Posts Tagged ‘Iran’

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As Trump Shows ‘Desperation,’ Iran Says Strait of Hormuz Will Not Open ‘Until America Corrects Its Behavior’

August 10, 2026

    Trump-targeting banner displayed in Tehran's Azadi Square

    A banner depicting US President Donald Trump and bearing messages was displayed in front of the Zolfaghar and Zolghadr ballistic missiles exhibited at Azadi Square in Tehran, Iran’s capital, on August 2, 2026.

    (Photo by Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)

    As it becomes clear that there is “no escalatory military path out of this war,” Iran is demanding an even steeper toll for Trump to pull out.

    Stephen Prager, Common Dreams, Aug 09, 2026

    President Donald Trump is now quietly conceding that he’s willing to walk away from his Iran war without meeting all of his demands if they agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. But Iran won’t let him back out of the quagmire without a steep price.

    Iran is in the process of negotiating a limited reopening of the critical waterway with Oman. But Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said on Saturday that “until America corrects its behavior, the Strait of Hormuz will not open.”

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    He outlined a list of demands on Saturday, even harsher than those Trump walked away from when he abandoned the “memorandum of understanding” negotiated in June.

    Zolghadr said the US must permanently end its war and naval blockade against Iran, and withdraw military forces from the region. He also said the US must fully compensate Iran for damages from the war, lift sanctions, and unfreeze assets abroad.

    This demand for an end to US “aggression” applies not just to Iran, but to its allies in the region: Zolghadr also demanded an end to Israel’s attacks on Palestinians and a withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon, as well as an end to US and Israeli attacks against the Houthis in Yemen.

    The Trump administration, which is not known to be in direct talks with Iran, has not yet responded to the demands. Trump told Axios on Sunday that “We are low-keying it” and “only semi-negotiating with Iran,” claiming that it was “in very bad shape” economically.

    It’s clear, however, that the Iranians believe they have enough of an upper hand to make Trump grovel, especially as news emerges that the US has burned through nearly all its available stocks of long-range precision weapons, making the war increasingly costly, though the administration has denied this.

    Domestic concerns are also weighing on Trump. Over the past month, as the war heated up again, average gas prices in the US have shot back up above $4 a gallon, a major liability for Republicans heading into a midterm election cycle in which many voters say the cost of living is a top concern.

    Approval of Trump among Americans has fallen to a new all-time low of 34% according to a YouGov poll late last month. And just 28% of Americans say they approve of his handling of the war, according to an Associated Press/NORC poll.

    As the Wall Street Journal reported, Trump has privately signaled a willingness to declare victory if Iran opens the strait, even without getting any sort of nuclear agreement, which was purportedly the reason he launched the war in the first place.

    Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch, said Trump was “showing his desperation for a deal before it is completed, so Iran predictably demand[ed] major new concessions,” adding that it was a “masterclass in how not to negotiate.”

    “As time passes, Tehran appears increasingly confident that the pressure is shifting onto Washington,” said the Israeli national security analyst Danny Citrinowicz. “Iranian leaders seem to believe that the United States is now more eager than Iran to bring the confrontation in the Strait of Hormuz to an end, and, crucially, that Washington has few attractive military options for changing that equation.”

    Trita Parsi, the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told CNN, “At this point, it is absolutely clear that there is no escalatory military path out of this war.”

    “It’s been tried in several different variations, and it has not ended up particularly well,” Parsi said. “In fact, the US’s position has been weakened, in my view, by additional military action. And as a result, I think there needs to be a full dedication to the diplomatic pathway.”

    He added that for the Iranians, “the promise and the credibility of sanctions relief will carry far more weight than threats of further bombings.”

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    Pentagon Drafting New Nuclear Strategy To Expand Options for Tactical Nuclear Weapons Use

    August 10, 2026

    The strategy is being overseen by Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s policy chief, who has long called for the US to prepare to fight a “limited nuclear war”

    by Dave DeCamp, Antiwar. com, August 9, 2026

    The Pentagon is reportedly drafting a new nuclear strategy that’s expected to emphasize the use of tactical nuclear weapons to give the president more “options” in a potential nuclear conflict.

    The strategy, first reported by NBC News, is being drafted by the Pentagon’s policy chief, Elbridge Colby, who has for more than a decade called for the US to develop additional capabilities to fight a “limited nuclear war.”

    The idea would be to shift the US nuclear strategy away from the focus on using strategic nuclear weapons to wipe out an adversary’s nuclear capabilities and focus more on the possibility of using smaller, tactical nuclear weapons in a “regional” conflict.

    Elbridge Colby, undersecretary of defense for policy, during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in Washington, DC, on March 3, 2026. (Photo by Craig Hudson/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect)

    “If you actually want extended deterrence to be credible, you have to provide the nation’s political leadership with nuclear capabilities that common sense indicates you could actually use,” a source told NBC. “Otherwise you’re reducing our leadership’s options to extreme choices that the adversary won’t find credible.”

    While the potential strategy would be carried out in the name of deterrence and preventing war, arms control advocates have strongly warned against the idea of developing more tactical nuclear weapons to prepare for a potential limited nuclear conflict over concerns that it would make nuclear war much more likely and that any nuclear exchange would likely lead to a global catastrophe.

    “Without a firm rejection of the option to use nuclear weapons first in a conflict, by building and fielding more tactical nuclear weapons the administration is signaling its intention to use them against enemy forces and industrial infrastructure in a conflict,” the Arms Control Association said in response to the NBC report.

    The ACA said that it “strongly opposes the administration’s decision to build more tactical nuclear weapons to supplement the options that exist” and pointed to the fact that the US already has at least two types of tactical nuclear weapons, including B61-12 gravity bombs, which are deployed in Europe, and the W76-2 low-yield warhead for the Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missile.

    The ACA said the US Navy is also “acquiring a new nuclear-capable sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N) that may be available at the end of the decade for possible use in conflict with China.”

    Breaking Defense reported that Colby announced on August 5 that the Pentagon was reviewing the US nuclear posture and repeatedly emphasized the term “options” in a speech he delivered that has not been made public.

    Colby has been one of the leading voices in Washington’s policy circles advocating for the US to prepare for limited nuclear war. In a 2015 paper for the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) titled “A Nuclear Strategy and Posture for 2030,” Colby said the US “should make a special effort to develop the platforms and weapons, doctrine, planning capacity, and other capabilities needed to fight a limited nuclear war more effectively than plausible adversaries.”

    He said that the ideal US nuclear force is “one that is not only highly survivable and able to issue a devastating blow against any adversary under any scenario but that is also capable of conducting effective limited nuclear operations in a controlled fashion while maintaining the ability to escalate to full-scale war if necessary.”

    Colby made a similar argument in a 2018 piece written in Foreign Affairs titled “If You Want Peace, Prepare for Nuclear War,” published just a few months after he left the first Trump administration, where he led the development of the 2018 National Defense Strategy.

    “Washington’s task is clear. It must demonstrate to Moscow and Beijing that any attempt to use force against US friends and allies would likely fail and would certainly result in costs and risks well out of proportion to whatever they might gain,” Colby wrote. “This requires conventional military power, but it also means having the right strategy and weapons to fight a limited nuclear war and come out on top.”

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    The Pentagon Found a New Way to Undercount U.S. Casualties in Iran

    August 5, 2026

    U.S. troops killed or wounded since July 7 are now counted separately from casualties during the first months of the Iran war.

    Nick Turse, August 4, 2026

    Donald Trump, far right, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, second from right, attend the dignified transfer of four U.S. service members recently killed in the Middle East, Wednesday, July 22, 2026, at Dover Air Force Base, Del.

    Donald Trump, far right, and Pete Hegseth, second from right, attend the dignified transfer of four U.S. service members recently killed in the Middle East, on July 22, 2026, at Dover Air Force Base, Del. Photo: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

    The Pentagon is using a new method of tallying the number of U.S. soldiers killed and wounded in the Iran war that a U.S. government official said was “designed to obscure the count.”

    Since the start of the conflict, the Department of War has posted the official count of casualties on the website of the Defense Casualty Analysis System, or DCAS, which tracks “deceased, wounded, ill or injured” service members for Congress and the president. This official total of dead and wounded personnel, as documented over months of reporting by The Intercept, has been a gross undercount, stemming from what that same official previously called a “casualty cover-up.”

    But after a series of Iranian strikes on U.S. facilities in the Middle East in July, the Pentagon last week rolled out a new approach. Casualties since July 7 are now counted separately on a new webpage with a generic designation: “Overseas Operations.”

    Two hundred and seventy-three U.S. troops were killed or wounded since July 7, according to the Monday total on the new Overseas Operations page.

    When combined with the existing DCAS page for the Iran war, the official count stands at 704, an 83 percent increase in casualties since April 8, the day the first ceasefire deal was struck between the Trump administration and Iran. When counting known casualties overlooked by the DCAS page, the total exceeds 900 personnel.

    For months, the Pentagon has failed to comment on DCAS anomalies reported by The Intercept nor the reason for the change in the way it now counts casualties, which was first reported by the New York Times. Last week, the Pentagon told the newspaper that “since Operation Epic Fury has concluded, the department classifies casualties as overseas operations in the CENTCOM area of responsibility.” Central Command oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East.

    “This is certainly designed to conceal the count of the wounded,” the official said, while noting that “incompetence” has also caused confusion in the casualty count.

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    The change comes after a July 20 rant by Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell who claimed reports of a Pentagon effort to withhold news of dozens of U.S. casualties were “baseless and malicious” and a U.S. official’s disclosure to The Intercept that same day that recent attacks on U.S. bases by Iran had wounded “far more” personnel than the Pentagon had acknowledged.

    The casualty spike resulted from Iranian attacks on at least nine U.S. outposts across the Middle East since July 9, according to a second U.S. official who spoke to The Intercept on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the press.

    Iran’s military managed to overwhelm U.S. air defense systems using a mix of attack drones and advanced ballistic missiles, despite months of claims by President Donald Trump and self-styled War Secretary Pete Hegseth that Iran’s military was annihilated.

    Last month, the tally of wounded personnel fluctuated by the day in the wake of increased Iranian attacks. On July 21, the casualty count on DCAS for Operation Epic Fury, the military’s official designation for the Iran war, stood at 500. Now, it has shrunk to 431.

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    For months, The Intercept found anomalies with the counts offered on the DCAS website. On April 21, for example, the number of wounded-in-action troops declined by 15 without public acknowledgment by the War Department. Despite repeated questions for months, the Pentagon has not commented on the disparities in its casualty count.

    Prior reporting by The Intercept also found DCAS is missing hundreds of dead and wounded personnel from Epic Fury. The Pentagon list of the names of the dead is still missing Maj. Sorffly Davius, a signals and communication officer with the New York Army National Guard who was assigned to the headquarters of the 42nd Infantry Division and reportedly died of sudden illness while on duty in Camp Buehring, Kuwait, on March 6. Davius’s death was widely acknowledged even as it was excluded from the the official count: Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., spoke about him during a memorial service that month, and Gen. Dan Caine, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recognized Davius while “honoring our fallen.”

    While DCAS provides a running tally of “non-hostile” deaths — meaning those who died from accidents or by illness — it doesn’t include “non-hostile” injuries. The DCAS figures for Epic Fury show that 65 Navy personnel were wounded in action. Missing, however, are the more than 200 sailors treated for smoke inhalation or lacerations due to a March 12 fire that raged aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford. The aircraft carrier had been conducting round-the-clock flight operations to, Caine said, “project combat power” in the Middle East.

    Recent reporting by the War Horse, using Pentagon records obtained via the Freedom of Information Act, found more than 400 casualties were recorded between February 28 and April 8. Seventy occurred on March 18 alone, but this huge single-day toll was never reported by the Pentagon.

    The records provide more granular detail than DCAS, revealing that at least 17 troops sustained life-threatening injuries. They show that U.S. troops suffered shrapnel wounds, broken bones, smoke inhalation, and other injuries. The most common injury recorded, however, was head trauma — which affected at least 170 troops, according to the data.

    President Donald Trump has long dismissed brain injuries as “headaches” and “not serious.” 

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    𝐀𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐰𝐚𝐫.𝐜𝐨𝐦’𝐬 𝐅𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐓𝐨 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐈𝐫𝐚𝐧 𝐖𝐚𝐫 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚

    August 5, 2026

    by John Mearsheimer, Antiwar. COM, Aug 5, 2026

    The U.S. government continues to demonstrate its knack for pursuing remarkably foolish foreign policies that have terrible consequences.

    Many thought that President Trump was going to rectify this problem, at least somewhat. After all, he promised to shut down the Ukraine War as soon as he moved into the White House, if not before he did! Moreover, he said no more forever wars, no more wars in pursuit of regime change.

    But Trump has failed. Not only did he fail to end the fighting in Ukraine, but he has also twice gone to war against Iran – the 12-Day War in June 2025 and the disastrous war that he and Benjamin Netanyahu started on February 28, 2026, which could be the greatest strategic blunder In U.S. history. Furthermore, he kidnapped Venezuela’s president and, by his own account, is running that country as if it is an American colony, not a sovereign state. And like his predecessor in the White House, President Joe Biden, he is complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its endless pogroms in the West Bank.

    How did we end up in this dreadful situation? And how can we rectify it?

    There is no guaranteed way to avoid foreign policy errors. But one way to minimize the chance of getting into serious trouble is to debate the issues of the day openly, so that critics of conventional wisdom or particular government policies can have their say. Media institutions are hugely important in fostering this kind of debate, which is why freedom of the press is protected in the United States. It allows critics to make their views known to large numbers of people and it provides legitimacy. Critics of existing policy are not always right, but sometimes they speak truth to power and help us avoid or correct big mistakes.

    As almost every reader of Antiwar.com knows, the mainstream media in the United States have become much less willing to provide dissenters with a platform since the Cold War ended. Mainstream media outlets often seem to speak with one voice on the big foreign policy issues of the day and that voice usually backs U.S. government policy. This situation is not healthy, and it helps explains why America’s standing in the world has declined in recent decades.

    Antiwar.com plays an enormously important role in filling this dangerous void in our public discourse. It provides an indispensable platform for critics to challenge the reigning views of the foreign policy establishment. This is essential for increasing the likelihood that the United States will pursue wiser policies. For this reason, I urge readers to generously support Antiwar.com. In these troubled times, a flourishing Antiwar.com is very much in the U.S. national interest.

    If you liked this article, please support Antiwar.com.
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    John J. Mearsheimer, PhD, is an American professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. More recently Mearsheimer has attracted attention for co-authoring and publishing the article The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, which was subsequently published as a book.

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    Israel launches massacre in Gaza, as Trump threatens Iran with “decapitation”

    August 4, 2026

    Andre Damon@Andre__Damon, WSWS, 3 Aug 2026

    Israeli forces killed at least 26 people in Gaza over the weekend, striking apartment blocks, tent camps and the medicine warehouses of a hospital, in the territory’s deadliest days in weeks. The killings came as US President Donald Trump threatened Iran with “decapitation” after a week of American strikes across the regio

    Israel killed at least seven people on Saturday and destroyed two of the four medicine warehouses of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Al Jazeera reported. Gaza Health Ministry Director-General Munir al-Bursh said the destruction “turns medicine and illness itself into a tool of war.”

    Palestinians try to extinguish a burning car after an Israeli military strike in Gaza City, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. [AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi]

    The Associated Press reported that the Israeli military killed at least 17 more people, children among them, from Saturday night through Sunday, according to local hospitals. Al Jazeera counted 19 dead Sunday and put the weekend toll at 26. Among the dead were Abdullah Abu al-Teif, 33, his pregnant wife Abeer Anan, 29, and their five-year-old son Azzam, killed at the Al-Sousi Tower in western Gaza City. The Israeli military said the strikes had targeted militant operatives.

    The bloodshed unfolded behind an official propaganda barrage of peace. On Thursday Trump announced a “HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas”; on Saturday he claimed the “perimeters of a deal” to reopen the Strait of Hormuz had been agreed. As he spoke, Israeli bombs fell on Gaza City, Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, and US bombers massed for what Trump said Sunday “would have been the biggest attack since World War II.”

    Israel has attacked Gaza on 270 of the 297 days since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, 2025, an Al Jazeera analysis reported as of Monday. Gaza’s Health Ministry counts at least 1,250 Palestinians killed since the truce began; five Israeli soldiers have died in the same period, per the Associated Press.

    The “ceasefires” are merely the framework for the permanent annexation of Gaza and the expansion of the war. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Sunday that the Israeli-held zone had reached 60 to 70 percent of Gaza, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman Doron Spielman told the AP: “Disarming means physically giving up the weapons. Nothing less.”

    The AP reported that Israel’s demands, according to a person with knowledge of the deal, include the freedom to keep conducting military operations in Gaza. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote in the Telegram on July 31 that “assassinations in Gaza must continue.”

    The Israeli army is meanwhile in the second week of a “wide-scale military operation” Netanyahu ordered across the West Bank after settlers from the Havat Gilad outpost attacked the village of Tal on July 24. Four Palestinians of the Ramadan family and two Israelis died.

    The army deployed 26 battalions and raided towns from Jenin to Hebron, Al Jazeera reported on July 28; Army Radio counted 30 settler attacks the following weekend, including two mosques set on fire and a family home in Urif that more than 150 settlers set alight—an infant survived because her grandfather pulled her from her crib.

    Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on July 24 that Palestinian villages should “look like the refugee camps in Nablus and Tulkarem.” According to UN figures, 1,122 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since October 2023, at least 246 of them children.

    The assault on Gaza comes as Trump threatens to destroy the Iranian government. “Iranian Leadership is unbelievably duplicitous!” he wrote Monday on Truth Social. In the Oval Office later that day he said, “This is the last chance for them to sign a good document,” adding that he wanted to give “every last chance before decapitation.”

    The threats followed a week of American bombardment. After Trump said July 27 that US strikes were paused for mediation, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard fired ballistic missiles on July 28 at a base housing US troops in Jordan, and the next day the US military announced a “heavy wave of strikes” on dozens of sites across Iran—command centers, missile and drone facilities and coastal defense sites.

    Iranian state media reported that a missile struck a house on Qeshm Island, killing Qeisar Jafari, a taxi driver, his wife Zahra and their two-year-old son Sina. The same day, US and Saudi warplanes struck militia sites across seven Iraqi provinces; the Popular Mobilization Forces said 20 of its fighters were killed, and two Iraqi militia officials told the AP that six Iranian advisers died.

    CBS News reported Friday that the US and Israel were preparing a bombing campaign against Iranian power plants and refineries. In a Truth Social post late Saturday, Trump announced he had canceled the attack, writing that “Iran, and other Middle Eastern Countries” had asked him to hold off.

    Secretary of War Pete Hegseth wrote Sunday on X: “The @DeptofWar was ready to go—and remains ready—at levels not seen since World War 2. Locked and loaded.”

    These realities render all the talk of “ceasefire” by Trump and Netanyahu moot: There is an ongoing regional war throughout the Middle East, in which people are being killed every day.

    Houthi missiles and drones have struck Saudi tankers and Aramco facilities since the group declared an embargo on Saudi shipping July 20; a drone set two gas vessels ablaze at Egypt’s port of Damietta July 29. Kuwait said Saturday it destroyed hostile drones over its territory and blamed Iran; Israel killed Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon Saturday and shelled southern Syria on July 30.

    Trump’s claims of peace negotiations met a flat denial from Tehran. “We are not negotiating with the United States at this time,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Monday; Iran says its only talks are with Oman, over a temporary shipping corridor through the Strait of Hormuz.

    No ceasefire is in effect with Iran—the June memorandum collapsed in early July, and The Guardian wrote Monday that the weekend reversal was thought to be Trump’s 12th cancellation of threatened strikes.

    On CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday, Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona attacked the war as mismanaged: “Here’s a guy who got us into this without a strategic goal, without a plan, without a timeline.” His remedy was to win it: “put some people in here that know how to do this, how to talk to the Iranians.” He did not call for an end to the war and said nothing about Gaza.

    At a Senate hearing on July 21, Democratic Senator Gary Peters of Michigan demanded that the administration win the war, telling Hegseth: “You don’t have a long-term plan to actually win this war. Win the war.”

    The war is deeply unpopular: 64 percent of Americans told an AP-NORC poll published July 30 that it has not been worth fighting, and 60 percent told Quinnipiac July 29 they oppose US military action against Iran. But in Washington, the argument is over how the war should be fought, not how to end it.

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    Expert: Trump’s Trying to Exert Control With Claim He Canceled Iran Strikes Over Progress on Deal

    August 3, 2026

    IRAN-US-ISRAEL-WAR

    A bridge that was hit and heavily damaged by a US strike is pictured along the road connecting Roudan and Bandar Abbas in southern Iran on July 18, 2026.

    (Photo by Amir Hossein KHORGOOEI/ISNA/AFP via Getty Images)

    “It’s a narrative designed to give the impression that Trump is in the driving seat in this conflict. It’s been clear for some time now: He isn’t.”

    Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams, Aug 01, 2026

    Trita Parsi, an expert on US-Iranian relations, cast doubt on President Donald Trump’s Saturday claims that he halted planned strikes on Iran due to progress in negotiations to end the illegal conflict, launched by the Republican and Israel in February.

    “The U.S.A. is locked and loaded and ready to go against the Islamic Republic of Iran, at levels of Military Terror, Strength, and Power not seen since World War II. Despite this, we have just been asked by Iran, and other Middle Eastern Countries, to hold off any attack in that the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform at 10:05 pm Eastern time.

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    “This would include the Immediate, Complete, and Total OPENING OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT, and an end to Iran’s nuclear threat,” Trump declared—despite repeated conclusions from US intelligence agencies that the Iranian government was not aiming to build a nuclear weapon when the United States and Israel began bombing Iran five months ago.

    “Based on this request, I have agreed, for the future benefit of the WORLD and, likewise, the survival of a successful and prosperous Iran, to cancel the attack, subject to being able to rapidly make a DEAL,” Trump added. “The Country of Israel joins me in this commitment. Get to work, everybody, and get it DONE.”

    Sharing the post on the platform X, Parsi said, “Trump ‘cancels’ ‘planned’ ‘attack’ on Iran…” The expert struck a similarly skeptical tone during a Saturday on-air interview with CNN about the president’s announcement.

    Parsi, co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said that “I don’t believe there was an imminent attack. We’ve gone through this several times, in which Trump issues these threats, and then he backs off because the other side calls his bluff.”

    “Trump does not have an escalatory way out of this conflict, but what he is trying to do is to give the impression that he is in control—that he is in the driving seat,” Parsi suggested. “And I think it’s been quite clear for quite some time now he is not.”

    During Trump’s first term, he tore up the Obama administration’s Iran nuclear deal, and so far, he has been unable to negotiate a replacement. Since launching this war, without authorization from Congress and in violation of the United Nations Charter, the ceasefire agreement reached in April and a June memorandum of understanding ultimately have not stopped the bloodshed.

    Earlier this week, most US Senate Republicans and Democratic Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.) blocked yet another war powers resolution intended to prevent the Trump administration from launching further attacks on Iran without congressional approval—a vote that came as polling showed 64% of Americans disapprove of continuing the war, including 37% of Republicans.

    The Iran War has killed thousands of Iranians and Lebanese civilians—the latter mostly from Israeli attacks purportedly targeting Hezbollah—as well as hundreds of people in other nations across the Middle East and at least 18 US service members.

    In the hours before Trump’s Saturday Truth Social post, Axios revealed that “Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Trump spoke on Saturday, with MBS expressing concern over the strike plans,” and “other regional powers, including Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Pakistan, have also pressed the US and Iran to de-escalate.”

    CBS chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan reported on social media about Saturday’s “flurry of phone calls by Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi to regional leaders, which suggests an effort underway to avoid military strikes.”

    “Earlier today, the State Department advised Americans throughout the Mideast to leave the region,” Brennan noted.

    Araghchi said Saturday that “any hostile action by the US or Israel—or participation or cooperation by regional countries in such actions—would be met with a decisive and proportionate response from Iran’s powerful armed forces.”

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    At Lindsey Graham’s funeral, Trump hails a senator who “never saw a war he didn’t like”

    July 30, 2026
    Patrick Martina, WSWS, 29 July 202

    Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, left, gestures as President Donald Trump speaks with reporters while in flight on Air Force One, Jan. 4, 2026, as they were returning to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. [AP Photo/Alex Brandon]

    The official funeral of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, held Tuesday at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., was a spectacle of reaction that underscores certain fundamental truths about American and world politics.

    First, American imperialism is irrevocably committed to a global policy of militarism, seeking to use its military power in a desperate effort to maintain its dominant world position despite decades of economic decline.

    Graham was one of the most persistent and aggressive supporters of American military operations around the world, summed up in Trump’s statement, in the course of his tribute to Graham, that “he was truly hawkish; he never saw a war he didn’t like.”

    This was not an offhand or joking remark, as Trump read out an obviously scripted tribute, filled with mawkish language crafted by his speechwriters. Trump praised Graham’s record in the Senate, pushing through record military spending, huge tax cuts for the wealthy and the Supreme Court nomination of reactionary Justice Brett Kavanaugh. But his main focus was on Graham’s advocacy of the use of American military power.

    Second, on the twin fronts of Ukraine and Iran, American imperialism is in the initial stages of a world war targeting not only Russia and Iran but ultimately China, perceived by all factions of the US ruling elite as its most dangerous economic and military rival. The merging of these two fronts was signaled this week by the Ukrainian attack on an Iranian cargo vessel in the Caspian Sea.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky justified the attack by describing Iran as an active participant in the war between Ukraine and Russia, because it has supplied Russia with combat drones. By that logic, every NATO country could be targeted by Moscow for air strikes, since they have sent the weapons and supplies used by Ukraine to bomb Russian oil refineries, military installations and urban centers.

    Both Zelensky and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Washington to attend Graham’s funeral. Each met separately with Trump on Tuesday morning before the ceremony, making their pitches for stepped-up US military support for the US-NATO war against Russia and the US-Israeli war against Iran.

    Third, the most reactionary forces in American society are being mobilized behind the program of war abroad and dictatorship at home. Trump was followed to the rostrum of the funeral service by Sean Hannity, the fascist commentator from Fox News; Tony Perkins, president of the fundamentalist Family Research Council; Marjorie Dannenfelser, head of the fanatical anti-abortion group Pro-Life America; and evangelical minister Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham.

    The entire ceremony was saturated with fundamentalist Christian religion, not only in the remarks of the speakers and the reading of Bible verses, but in the emphasis on Lindsey Graham’s personal adherence to “scripture,” as Trump put it, another unfamiliar word put in his mouth by speechwriters. It is well known that Trump’s bedtime reading is not the Bible but a volume of the collected speeches of Adolf Hitler.

    Fourth, the program of global war against the rivals of American capitalism has the unstinting support of the Democratic Party. Leading Democrats paid tribute to Graham during a ceremony at the Capitol Rotunda before the funeral service. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sat in the front row and helped lay a wreath, and other Democrats were seen touching the casket in a gesture of affection.

    All 100 senators were invited to meet separately with Zelensky, in a show of support for the war against Russia. Leaders of both parties announced agreement to pass bipartisan legislation imposing even more sweeping sanctions on Russia—with a few additional sanctions on Iran to ensure Trump’s support. The first test vote was to be held Tuesday evening.

    “We are proud to announce an agreement on legislation to stop purchasers of Russian oil and gas from fueling Putin’s war machine and to continue restricting the Iranian regime’s ability to support terrorism and build its nuclear program,” a bipartisan statement said. “There is no greater way to honor Senator Graham’s legacy than to move forward with this bipartisan agreement, and we look forward to today’s vote.”

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    The statement was issued by Republican senators Darline Graham of South Carolina (Lindsey Graham’s sister and appointed successor), Jim Risch of Idaho, Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Katie Britt of Alabama, and Democratic senators Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire. Blumenthal said he had worked with Graham for more than a year to win support for the bill.

    The legislation would impose heavy penalties on countries that purchase Russian oil, including China and India, which are among the largest customers, although Trump will have the power to waive sanctions on US allies like India and impose them only on China if he cites “national security” reasons.

    Fifth, there is the role of the corporate media, which treated the event at the National Cathedral with the greatest respect. Fox News, of course, broadcast the entire proceeding live. All the evening television news programs gave prominent coverage, while being careful not to focus on Trump’s declaration of Graham’s love for war. NBC, for example, did not even mention it.

    The day began on a note of farce, courtesy of the Washington Post,which under owner Jeff Bezos is an open ally of the Trump administration. The Tuesday edition of the Post carried an op-ed column claiming that Graham was “beloved by the Iranian people,” under the byline of Reza Pahlavi, identified by the newspaper only as “a leader of the Iranian democratic opposition.” Actually, Pahlavi is the son of the late Shah, whose bloodstained police-state regime was overthrown in 1979 by one of the great mass popular uprisings in history. He is no more a “democrat” than Graham was a “man of peace,” as he was described by Sean Hannity at the National Cathedral.

    Perhaps the most important aspect of the Graham funeral, however, was the enormous security cordon around the event. The National Cathedral audience was carefully vetted, surrounded by Secret Service agents and other police, to ensure that no one seeking to speak the truth about Graham’s record as an advocate of militarism and an apologist for mass murder—including the Israeli genocide in Gaza—could get within miles of the ceremony.

    The denizens of official Washington, Democrats as well as Republicans, live in constant fear of the American population. Their main concern is that the program of world war, requiring massive attacks on the living standards and democratic rights of the American working class, is leading to an explosion of the class struggle in America. They are right to be afraid.

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    Nearly All US Infrastructure in Iraq’s Erbil Has Been Destroyed – Iranian Army

    July 26, 2026

    The Palestine Chronicle, July 26, 2026

    Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Akraminia, spokesman for the Iranian army. (Photo: Mehr News)

    By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

    The Iranian army said nearly all US infrastructure in Erbil was destroyed and anti-Iran groups there have lost operational capability.

    Key DevelopmentsThe Iranian army announced on Saturday that nearly all US military infrastructure in the Iraqi city of Erbil has been destroyed, saying anti-Iran groups operating there no longer possess the capability to carry out operations against the Islamic Republic.

    Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Akraminia, spokesman for the Iranian army, said the damage inflicted during the recent fighting had effectively neutralized US infrastructure in Erbil and significantly reduced the operational capabilities of hostile groups based in the city.

    ‘No Longer Operational’

    Speaking to Iranian state television, Akraminia said “almost all” US infrastructure in Erbil had been destroyed.

    He added that anti-Iran groups previously operating from the Iraqi Kurdistan Region had been stripped of their ability to conduct operations against Iran.

    According to Akraminia, the United States maintains extensive military capabilities throughout the region, southern Europe, and the Mediterranean, and is now attempting to replace equipment and assets lost during the recent conflict.

    He stressed that Iran remains prepared to resume military operations should hostilities restart, saying the country’s armed forces would continue fighting until Washington realizes it cannot impose its will on Iran through military aggression.

    America is destroying our moral credibility with threatening war crimes in Iran and having provided aid for war crimes in Gaza.

    IRGC Details US Losses

    Earlier on Saturday, IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebi provided additional details regarding US military losses during the recent 15-day confrontation.

    He said Iranian forces destroyed 11 US aircraft and helicopters while they were on the ground inside American military bases.

    Mohebi also said Iranian forces destroyed 17 reconnaissance and operational drones, including eight newly introduced unmanned aircraft that had not previously been used.

    According to the IRGC, destroyed US aircraft included an F-15 fighter jet, a P-8 maritime patrol aircraft, a C-17 military transport aircraft, and eight aerial refueling aircraft.

    The figures form part of a series of updates released by Iranian military officials detailing the results of Iran’s operations against US military installations across the region.

    https://www.palestinechronicle.com/irgc-releases-detailed-assessment-of-us-military-losses-during-operation-nasr-2/embed/#?secret=nPxvkrdQH1#?secret=4nwcW71wNq

    New Generation of Drones

    Akraminia also said Iran has begun deploying attack drones more advanced than the Arash-2.

    He explained that while the Arash-2 drone was used during the recent 40-day war, the Iranian armed forces are now operating a newer generation of drones with greater destructive power, longer range, improved accuracy, and enhanced operational capabilities.

    He added that technical details about the new drones have not yet been made public.

    The latest statements come amid continued tensions following the recent US military campaign against Iran, which centered largely on the country’s southern regions.

    Iran responded with a series of military operations targeting US bases across the Gulf region, as well as installations in Syria and Jordan, while Iranian military officials continue to release assessments of the damage inflicted during the confrontation.

    (Iranian Media, Al Mayadeen, Anadolu, PC)

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    Trump preparing forces for “massive attack” on Iran

    July 24, 2026
    Andre Damon@Andre__Damon, WSWS, 24 July 2026
    An Air Force B-1B Lancer aircraft moves out of position after receiving fuel from a KC-135R Stratotanker during a mission over Afghanistan. [Photo: Master Sgt. Andy Dunaway by U.S. Air Force]

    The Trump administration is concentrating US military forces in the Middle East and Europe for a vast expansion of US imperialism’s war against Iran.

    According to an article published Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal, “In the past week, special-operations forces have deployed to the region from their U.S. bases, according to flight-tracking data and U.S. officials. Squadrons of jet fighters have been staged across the Middle East, and bomber aircraft at bases in the U.S. and U.K. are on high alert to ramp up operations, according to one of the officials.”

    According to the article, more than 150 medics have arrived in recent days at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, the largest American military hospital abroad and the first stop for troops wounded in the Middle East. This is a clear indication that the Trump administration is preparing for a major increase in American casualties.

    Long-range bombers, including B-1s staged in Britain, are preparing for “major combat operations,” the Journal wrote. A B-1 flew its first strike mission of the renewed bombing, Axios reported on Thursday.

    “I am considering a massive attack. Bigger than ever before,” US President Donald Trump told Axios. “I am close to making a decision. We are all set for it.”

    The purpose of the surge, the Journal wrote, is to give Trump “more muscular military options as he considers expanding the conflict against Iran.” Some sort of ground invasion is clearly among the options that are being considered. 

    On July 15, the Journal revealed that a White House Situation Room meeting discussed seizing “Kharg Island and other territory along the Strait of Hormuz using U.S. troops.” There are other potential targets, including nuclear energy facilities on Pickaxe Mountain and the seizure of other islands in the Strait of Hormuz. 

    Keith Kellogg, the retired lieutenant general who served as Trump’s envoy for Ukraine until last year, called Monday on Fox News for a ground invasion: “You’re going to need ground troops to do something.”

    A US effort to reopen the strait by force would be a massive undertaking. Mark Montgomery, a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral, told the Financial Times in an article published Thursday that degrading Iran’s ability to launch drones and missiles could take weeks of as many as 150 to 200 American strikes a night. The FT also quoted a maritime adviser: “Iran only needs to hit one tanker to put everyone off.”

    Trump is also returning to his threats of genocidal violence. On Wednesday, he posted on Truth Social that any Iranian attack on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz will be answered by the destruction of “ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT, including those located next to, or in, the Capital City of Tehran.” This is a public declaration of intent to commit war crimes under the Geneva Conventions, which state that “Civilian objects shall not be the object of attack or of reprisals.”

    On Thursday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared a policy of disproportionate retaliation to any resistance by Iran: “a head for an eye.” Reprisal at a fixed ratio was one of the notorious practices of the Hitler dictatorship. 

    The Trump administration is driven to escalation by the logic of the war, which is now in its fifth month. American imperialism has failed to achieve any of its stated objectives, including the overthrow of the Iranian government and the seizure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a large percentage of the world’s oil and natural gas passes. 

    Every failure by the Trump administration has led to an even greater and more reckless escalation. In January, the administration encouraged and tried to arm protests inside Iran that it had hoped would overthrow the government. That operation’s failure led Trump to seek regime change by killing Iran’s leaders on February 28. These murders, too, failed to break the resistance of the Iranian population, and the administration escalated to a months-long bombing campaign that has killed more than 3,600 people and to the ongoing blockade.

    Now the administration sees a massive and desperate escalation as the only way to rescue the prestige of US imperialism. In March 1965, as the Johnson administration prepared its escalation in Vietnam, Assistant Secretary of Defense John McNaughton wrote in a memorandum later published in the Pentagon Papers that 70 percent of the American purpose was “to avoid a humiliating US defeat (to our reputation as a guarantor).” That same month, the first 3,500 Marines landed at Da Nang; by the end of 1968, 536,000 American troops were in Vietnam. 

    A similar logic is involved in the war against Iran, under even more dangerous conditions. Washington calculates that a withdrawal after nearly five months of losses would shatter the world position of American imperialism in the eyes of its rivals, above all, China, and would represent a devastating blow to US domination.

    American imperialism, staggering under massive debts, also confronts a deepening crisis of the dollar’s dominance in the world financial system. Federal debt held by the public has passed 100 percent of gross domestic product, the dollar’s share of world reserve assets has sunk to its lowest levels in three decades, and a survey of central banks published at the end of June found, for the first time, more of them planning to cut their dollar holdings over the coming decade than to increase them.

    The war has the support of the entire political establishment. On Wednesday, the House passed a $1.15 trillion military authorization bill, 216-212, with six Democrats supplying the margin. After the Democrats ensured sufficient votes to pass the bill, the remainder were allowed to vote against. In January, 149 House Democrats approved the $839 billion military appropriations bill that paid for the assault on Iran launched five weeks later.

    The Democrats’ criticisms have centered on Trump’s failure to secure victory, stated most bluntly at a Senate hearing on Tuesday by Democratic Senator Gary Peters of Michigan. Peters called Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth a “failure” and demanded: “You don’t have a strategy. You don’t have a long-term plan to actually win this war. Win the war!”

    The Democrats also speak for sections of the ruling class that are concerned that the conduct of the war against Iran has undermined the US focus on the war with Russia, which is in their view the more important theater of the global US war.

    Beyond conflicts over geopolitical strategy, the main concern of the Democratic Party is to prevent the emergence of popular opposition from below. The escalation of the war is being made without any explanation or warning, from any section of the political establishment, to the American people, who have opposed the war in every major poll since it began. No section of the ruling class is telling the population of the massive escalation of the war being prepared. 

    The escalation now underway will have catastrophic consequences for the population of Iran, the region and the entire world. Imperialism is in the initial stages of a global war that is continually expanding in scope. With each new stage, the danger of nuclear war grows.

    The war has created the framework for a massive assault on the social position of the working class. Everything is to be subordinated to the unprecedented expenditures for war. Trump has declared the intention of the oligarchy to attack Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Food aid has already been cut off for 1.5 million children, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

    The renewed bombing is having a devastating effect on US households. Gasoline passed $4 a gallon this week, up from $3.14 a month ago, and the war has cost the average household some $450 in higher energy bills, by CNBC’s estimate—more than wiping out the tax rebate Trump promised. For the first time in three years, inflation is erasing all wage gains.

    The war is necessarily fueling the growth of the class struggle, in the United States and throughout the world. Already, in the first half of 2026, this movement has begun to emerge explosively. The international working class, armed with a socialist program, is the social force upon which the struggle against imperialist war must be based.

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    ‘No to War’: Iranian Civil Society Issues Call for Peace as US Assault Intensifies

    July 21, 2026

    TOPSHOT-IRAN-US-ISRAEL-WAR

    A heavily damaged bridge which was hit by a US strike is pictured along the road connecting Roudan and Bandar Abbas in southern Iran on July 18, 2026.

    (Photo by Amir Hossein Khorgooei/ISNA/AFP via Getty Images)

    “We believe that the overwhelming majority of the Iranian people desire peace and the right to live a dignified life.”

    Stephen Prager, Common Dreams, Jul 20, 2026

    As the US ramps up its assault against Iran with daily bombings and threatens a full ground invasion, hundreds of public figures from across Iranian civil society issued an urgent call for peace on Sunday.

    Two hundred sixty-eight prominent Iranians—including political activists, academics, former members of Parliament, religious figures, labor leaders, and others—signed a joint declaration calling for a “complete and unconditional end of war, and the cessation of all threats, incitement to hatred, and warmongering.”

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    “We believe that the overwhelming majority of the Iranian people desire peace and the right to live a dignified life,” the statement says. “Therefore, since no decision should be imposed upon the country against the will of its people… we firmly remind all governments, military forces involved in the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, and all members of the international community that violating this fundamental right of the Iranian people is a grave injustice against a nation that does not want war and stands for peace.”

    “Despite all our differences, we raise our collective voice to say ‘No to War,’” the letter continued. “We sincerely call upon all our fellow Iranians—regardless of gender, political or ideological beliefs, religion, ethnicity, or any other distinction—to join this call and strengthen its echo by adding their voices.”

    The declaration ends with a quote from the 13th-century Persian poet Saadi Shirazi: “Even if you possess the strength of an elephant or the claws of a lion, to me, peace is still better than war.”

    The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) emphasized the “breadth of the signatories,” which span large swaths of political opinion and reflect “a rare convergence across Iran’s deeply fragmented political landscape.”

    Among the signatories are Kak Hassan Amini, a Sunni activist; Faezeh Hashemi, a former member of Iran’s Parliament and the daughter of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani; teachers’ labor rights activist Maryam Kabiri; former Parliament members Elaheh Koulaei and Parvaneh Salahshouri; and former Central Bank Gov. Valiollah Seif.

    The letter comes as the US has conducted nine consecutive nights of bombings following a short-lived truce in June. Earlier strikes targeted areas around the Strait of Hormuz—which Iran again sealed off as June’s memorandum of understanding collapsed.

    In recent days, US strikes have begun to creep inland. In addition to military infrastructure, the US has attacked facilities relied upon by civilians, including bridges, roads, a train station, an airport, and energy infrastructure.

    In retaliation for strikes that killed two US service members in Jordan over the weekend, the US launched another round of strikes on Monday that struck the construction site of a planned nuclear power plant, according to Iran’s atomic energy agency.

    Iranian authorities have said that at least 50 people have been killed and at least 517 wounded in the latest round of US strikes. At least 3,500 Iranians have been killed since the US and Israel attacked Iran in late February, including more than 1,700 confirmed civilians, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

    At least 17 US troops have been killed since the war began, with Iran’s strikes in Jordan killing 25-year-old 1st Lt. James Feehan and 19-year-old Pvt. Isabella Gonzales over the weekend. Another soldier has also gone missing and has not yet been publicly identified.

    President Donald Trump vowed in a social media post on Monday that “every time Iran kills an American Soldier” going forward “they will pay for that killing many times over.”

    With Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz once again causing global oil prices to soar, the Trump administration is reportedly mulling a full-scale ground invasion of Kharg Island and areas of coastline near the strait, which experts have warned would require hundreds of thousands of American troops and likely lead to many more casualties.

    Democrats in Congress responded to the deaths of two more US soldiers by renewing calls to end the conflict.

    “These brave troops gave their lives in service to our nation,” said Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.). “How many more must die for Trump’s war of choice?”

    Trump’s escalations come despite the US House of Representatives and Senate passing a war powers resolution last month that directed him to withdraw troops from hostilities with Iran unless Congress authorizes them.

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