GO FAR, GO DEEP, GO BIG: – To say the Pentagon is in utter chaos would be an understatement of note. Pistol Pete is in way over his head, some might even say he is drowning. A fourth member of the Defense Secretaries Staff has now been removed due to leaks and ultimately, loyalty, or lack thereof.
A huge amount of civilians have been killed in airstrikes on an oil refinery in Yemen. This happened at about the same time that Israel attacked a tented camp of refugees in Gaza. Dozens of people, including children were burned to death due to the missile strike. Chaos reigns supreme.
I watched a very interesting clip the other day of Jeffrey Sachs explaining what is happening in the Middle East and Africa. According to him, after 9/11, a list of seven Muslim countries was created with the intent of destroying them.
Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Lebanon, and Iran. 6 of the 7 have been ticked off the list. Only Iran remains. To add insult to injury, record numbers of Orthodox Jews have ignored the status quo by openly praying on the Temple Mount during Passover.
Trump says he wants a peaceful resolution to the nuclear issues with Iran, yet at the same time threatens them through his proxies, and in turn Trump is a proxy of Netanyahu and the Evangelicals.
HELL TO PAY: – ‘He’s made it very clear to the Iranians and his national security team will as well, that all options are on the table, and Iran has a choice to make. You can agree to President Trump’s demand, or there will be all hell to pay, and that’s how the president feels. He feels very strongly about it,’ Karoline Leavitt said. She noted Trump’s ‘ultimate objective is to ensure that Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon.’ – DM –
DEAD SERIOUS: – Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has hinted at a possible war with Iran if the authoritarian country attempts to obtain nuclear weapons. Negotiations between the US and Iran over the delicate foreign policy issue are ongoing, and Donald Trump has warned the Middle Eastern nation would face ‘great danger’ if it pushed ahead with alleged ambitions to launch a nuclear arsenal.
Hegseth doubled down on this threat during an interview on Saturday, saying the president was ‘dead serious’ about his pledge to involve the Department of Defense if talks didn’t go well.
‘He’s dead serious that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,’ former Army National Guard officer Hegseth told Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures. ‘He’s said that for 20 years, he’s been consistent, that is clear,’
‘He’s dead serious that he wants it done at the negotiating table, he wants it done peacefully, and that’s why he’s going straight to these talks, he’s set that deadline.’
‘But he’s also dead serious that if we can’t figure this out at the negotiating table then there are other options to include my department to ensure that Iran never has a nuclear bomb,’ Hegseth added, opening up the possibility of an armed conflict.
‘We hope we never get there, but what we’re doing with the Houthis and what we’re doing in the region, we’ve shown a capability to go far, to go deep, and to go big.
‘We don’t want to do that, but if we have to, we will to prevent the nuclear bomb in Iran’s hands.’
Iran was previously limited to only a small stockpile of uranium enriched to 3.67 percent under a 2015 nuclear deal it reached with the Obama administration.
Trump scrapped the deal during his first term as president, enabling Iran to build multiple nuclear weapons with some material enriched up to 60 percent – a short, technical step away from destructive weapons-grade levels.
The US president allegedly abandoned the previous deal which prevented this in order to spite his predecessor, Barack Obama, according to a leaked memo written by the UK’s former ambassador to the US.
TOTAL COLLAPSE: – US air strikes on a key oil terminal on Yemen’s Red Sea coast controlled by the Houthi movement have killed at least 74 people and wounded 171 others, the Houthi-run health ministry says.
At least 37 people have been killed in a series of Israeli strikes, most in areas where displaced civilians have set up tents, Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defence agency says.
Witnesses in al-Mawasi told the BBC that tents were engulfed in flames following a “powerful” explosion, causing the deaths of dozens of Palestinians including children.
One man said he woke to “screaming and panic” and watched as “the flames spread rapidly from one tent to another”. Israel has previously told Palestinians to evacuate from other parts of Gaza to al-Mawasi.
UN children’s agency Unicef’s executive director Catherine Russell said: “Images of children burning while sheltering in makeshift tents should shake us all to our core.”
On Thursday the heads of 12 major aid organisations said the humanitarian aid system in Gaza was “facing total collapse”.
“This is one of the worst humanitarian failures of our generation,” the chief executives of 12 NGOs, including Oxfam and Save the Children, wrote in a statement.
JEWISH POWER: – Thousands of Jewish worshippers visited a Jerusalem holy site during the holiday of Passover as far-right Israeli lawmaker Zvi Sukkot boasted, “Arabs aren’t allowed to come near us.”
Sukkot, a member of the Religious Zionism party, visited the al-Aqsa compound in the Old City of Jerusalem on Thursday morning, prostrating himself on the ground and praying in violation of the delicate status quo agreement that governs the site.
“Jews are bowing, praying, holding minyanim here,” said Sukkot, referencing a quorum of ten men required for certain Jewish worship. “Arabs aren’t allowed to come near us at all,” the lawmaker added, with Israeli security forces walking amongst the worshippers around him.
While anyone can visit the al-Aqsa compound, only Muslims are allowed to pray there, according to the status quo agreement, which has existed since Israel captured the Old City of Jerusalem in 1967. The site, which is known to Jews as the Temple Mount, is the holiest place in Judaism. It is known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, and it is the third holiest site in Islam.
But the status quo agreement has increasingly been tested and, in some cases, deliberately challenged. Far-right lawmakers in Israel have made repeated visits to the holy site, encouraging other Jewish worshippers to do the same
Far-right Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir, who leads the Jewish Power party, praised Sukkot’s visit. “What wasn’t done in 30 years is being done on my watch, and I’m grateful to have been granted, by God’s grace, the privilege of leading this tremendous change,” he said on social media.
Ben Gvir has frequently visited the holy site, making clear his intentions to allow and promote Jewish worship, despite the prohibition. Following a visit in December, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office was forced to put out a statement saying, “The status quo at Temple Mount has not changed.” – CNN –
Nothing has changed yet everything has changed.
UPDATE 1 MAY: – A fourth round of Iran-US talks over Tehran’s nuclear programme has been postponed.
It came as US President Donald Trump threatened action against those buying Iranian oil or petrochemicals on Thursday, after Washington introduced fresh sanctions this week on companies it said had links to Tehran. Trump pulled the US out of a previous nuclear agreement between Iran and five other world powers in 2018, and has long said he would make a “better” deal.
But reports from Tehran have described growing doubt about the usefulness of the talks, pointing to the new sanctions and what Tehran calls contradictory positions from the US delegation. Part of Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy toward Tehran, the sanctions announced on Wednesday target entities said by the US to be involved in the illicit trade of Iranian petroleum and petrochemicals.
The US State Department said in a statement: “The Iranian regime continues to fuel conflict in the Middle East, advance its nuclear program, and support its terrorist partners and proxies.
“Today, the United States is taking action to stem the flow of revenue that the regime uses to fund these destabilizing activities.”
Posting on his Truth Social account on Thursday, Trump wrote: “Any country or person who buys any amount of oil or petrochemicals from Iran will be subject to, immediately, secondary sanctions.
“They will not be allowed to do business with the United States of America in any way, shape, or form.”
Iran has described the latest sanctions as “further proof of the American decision-makers’ contradictory behaviour and lack of good faith”.
Media reports in Iran also point to a post by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Thursday, which warned that Iran would “pay the consequence” for its support of Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The message was reposted by Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff who has been leading the US delegation.
It read: “Message to Iran: We see your lethal support to the Houthis. We know exactly what you are doing. You will pay the consequence at the time and place of our choosing.” – BBC –
Apr 19, 2025 8:03:49 pm