's understandable that the UK Europeans get very angry about this kind of thing.
even though he also says that the Chinese uh have all the cards in this
sort of game and well he implies that the Europeans have a right to be angry.
I find the lack of self-reflection here even from someone as insightful as Wulfa
actually quite extraordinary who imposes sanctions who has sanctioned
something like a third of all global trade now who places restrictions
and imposes tariffs constantly all the time.
The West does, the Europeans do. If the Chinese, or by the way, the Russians,
start to play the game themselves, put the stinking fish on the table, as Miss Wayan complains.
Well, isn't that exactly what the Europeans and by the way the Americans
have for 50 years now been doing. What seems to offend them and astonish them
is that others do to them that which they have been doing repeatedly and incessantly to others.
And when it happens, there's uproar and outrage and indignation.
Because of course, if we do it, if we do it, we are virtuous. We are
right. We are doing something that we have a right to do.
But if it is done to us, well, that is something that
reverses the proper order of things. And of course, it is wrong and outrageous and it absolutely should not be done.
Chapter 20: Iran nuclear deal collapse: Trump caught between peace and conflict
Well, of course it is being done and it will be more and more done and it will
be done by China and it will be done by Russia and it will be done increasingly by more and more of the world. It is
inevitable and you can argue in fact I do argue that the measures that Iran has
taken with a straight of horm is another case of someone now doing it
which now brings me to the last part of this program because of course exactly as I'd anticipated
the memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States so
far has not been agreed. President Trump, as he always does, retreat has
retreated in face in in the face of the wroth of Prime Minister Netanyahu
and of the neocons, his repeated demands that Iran must surrender its entire nuclear stockpile.
There are some claims that he's tried to reduce that to a demand that Iran hand
over that part of its stockpile which has been enriched to the level of
60% and above.
I haven't seen any confirmation of this but for the record I don't think the Iranians are in any mood to agree to
that at the moment. If there were movement on the other things, if the
Iranians had some reason to think that the Americans would indeed end the war and unfreeze and hand over some of Iran's assets.
Perhaps that is something that the Iranians might concede, though I still
strongly doubt that they would hand over any part of their stockpile to the United States, but they might be willing
to hand it over to a third party like the Russians for example. But anyway,
President Trump after talking to Prime Minister Netanyahu and apparently
on Netanyahu's insistence demanded that Iran hand over the stockpile. And
amazingly, he's also demanded that as part of any deal with Iran, the Arab states, the
Persian Gulf states, all establish
normal diplomatic relations with Israel, that they join the Abraham Accords,
a demand which I think the Arab states will be deeply offended by given the
impossibly bad situation that Donald Trump and the United States have placed
them in by launching a war which it is clear the United States has no plan to win.
So again, the United States has expressed its frustration by carrying
out some more missile attacks on Iranian positions.
None of this, as far as I can see, changes the actual underlying situation at all.
It's a further expenditure of now of ammunition which is now in
dangerously short supply. The Iranians for their part say that they repelled
this attack whatever it was. They will I suspect see it for what it is a sign of weakness.
I think expectations that many had that the United States and Iran were on the
brink of a diplomatic breakthrough over the weekend were probably always over optimistic.
I think fears that the United States is on the brink of restarting the entire
war with Iran so that we go back to the situation which existed in March and April.
Those fears are probably also wrong. I don't think the United States is in any condition to wage such a war.
The problem is that the United States with Iran is now
caught in a situation between war and peace. It can't bring itself to make
peace because doing so would require accepting Iranian terms and
acknowledging the failure of the operation, the military operation and
leaving Iran ultimately stronger than it was.
So it finds it very difficult to make peace in that kind of situation.
But neither can it return to war because of the risk
of depleting its stock piles of further depleting its already very depleted stock piles of
losing of losing um men of experiencing casualties
of the very high risk of further military operations. ations and of the further risk which the Iranians have now
communicated to the United States that in the event of a resumption of the war, Iran would quit the nuclear non-prololiferation
treaty which would present the United States
with the impossible situation
of in effect a point of no return. With the United States
undoubtedly seeing such an Iranian move as a signal
that Iran is indeed intending to for move forward towards nuclear weapons acquisition.
So I think that the United States cannot make peace and it cannot make war. It
continue can continue its blockade of Iran, but that is only partly effective
and in return the Iranians continue to maintain a tight grip on the straight of Hormuz so
that the situation in global energy markets is deteriorating.
Back in February before the war began on the Duran, we
spoke about Donald Trump being in a position of tsvang
that whatever step he took with respect to Iran, he would find himself and the United
States in a weaker position than before he took it.
Well, we could see how, if I may say so, precient that was.
If Trump was insv
clear out of it. Well, there it is. This is where I'm going to finish today's program. Let me remind you again, you
can find all our programs on our various platforms, Locals, Rumble, X, and Substack. You can support our work via
Patreon and Subscribe Star and by going to our shop. Uh, by the way, our shop has a major promotion and sale underway.
Lots of discounts on various products.
Um, just saying. Anyway, links under the video under this video. And last but not least, please remember if you've liked
this video to tick the like button and to check your subscription to this channel. That's me for today. More from me soon. Have a very good day.

[admin]

https://x.com/Irantimes01/status/2059190495021252817

Ebrahim Zolfaghari
@Irantimes01
10h
IRGC on clashes with U.S. forces:

The United States breached the ceasefire last night. In response, we downed an MQ-9 drone and launched interceptor missiles at an F-35 fighter jet and an RQ-4 surveillance drone. Any further U.S. ceasefire violations will be met with a decisive response.

***
م
@Tasnimnews_Fa
1h
Translated from Persian
Destruction of the American aggressor enemy MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle during a violation of the country's airspace in the Persian Gulf region at dawn today by the modern air defense system of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force

https://x.com/i/status/2059348688095384055

***

https://x.com/Tasnimnews_Fa/status/2059349486015484092

خبرگزاری تسنیم
@Tasnimnews_Fa
2h
Translated from Persian
Footage of the F-35 fighter being tracked by IRGC air defense

Last night, an American stealth F-35 fighter that intended to violate the country's airspace in the southern region was successfully tracked by the advanced air defense systems of the IRGC Aerospace Force and, after the missile was fired, was forced to flee the area.

https://x.com/i/status/2059349486015484092

***

https://x.com/Irantimes01/status/2059315168581161016

Ebrahim Zolfaghari
@Irantimes01
3h
US Navy Restarts “Project Freedom”:

The US is preparing to escort civilian vessels, including massive oil tankers, through the Strait of Hormuz in the coming days.

Iran warns any American military-backed transit in the waterway will be met with a forceful and uncompromising response.

***

https://x.com/SprinterPress/status/2059056660690420035

Pepe Escobar reposted
Sprinter Press Agency
@SprinterPress
21h
What happened in chronological order:

1. Tonight, the US entered the Strait of Hormuz to attack IRGC fast boats, and Iranian air defense responded by shooting down MQ-9 drones.

2. Two of these drones were shot down by the IRGC, and one by the regular army's air defense system.

3. The shooting down of these drones in less than 20 minutes caused confusion and disorganization in the US, and an inability to locate the air defense position, so they attacked several points on the islands of Qeshm and Jask.

4. The US attacked Iranian boats again

5. The IRGC retaliated tonight against US naval vessels with anti-ship missiles.

This also explains why Trump posted an AI-generated image.

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
2d

***

https://x.com/caitoz/status/2059282237498208760

Caitlin Johnstone
@caitoz
6h
It's Not Okay To Join The Military

“If you live in the west and you join the military, at no point will you ever be acting in defense of your country; you will be murdering people who are trying to defend their country.”

Reading by Tim Foley.
https://x.com/i/status/2059282237498208760

[admin]

US says it launched ‘self-defense strikes’ in Iran as peace negotiations drag on. U.S. Central Command said in a statement it “continues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire.”
By Jacob Wendler
05/25/2026 08:05 PM EDT
Updated: 05/25/2026 08:31 PM EDT
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/2 ... um=twitter

U.S. Central Command said it “conducted 'self-defense' strikes in southern Iran” on Monday as peace negotiations between the country and the U.S. drag on.

Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for U.S. Central Command, said in a statement that the strikes were carried out “to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces.”

“Targets included missile launch sites and Iranian boats attempting to emplace mines,” Hawkins said. “U.S. Central Command continues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire.”

The announcement came after American officials, including President Donald Trump, said earlier in the weekend that negotiations were progressing well.

Trump said in a social media post earlier Monday that Iran’s enriched uranium “will either be immediately turned over to the United States to be brought home and destroyed” or “destroyed in place” in Iran or at another acceptable location, underlining an outstanding sticking point in negotiations with Iran. Trump added that the Atomic Energy Commission “or its equivalent” should play a role in overseeing the process.

The strikes come more than a month after Trump announced the U.S. had agreed to a temporary ceasefire with Iran, averting a worst-case scenario attack in which he had threatened to destroy a “whole civilization,” and hours after Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to ramp up his country’s offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon, a conflict adjacent to the war in Iran that has strained peace negotiations in recent weeks.

The prospect of an imminent peace deal has been floated throughout the holiday weekend, particularly after Trump skipped his eldest son’s wedding to remain in Washington for “circumstances pertaining to government.”

On Saturday, Trump had signaled that a deal with Iran was imminent, writing in a post to Truth Social that “final aspects and details of the Deal are currently being discussed, and will be announced shortly.”

But one day later, Trump wrote in a separate post that he had directed U.S. negotiators “not to rush into a deal,” even as he emphasized that talks had been constructive thus far.

And in a lengthy post Monday morning, the president indicated there were still details being ironed out: “It will only be a Great Deal for all or, no Deal at all — Back to the Battlefront and shooting, but bigger and stronger than ever before — And nobody wants that!”

In his post, he called on leaders across the Arab world to sign on to the Abraham Accords and normalize relations with Israel, saying he is “mandatorily requesting” they sign on as part of the peace process in the Middle East.

The accords — which Trump kicked off at the end of his first term, and he views as a key part of his legacy — could be a sticking point among some countries in the region still wary of Israel.

Some Republican lawmakers, including Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), had expressed skepticism about a possible deal over the weekend, urging the president not to reward Iran for using the Strait of Hormuz as a point of leverage during the war.

Trump later shot back at his naysayers in a Monday morning post, calling them “losers” who “do nothing but create division.”

The war in Iran has strained the global economy, as energy prices have skyrocketed since the U.S. and Israel launched the initial strikes and Iran clamped down on the strait, a crucial waterway through which a significant amount of the region’s oil travels through.

The fate of the strait — in addition to the future of Iran’s nuclear program and its enriched uranium stockpile — is likely to be one of the biggest points of discussion in any negotiations.

[admin]

https://x.com/MintPressNews/status/2059350607924760794

MintPress News
@MintPressNews
1h
Israeli Official Directs Soldiers To Kidnap Infants In Gaza & Brutally Murder Them

"Grab the infants in Gaza and smash them against the rocks,” the soldiers are told. This order is based upon an out of context Verse in the Torah.

https://x.com/i/status/2059350607924760794

[admin]

Trump's peace deal strained as Iran vows retaliation after downing US drone | Janta Ka Reporter
by Rifat Jawaid
Janta Ka Reporter
May 26, 2026

US President Donald Trump is facing considerable challenges to his much-publicised peace deal with Iran as the Islamic Republic pledged to avenge last night's US air strikes. Iran called the strikes a violation of the ceasefire. The Islamic Republic also displayed the wreckage of a US drone which the Iranian military claimed to have shot down. Rifat Jawaid examines the future of the US-Iran peace deal amid renewed tension.

[admin]

Democracy Now! @democracynow "The Israelis have gone out of their way to beat and abuse the flotilla participants." Journalist Alex Colston ( @enoughformethx ) details the violence he and others faced after Israeli forces abducted Gaza flotilla participants at sea. This was his second detention by Israel while covering a humanitarian mission to Gaza.

Democracy Now!
@democracynow
"The Israelis have gone out of their way to beat and abuse the flotilla participants."

Journalist Alex Colston (@enoughformethx) details the violence he and others faced after Israeli forces abducted Gaza flotilla participants at sea. This was his second detention by Israel while covering a humanitarian mission to Gaza.

https://x.com/i/status/2059257264297390387

[admin]

U.S. Bombs Iran Despite Peace Talks; Israel Strikes Lebanon to “Force Trump’s Hand”: Negar Mortazavi
May 26, 2026
https://www.democracynow.org/2026/5/26/ ... gotiations



We get an update on the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran from journalist Negar Mortazavi, following the Pentagon’s so-called self-defense strikes on two Iranian ships in the Strait of Hormuz Monday despite an official ceasefire and ongoing peace negotiations. The “chaotic” ceasefire “has been violated from day one,” says Mortazavi, who notes that Israel’s continuous attacks on southern Lebanon are delaying attempts to end the war — and that this is exactly the intention of the Israeli government. “Clearly, Netanyahu doesn’t want this war with Iran to end,” she says. “Every step of escalation is definitely going to harm the final outcome and narrow the path to a final agreement.” Mortazavi also comments on the new political reality for Iran’s Gulf neighbors in the aftermath of Iranian strikes on U.S. military bases hosted in the region. “The Iranian message is: If war comes to us, it will not stay inside our borders.”

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: The U.S. attacked southern Iran Sunday in what the Pentagon called “self-defense” strikes. The U.S. sank two Iranian ships, claiming they were attempting to lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it shot down a U.S. Reaper drone that entered Iranian airspace. It comes as Iranian negotiators traveled to Qatar to discuss a potential ceasefire deal to end the U.S.-Israel war on Iran. This is Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson speaking Monday.

ESMAIL BAGHAEI: [translated] It is true that we have reached a conclusion regarding a large part of the topics under discussion, but to say that this means the signing of an agreement is imminent, no one can make such a claim, for the same reasons you mentioned yourself, because policymaking and decision-making in America have become caught in a kind of institutionalized instability.

AMY GOODMAN: This comes as President Trump warned Iran to hand over its stockpile of enriched uranium, posting on social media Monday night, quote, “The Enriched Uranium (Nuclear Dust!) will either be immediately turned over to the United States to be brought home and destroyed or, preferably, in conjunction and coordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran, destroyed in place or, at another acceptable location, with the Atomic Energy Commission,” unquote.

Over the weekend, President Trump also urged countries in the region — Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and Pakistan — to normalize relations with Israel by joining the Abraham Accords, as part of U.S. negotiations to reach a deal with Iran.

On Friday, Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, announced she’s resigning. In a statement, Gabbard said she’s stepping down after her husband was diagnosed with bone cancer.

We’re joined now by Negar Mortazavi, Iranian American journalist, host of The Iran Podcast, senior fellow at the Center for International Policy.

Negar, thanks so much for being with us. Can you talk about these latest developments? Can you talk about the U.S. bombing southern Iran, and yet they’re both saying, Iran and the United States, that they’re in the middle of negotiations? What’s happening?

NEGAR MORTAZAVI: Good morning, Amy and Juan. Thanks for having me back. It’s great to be with you.

So, yes, I mean, the U.S. and Iran are in the middle of ongoing talks for a peace deal, which seems to be as close as it ever was throughout this war. I mean, I’m hearing from sources on both sides that they’re very close to the finish line, in fact, as far as trying to be flexible and making concessions on both sides.

And there is also a ceasefire, an ongoing ceasefire. It’s been ongoing for weeks. It has been murky. It has been chaotic. It has been violated from day one. Israel violated the ceasefire, attacking Lebanon. And there have been other sort of back-and-forths. And now Iran is accusing the U.S. of violating the ceasefire again.

I mean, we have to remember Iran — when we talk about the Strait of Hormuz, this is right off the coast of Iran in the Persian Gulf. And the U.S. has a blockade on top of that strait, very close to the Iranian coast, trying to block Iranian ports, trying to block Iranian ships. So, the U.S. presence there, from the viewpoint of the Iranians, in itself is hostile, is seen as part of sort of this act of war.

And the conflict, the Iranians are definitely seeing it as a violation of sort of that ceasefire and war escalation from the U.S. side. I don’t think it will necessarily unravel that peace process or completely destroy the ceasefire, but, you know, every step of escalation is definitely going to harm the final outcome and narrow the path to a final agreement.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Negar, what do — from what you can tell, what do government leaders in Iran make of this alternating, as they say, institutionalized instability on the U.S. part, with Trump making constant bombastic threats, at the same time then alternating to say that an agreement is imminent?

NEGAR MORTAZAVI: Well, first of all, confusion, Juan, and then also a lack of trust. I mean, this is a recurring line I keep hearing from sources in Tehran over and over and over, that they have no trust in this administration.

I mean, take a step back. Iran started nuclear negotiations with this very administration a year ago, and then in the middle of those talks came the first war, in June of last year. Again, they engaged in nuclear negotiations this year. In the middle of negotiations, as they offered what seemed like a good deal by the admission of the mediators, Oman mediators — in the middle of those negotiations, again came an even bigger war, this time a regime change war.

So, what Tehran is saying is that “we have no trust in this administration,” and that has made the process even more complicated. It’s not just the president’s rhetoric that changes by the day in the middle of this process, but it’s also trusting that if the U.S. commits to something, that they would abide by it, that they won’t come and sign something or agree on something, and then go and change it the day after. So, this will also impact that final sort of agreement, and it’s one of the reasons that Tehran is not only skeptical, but also wants to do this in stages, to make sure they give something, they take something, they give something, they take something, with some form of guarantee. That’s also why they’re looking east to powers like Russia, China. There seems to be something serious happening in China, maybe China stepping in to help the peace process, because there’s just no trust in Tehran for Washington, for this administration.

AMY GOODMAN: Negar, if you can talk about — a little further about the connection between Israel bombing southern Lebanon — you know, you had this back-and-forth last week, where President Trump said, when he’s done with the presidency, he could be prime minister of Israel, that Netanyahu does what he wants him to. Clearly, Netanyahu doesn’t want this war with Iran to end, but can’t control what the U.S. does, but can continue to attack southern Lebanon, that exacerbating Iran’s response, because they’re saying what happens in Lebanon also affects whether they reach an agreement with the United States. Can you talk more about that, with this intensification of the Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon? Do you think that Netanyahu is doing this to force Trump’s hand on Iran?

NEGAR MORTAZAVI: Absolutely, Amy. And it’s not the first time. I mean, Netanyahu has done this before. First of all, look at the big picture. Benjamin Netanyahu has wanted a war, an ongoing war, on Iran by the U.S. for decades. I mean, he has put this war plan in front of various U.S. presidents, from Bush to Obama to Biden, and then, finally, the, quote-unquote, “president of peace” took the plan and did it. And he wants the war to continue to expand. He has only expanded the war since the day after October 7th in Gaza, in Lebanon, now in Iran, even in Syria and other countries. He just wants it expanded.

Now, Iran’s proposal, what they are looking after is a regional end to the war. So the way they call it is a nonaggression pact, meaning Iran and its allies in a pact versus U.S. and its allies, which very much includes Israel. And, I mean, frankly, I think this is better for regional peace and stability if you have sort of everyone on board on one side and the other side. So, Iran is very much trying to fold Hezbollah into this process — this is Lebanon — militias in Iraq that are allied with Iran. This is more than just within Iran’s borders, especially on Hezbollah, because Hezbollah entered this war with Iran. They worked in coordination for the first time as close allies, and Tehran doesn’t want to drop them.

And so, for Benjamin Netanyahu, this has really been a tactic from the first day the ceasefire was announced. Just hours later, he did that massive attack with a massacre of over 350 people in Beirut to try to torpedo the process. And now, I think, I’m expecting to see more and more of this. Like you said, he can’t control what the U.S. does, as far as U.S. trying to make a deal with Iran, and it seems like President Trump is not very much including him in every little step and detail. But he can — he definitely has means, and others also in the region have means, to torpedo the process and try to unravel it.

And from the Iranian perspective, they want Lebanon very much as part of this. And if that’s not included, then this final deal will not stand for them. So, they want a permanent end to the war, not just for themselves, but also for their allies. And they want to commit that this will be a nonaggression pact between them and their allies, and U.S. and its allies, meaning Iran’s allies will also not attack the U.S. or Israel after this pact.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Negar, talking about a regional agreement, what are you seeing in terms of the other Gulf states of Qatar, UAE, [inaudible] and Oman, in terms of whether they’ve gotten closer or further away from their alliance with the United States as a result of all of this, of this war?

NEGAR MORTAZAVI: Well, it’s a very dynamic situation. First of all, I want to say the GCC countries, these Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf, are not very similar. I mean, you have a country like Oman, who has kept itself as far away from the war, almost outside the war, as possible and didn’t get a lot of attacks or engagements from Iran. And then you have a country like UAE, who chose from day one to be part of the war and is very much and publicly part of the war and is also getting attacked and is engaged with Iran. And then you have countries sort of in between, like you mentioned, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and others. I think Qatar, Oman and Saudi, if I put them sort of in the same basket, have been trying very hard — well, before the war — to push against the war, really warning the administration that this will be catastrophic, this will become regional, and this will not stay inside Iran’s borders. And this also came from Turkey, Egypt, you know, other countries in the region, but all of them together didn’t have the same weight as Benjamin Netanyahu, who pushed and convinced President Trump that Iran is a paper tiger, and they can attack and finish it, which didn’t happen.

But now throughout the course, I mean, it’s very dynamic. These countries are sort of stuck between a powerful ally, which is the United States — they obviously can’t end this alliance — and a powerful neighbor, Iran, who has been there for thousands of years and will continue to be there. So, I think there is a rethinking happening in the GCC, each country in a different way, of how to manage these two relationships. You can’t rely on one side or the other. You can’t pretend like you’re hosting U.S. bases that are being used in a war against your neighbor, and you have no role in this war, and get surprised if you get retaliation from that said neighbor. And so, that dynamic, I think, is something that will play out in the short term and also long term, and for some of these states to rethink how peace in the region would not only be for them, but also has to involve their neighbor. Basically, the Iranian message is: If war comes to us, it will not stay inside our borders, and if it comes back, they will make sure that they’ll do it again and again. That’s the Iranian messaging and the new doctrine.

AMY GOODMAN: Negar Mortazavi, we thank you so much for being with us, Iranian American journalist, host of The Iran Podcast, senior fellow at the Center for International Policy.

Coming up, more than a dozen U.S. activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla have been released from Israeli custody and returned to the United States on Sunday. We’ll speak with two of them. Stay with us.

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“Designed to Break You”: Gaza Flotilla Activists Faced Violence, Sexual Abuse in Israeli Detention
May 26, 2026

“I could hear screaming the whole time.” Our guests Alex Colston and Haitham Arafat spent days in Israeli custody after being abducted from a humanitarian mission sailing to Gaza. They share accounts of violence, abuse and torture at the hands of Israeli soldiers. “The process that they have there in the jail was designed to break you as a human,” says Arafat, a Palestinian American activist born in Gaza who has taken part in multiple missions attempting to break Israel’s long-standing siege. Over 100 members of his family have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023. While incarcerated, the activists were visited by Israel’s minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who was recently banned from France after publicly ridiculing flotilla members. “They call us provocateurs, or they say we’re terrorists … and yet, whenever Ben-Gvir shows up to these things, he’s the one provoking us,” says Colston, a journalist who was previously detained by Israel while sailing with the Global Sumud Flotilla last year.

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

Israel has deported hundreds of activists who they abducted from the Global Sumud Flotilla as the convoy of humanitarian aid ships sailed toward Gaza attempting to break Israel’s siege. The activists were imprisoned for days, have described torture and sexual violence by Israeli soldiers during their time in custody. Many reported broken ribs and other injuries.

This is Australian activist Juliet Lamont speaking from Sydney after being deported from Israel.

JULIET LAMONT: I was dragged into a darkened container ship on a prison boat. I was sexually assaulted. I was beaten. And that was just the beginning of four days of absolute hell. I’ve looked into the eyes of the most soulless people in the universe, and nothing came back. These people need to be stopped.

AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, in Spain, activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla were beaten by police officers, Basque police officers, at Bilbao Airport Saturday after they returned home from being intercepted at sea and abducted by Israeli forces while attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. At least four people were arrested after members of the autonomous police force for Spain’s Basque Country known as the Ertzaintza used batons to attack activists, family members and supporters who had gathered to pose for pictures. The police violence drew attention to 1.66 million euros’ worth of security contracts — that’s about $1.9 million — between Basque police forces and an Israeli firm run by a former Mossad agent to provide body armor, surveillance technology and tactical training courses to the Basque police.

This comes as Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has been barred from entering France. France’s Foreign Ministry cited his “incitement of hatred and violence against Palestinians,” unquote, as well as video he shared last week showing him taunting dozens of activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla who had been abducted by the Israeli forces, pushed to the ground face-first with their hands bound behind their backs.

For more, we’re joined by two guests. Here in New York. Alex Colston, U.S. citizen, flotilla participant, just returned home Sunday after three days in Israeli custody. He was covering the flotilla for Zeteo. This is his second time participating on a Gaza humanitarian flotilla. In Washington, D.C., we’re joined by Haitham Arafat, Palestinian American activist, flotilla participant, who had his slammed into the ground when Israeli forces detained him. Haitham was born in Gaza. Over a hundred members of his family have been killed in Israeli strikes since October 7th, 2023.

Alex, let’s begin with you. I just described what Ben-Gvir did, and now he’s been barred from entering France. You were there. Can you talk about, first, what happened to you on the high seas, and then what happened when you were brought to Israel?

ALEX COLSTON: Thanks for having me, Amy.

On the high seas, I mean, we were intercepted about 250 nautical miles from the shores of Gaza. It took them, I think, about a day to get all the boats. And —

AMY GOODMAN: How many?

ALEX COLSTON: How many boats? Fifty-two boats and around 400 or 500 participants, all told. And as we — when the Israelis board the ships, they typically do so in a violent fashion. They shoot immediately with rubber bullets if we do not stop the ships. They tend to — in my case, they tied my zip — zip-tied my hands behind my back. And they put us in stress positions on the boat.

AMY GOODMAN: A stress position is what?

ALEX COLSTON: Meaning that they make us sit on our knees with our heads on the ground or our foreheads on the ground, can’t move. And they often give these kinds of contradictory orders, where they’ll say to sit, sit up, go down, sit up, go down. If we do either — do the opposite of either, they’ll beat you in some way or another. But the way that they board the vessels is they typically board the — they board, they abduct us, they commandeer the ship, and they take us to, in this case, a prison boat. And this happened previously in the mission, as well, west of Crete, but there were, I think, do prison boats this time. And when they’re on the prison ships, it’s kind of like a shanty town or like a strange, like, containerized area, to traffic us back to Israel. And on those prison ships, and then within Ktzi’ot Prison and in Ashdod port, they take — they go out of their — the Israelis haven’t gone out of their way to beat and abuse the flotilla participants.

In the case of Ben-Gvir’s appearance, this is — he did this the previous time, too, when we were in Ashdod. One thing I find kind of ironic is that when the Israeli foreign minister, ministry or any Israeli officials talk about us, they call us provocateurs, or they say we’re — you know, we’re terrorists, you know, we committed a provocation. And yet, whenever Ben-Gvir shows up to these things, he’s the one provoking us. He’s there saying we’re terrorists. He’s saying that we’re, you know, challenged —

AMY GOODMAN: He brings a camera crew with him?

ALEX COLSTON: Yes, he tends to bring a camera crew with him. And in fact, the previous time I saw him do this, there was one person sort of just shooting film of him, and he’s talking to the camera. And it might as well be that we’re not even there, in some respects, because he’s doing it for Israeli consumption. He’s filming these antics and these smears of the flotilla participants for the Israeli public.

And, you know, then, this time, we were in this tent, and I would say that my experience in the tent was quite harrowing. A person a foot away from me had clearly had broken ribs, was holding them and was moaning. And I tried to go — I tried to go help him. But every time I would move, they would kick me, or they’d take me, pull me back, and they would set me back down on my knees and head. And I could hear screaming the whole time we were in the tent, you know? They indiscriminately brutalized people in that tent.

Meanwhile, as Ben-Gvir shows up — and the thing is that I could not see Ben-Gvir, but I’m sitting forward, and I can hear someone talking behind me.

AMY GOODMAN: You mean with your head on the ground?

ALEX COLSTON: Yes, my head — yeah. So, I couldn’t turn —

AMY GOODMAN: And your hands behind you tip-tied?

ALEX COLSTON: Yes, and I couldn’t turn around and see. But, you know, I’m in a clump of bodies, a row of bodies, and I’m just hearing, like, one by one saying, “Ben-Gvir’s here. Ben-Gvir’s here,” yada yada. And, you know, I think — I think in that instant, this time around, I realized, like, they are just being way more severe this time, and I didn’t know what was in store when we went onwards to Ktzi’ot.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Alex, there was another boat that some of the activists named the torture boat. You were not on that one, but what have you heard about what happened there?

ALEX COLSTON: So, the first people I talked to when I got on the Turkish plane back to Istanbul, or to Istanbul, is I listened to accounts from people on the torture boat. And I was told immediately that up to 35 people’s ribs were fractured. I heard that at least 12, if not 15, people had been sexually assaulted. There were — people told me that they were being — that some had been injected with syringes of unknown substances. We don’t know what those were. We were told that people were made to lie down into, like, puddles of water and told not to move, and they were afraid they might suffocate in that position. They dropped flashbangs. They shot rubber bullets.

And as I’ve described it in previous interviews, these container ships, you know, we’re in a courtyard. We can’t go anywhere. You can’t run away from Israeli guards who are shooting at you. You can take — you can take refuge maybe in the container ship, but then then the Israelis would call out the participants to go into the courtyard, with their guns drawn. So, they were — there was a certain kind of, like, yeah, just like not only sadism, but trying to, like, torture us with, like, not being sure what they were going to do to us, like drawing us out, giving us contradictory orders, like finding any pretense and pretext to brutalize us and to keep us fearful of what they might do to us.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We’re also joined by Haitham Arafat, a Palestinian American who has lost over a hundred members of his family in Gaza since October 7th. Haitham, welcome to Democracy Now! You were on the flotilla. What happened with you?

HAITHAM ARAFAT: I mean, Alex pretty much explained a lot of the things that happened, but I would like to add one thing, is that when Ben-Gvir came to our cell, I looked at him, I looked at him at the eyes, and you can tell that this guy has pleasure at us in these positions. They put us in cages. These cages were three meters by six meters. And I counted at one point we had more than 80 people. They kept adding more people, and there was no place for us to sit. At one point, we decided to stand, because there is no space, and they came, and they start beating us, and we had to sit down. There is no space, so we start sitting on each other, on the top of each other.

There was a guy behind me when we were — after the tent, the guards from the port. And he was — I mean, he did not speak Arabic. I do speak Arabic, so I do know some of the words. And they asked him, “Where are you from?” And he was from Southeast Asia. And then they asked him to repeat, “I am a fag. I am a fag.” And they made him repeat that so many times. And when he stops, they come and beat him, and they tell him, “Continue.” And then he called his friends, and they started actually taking pictures with that guy.

This is a system that is not — I mean, it’s built. It’s a sick system. And when we talk about Ben-Gvir as if it’s an isolated incident, it’s not. This is — the Palestinians have been slaughtered and killed for over 80 years. And each administration comes and increases. They brag about killing Palestinians. This says we are — our blood is becoming an election material for them: Who kills more Palestinians gets elected. So, what we have seen there in the prison, I’m not going to repeat a lot of what Alex said, but I can add one thing, is that this is a system that was carefully designed not to humiliate, not to deter, not to insult. This system, the process that they have there in the jail, was designed to break you as a human. It’s designed to make you a human animal. And I think, and I think based on I’ve seen, and I’ve seen the reaction of some of the people who were with us in these cages in the concentration camps — it’s not a jail, it’s a concentration camp — where I think they — I mean, I’ve seen the reaction of some people. I don’t think people can go through that process for a long time. And that was what they have there in place.

Now, what I’m — one thing I’m disgusted at. France banned Ben-Gvir. Now, why? Because there is a picture about him? But we know about this. He’s been doing this for years. Why now? Why that guy is still free, walking? And nobody is — he’s not on the sanction list of the U.S., while the people who are defending the Palestinians are on the sanction list. And these terrorists, these war criminals are walking free and protected. Not only they are protected, they are protected by our tax dollars.

AMY GOODMAN: Can I ask you, Haitham —

HAITHAM ARAFAT: When that war criminal — yes.

AMY GOODMAN: Haitham, you showed them your U.S. passport?

HAITHAM ARAFAT: Yes, I did.

AMY GOODMAN: They slammed your head against the ground?

HAITHAM ARAFAT: Yes. They do not care. I mean, they were trying — my name is Middle Eastern, so they were trying to find my background, and I did not volunteer any information. But they were trying to speak to me in some — in Arabic languages with insults and cussing words. And I would just ignore them as much as possible, because I did not want to escalate the situation. Even though I tried to do that, but every time — I have a ruptured disc, so I cannot be in these stress positions for a long time. The minute I try to raise my head, they come and start hitting me. They do not care whether you are young, old, woman. We have grandfathers, grandmothers, women, mothers.

AMY GOODMAN: Haitham?

HAITHAM ARAFAT: We have students. Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: You were born in Gaza and have lost over a hundred members of your family. Can you talk about some of them?

HAITHAM ARAFAT: I mean, it’s — I mean, the first time, I remember that I was in Gaza one year before the October 7, and I was on my way to Gaza during October 7. The first incident, which was actually — I was on my way to the airport in Egypt when my uncle called me, and he said, “Your aunt was killed.” Because I was with my aunt at that time, I stayed with her, and we had a beautiful time with her, she was like a second mom to me. She was with her daughter, and they bombed that house. And I remember I was in Egypt, and they called us. They said, “They just bombed our house.” But it was, I think, a tank shell. So, the second floor was destroyed.

And they decided to move to the second house. And they called us. They said, “What shall we do?” We told them, “Hey, guys, the best place is to find a good shelter and just stay there. Do not move.” But that house was bombed, so they had to move to my aunt’s house, waited for the morning. While they waited, it was my — it was a grandmother, daughters, grandkids, babies. They walked together to the second house, which is about 15 minutes.

There was a tank at the end of the road. This tank, once they saw them, they saw a family walking, of innocent civilians. They just turned at them. And what they did, they pressed the button, and they bombed them, three of them killed immediately. A few of them bled to death for two weeks because they were unable to go to the hospital, and ambulances were unable to come to them. They had been — the mother of the babies were killed at that time, and she was breastfeeding. They didn’t have milk for the babies.

I mean, this is what we are going through. And now we are putting Ben-Gvir, a ban from France, and he still can come to the U.S.? How many more Palestinians needs to be killed before we do something?

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I wanted to ask Alex Colston — the news out of Spain, when some of the flotilla participants arrived in Bilbao Airport, the riot police in the Basque area of the country attacked the supporters that were at the airport. Your response, especially given the fact that Spain, the national government, has been so outspoken in its criticism of what Israel is doing?

ALEX COLSTON: Well, as was mentioned at the top of the segment, the Basque police trains with the IDF. They train with — they train with Israeli forces. So, maybe, perhaps, on one level, I’m not all that surprised. And yet, of course, these are activists who had just been detained and tortured in Israeli custody, and then the moment they’re coming back home to see their friends and their family, they are again brutalized by the police.

The way this incident apparently started, as far as I understand it, is that one of the families — one of the family members and friends were trying to go to the activists, and the police stood in their way, and so the activists walked up to try to see the family member and to get the police to move away, and then there was an altercation. You know, the thing is that many, many police forces across the world train with Israeli forces, the same forces that tortured us in Ktzi’ot Prison and on the prison boat, including the NYPD. There has been well-documented cooperative mutual collaboration between the NYPD and Israeli forces. So, there’s a global police force that is, in many ways, trained by the Israelis, and the Israelis use the tactics that they have invented on the Palestinians, and yet then they train police forces across the world to inflict the same kinds of violence on other civilians. And so, when I saw this video, I thought to myself, “Well, this is actually the same kinds of police violence they use with the same kinds of tactics, then used in the Basque region.” So…

AMY GOODMAN: Well, we’re going to link to your work at Zeteo, Alex Colston, Zeteo reporter, U.S. citizen and flotilla participant, who just returned home to the United States on Sunday. And we thank Haitham Arafat, a Palestinian American activist, also flotilla participant, born in Gaza, who’s lost a hundred members of his family since October 7th, 2023. To see all our coverage of the flotilla, you can go to democracynow.org.

Up next, we go to Tennessee, where the execution of Tony Carruthers was called off after prison officials struggled to kill him with a lethal injection, but it didn’t work. We’ll talk to Steven Hale, criminal justice reporter at the Nashville Banner, author of Death Row Welcomes You: Visiting Hours in the Shadow of the Execution Chamber. Stay with us.

[break]

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Iran DOWNS MQ-9 Reaper Drone, Forces F-35 to FLEE as US Attack FAILS (w/ SPECIAL GUEST)
Danny Haiphong
Streamed live 4 hours ago #trump #iranwar #f35

Danny Haiphong discusses the latest round of strikes by the US and Iran's response as the world stands at a watershed moment in history. Why did the US strike, and what are the consequences? What is the impact on the world economy and unipolar order? Join us to find out!



Transcript

Welcome back to the show everyone. We are back after a bit of a holiday. It's your host Danny Hiong. Hit the like
button as you come on. Our special guest is coming on at the second half of the show and we will reveal who that is.
Then we got about an hour today. So, hit the like button and we are going to get started right away with the latest
developments of what has occurred in the USIsraeli war on Iran over the last . Because, as you may have seen
over the Memorial Day weekend here in the United States, the mainstream media, Donald Trump, his administration has all been talking about talks, talks, talks,
talks are going well. Talks are going to lead to a deal. We didn't see any deal.
But what we did see was USIsraeli strikes on Iran. So over the last 24
hours here is the latest update. Uh uh according to CBS news and uh so many
other outlets uh we have confirmed reports that US forces on Monday late
Monday launched what the US central command described and get this selfdefense
strikes in southern Iran off Bonder Abbas Keshum and other areas. US forces conducted these self-destruct defense
strikes in southern Iran today to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces. And this is the cynicism
of the US Empire in the Israelis as well. They always claim that the horrific acts of aggression are for
their own self-defense. Even though Iran is located tens of thousands well with in terms of Israel the distance is a
little smaller but for the US tens of thousands of kilometers away. So US forces conducted self-destri defense strikes this is according to Captain Tim
Hawkins of Sententcom targets included this is what they say missile launch sites Iranian boats attempting to imp place mines SenCom continues to defend
our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire. The strikes were conducted in the area of Bonder Abbas, which is Iran's main naval base located
uh where its main naval base is located according to Hawkins. A US official described the scope of the strikes as very small. Well, Iran isn't happy about
this. And why are they not happy about it? And and they have reacted already and retaliated and I'll get into that in a second. But this is what the US
considers small. They don't the US and Israel, they don't care about human life. Uh they actually killed according
to Iran four Navy personnel in those strikes. A telegram channel affiliated with Iran's IRGC identified four naval
personnel it says were killed in the overnight strikes in southern Iran. It named four men as Abbasami Godrat
Zarangari Abdul Raza Golarian Hussein Sto. So, uh,
3 minutesthey were due, uh, Hussein was due to hold his wedding ceremony in the coming days. So, this was an act of aggression,
another act of aggression by the United States. While, get this, another act of aggression during so-called
negotiations, which Iran has poured cold water all over and said there weren't really negotiations taking place. There have been indirect talks. There have
been this memorandum of understanding being battered around, but Iran has st stayed firm on its demands and what it
sees as its legitimate rights. While the US has made very little headway in making any kind of true goodfaith effort
at a real agreement that would end this war. Well, Iran did not stay put. They did retaliate in kind.
Here is one of the ways uh Iran retaliated. Iran, according to RT and Iranian sources as well, which published
this video of, and I'll play it in a second, of the targeted uh MQ9 Reaper drone worth over $30 million. It was
downed over the area in the Persian Gulf as it was violating Iran's airspace. And here is just what that looks like. uh
there Iran has said that they have new air defense systems that they are using in these kinds of situations and I'll
just play that for you one more time. Uh that is the MQ9 Reaper door that would make up if we're just counting the one about for the 43rd uh total US aircraft
down I believe uh many of these at least 20 plus are these Reaper drones. And then it wasn't just the MQ9 Reaper drone
that got hit. There was also an F-35 that was forced to flee the area as these same air defense systems. I have a
hunch it's the infrared air defense systems we heard about earlier in the war. But here is DD Geopolitics uh
playing the Iranian uh uh uh footage of this targeting of the F-35. It had to flee the area as it was targeting. And
there you see uh the F-35 trying to hide in stealth, but it had to flee after it was targeted uh by Iranian air defenses.
So this is the activity that was going on overnight uh uh in the area of the Persian Gulf in the area of Bonder Abbas.
The US and Israel have essentially put the what already was a fraudulent
ceasefire because mind you Iran has been blockaded by the US Navy since the
ceasefire essentially began and Iran has called that a violation of the ceasefire from the beginning. Now you may ask why
hasn't Iran retaliated with even more fervor than this? because I mean this is
a retaliation but it might not meet the level of retaliation that could be called uh tit fortat or any kind of eye
for an eye situation and a big reason for this is likely this two reasons one uh the hajj is happening and there are
you know don't don't ask me to give you a number but there are millions of Muslims from all around the world now traveling across this region uh in order
to do the pilgrimage which is considered uh such a holy time for people of the Muslim faith and Iranian officials have
cited the Hajj as one of the reasons why uh they are uh essentially staying at
the very least uh at to a minimum with the retaliation but they have vowed and promised that they will retaliate even
harder than they did overnight. Here is that statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Iran promises not to
leave any aggression unanswered after the ceasefire violation by the United States. aggressive actions coinciding with the diplomatic process mediated by
Pakistan once again revealed bad faith and a breach of the promise of the US ruling regime in a breach of promise of
US ruling regime to the Iranian nation which uh should come as no surprise because the United States does not keep any promises nor does it really make
promises but this is another take by uh Iranian analyst Satara Sadiki who I hope
to have on the show very soon uh when we can finally arrange that. She had this take which I thought was very interesting. She said, "The fact that both sides are downplaying these
skirmishes means they're still hopeful a memorandum of understanding will be reached. Ron's position would only make sense if the US is giving significant
concessions during negotiations." So that's a very interesting take because
uh you have a situation where uh this in many ways is not just a breach of the ceasefire. this uh these fighter jet
8 minutesstrikes, US and Israeli strikes on Iranian ports. Uh they killed naval service members. Uh this is not just a
breach of ceasefire. It really is a reigniting of the war. But both sides are trying to downplay the significance
of this likely because the United States right now is actually at the table with Iran trying its best to uh uh find a way
to surrender. As Robert Kagan, this top neocon keeps on saying in his recent articles, find a way to surrender while
not losing face and a lot. These strengths could be seen in many ways as a face saving measure. But more uh
retaliation will have to be brought upon the empire in this case because they did take lives and that is a significant
thing here. But uh the truth of the matter is is no matter uh what the United States and Israel does in this
situation, these pinp prick attacks actually represent uh a clear indication of their very weak position in this war.
Uh these pinps and the fact that they're downplaying them uh indicate that the United States does not believe
militarily it can affect change to any significant degree. uh not only on the battlefield but at the table too which
is why they don't go for heavier strikes at the moment and it's why you see over and over and over again okay you see
over and over and over again the US empire kind of losing its mind and Donald Trump is one of those who is losing mind the US president himself
here today Donald Trump on May 18th published this uh very unhinged and you see the date right there on his truth
social a very unhinged post about how even if Iran were to have surrendered and everything from Iran was destroyed
from its fighter, its air force to its navy to its military, all the leaders were gone, still the so-called fake news media would say that Iran was in a good
position. The problem with this tweet is not only that it is incredibly insulting to uh Iran and it indicates uh that the
US administration doesn't have any idea or is trying to lie its way out of the actual damage that has been caused to the US military apparatus in the region.
Uh but he did it again. He he published the same thing not eight days later uh uh today after these strikes. And I I
think this is a clear indication that there is a crisis of foot, especially when it comes to narrative management around this war. You have Donald Trump's
administration, and who knows, some say it's Donald Trump himself, some say he has people doing it for him on Truth Social, typing up these incredibly
ridiculous posts. But nonetheless, whoever is writing them, they aren't even able to keep track of this and they're now spamming the same message
over and over and over again, which is basically what's been going on. Uh this is just a quite literal case of that
phenomenon. So ultimately, uh we are seeing the US empire uh crack, crumble, and lose its
mind over war that it has essentially lost. And we see this again and I think
this is why these pin prick attacks like what the United States and Israel did in Bonder Abbas or or in their strikes on
Bond Abbas overnight. We see constantly this uh uh uh you know attempt to push the envelope militarily and then
retreat. We saw it in the uh you could call it round two in the straight of H
for H for H for H for H for H for H for H for H for H for Hormuz when Trump tried to launch Operation Freedom and Iran used its anti-hship missiles to
send the US Navy essentially packing out of the area. Uh now uh we are seeing it with the strike on Bonder Abas. They uh
you know hit the Iranian Navy then Iran fire back and now the United States Sentcom is trying to say whoa whoa whoa whoa. This wasn't a violation of the
ceasefire. We're trying to be restrained. We're just defending ourselves in a region that they have no
right to be uh attempting to uh militarily or otherwise uh govern and
dictate. But let's look at this. This is such an interesting scenario. There are reports in the Wall Street Journal, and I'm just uh because the Wall Street
Journal is so heavily paywalled, this is a this is a a recounting of it. Uh there's a report in the Wall Street Journal that the US Navy is restarting
its escort missions in the straight of Hormuz. You can see the date today. Uh they said that Wall Street Journal was citing two military officials who
reported that the Navy guided a Greek Greek super tanker carrying 2 million barrels of crude oil through their strategic waterway off the coast of Aman. And you might ask, Danny, that is
so strange. How after just uh hours after the United States struck Iran in
Bonder Abbas and Iran fired back by causing the F-35 to flee using its air defenses to destroy MQ9 Reaper drones.
Uh and they also said they fired anti-hship missiles. I almost forgot this. They did fire anti-hship missiles the US Navy causing it as well to flee.
But let's be honest, it was it was flown. Uh the US Navy stays pretty far back from the missile range. You might
ask, how is now the US Navy just gallivanting into the straight form and escorting tankers again? Isn't this a
clear violation not only of the ceasefire but of also of what Iran is saying is its authority over the straight form? And why wouldn't they react? Well, because it didn't happen.
So, uh, everyone who's been paying attention has noted how ridiculous Sentcom has looked over this period,
especially during the height of Iran's retaliation. So, dur at the height of Iran's retaliation, during the 37 days
of active hostilities, uh, Iran was hitting bases. Iran was hitting uh, potentially hitting US naval uh,
aircraft carriers, destroyers. Uh it was uh uh hitting it did hit an F-15 out of the air and it might have hit even more
fighter jets out of the air, but SenCom kept on saying no, it wasn't happening.
Every time Iran said it had done something, SenCom would come out and say no, it's not happening. Well, this time around, Sentcom is saying what they said
or SenCom is saying what reports are saying about its um uh uh reports are saying about its
restarting of so-called project freedom, the naval escort is not happening. And and here it is. The claim was recent
media reporting say that the US Navy has restarted escorting or assisting commercial vessels during transits through the straight of four moves.
False. the truth. Project Freedom has not resumed and US forces are not currently escorting commercial vessels out of the Strait of Hormuz.
So, so there you go. The narrative management crisis only gets worse. And
this is because the US is in such in Israel too. But Israel gets to play the role of rabbit attack dog proxy or the
tail wagon the dog, whatever people want to think about it. Really, they're the same entity, but Israel gets to play the role of wrecker, of destroyer, of just
unhinged and unleashed attack dog. It's doing so in Lebanon right now, currently conducting strikes which have killed
hundreds and displaced thousands. And you had Smootrich, the finance minister in Israel, say, what did he say? He
said, "For every FPV drone that Hezbollah launches at the Israeli occupation forces, Israel is going to
destroy 10 buildings in Beirut." This is the genocidal monster that Israel really is. And that's what the role it gets to play on the outward level in order to
take away from the fact that the USIsraeli regime are acting in concert to wreak terror on Iran or attempting to
wreak terror on Iranians in Iran uh with very little success. uh while Israel gets pounded by Hezbollah, which is
happening as we speak. These drones are taking out Israeli military equipment, tanks, and troops too. And Israel gets
to play the role of terrorizing ordinary people in order to try to create the requisite chaos to maintain the
USIsraeli regime's uh hegemony or perceived hegemony over the region because it is
waning very very fast. It's a it's a very dire situation right now for the United States because they have no they
have no out. Not only does the US empire not have an out, they do not have any capacity to uh uh win in negotiations or
win in these pin prick strikes what they have not been able to win on the battlefield. This is the big dilemma
that faces the US empire at this time and it's why we are going to continue to see in my estimation the ongoing
attempt the ongoing attempt by the United States and Israel to restart the war to engage in the war. uh they are
going to uh try to keep this war going as long as possible and get to the edge the precipice of this absolute economic
meltdown that Iran is predicting. The Iranian military said get prepared for
uh $200 a barrel of gas uh prices coming or uh $200 a barrel and the uh for the
price of oil and gas prices exploding because of it as they already have been.
Uh Brent oil itself jumped more than 3% after these strikes as Iran of course vows to retaliate. This is CNBC news.
The military said it conducted these self-defense strikes and it complicates the peace talks that Trump said on Monday he had encouraged Saudi Arabia,
Pakistan and Jordan to join the Abraham accords which we need to talk about. But these uh these prices are only going to
get worse and worse. Uh the US has been manipulating the market. So it's under $100 a barrel. Of course, purchasing
price is far higher, but tra you know, these these uh prices that we see now
are have been lowered by this absolutely manipulative tactic of pretending to be
in talks when in fact the United States is not in any talks at all. The United States is at war and all it has done is
pause the war because it has no idea what to do. The United States has no idea. The US empire has no idea what to do. Uh uh truthfully, the only good
option for the United States Empire is to stop the war, to leave. But in order to stop the war and truly leave, it's
going to have to give Iran some of what it wants. The Fox News was debating this uh today. They said that uh oh well, it
can't be that Iran gets a blank check like Obama gave them. It has to be just some of the money that was frozen. uh in
these Qatari banks that the United States froze in these Qatari banks just some but the truth is is that whether
it's Obama or whether it's Trump uh the money is the same. It comes from the same place. This is what happened. The
US froze tens of billions uh of Iranian assets if not far more due to these
criminal US sanctions on the country. So it doesn't matter who the president is, the outcome would have to be the same
because the US empire has lost major ground in this war. Now
you know we have to talk about this ridiculous I mean absolutely ridiculous statement by Trump uh on the
Abraham Accords which are dead. All right let's let's be quite honest. uh Donald Trump is saying
and what's ab I mean this is a wall of text too I I can't even read it all this truth social post but according to
Donald Trump one of the conditions get this one of the conditions for the signing of this peace agreement
so-called or the memorandum of understanding is that they will join the Abraham Accords if it is uh uh if it is
signed. So all of these Gulf countries from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, even Pakistan and others that they have to
join the Abraham Accords. It's going to be a great deal or no deal at all. And of course, it has to be mandatory. He
says, look at this. It should be mandatory that all these countries at a minimum simultaneously join on to the Abraham Accords. He even says, I believe in this post, if I can even find it.
Look how much look how look how much text. Here we go. He even says uh they would uh in speaking to numerous great leaders mentioned above they will be honored as soon as our document is
signed to have the Islamic Republic of Iran as part of the Abraham Accords. I I I mean this is absolutely and of for
those who don't know the Abraham Accords is this absolutely ridiculous project started by Trump number one to begin to
uh facilitate the normalization process between Israel and the Gulf countries.
It was essentially a bribe, right? So, the Gulf countries would get more US so-called investment. The US would uh
essentially give these Gulf countries more blank checks uh military support, economic support, uh for their participation in the Abraham Accords,
which would uh change their political position on Palestine. We know that these countries are not for Palestine at all. We know that these countries have
worked handinand foot with the Israeli regime indirectly and even directly like the UAE has during this Iran uh conflict.
So uh we know that these Gulf countries are no innocent players when it comes to what has happened to the pal and what continues to happen to the Palestinian
people. But the Abraham Accords would have solidified that and it would have sent a pre a precedent across uh the
world that would have uh uh huge ramifications and it never it never really uh took uh real foothold. But
what it did is it started this process of uh indirectly moving these countries further, the Gulf monarchies closer and
closer to normalization. And that is now what Donald Trump is proposing in his second administration for all these
countries to essentially it's like a gun to their head. Okay. Okay. Well, I I'll do this uh pitiful agreement or at least I'll try to get a pitiful agreement with
Iran on the war and for that because you've been destroyed or you are in big trouble. You will do what I want. So this is Donald Trump's art of the deal.
The problem is is that the US position is not strong either. it just happens to be stronger than the position of its vassels. So, uh, the fact that Trump
even threw in there that these leaders would love to have Iran be part of it is absolutely ridiculous because Iran, we know Iran's position. We've gone over it
so many times on this program. Iran stands with the Palestinian people. Iran doesn't even recognize anything called the Abraham Accords. It would never sign
on to such a thing. uh almost all those countries are hostile actors in this war or have been at one form or another one
time or another. It's just the goodwill of Iran to uh do everything it can to keep relations good with its neighbors.
Uh it has done a pretty decent job of that and it continues to do that actually by when these strikes happened.
Remember uh overnight on May 25th, what was Iran doing?
24 minutesuh the uh leader of uh the negotiations ma Muhammad Galibbah and Abbas Arachi
were in the foreign minister were in Qatar at the time engaged in these indirect talks. Some people were afraid
for their safety because they had just gotten there and they might have to come back and we know that Israel has struck
Qatar before. remember that? It wasn't too long ago. That was uh just after the
June war, right? So, so uh the June 2025 12-day war. So, this is I mean this is
the state of the situation now. There is a war going on, but the attack itself that the United States launched on Iran
again has failed. It's a USIsraeli attack that has failed to do anything.
It has failed to make Iran budge. What it's going to do is it's going to build up the case for Iran to retaliate in
kind and harder at a time that's very sensitive especially for people of the Muslim faith for Muslims who are uh
doing the pilgrimage and who are attempting to participate in Hajj. So this is uh this is again it shows the
absolute duplicity the depravity of the US empire and of Israel to conduct
strikes during the Hajj to conduct strikes during so-called indirect talks and negotiations to talk about peace to talk about memorandum of understanding
and stopping the war and all of this in a deal while engaging in aggression. It
is typical US empire, US imperial and Israeli behavior. And so, uh, this is
where things are at the moment, uh, with the war. Now, there's going to be this meeting that's going to happen now at the White House, uh, tomorrow. I'm going
to cover that with Alistister Crook at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time. But uh according to a lot of different sources,
there's two different ways to interpret this meeting that's going to happen with all of the cabinet, which is very rare.
Uh Camp David is a presidential compound that a lot of significant historic uh developments have happened uh during
this time, including uh uh major uh shifts and changes during the uh 6773
war period, the Suez crisis, etc. Um, but nonetheless, there are some who are thinking or intimating that there may be
the US now moving further and closer and closer to Iran's position on nuclear enrichment, to Iran's position on a few
other items. There are others who say this could be an emergency meeting to talk about the entirety of the direction
of this war that it may be that the United States is preparing for war again and maybe a bigger one and a bigger kind
of quote unquote strategy. I don't believe that so much because um it's quite clear that the US empire does not
really have a they have they have proposals in front of them that you know Raisen Kaine Dan Raisen Kane the joint
chief of staff uh Pete Hegsth if he can even do any of this but uh Pentagon officials
of all branches all branches of the US military have obviously drawn up plans but it doesn't seem like any of these
plans work out very Well, and so that's why we've seen this major delay in any
kind of attack that would provoke a major retaliation from Iran. And that's why we've seen the United States and
Donald Trump himself delay, delay, delay and try to give negotiations a chance.
Don't believe for a second that negotiations, quote unquote, uh, how United States sees negotiations is essentially a time to pause, try to
rearm. They can't really rearm, let's be honest. It's not a long enough time. A lot of these weapons take months to years to develop, but uh uh uh they use
it time to pause to throw a little bit of bombs, right? To manipulate the markets because you got to make Wall Street money, you got to make the oil
companies money. But nonetheless, uh uh uh uh the way the reason why the US is
even in these so-called indirect talks at all, why they're talking about deals, why Trump uh last this past weekend was
saying that it was so close, right? It was like, oh, it's almost at the the tip of my fingers. It felt like uh a little
bit there on that Saturday and Sunday of this past weekend. A lot of that was because uh the United States is is
really trying to find it out. That's the truth of it. It's trying to find it out.
There are those who don't want to see it. Uh there were reports that the reason why the US ended up striking Bonderbos in the first place is because
there was major internal pressure and uh pressure from Israel which were lumped together in uh to essentially um give
real delay to any kind of progress made at the table. And you heard Smotrich today uh the the finance minister again
the one of the big faces of genocide and of course Ben Gavir that torture chief uh Ben Gavir
uh national security uh adviser I believe minister whatever he is uh that worm both saying that Donald Trump and
his administration is one of the friendliest uh uh administrations to Israel that has ever occur that has ever been. I think Smootrich said it is the
friendliest that has ever existed. And so you can't say that they're lying there. These uh these genocide dares,
they they like to lie. They they need lies to continue to promote their genocidal expansionist project. But uh
the lies, okay, uh cannot uh always sometimes as some people said
project, you know, uh every projection is a confession. The truth is that sometimes people like smoke tell the truth. Uh it's true that Donald Trump's
administration has gone much farther uh than others. And and maybe it's not even a Trump thing. It's just a material reality thing. It's just the historic
moment that we're in that allowed the Trump administration, Donald Trump himself to do this. And in many ways, Biden with the whole October 7th fiasco
and how everything uh went from there, how everything was reacted to laid the basis for what Trump did, right? It laid
the basis for what the Trump administration has done from here. It's all connected. It is not a partisan
thing. The empire doesn't work in partisan terms. The partisan uh so-called duopoly, the two-party system, that is for domestic consumption. Okay?
that is for domestic consumption. Uh that is what did Iran say about Donald Trump's truth social post? They said
don't believe anything that he's saying in those truth social post that is for simply uh domestic consumption. Uh uh
what you need to look at are the actual actions and results that are coming out of this administration. And I would say the same goes for the US empire. Don't
look at what Donald Trump says during his meeting with Xiinping. Don't look at what he says about Iran on truth social.
Don't look at what you know or you can look at you can listen to it but don't take it as truth. The only truth that
exists is the one that is spoken to us by the reality of the policies and by
how these policies impact the world, impact uh Iran, impact uh the entirety of this uh global order.
that is what uh we need to be paying attention to as developments continue to
unfold. Nonetheless, uh we are going to have our special guests on soon. Uh I am just waiting for them to log in. Um
until that time, uh uh until that time, we'll just continue
to uh do coverage here. So, uh, any questions that y'all have, please send
them over. Uh, that works very well. I know that it is a vacation period, so we
are looking at, um, you know, a bit of a lull for a lot of people, but um,
so let's, uh, continue onward here, uh, with, uh, some other developments. Of
course you know about the horrific strike that occurred uh by the Ukrainians of course with US and
European help in Lugansk. It targeted a college. There were students in their dormatory uh believe over a dozen were
killed. Uh this was an attack on civilians that then led to heavy strikes over the weekend uh by Russia. Uh Sergey
Lavrov told Marco Rubio that all anyone who is any foreigner there US and otherwise they need to evacuate because
Kiev is going to be uh rained on uh via missiles. And that's exactly what happened. Zercon is they were flying
over uh Kiev and they also used the Arushnik missile too. Um, we're going to
get uh to our special guest now and it is our good friend here of the show.
We're going to do a bit of an Asia dive now with KJ. No, KJ. Good to see you. How are you? Good to see you, Danny.
Hey. Yeah, good to see you. All right, everybody, hit the like button. We're gonna continue on with the show. I wanted to bring you on KJ to talk about
uh you know as the Iran war looks like it's going to reignite at any moment and it it likely already has with these
strikes overnight. Uh we also have a lot of developments happening in Asia. I was just telling the audience that they should look at what the US empire does
not necessarily what uh various elements of its ruling elite say. Um, and I
wanted your uh t take on this contrast here that we're seeing uh with the United States and China. Of course, we
had that uh China meeting uh the Beijing meeting with Trump and Xinping and the followup to that had Marco Rubio go to
India. uh I and this is from semaphore which is a very much connected to intelligence
uh the meeting in India and it is being talked about in the
mainstream media in very unglowing terms. Uh it's being talked about as a weakened anti-China block. Uh you had
India not even greet Marco Rubio at the tarmac as he was coming on. Nobody, nobody came and and I think Marco Rubio
was not very happy about that. But uh they came together over the weekend, but they have been fractured in many ways
this anti-China block the quad. Maybe you can help us understand what exactly is going on here and why the US
mainstream media will be talking about it like this despite the fact that this does exist and Marco Rubio is still doing the rounds uh uh trying to keep
alive these anti-China uh aggressive institutions that were built under previous administrations.
Well, I think the key thing to understand is that US strategy is shifting but it is constant. US strategy
towards China since 1945 essentially has been one of war or
attempts at absorption that is to say a kind of hybrid war or starting 2008
again going back to overt war. So essentially it's a you know kind of a pendulation between overt aggression,
passive aggressiveness and then overt aggression. And now it seems like there's a little bit of passive
aggressive transition going on. But if you look at the large picture, if you pan out and you look at the large picture, you can see that there's
continual escalation to war. In particular, the quad is very very important because if you recall,
uh, President Obama in 2011 declared the pivot to Asia. The pivot to Asia was the
formal coming out party of this retransition to war against China was
actually prepared two years earlier with the start of the drafting of the doctrine of war called air sea battle
which is essentially Israeli war doctrine transplanted and designed for China. It's also what the US has tried
to use against Iran. uh air sea battle which comes from airline battle is colloially known as shock and ore. So
starting 2009 the US prepared a shock and all campaign against China and then in 2011 it it came out with the official
party which was the declaration of the pivot to Asia. If you recall, the pivot to Asia was declared in Australia. And
essentially what we're looking at is there is a kind of a base plate on which they want to uh uh place all the other
uh anti-China alliances. The anti-China alliances being Jacus Japan uh uh uh
Australia uh US uh Korea Japan Korea US alliance
Australia Korea uh Australia UK US alliance Jaffus Japan Philippines US
alliance these are the miniateral alliances that they stuck on top of the base plate which was the quad and the
quad Quad was designed to box China in on all quadrants. Hence the Quad uh
idea. So it is uh the coalition of the United States uh Australia
uh India uh and um uh sorry Australia uh
United States, India and Japan. All of them blocking off one of the quadrants in the Pacific Ocean. And this was the
kind of base plate on which you place all the other Lego piece uh mini alliances, the miniateral alliances. The
fact that they're continually talking and trying to revive this shows that they have not changed any of their
designs of war against China. In particular, Quad is important because India is supposed to be the left tackle
against China. And originally this is the whole idea why they came up with this notion of an Indo-Pacific strategy
because they want to pull India into a Pacific war. But during the early stages
of the Ukraine NATO war uh India was still doing business with Russia and therefore it was in the doghouse a
little bit. But Modi seems to have transitioned back onto the side of the imperialists. You can most notably see
that with his uh embrace and collusion with Israel and Netanyahu. But you can
see that the alliances are continually being built, continually being strengthened. Uh the ratchet is being
tightened. Most notably, for example, Japan has decided it is going to remilitarize. It has decided that it is
going to interfere in Taiwan, China's sovereign territory.
Uh, Korea has been press ganged into being the quartermaster for NATO during the Ukraine war. It has sent more
munitions to Ukraine than the entirety of the EU and its military which falls
under the control of the United States uh is being prepared uh for war against
China. At least that's very much what people in South Korea think. And then of course there's Philippines which is
being used constantly for provocative exercises. The Balikatan exercises have just recently ended. Japan sent for the
first time its combat troops to Balikatan. This is a country quote unquote pacifist which is not even supposed to have an expeditionary
military which is now sending combat troops to the Philippines and the South China Sea to prepare for war. And then
outside of that you see the constant color revolutions all around China's periphery and all the way and with every country that is very uh close to China.
For example, most recently Serbia's VHI is visiting China and you can see that there is a massive escalation and
attempt to uh undermine and have a color revolution in Serbia. So the designs of
the empire have not slowed down. They're constant uh increasing. The momentum is continuous. And although there has been
a setback in West Asia, that does not seem to have really dampened uh the
desires and the intentions of the ruling imperial class as far as they're concerned regarding China.
Yeah. when when you were when you mentioned India too and how they've pushed uh more back into the uh or maybe
they've been pushed or both uh back into the embraces of the US-Israeli um you know side of things. It reminded
me of right as there were these attacks right this like neck there were naval attacks the UAE was involved with them
in the Persian Gulf. Uh what did Modi do? uh he uh met with the UAE and it was
seen as uh a very poor taste especially since all of these countries are supposed to be BRICS countries working
on consensus issues and they did uh host the foreign minister's I believe uh meeting of the bricks and it was a
disaster with Abasarachi uh essentially condemning in public in this bricks forum uh the UAE. So you
know uh in many ways KJ yeah it does seem like there is this design by the United States and this is how they they
this how the US empire always wants to fight its wars doesn't want to necessarily especially in the the the the beginning period like we're in now
43 minutesfight a war itself against China or really against anybody. Uh it it wants others to fight the war for it on its
behalf. And it seems like there's a lot of pressure being made. Look at what just happened. And it's all connected.
Look what the Abraham Accords. Donald Trump saying everyone has to join the Abraham Accords uh in in the Gulf region
if there's going to be any kind of US agreement or or at least an agreement the US can get behind. That's an ab
that's a incredible statement really and and and that's also about China because in many ways while of course the US
wants to see Israel have absolutely no challenges not even rhetorical challenges in many cases at the Abraham
Accords was to facilitate uh trade away from China by having them focus on investment from the US and Israel. But anyway your thoughts on all of this?
Yes. Uh so once again you know if we look at the larger picture you can see both the Abraham Accords uh the uh the
disruption at bricks and India has always been a disruptor at bricks.
really, you know, has no uh, you know, real uh, allegiance or place there. But you can see that there's a constant
attempt to break up anti-hmonic alliances such as bricks. And this is
also being helped by uh, I would say suspect actors in the alt alternate information sphere as well. But I think
ultimately what it boils down to is that there is a very very desperate attempt to see if they can shore up the empire
through dirty wars, through subtifuge, through color revolutions, through black propaganda, and of course, as you point
out, through proxies. And so I think, you know, these are very, very dangerous moments. Uh, you know, it's that thing.
It's, you know, it's darkest just before dawn. Uh, and I think that we are, we are really, really facing, uh, some
very, very dangerous moments. Uh, just coming back to East Asia, here's another little, um, you know, curveball, if you
will. Starbucks was recently uh, called out. I may have mentioned this already,
but it was uh called out because it essentially uh said
uh it it mocked uh and did a massive promotion mocking uh Koreans, South
Koreans who had been uh killed or tortured uh under the US quizzling military dictatorships.
They actually did a promotion on that on May 18th, which is the anniversary of the Guangju massacre, which is when the
United States greenlighted the massacre of hundreds, if not thousands of Koreans who South Koreans who were trying to
46 minutesprotest their the military dictatorship that had just recently been reimposed on them. Anyway, uh they sent in tanks and
armored personnel carriers and helicopter gunships and wiped the city out and Starbucks on May 18th, the
anniversary of that said, you know, we are going to celebrate tank day. And
then they also said uh you know uh thwack thwack it on the table and thack
it on the table is an allusion to a Korean democracy activist who was tortured to death. He was actually
waterboarded to death. They found uh datoms in his bloodstream and in his organs, which means that he was alive
when there were there was water in his lungs, which then was pumped by his still pounding heart all the way into
his bloodstream and into his organs. But anyway, he was waterboarded to death. He was waterboarded for seven and a half hours. Uh and then when there was an
inquest after his death, uh the Korean torturers said, "Oh, you know, we just
thacked the desk." And you know, this little cowardly activist had a heart attack and died. And so Starbucks is
literally uh referring to that in its promotion. And why is it doing this kind of stuff? They've apparently fired the
head of Starbucks Korea, but it's actually belongs to uh a Korean um uh
retail conglomerate called Shinsse and the head of Shinsse which is actually connected to Samsung. South Korea is the Republic of Samsung really.
But the head of Shins uh the chair is a man called Chong Yong Jin. And Chongyong Jin is actually very
closely tied to an organization in the United States called the Rockbridge
Association. Uh Rockbridge is a kind of a Peter Theal uh and Robert Mercer or
Mercer familyf funded uh think tank and political action community and they
believe that it's their job to change the culture of uh of the United States,
change the political landscape and strengthen US Korea relations. And so they're doing this incredible
uh propaganda. Um they're they they are they have they launched this incredible astounding
uh propaganda uh/marketing event which was is essentially to thumb
their nose at all of South Korea's martyrs and all of South Koreans uh you know who had struggled uh you know
against uh imperialism and against military dictatorship.
uh but you know the kind of deep ties that uh that they have with the US deep
state uh that they have with the Rockbridge Association uh uh with uh
Peter Teal uh and the US extreme conservative right uh is very very uh
worrying and it signals that South Korea is not out of uh it's not out of the
crosshairs. It almost underwent a coup uh with Yun Zagal. EJang was elected and is trying to steer the country back
towards a more independent if not progressive path. uh and you see that there are multinational conglomerates
like rock like shins associated with Starbucks uh which is which is trying to uh affect
uh domestic politics uh in South Korea as well as change uh the political culture. So these are ways in which you
can see that there's still a kind of fullcourt offensive uh on certainly in the information do domain certainly in
terms of uh regime change attempts and coups certainly in terms of militarization in terms of logistical
preparation uh in terms of military staging and all of that is a very ominous sign given that we actually do know that the empire is rapidly fading.
Even the elite think tanks ask themselves, you know, what is going to happen after the end of our after the
end of the unipolar moment. But you can also see that they're preparing to hold on to dear life and they're also moving
into this school shooter mode that they will uh you know nothing will be held back as far as maintaining hegemony is concerned.
Yeah. just the the absolute cope after Xiinping brought up during the Trump
visit during that welcoming ceremony. Uh he brought up Thucidities Trap. just the way in which both the Trump
administration, Trump himself on truth social reacted to it and then the media talking heads, the mainstream media talking heads, the think tanks reacted
to it was a clear indication that this is on the mind of uh most if not all of
those uh tasked with managing both the narrative and the uh political and even
maybe economic and military affairs of of the United States empire that that it just there's a big worry. There's a this
is one of them a period that I feel like is really characterized by anxiety in in many respects. We're seeing a deep
anxiety about this. Uh we see Europe, they're deeply anxious about Russia. Uh but they're really reflecting US anxiety
about Russia. Uh we see uh US anxiety about China. Uh you even have reports that you have Israeli anxiety about
China. you have reports that uh China may be uh asked by Iran to look after
their uranium. Uh uh and then of course in Latin America you also have a lot of anxiety about needing to uh needing to reassert dominance there.
We saw recent in recent days that there were actual what look like military drills. They seem very light, but nonetheless, there was a military
presence cited, a US military presence cited on Venezuela. Um, so it's obvious that the United States Empire is not
simply just thinking about one or the other uh target. It's thinking about the whole of the pie and China's the the biggest piece of it.
Yeah, absolutely. China, as I've said before, is the main dish. The other pieces are side dishes. uh and they're still strongly strongly focused on that.
That said, you're absolutely right. You know, they are in a funk. They're in a depression. They're anxious. They're anxious about the loss of power. Uh you
know, that old Kubler Ross uh formulation, denial, anger, negotiation, uh depression, and then acceptance.
They're not at the acceptance stage yet.
Some of them are depressed. A lot of them are still angry.
A lot of them are still in denial. I don't think there's any real uh negotiation happening either with Iran
or with any countries of the global south. Uh and I think you know the uh they know that they are in a really
really you know bad place. I think you know Kurt Campbell has said you know that you know he's you know he's he's
54 minutesessentially saying that you know we're in a different place but I'm still raising a new generation of China hawks.
Uh and Francis Fukuyama, you know, he he's the guy who wrote about the end of history and the last man. Uh you know,
he he he blamed uh Trump uh for for the decline of the US empire uh just as
Trump blamed Biden for the end of the US uh empire. But essentially what we have to think about this is that you know
there is there is not there is not quite an understanding of what is going on. Uh Fukuyama says you know President Xi
doesn't want to get in the way of a declining United States. Uh and he also points out that the United States is
indeed declining. Robert Kagan has also said similar things. you know, he points out that the US has not won and is has
55 minutesessentially uh has has has has lost in in Iran, but still you can see the cope
and the desperation and they really really do not want to let go of power.
Uh and I think that uh we can expect more desperate uh and more dangerous measures to come. And it seems like
these forces, whether it's Kagan, the top neocon or Fukuyama who was considered this uh preeminent thinker
who declared the end of history after the fall of the Soviet Union and that the US empire and its unipolar order was
the only order of the day that we were going to be fed for uh the rest of human history. Um there's a thread that seems
to really run through all of their attempts to misunderstand the situation and it's that they all hope for and are
arguing for a more effective way of doing the same thing. So they're all arguing for a more effective kind of
empire. Fukyama says Trump Kagan also says Trump well they're doing the wrong thing. They're they're you know Trump has to surrender because of you know not
playing the cards right. Fukoyama says oh Trump is just playing right into China's hands. It's all a kind of it's
almost feels like they're they're all trying to coach one direct this administration and uh this iteration of
the uh I guess the uh lieutenants of capital to uh do better rather than come
to terms with the fact that uh there there may be no good solution to uh China's rise. It may just be a fact that
can't be obstructed or destroyed. And the same goes for Russia's military and political stability and rise. The same
might go for Iran. Uh and we could go down the line. Uh so uh what's your reaction to this? It feels like uh more
effective empire is really what a lot of these talking heads want.
Yeah, some of them are talking about more effective empires and certainly there's a lot of critique of Trump for not being effective as an imperialist.
Uh I think that some of them also want a more violent empire. So you can see that in a lot of the Washington discourse. Uh
even Kagan, you know, seems to imply that, you know, we've lost and the only way that we can get over this is if we
escalate even further. And so I think that, you know, uh I think that there really is this sense uh that they don't
know what to do. And the main main uh strategy that they're thinking of is
further escalation. And not a surprise, right? Not a surprise. A country that has been violent for 94% of its history
that has only had 16 years without war certainly, you know, is going to uh you know, it's it's hard to change those
habits. But even so, it it is very very disturbing. uh and I think that there's some sectors which think that oh you
know uh everything is going to come down you know the US has understood its limits it's going to accommodate the
rising uh global south uh I think those uh those uh claims are premature I think
it's going to get worse before it gets better and certainly we can see with the continued drawing out of conflict
against Iran which is already lost you know it's already a strategic loss but just the fact that they continue to draw
it out and have no thought about the pain that is going to be visited that is
already being visited and will continue to escalate for the rest of the world shows that I don't believe that they
think in terms of you know kind of rational and uh pragmatic or even you
even moderately uh self uh self-preserving ways. I really think that there is a kind of go for broke mindset uh that's currently going on.
Yeah. You know, midterm elections uh those come and go uh but this attempt to
uh maintain and even expand this uh very ridiculous notion. But nonetheless, it
is the doctrine of uh the US empire full spectrum dominance that that's forever to these few. This is forever for them.
When Furang Fukuyama said it's the end of history, a lot of the military brass, a lot of, you know, and those uh who uh
pay their salaries and who, you know, and push them through these revolving doors in the military-industrial complex and Wall Street. Uh that's what they
believe. They believe that they are forever and that they're that there will be no alternative. It's not that there is no alternative, it's that there will
be none. And I think uh that's what we are are really seeing is like yeah the the midterm elections or any of these
other considerations like like economic crisis uh if it comes down to those things and uh the threat of uh the very
apparatus that uh protects the system at the root of all of it capitalism
imperialism. They're going to choose what addresses the root the most.
They're not going to uh they're not going to concern themselves with an economic crash or uh or or the midterm
elections. Hell, there was a New York Times report with many Republicans advisers saying, "Oh my god, like we're actually going to lose this thing pretty
badly. Things aren't changing." But that was in the New York Times, which is considered mostly leaning toward the Democratic party anyway. People in the
Trump administration and these hawks, they're not talking about that at all really. And some of them are even saying, "Well, we'll win it anyway." And
that's that's the mentality. But, uh, in the last few minutes, we have your thoughts on this.
Well, you know, I think once again, you know, I think the denial is still very very strong, uh, inside the ruling
class. I mean, going back to Fukuyama, he said, you know, there's an agreement.
The US has become a rogue state and a laughing stock and it is engaged in such a process of selfharm that China doesn't
need to do anything then sit back and watch it unfold. So that's the realist part that understand what's going on.
That's the language. But if you actually look at the actions they are taking and the escalations that are happening, you can see that really very little has
changed. Once again coming back to uh you know the straight of hormuz we know that there are six asymmetries that
essentially ensure that Iran has escalation dominance that the US is
facing strategic defeat in Hormuz and yet the US is continuing to try and
pretend uh that it still has some kind of control and negotiating power. What does that mean? Well, of course, we know
that, you know, oil and fuel is going to hit a crisis very, very soon. Uh, gasoline in California is over $6 at
this point. Diesel is $8. But forget about fuel for a moment. Of course, we all know about the industrial inputs,
you know, such as sulfuric acid and methane, sorry, and uh and helium uh and
uh fertilizer inputs. Uh, and of course, you know, there's going to be a shortage of NAPA. Napa is used for plastics. It's
the feed stock for all plastics. Now, I've heard people say, well, yeah, that just means we'll use less plastic bags.
No, it doesn't mean that we'll just use less plastic bags. That's true, but it means that everything that requires
wiring, which is encapsulated with plastic so that it doesn't shortcircuit, will not be able to be produced. Your
average car, you know, has hundreds of meters of electrical wiring. You know,
everywhere you go, anytime you have electricity, you also have insulated electrical wires using uh Napa derived plastics.
If that uh if that runs out, you're essentially demyolinating the world.
It's like you're going to give the entire planet, you know, something like multiple sclerosis. And even as that is
happening, you can see that there are no concrete steps towards deescalation, towards an exit, towards meaningful
4 minutesnegotiation. Instead, what we have just seen is attacks unfold on Iran even as
they pretend to be negotiating uh in in Qatar. And so the ultimately we can see
that the US uh is regretfully not uh agreement capable. It is behaving not
simply narcissistically or psychopathically but really in this borderline psychotic uh borderline
disorder uh fashion. And I think uh I think that you know this is the danger
the risk especially the nuclear risks are unprecedented. What that means is uh everybody who you know cares about the
planet, who cares about the future of the world really needs to you know hit the streets, hit the keyboards, hit the
phones uh and really give a you know give an earful uh to the quote unquote representatives who are supposed to be
you know uh safeguarding and shephering this quote unquote democracy.
Yes. And on that note, uh we are at the hour, everybody. So, uh everyone give a big thank you to KJ. Hit the like button so all of this goes out uh far and wide.
Before we go, I'll be back tomorrow, not too much time at all, actually 10 a.m.
Eastern time with Alistister Crook talking about this meeting that's happening tomorrow on Iran that these uh entire cabinet of the United States's uh
administration under Trump is going to partake in about Iran. Um, so be there for that. Uh, all the place support this
channel in the video description. And, uh, KJ, do you have anything you want to say before I hit the end here?
No, but uh, I think everybody do what you can. Every little piece counts. And
also do not be um do not be misled by the propaganda uh the misinformation
especially the propaganda coming out of quote unquote alternative sources. It is completely uh you know it is completely
uh infested even uh you know the alternate media networks. So we have to turn our dict detectors uh up to 14. I mean, just one comment on that.
Amy Goodman just recently celebrated her 30-year anniversary. Now, I'm of the
opinion that Amy Goodman is probably very very tightly aligned with the uh
Council on Foreign Relations. She constantly has people uh she has strong connections to there. Uh and she despite
her claim about being concerned about uh global warming and greenhouse gases and
climate change, you know, has been one of the key vectors attacking uh one of the truly bright spots uh in the uh
fight against climate change, which has been the accomplishments of China in greening the planet and uh developing uh sustainable energy. as uh a global good.
She has been right on the front line of attacking China, attacking China's uh uh
China's development or labor practices especially as they concern the development of uh global goods for
renewable energy. And so kind of the the ugliness, the hypocrisy of that to pat oneself on the back while doing some of
the worst things possible to undermine genuine positive change uh for
sustainable energy speaks to the level of hypocrisy and um cynicism that
pervades uh the the propaganda apparatus.
Yeah, for sure. for sure because China's achievements are just unmatched from the reforestation to solar energy all across
the world renewable energy it's uh is a far cleaner and uh more environmentally place friendly place than it's ever been
China and it's it's leading the way in that so and there's a big section of of those especially liberals uh
progressives as they might call themselves who condemn it criticize it uh without uh any thought about the
consequences of that. They criticize it because they still have this cold war mentality that China is uh not their friend but actually China is their enemy
and it's not trying to actually address problems. It's I don't know scheming, conniving uh to make things worse. It's
an absolutely uh cynical take, but it's one that a lot of especially those who, you know, who aren't doing too badly in
9 minutesthis, uh time of empire and crisis, uh they tend to adopt. So, uh definitely appreciate you bringing that up, KJ. Hit
the like button, everybody. We are out of here. Uh and I will see you tomorrow, 10 a.m. Eastern time, May 27th, with Alistister Kirk. Bye-bye.