Israel vs Palestine/Lebanon/Iran/Yemen/Syria: a New Middle East War

[shaberon]

Posted by Ravenlocke (here)
🇫🇷🇮🇶 Macron announced the death of a French soldier who was killed in an attack on a French base in Erbil, northern Iraq.

He added that French troops are there exclusively to "fight ISIS."

Do the Iraqis know this?

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
US Senator Chris Murphy:

I was in a 2 hour briefing today on the Iran War. ...

I obviously can't disclose classified info, but ...

Here's what I can share:

So ... Senator Murphy ... are you sharing your honest take on that 2 hour briefing, or from guidance received elsewhere as to the "narrative of the day" ?

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by shaberon (here)
The Democrats did say they were told absolutely nothing true or useful:

That members of a party share a consistent narrative doesn't help me know the truth of that narrative.

In this case, there's a good chance that (1) the reality, (2) what they were told in that briefing, (3) what the (R) members tell us they were told, and (4) what the (D) members tell us they were told, are (at least) four distinct narratives.

[shaberon]

On the topic of bi-partisan war opposition, Moskowitz (D-FL) is an Iran hater, glad the Ayatollah is gone, saying he won't be missed:

Regardless of how one feels about this war, or this President, Congress’s constitutional role in any declaration of war is a completely separate issue. I have consistently held that Congressional authorities have been eroded under Republican and Democratic administrations and ceded by both parties when they control the trifecta of House, Senate, and Presidency. However, over the last year we have seen a ludicrous increase in the speed of Congress’s abdication of authority to the Executive Branch. We must begin to claw back that prerogative. We must reestablish our Article I authority which grants Congress all legislative powers. For too long we have been happy to let our Presidents legislate through rulemaking – a dangerous precedent that I have consistently opposed regardless of who sits in the Oval Office.

Congress is on the verge of irrelevancy. We have done this to ourselves, and no one is coming to save us if we don’t show some sign of life.

That is largely correct, with the last year certainly manifesting Accelerationism.

Executive rule by decree is what any Montesqiu-based "separation of powers" government is intended to prevent. America is just a version of this political theory, a rather obviously failed one. Dismal.

In the sense that party names don't matter, policies do, Jewish Insider:

Thomas Massie's opposition to Iran war could cost him reelection ...

It's like having a Mossad Ace of Spades taped to your forehead.


Because bombing does not make anything go away:

Trump has lashed out at Massie, calling him a “loser” and a “moron,” and has endorsed his primary challenger, Ed Gallrein, in Kentucky's 4th Congressional District.

whereas he persists:

PSA: Bombing a country on the other side of the globe won't make the Epstein files go away, any more than the Dow going above 50,000 will.

Critics have also cited the administration's January abduction of sitting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, saying it may have been used to shift attention away from scrutiny over Trump's past ties to Epstein, who once called himself Trump's “closest friend.”

I don't understand the phrasing. Charges of abuse of power are in addition to the things that are in that treasure box. It's cumulative. It more or less only represents a shift from Truman's "communism" to "Islamic extremism" or "terrorism" and the Neo-con "seven countries" plan, motive for 9/11 being an inside job.

It remains simple enough that the "war" can be ended by that basic military tactic, withdrawal. Just go away; no one will lay a hand on the United States. Imagine what we could do if over a billion dollars a day was spent on us rather than bombs.

[shaberon]

I'm going to throw out another thing in light of this one man war because Epstein class may say something different to me, that is unclear from what I have seen posted.


I haven't noticed anything that dreadful about the sexual aspect of it. Not compared to the Belgian/Euro version which does amount to torture and murder. If you want to find that in the United States, try starting with Disney. The most unusual thing here is that Epstein, himself, had a fetish for minors -- or, teenagers, not necessarily small children. And there doesn't seem to have been force involved.

By "class", I just mean all of those people. The ones enjoying themselves due to an extravagance of wealth and power. Oligarchy. Something like this:


Trump is a Clinton.


The man ran a huge business for decades as himself a pure New York Democrat.


He switched registration in 1987 and promoted a single political message:

Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait were taking advantage of American money and protection without providing any benefit to the United States.

Trump appeared at a Rotary Club luncheon in New Hampshire. There, he delivered what The New York Times described as an "impassioned speech," in which he expressed concern about the U.S. being "pushed around" by its allies and proposed that "these countries that are ripping us off pay off the $200 billion deficit."

and people thought he might make a good president.

One of his first donations at this time was to the Clinton Foundation.

He didn't want to do politics himself. It was not until 2000 that he made presidential motions described by The Guardian as:

America's most towering ego, Donald Trump

He was pro-Jesse Ventura and con-Pat Buchanan:

Trump announced that he would consider running as a sign of respect for Ventura. He labeled the views of Buchanan as "prehistoric", and commented that even though he liked Pat, "I'm on the conservative side, but Buchanan is Attila the Hun."

He went back to being a Democrat until 2009.


From ISGP data, you can mark an apparent change to the attitude above:

The first conservative donation, to the Billy Graham Evangelical Association was made in 2012.

Dee Snider stopped liking him around 2015:

"I know the man's not a racist. He's a friend of mine. But when you've got white supremacy groups aligning themselves with you and you don't denounce them [...] that's a problem for me. ... I have to call Donald. ... My Donald Trump is pro-choice. My Donald Trump is what they call a Northeastern [Rockefeller] Republican, you know, fiscally conservative, socially liberal. But that's changing."

He made different sorts of donations appearing at this time:

Anti-Defamation League: ... $26,500 ... Citizens United Foundation [conservative group ran by David Bossie, who became Trump's Deputy campaign manager in 2016]: ... $100,000

So, yes, at least some of his older campaign ideas were more "liberal" in areas such as healthcare; he almost embodied both parties.

His second, or, re-entry to the Republican Party is altogether different. It's like a package of alt-right disinfo blanketed over national security structures.

That's called a career of selling out.

It came from one idea. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia did not "deserve protection"; paying off our deficit might be a good idea.

And now here we are.

Is it a surprise there's no real plan?

The ideas at play are not necessarily even his, but come from this support base or "Epstein class", i.e. wealth and power or the establishment. This is neither new nor surprising, but, in Term Two has "dropped the mask".

The Bolsonaro-Carvalho clique's beliefs essentially are the same as Donald Trump and the allied QAnon group: they're pretending to fight "the globalists" and "the deep state", but make the very subtle "mistake" by saying this involves a "left wing" conspiracy that can be solved by their own disinformative, pro-big business, pro-fascist "right wing" thinking.

The world has basically just been shattered by internet spam made up around 2010.

It was assumed you wouldn't have voted for anything else. Epstein married Zionism with Evangelism. That's gruesome.

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by Ravenlocke (here)

Mario Nawfal

Iranian ballistic missile reportedly targeted NATO's Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, home to an estimated 50 U.S. nuclear bombs.

Iran just fired at a nuclear weapons storage facility.

Let that sink in.

Just a small thing, but there's a common misconception here that's easy to understand and forgive.

You can bomb a nuclear weapons facility (or manually strap high explosive to a nuclear warhead!), but that will never result in a nuclear explosion. Nukes need high-tech, high-precision detonation mechanisms that are actually the hardest part of the whole thing to engineer. You'd get a small amount of radiation pollution (almost zero compared to a large nuke detonation), but that's all.

[Bill Ryan]

This was very interesting. Scott Bessent was definitely shaken.

https://x.com/SkyYaldaHakim/status/2032472839748489383

A remarkable moment.

In the middle of an interview with my colleague Wilfred Frost, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is called away after a message from the White House Situation Room: “The President wants you right away.”

Minutes later he returns — visibly shaken, barely able to speak.

[Ravenlocke]

Pepe Escobar reposted

Seyed Abbas Araghchi

Proud and honored to have accompanied the Strong and Resilient People of Iran to mark International Quds Day.

Iranians will ALWAYS stand firm and NEVER cower before cowardly attacks.

Video: Reaction of demonstrators when Tehran was bombed today is nightmare for aggressors.

https://x.com/araghchi/status/2032445333989679504

[Ravenlocke]

NewRulesGeopolitics

🚨🇺🇸🇨🇳🇮🇷 TRUMP IN PANIC: CHINA CAN SHUT DOWN U.S. STRIKES ON IRAN ANYTIME

Trump’s Iran campaign is already sputtering because Washington’s entire arsenal runs on Chinese minerals, SCMP sources warn, giving Beijing direct leverage to decide how long the bombing can actually last before Trump meets Xi.

🔸 Pentagon reserves are down to just two months of rare earths while the first 48 hours of strikes already burned through 5.6 billion dollars in advanced munitions according to Washington Post reporting

🔸 Heavy rare earths like dysprosium and terbium, supplied 100 percent by China, are irreplaceable in US high-performance magnets, radar arrays, missile guidance systems and propulsion components

🔸 Destroyed radars expose the real fragility, the AN/FPS-132 in Qatar will take Raytheon 5 to 8 years and 1.1 billion dollars to rebuild while the AN/TPS-59 in Bahrain needs Lockheed 12 to 24 months and up to 75 million dollars

🔸 Both systems alone require 77 kilograms of gallium where China controls 98 percent of global supply plus another 30,610 kilograms of copper amid exploding tech-sector demand

🔸 US now readies the largest-ever 14 billion dollar arms package to Taiwan with PAC-3 and NASAMS missiles, almost guaranteed to be announced right after Trump’s March 31 Beijing summit, handing Xi perfect motivation to squeeze the rare-earth tap

Can the US survive a war without Chinese rare earth metals?

https://x.com/NewRulesGeo/status/2032452871183368676

[Ravenlocke]

Pepe Escobar

Historically, they are all spot on.

https://x.com/RealPepeEscobar/status...93225928458594

[Ravenlocke]

Pepe Escobar

That's former IRGC Commander-in-Chief Mohsen Rezaee.

And that's exactly what he said:

"The fate Hitler met in the snows of Russia awaits the Americans."

https://x.com/RealPepeEscobar/status...94369375408601

[Ravenlocke]

Pepe Escobar reposted

Ali Larijani | علی لاریجانی
@alilarijani_ir
·
2h
Mr. Hegseth! Our leaders have been, and still are, among the people. But your leaders? On Epstein's island!

https://x.com/alilarijani_ir/status/2032488143568425368

[Ravenlocke]

Pepe Escobar
@RealPepeEscobar
·
1h
The U.S. Navy understands it would be nearly IMPOSSIBLE TO FORCE OPEN the Strait of Hormuz.

If U.S. or Western warships move close to the strait, they become SITTING DUCKS.

Everyone in the region knows this.

Iran holds all the cards in the Strait of Hormuz.

https://x.com/RealPepeEscobar/status...99688222728580

Pepe Escobar

The message from the U.S. and Israel was clear: a ritualistic sacrifice, to intimidate the Iranian population.

Bomb a school. Kill the girls first - then strike again.

A second Tomahawk killing the parents and teachers who rushed to help.

A brutal two-tap strike, justified by faulty intelligence and framed as an indirect attack on the IRGC.

https://x.com/RealPepeEscobar/status...00481084514335

[Ravenlocke]

Pepe Escobar

IRAN-INDIA

Serial tsunamis of spin after the Jaishankar-Araghchi and Modi-Pezeshkian phone calls.

Let's cut to the chase.

There is NO green light from Iran for Indian ships to cross the Strait of Hormuz.

Over and out.

https://x.com/RealPepeEscobar/status...05336117231881

[Ravenlocke]

Pepe Escobar

The war on Iran, approached by BRICS founders Russia, China, India.

The motivations, the fog of war, the military interconnections, the betrayals, the final goals.

Plenty of privileged info.

Please read them back to back.

https://sovereignista.com/2026/03/11...missiles-flow/

https://sovereignista.com/2026/03/12...e-war-on-iran/


https://x.com/RealPepeEscobar/status...97965269696894

[Ravenlocke]

https://sovereignista.com/2026/03/11...missiles-flow/

Pepe Escobar : China: Watching the missiles flow

The blockade of Hormuz may break the West. But it won’t break China.

Strategic Culture

Let’s cut to the chase: BRICS is in deep coma. Blown up, at least temporarily, by India – which happens to host the BRICS summit later this year. Talk about horrendous timing.

India has betrayed, sequentially, both full BRICS members Russia and Iran. By sealing its alignment with the Epstein Syndicate, New Delhi has proved, without the shadow of a doubt, not only that it’s untrustworthy: more than that, its whole lofty rhetoric of “leading the Global South” has collapsed – for good.

BRICS will have to be completely revamped: even Grandmaster Sergey Lavrov will have to reach this inescapable conclusion. The original Primakov triangle, “RIC”, once again dies another day. Even if India is not expelled from BRICS – it could be suspended – “RIC” will necessarily have to be translated as Russia-Iran-China, or even “RIIC” (Russia-Iran-Indonesia-China).

When it comes to where we stand on the Grand Chessboard, Prof. Michael Hudson synthesizes it: “The great enabling fiction is gone. America is not protecting the world from attack by Russia, China and Iran. Its long-term aim of controlling the world oil trade requires ongoing terrorism and permanent war in the Middle East.”

Whatever happens next, ongoing terrorism across West Asia will remain – as in the Epstein Syndicate, out of pervert impotence and sheer rage, unleashing a Black Rain over the civilian (italics mine) population of Tehran because Iranians refused to go for regime change.

Moreover, the heart of the matter until at least the mid-century is more crystal clear than ever. Either the Exceptionalist system of international chaos prevails. Or it will be replaced by Global South-driven equality, with China leading from behind.

This is a two-part analysis on key BRICS interplay related to the war on Iran. Here we focus on China. Next we will focus on Russia and India.

Don’t shoot! I’m Chinese owned!

Clueless MICIMATT (military-industrial-congressional-intelligence-media-academia-think tank complex) speculation about US intel “suggesting” China is preparing to help Iran is, once again, evidence of how Chinese sophistication total evades the puny “analyses” emanating from Barbaria.

First of all: energy. China and Iran follow a $400 billion, mutually beneficial 25-year agreement that essentially interlocks energy and infrastructure investment.

For all practical purposes, the Strait of Hormuz is blocked because of panicky Western insurance withdrawal. Not because Tehran blocked it.

China receives 90% of total Iran crude oil exports; that represents 12% of total Chinese imports. The key point is that China still has access to Iranian exports as well as Saudi, Emirati, Kuwaiti, Qatari and Iraqi exports: that’s because the strategic partnership Tehran-Beijing is iron-clad, meaning that Chinese-bound tankers can cross the Strait of Hormuz back and forth.

Beijing-Tehran negotiated a bilateral safe passage, operational since last Friday, in what for all practical purposes is a multilaterally-closed crucial maritime corridor. It’s no wonder that more and more tankers are now texting on their transponders the magic words Chinese Owned (italics mine). That’s their naval diplomatic passport.

Translation – and that’s a mega-game-changer: the end of the thalassocratic hegemony of the Empire of Chaos.

“Freedom of navigation” in selected maritime connectivity corridors now means “a deal with China”. Chinese owned, OK; but not European, Japanese or even South Korean.

What Tehran gets, in spades,is high-tech Chinese help for the war with the Epstein Syndicate. And that started even before the war.

The Chinese intel gathering Liaowang-1, a next generation SIGINT (signals intelligence) and space tracking vessel, for weeks has been navigating near the coast of Oman, providing Iran with real-time electromagnetic intel on the Epstein Syndicate’s naval and aerial movements.

That accounts to an enormous degree for the pinpoint accuracy of most Iranian strikes.

The Liaowang-1, escorted by Type 055 and Type 052D destroyers, carries at least five radar domes and high-gain antennas, accurately tracking at least 1,200 air and missile targets simultaneously using deep neural network algorithms. The range of its sensors is roughly 6,000 kilometers.

The beauty is that those sensors can equally track a Chinese satellite or an American carrier.

Translation: China is helping its strategic partner without firing a single shot, just by sailing a neural network processing surveillance platform in international waters.

So yes: China is recording the war, live, 24/7.

Complementing the Liaowang-1, over 300 Jilin-1 satellites record literally everything, constituting a massive ISR database of the Empire of Chaos in action.

There won’t be any official confirmation either from Tehran or Beijing. But Chinese real-life intel, relayed on Beidou, was certainly crucial for Tehran to totally destroy the US 5th Fleet infrastructure in Bahrain – a comprehensive radar, intel and database center and the backbone of US hegemony in West Asia.

This chapter of the war, tackled right at the beginning, reveals how Tehran went to the jugular when it comes to smashing the imperially designed power play of controlling strategic chokepoints and energy transit, thus denying Chinese access to them.

As stunning as it sounds, what we are watching, in real time, is Iran denying key maritime chokepoints, ports and naval connectivity corridors to the Empire of Chaos. For the moment, that’s Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz. Soon it may be, with the help of the Yemeni Houthis, also the Bab-al-Mandeb.

Now that’s a max game-changer profiting not only China but also Russia – which needs to keep its maritime export routes open.

Got money, go East

Now let’s follow the money. China holds $760 billion in US Treasury bonds. Beijing has ordered its whole banking system to sell their Treasures like there’s no tomorrow, and simultaneously hoard gold.

China and Iran already trade in yuan. From now on, the BRICS lab experimenting with alternative payment systems must reach escape velocity. That involves all mechanisms being tested – from BRICS Pay to The Unit.

Then there’s the incoming money exodus. Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar and Kuwait are already “reviewing” every deal – dodgy or otherwise – they have struck with Washington. Collectively, they control no less than $2 trillion in US investments: Treasury bonds, Silicon Valley tech stakes, real estate, the works.

A tsunami of cash is beginning to invade East Asia. The favorite destination, as it stands, is Thailand – not Hong Kong. That will come – and once again, it will immensely profit China as Hong Kong is one of the key nodes of the Greater Bay Area, alongside Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

China’s strategic and commercial crude reserves are enough for up to 4 months. Apart from that, imports of crude and natural gas can be increased, by sea and by pipelines, from Russia, Kazakhstan and Myanmar.

So a mix of enough strategic reserves; several supply sources; and “demand-side shift from oil to electricity” qualify once again as Chinese resilience. The blockade of Hormuz may break the West. But it won’t break China.

[Ravenlocke]

https://sovereignista.com/2026/03/12...e-war-on-iran/

Pepe Escobar : How Russia and India approach the war on Iran – Chronicles – Sovereign Global Majority
amarynth
[The Russia-Iran strategic partnership – even if does not include a military treaty – works in several interlocked levels.

Pepe mentions: Comparing what Russia is doing in practice with India’s appalling betrayals. Part 2 of a 2-part analysis – the first one focused on Iran-China. Please try to read them side by side. Here is part 1 – China: Watching the missiles flow

Strategic Culture

President Putin sent a gracious message to Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, personally congratulating him on his election as Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Words do (italics mine) matter:

“At a time when Iran is confronting armed aggression, your efforts in this high position will undoubtedly require great courage and dedication. I am confident that you will honourably continue your father’s work and unite the Iranian people in the face of an immense ordeal.”

After stressing foreign “aggression” and continuity of government, Putin reiterated the strategic partnership in no uncertain terms:

“For my part, I would like to reaffirm our unwavering support for Tehran and solidarity with our Iranian friends. Russia has been and will remain a reliable partner for the Islamic Republic.”

Cue to a desperate President Trump, or neo-Caligula, placing a call to Putin, essentially to ask him to intervene as a mediator to convince Iran into accepting a ceasefire. What he heard instead was a polite enumeration of unpleasant facts regarding the war of choice launched by the Epstein Syndicate on Iran.

Trump is throwing his favorite envoy Steve Witkoff under the bus, alongside puny Jared Kushner and the push up clown posing as Secretary of Forever Wars, as the ones who forced him to bomb Iran. It’s Witkoff who claimed after the phone call that Russia stated it’s not transfering intel data to Iran, as confirmed, he said, by presidential assistant for international affairs Yuri Ushakov.

Nonsense. Ushakov never said such a thing. Russians at the highest political level do not comment on military matters linked to their strategic partnerships with both Iran and China.

Now for the facts.

Russian intel, Iranian execution, and no military treaty

It’s no secret that Moscow has shared what can be defined as industrial amounts of intel – and combat data – gathered in Ukraine with Tehran. A great deal of the advanced jamming tech and satellite intel leading to the serial destruction of THAAD radars, Patriot radars, and every other ultra-heavy fixed radar installations comes from both Russia and China.

Even if footage of Russian S-400 and Krasukha systems successfully intercepting American missiles has not been released, and probably it won’t be, the fact is Russian technicians are helping Iranian crews fine-tune the trajectories of missiles and drones during flight.

So there is a sophisticated, practical interplay in effect between Chinese and Russian high-resolution orbital imagery and targeting assistance, and swarms of cheap, $20,000 drones.

Russia provided Iran with the super-charged, upgraded and battle-tested Geran-3 and Geran-5 drones. These are the facto Russian Shaheds: lethal, inexpensive cruise missiles, equipped with anti-jamming via their Komet antenna, and able to reach 600 km/h. They are now all over the battlefield.

Now for the extremely savoury part.

Slightly over a week before the Epstein Syndicate decapitation strike on Tehran on February 28, Russian intel sent to the IRGC the fully developed US strike plan – complete with target matrices, launch platforms, timing sequences.

So the IRGC knew exactly what to expect.

Six weeks before that, in December last year, Moscow signed a 500 million euros weapons deal with Iran, including the delivery of 500 Verba MANPADS launchers and 2,500 advanced 9M336 missiles.

Essentially, Russia is providing Iran with intel and air defense. And China provides anti-ship missiles and real-time satellite surveillance.

The beauty of it all is there’s no formal trilateral alliance in play. And no military treaty. It’s all embedded in their interlocking strategic partnerships.

Considering all of the above, it’s no wonder the puzzled Epstein Syndicate is blaming Russia and China intel for certified hits such as the satellite communications station part of the communications and cyber defense unit of the Israeli military near Beer Sheeba.

And we’re not even talking about the next, inevitable Russian move: installing the extremely powerful S-500 Prometheus air defense system in Iran.

How to capture market share without breaking a sweat

The Russia-Iran strategic partnership – even if does not include a military treaty – works in several interlocked levels.

On the energy front. Moscow, under Putin’s orders, is now evaluating what may eventually become a definitive pre-emptive halt of remaining exports to the EU, so they may be redirected to Asia at ever-climbing prices.

The EU after all is phasing Russian gas out: short-term contracts will be banned starting late April; full LNG ban by the end of the year; and ban on pipeline gas by 2027.

So a lot of LNG is already being directed to China, India, Thailand and Philippines. As in Follow The Money: LNG tankers diverted mid-voyage from European ports to Asia, offering higher spot prices.

Every day that the Strait of Hormuz remains closed – and it will remain closed – Russia captures extra market share, anywhere, at a premium, without breaking a sweat.

Secretary of Iranian Security Council Ali Larijani made it crystal clear in several languages, including Russian: when it comes to Hormuz, there are “open opportunities for everyone”, as in partnership with allies Russia and China; and it’s “a dead-end for warmongers”, as in the Epstein Syndicate and other hostile entities.

Russia certainly does not need the Strait of Hormuz open. Still, it received a nod and a wink from Larijani acknowledging their partnership.

The Epstein Syndicate war on Iran is becoming immensely profitable for the Russian state budget – something not seen since early 2022 price hikes. With the Strait of Hormuz closed and Qatar LNG completely out of the picture, Russian energy is the only game in town: no more a sanctioned commodity. Talk about the war on Iran weaponizing Russian oil and gas.

What will India learn from its double betrayal

India, by contrast, is a case that could break any psychoanalytic cabinet. New Delhi is chairing BRICS in 2026. It’s one of BRICS founders, and Iran is a full BRICS member. Every BRICS original member condemned the Epstein Syndicate war on Iran: Brazil, Russia, China, South Africa. India waited three days to basically say that Iran and the US should talk, “nicely”.

While Prime Minister Modi was signing defense deals with that death cult in West Asia – 40% of its weapons exports go to India – a fellow BRICS member was being bombed with some of these very same weapons.

Modi in effect was in Israel gushing about “motherland” (India) and “fatherland” (Israel) only 48 hours before the death cult in West Asia and the wider Epstein Syndicate launched their decapitation strike on Tehran.

For all practical purposes, the Modi gang privileged weapons deals – and Trump’s tariff relief – over international law.

And it gets even filthier.

India could not even issue a pro-forma statement condemning the American torpedo attack on Iranian warship Iris Dena on international waters – after the Indian Navy hosted Iris Dena in a military exercise. All BRICS founding members condemned it. Not India.

The controversy is still rolling: India may have even given the coordinates of the – unarmed and invited – Iris Dena to the Americans. And now Sri Lanka, under American pressure, refuses to hand over the dead bodies to Iran.

It will take time to evaluate how deep India’s betrayal blew BRICS apart. As it stands, BRICS are in a coma.

Perhaps there may be something auspicious coming out of it. And that’s thanks to unbounded Iranian finesse.

Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, had a phone call with Abbas Araghchi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran.

Aragchi played it like a consumate gentleman. He did not lecture India, or exploded in rage – American-style. He was restrained, as in letting India know that Iran is fully aware New Delhi is in a very tight spot, and that Tehran interprets this strategic ambiguity as relatively useful, and not hostile.

In practical terms, Iran is virtually India’s neighbor: Iran’s southern Makran coast is right across the Arabian Sea from India’s western shore. Kandla Port in Gujarat to Chabahar in Sistan-Balochistan is just 550 nautical miles. Talk about a maritime corridor, which for centuries was a Maritime Silk Road between two civilizational states.

And now it’s all back, as part of the International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC), which links 3 BRICS: Russia, Iran and India, the theme of my ‘Golden Corridor’ documentary shot last year in Iran.

Moreover, Iran is the nearest major source of oil and LNG for India.

Russia is teaching India its own lesson. New Delhi will have to pay dearly for it – as in no more energy discounts, even if Moscow is ready to potentially raise India’s share of Russian crude imports to up to 40%, as confirmed by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak.

New Delhi may be out of the picture in terms of understanding the enormous stakes of the Epstein Syndicate war on Iran.

Moscow-Beijing though, are on a whole new level. They are investing on the optimal outcome: a war that the Empire of Chaos cannot win, and at a price it cannot afford to pay.

The stage is set. Russia briefed Iran on what was coming; Russia-China provide crucial intel and 24/7 satellite surveillance; and Decentralized Mosaic does the heavy lifting. The Exceptionalist strike “plan” was deeply compromised from the start.

[Ravenlocke]

Pepe Escobar reposted

Patarames
@Pataramesh
·
6h
Iran is at a tactical degradation phase of enemy airpower and defenses

Only in the next phase, de-industrialization of Israel's weapon factories will begin

➡️ Firepower goes towards (hardly visible) military bases, not yet Tel Aviv

Missile fire rate is expected to increase

https://x.com/Pataramesh/status/2032420890936307814

https://x.com/RealPepeEscobar/status...07599451730216

https://x.com/RealPepeEscobar/status...11570887180314

[Ravenlocke]

The Cradle

11m
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC):
—
"The 46th wave of Operation True Promise 4 was carried out under the blessed code name 'Ya Sahib al-Zaman' and in memory of the martyred IRGC Major General Gholamali Rashid and Mohammad Bagheri against targets in the occupied territories using super-heavy Khorramshahr, Kheibar Shekan, Emad, and Ghadr missiles.

A life of siren after siren and fighting over entering shelters is the current state of the Zionists.

Additional information will be released shortly."

https://x.com/TheCradleMedia/status/2032524008999043234

[Ravenlocke]

The Cradle

The US has announced a $10 million reward for information on Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, and other senior officials including Ali Larijani, despite the fact that Larijani and several officials appeared publicly during Quds Day rallies in Tehran.

https://x.com/TheCradleMedia/status/2032522155104039374