“US Israel Iran War”

Donald Trump has declared that the ceasefire with Iran is over as he arrived at the Nato summit in Ankara, launching an angry broadside in which he complained about the military alliance and repeated his demand for Greenland.

The US president, sitting alongside the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, called Iran’s leadership scum and “sick people”, and added that he was “very upset” with the alliance and even threatened to cut off all trade with Spain in a row over defence spending.

.@POTUS on the status of the ceasefire with Iran: "To me, I think it's over. I don't want to deal with them anymore. They're scum… They're led by sick people… I'll speak to our negotiators. They want to negotiate—they're good people… but they have to come back to me. As far… pic.twitter.com/6eYfwMxSdn

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 8, 2026

The US has launched a series of “powerful” strikes on Iran in response to attacks on three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.

US Central Command (Centcom) said on Tuesday it had begun the assault, “to impose heavy costs for targeting and attacking commercial shipping crewed by innocent individuals in an international waterway”.

Iran’s deputy foreign minister called the US attacks a violation of the US-Iran memorandum signed last month, and warned that Tehran would “take decisive measures”.

TEHRAN ― A huge funeral procession for Iran’s slain supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, was held in Tehran on Monday morning, with a teeming crowd clogging the streets to bid farewell to the ayatollah who ruled the country for 37 years before being killed in an airstrike at age 86.

At an early stage on the procession route, people chanted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

And some of the mourners demanded retribution.

(more…)

The Islamic Republic of Iran has long mastered the art of deception, particularly when it comes to its nuclear program. Many times, it has been caught advancing its nuclear ambitions behind closed doors — from covert enrichment facilities to undeclared sites — only, when exposed, to delay, deflect and deny.

Now, the regime is not even hiding it.

TEHRAN ― Tens of thousands of mourners streamed on foot to the Grand Mosalla religious complex in Tehran on Saturday as Iran mourned its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated in an airstrike on the first day of the U.S.-Israeli war.

The huge outpouring to view the caskets of the slain leader and some of his family members, positioned at the front of a prayer hall, is part of five days of somber funeral rites that will stretch across five cities and into Iraq, before Khamenei is buried in Mashhad, his hometown.

The public display of lamentation and bereavement was an opportunity for collective closure after some of the most perilous months in the Islamic republic’s history, but also a forceful show of defiance from a system badly battered but very much still standing.

The WAPO is mourning far more for Khamenei than they ever will for Trump.

Iran’s entire regime made a red carpet entrance to the first of three funeral ceremonies for late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — except the dead ayatollah’s own son and successor.

Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen or heard from since the Feb. 28 strike that killed his father, wife and child — with reports indicating that the younger Khamenei was seriously injured or even disfigured.

Senior U.S. officials feared that Israel intended to assassinate Iran’s top negotiators as the Trump administration pursued a high-stakes deal to end the war there and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, current and former officials familiar with the matter said.

Washington’s objection to killing Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the country’s parliamentary speaker, was so acute that this spring it took the extraordinary step of asking intermediaries to warn Iran about Israel’s assassination aims, the officials said.

“You kill those folks and you’re killing the pragmatists,” said a U.S. official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the U.S. outlook on Israel’s targeted killing campaign.

“sources”

While diplomatic backchannels between Tehran and Washington remain active to contain regional escalation and finalize temporary understandings, a full-scale political battle has erupted inside Iran. Reuters reported in June 2026 that Iran and the United States were still exchanging messages regarding an interim memorandum of understanding, including mechanisms for releasing frozen Iranian funds.

The Trump Administration is making a big mistake by engaging in negotiations with Hamas — as well as Iran.

Instead of weakening the Iran-backed terrorist group and its sponsors, these negotiations legitimize them as political actors and, for Hamas, only strengthen their standing among Palestinians; and for Iran’s rulers, among countries that might have been hoping to move toward the West.

Great powers, losing patience, sign a document and persuade themselves that it is strategy. The Islamic Republic of Iran has watched this habit in Western capitals for over 40 years and learned to feed on it. What it had not yet absorbed is that an administration can run two contradictory instruments at once, letting the weaker one absorb the enemy’s hopes while the stronger one quietly sets the terms.

For decades, Western diplomats and decision-makers have clung to one of the most dangerous illusions in the Middle East: the belief that Islamist terrorist organizations can be persuaded through negotiations and diplomatic agreements to surrender their weapons and abandon their jihad (holy war) against Israel.

Reality continues to prove that persuading terrorist regimes to give up their weapons is not the walk in the park they might have hoped.

After days of U.S. and Iranian strikes tested the fragile ceasefire agreement signed this month and raised questions about the state of talks to reach a broader peace, President Donald Trump early Monday said the two sides would meet the following day in Qatar, at Iran’s request.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner would be traveling to Doha this week to discuss the memorandum of understanding the two sides signed this month.

⚡️ Leavitt confirms talks in Doha, other sources rejected them

🔹 White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared on Fox News on Monday saying that Iran had requested a meeting for this week, so Witkoff and Kushner would be flying to Doha to take place in the 'high-level… pic.twitter.com/NwiuwjJ8VU

— Agoraphobic Journalist (@UnknownNewsMan) June 29, 2026

The US military has launched further strikes on multiple targets in Iran, a day after it struck Iran in retaliation for a drone attack on a cargo ship in the strait of Hormuz.

US Central Command (Centcom) said its strikes were in “direct response to continued Iranian aggression against commercial shipping” and that it had targeted Iran’s “military surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities, and minelayer capabilities” in response.

U.S. Navy and Air Force fighter jets conducted strikes tonight on 10 Iranian military targets at multiple locations in and near the Strait of Hormuz for Iran's drone attack on M/T Kiku. pic.twitter.com/Z0TLZRqmF6

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) June 28, 2026

U.S. Bombs Iran's Sirik and Qeshm for a SECOND Straight Day

CENTCOM hit Iranian coastal radar, drone storage, and minelayer sites again this morning, days after Washington signed an MOU it now treats as a license to strike at will. I

ran's position is plain: Article 5 of the… pic.twitter.com/noWOfDcVlj

— Ryan Rozbiani (@RyanRozbiani) June 27, 2026

h/t Mauser

Iran only has one card to play and that’s shutting down the Strait of Hormuz. So it’ll never stop doing it.

Iran’s leaders, unsatisfied with billions in oil sales, access to cash, and promises of sanctions relief and $300 billion in the deal, are trying to charge for access to the strait, meanwhile despite the waivers of oil sales, they’re attacking ships passing through the strait to show they’re in charge.

The Iranian regime’s strategy is clear: survive the pressure of President Donald J. Trump’s second term by any means necessary, secure breathing room through negotiations, and position itself for a far more aggressive posture once his administration is over. Iran has long mastered the art of playing for time: it sees that American presidential terms are finite, while its own project is not. With Trump’s decisive military actions having inflicted significant damage on Iranian capabilities and proxies, the regime finds itself economically crippled and militarily weakened, yet determined to drag out talks, extract concessions, and wait.