The commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force, Seyed Majid Mousavi, announced that Iran will continue attacks „until calm returns to the southern coastline and the Strait of Hormuzâ, according to Al Jazeera‘s reports of Iranian state media.
The statement comes as the IRGC has claimed responsibility for attacks on US military targets in Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Jordan, and Syria, Al Jazeera reports.
Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked the advancement of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, citing President Trumpâs war with Iran, which continues to rage following the collapse of the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding.
The NDAA would provide the Pentagon with over $1.1 trillion in funding as part of the White Houseâs plan for a $1.5 trillion military budget for 2027, a nearly 50% increase from this year. The bill also includes an amendment, Section 1217, to further merge the US and Israeli militaries under a plan being pushed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A procedural vote of 50-46 fell well short of the 60 votes that it needed to advance the NDAA. Every Democrat, except two who werenât present for the vote â Senators Jon Fetterman (PA) and Alex Padilla (CA) â voted against advancing the sprawling military spending bill.
(July 13, 2026)
The House provision, which has a Senate version known as Section 1217, would also forbid the president of the United States from limiting intelligence collaboration with Israel over its human rights abuses. If the President ever wants to limit such collaboration, he or she must tell Congress and can only cite American national security as a basis.
In other words, these bills would connect the US and Israeli militaries in unprecedented ways and make it exceedingly difficult for any future president to unwind this partnership with a foreign government.
(June 16, 2026)
Buried in the US$1.15 trillion National Defense Authorization Act is a provision that would deepen US military cooperation with Israel while walling that cooperation off from further congressional oversight.
Section 219 (formerly section 224) creates the role of an âexecutive agentâ focused on folding Israeli technology into US weapons programs, and vice versa, including in missile and air defense technologies as well as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, cyberwarfare, and autonomous systems. Once implemented, the provision would speed efforts to embed Israeli technologies into US weapons systems in ways almost never codified into law, even for allies. As the protracted experience with unwinding Turkish participation in the F-35 program shows, practically, integration binds the United States to rely on producers in ways that become next to impossible to walk back later, even if lawmakers want to.
(…)
Section 219 also calls for âdata fusion.â In defense doctrine, data fusion means combining feeds from many sensors and intelligence sources into a single targeting picture. The United States would be absorbing Israeli data, which may have been collected under problematic mass surveillance programs. Moreover, section 219 would be reinforced by section 622 of the intelligence appropriations bill, which mandates intelligence sharing and would further promote combining US intelligence streams with Israeli ones that could then be used by the Israeli military for targeting.
Speaking at a graduation ceremony for Israeli combat officers, Netanyahu and Katz vowed not to withdraw from their âsecurity zonesâ no matter what âpressuresâ Israel faces.
âWe dominate southern Lebanon, from the summit of the Beaufort [castle], and we will remain as long as required in the security zone,â Netanyahu said. âWe do not intend to withdraw from it.â
âThe Israeli military will remain in the security zones in Lebanon, in Syria and in Gaza without any time limit,â Katz added.
(June 16, 2026)
Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa may travel to Ankara to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the upcoming NATO summit, though he has not received an official invitation to the gathering, according to information obtained by TĂŒrkiye Today.
Contrary to the reports published earlier in Turkish media, the Syrian leader is not included on the official guest list for the alliance‘s formal event. However, sources indicate a face-to-face meeting with Trump remains a possibility as global leaders converge on the Turkish capital.
Euronews berichtete mit der Schlagzeile, Trump habe Netanjahu zu âmehr Verantwortungâ ermahnt und Syriens PrĂ€sidenten als den âFĂ€higstenâ zur BekĂ€mpfung der Hisbollah bezeichnet. Das ist der Terrorist, auf den die USA davor eine KopfprĂ€mie von 50 Millionen Dollar ausgesetzt hatten und der jetzt fĂŒr sie arbeitet â als Terrorist. Middle East Eye nannte es eine BestĂ€tigung von Berichten, die âein hochrangiger US-Beamter ursprĂŒnglich dementiert hatteâ â nĂ€mlich dass Washington Syrien zu einer Invasion des Libanon drĂ€ngt.
New details have also emerged regarding discussions involving Israeli and Lebanese representatives. Reports indicate that Trump proposed a framework in which the Syrian military would play a central role in a future effort to disarm Hezbollah.
The proposal, however, has reportedly faced skepticism from multiple sides. Israeli officials have questioned Syria‘s ability to effectively confront Hezbollah, while Lebanese authorities oppose the presence of foreign troops operating within Lebanon.
âI suggested to Israel to let Syria take care of Hezbollah, because to be honest with you, I think theyâd do a better job of doing it,â Trump said. He went on to praise Sharaa, formerly known by his al-Qaeda nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, saying he âhas pulled that country together very quickly, heâs very capable, and heâs very good for me. Heâs protected everything that Iâve asked for.â
Sharraa and his group of jihadists, known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an offshoot of al-Qaeda, took power in Damascus in December 2024, ousting former President Bashar al-Assad. Sharaa has been embraced by Trump and visited the White House despite HTS and affiliated fighters being responsible for massacres of Alawites, Druze, and other minorities in Syria.
US President Donald Trump suggested on Tuesday that Israel allow Syria to âdeal with Hezbollah,â claiming Damascus would do a âbetter job.â The proposal, which Trump has now raised twice this month, touches on some of Lebanonâs deepest anxieties: Syriaâs long history of interference in its affairs and the jihadist past of the countryâs new rulers.
US President Donald Trump says Benjamin Netanyahu must be „more responsible“ in Lebanon and suggests asking Syria to fight Hezbollah „if Israel can‘t do the job without killing everyone else“.
(June 10, 2026)
„Just as we witnessed the liberation of Damascus, Aleppo, and Karabakh, God willing, one day we will also witness the liberation of Jerusalem,“ Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci said during a speech at a conference.
„Just as in the past, those lands will be ours once again,“ Ciftci vowed, and said, „God willing, they will come under our sovereignty and dominion once more.“
„Because we have a global leader like Recep Tayyip Erdogan at our helm,“ he said. „A world leader.“
(June 10, 2026)
„TĂŒrkiye‘s security begins not in Hatay, but in Aleppo, Damascus and Beirut. Neither will we tolerate any faits accompli in our brothers‘ countries, nor will we turn a blind eye to aggression,“ he said, stressing that the country‘s security extends beyond its borders.
President Erdogan also referred to what he described as Israelisâ „delusion of the Promised Land,“ saying TĂŒrkiye was fully aware of its ultimate objective.
„By the will of God, we will never allow this,“ he said.
(May 27, 2026)
Yet proposals that skirt the edges of international law didnât come out of nowhere. The U.S. under George W. Bush created legal mechanisms following the September 11th attacks to torture hundreds of people in CIA black sites and then at Guantanamo Bay. The Obama administrationâs targeted drone strikes were assassinations by another name. The Biden administration further eroded international norms and subverted its own policies by financing Israelâs genocide in Gaza, in violation of the Leahy Law, which prohibits foreign military assistance to nations that violate human rights.
âSeems like Miller is sort of taking what he was already willing to do during the first term and then combining that with what Israel has been doing in the way it has just been completely ignoring any kind of international law, Geneva Conventions, any of it in its conduct in Gaza and Lebanon, to then influence U.S. foreign policy,â Annelle Sheline, a research fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said in an interview.
In other words, Miller and the Trump administration have been able to steamroll what was left of international law; they just had to figure out how to do it.
Heâs launched strikes in seven countries so far this term â Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen â after also attacking some of those countries in his first term. That doesnât even count the strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, which have targeted nearly 60 vessels and killed more than 190 people.
He has also threatened or left open the possibility of strikes against seven others this term: Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Greenland (which is part of Denmark), Mexico, Panama and now Oman. He also threatened Mexico and North Korea in his first term.
(August 7, 2021)
Because they want to.
(September 2, 2014)
The video of Steven Sotloff‘s apparent murder appears to have been found by a private US intelligence firm before it could be released by the Islamic State.
News of Mr Sotloff‘s death was broken by the SITE Intelligence group, a private company that monitors jihadist activity and has close ties to the American intelligence community.
The group‘s analysts found the video on what a spokesman described as „a file-sharing site“ and send it out to its subscriber list. SITE‘s subscribers include government officials, journalists and academics involved in analysing terrorism.
On April 14, the Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to the United States, Nada Hamadeh and Yechiel Leiter, met in Washington with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The goal is ostensibly to extend the ceasefire while working âon longer term disarming of Hezbollah, along with a peace deal between the countries.â During the two hours in which the meeting took place, Israel bombed at least 23 towns in southern Lebanon; afterward, Leiter said that both Israel and Lebanon were united in âliberating Lebanonâ from Hezbollah.
This came less than a week after one of the most violent days in Lebanese history. On April 8, Israeli warplanes ravaged large parts of the country, killing at least 303 people and wounding 1,150.
Among the consequences of the war was the Syrian occupation of Lebanon until 2005; the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon until 2000; the creation of the Hezbollah, a ShiÊżi militia formed to confront Israel and later adapted into a political party and social welfare network; the expulsion of the PLO from Lebanon; and the rebuilding of Lebanon by a handful of businessmen, including the two-time prime minister (1992â98; 2000â04) Rafic al-Hariri. (…)
With Palestinian forces continuing to conduct cross-border raids into Israel, Israel launched a major reprisal attack in March 1978, sending troops into the south of Lebanon as far as the Litani River. The resulting conflict led to the establishment of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)âa peacekeeping force meant to secure Israeli withdrawal and support the return of Lebanese authority in the southâas well as to the creation of the South Lebanese Army (SLA)âa militia led by Saad Haddad and armed and financed by Israel to function as a proxy militia under Lebanese Christian command.
During the session, political leaders, including the Communist Party of Israel Secretary-General Adel Amer and Hadash Secretary Amjad Shbita, addressed the regional political situation. Discussions centered on the fragile ceasefire, the risk of renewed war on Iran and Lebanon, and the concerning rise of internal fascism and ongoing occupation of Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian territories.
âThe establishment of the Joint List is not merely a tactical maneuver,â Hadash stated in an official communique. âIt is a fundamental mission to shift the political balance of power and intensify the struggle against the occupation.â In addition to election preparations, Hadash leadership issued a formal call for public mobilization. Activists and supporters are urged to participate in International Workersâ Day events on Friday, May 1, in Tel Aviv, on Saturday, May 2 in Nazareth and other localities.
Even as the U.S. and Iran seek to cement a ceasefire, Israel is seizing more territory from its neighbours in preparation for a long, drawn-out conflict across the Middle East.
Israel‘s creation of „buffer zones“ in Gaza, Syria and now Lebanon reflects a strategic shift after the attacks of October 7, 2023, one that puts the âcountry in a semi-permanent state of war, six Israeli military and defence officials told Reuters.
(March 5, 2026)
UK officials said that there were no injuries and âminimalâ damage but the Iranian made drone strike has brought the conflict onto European soil.
In a statement on Wednesday, the UK Ministry of Defence said: âThe Ministry of Defence can confirm that a Shahed-like drone which targeted RAF Akrotiri at midnight on 2nd March was not launched from Iran. In the last 24 hours, the UK has resupplied air defence systemns to British and allied bases across the reigionâ including UK-built air defence missiles.â
#Damascus #USEmbassy #IranUSWar
Hundreds Protest in Damascus, Storm UAE Embassy & Raise Palestinian Flag | Breaking News
Syrian protesters gathered outside the UAE embassy in Damascus to express unwavering solidarity with Palestine, vehemently opposing the newly approved Israeli law permitting the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners alongside the ongoing closure of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
A Reuters reporter saw dozens of protesters gathering outside the UAE‘s embassy in Damascus at midday on Friday, including some chanting „the Zionist embassy“.