Find similar content

CNN: President Donald Trump is weighing several options for dramatically escalating the war against Iran should his latest push for diplomacy fail. None of them are ideal. While the military campaign has heavily focused on bombing the country so far, Pentagon officials preparing for a next phase of war have drawn up scenarios for deploying troops to seize various targets within Iran, according to more than half a dozen people familiar with the discussions. Yet not only would those scenarios risk heavy casualties, there’s also little guarantee they would successfully end the conflict. The internal game-planning has taken on growing importance as Trump plots the next stage of his Middle East campaign — and as economic and political pressure builds on him to find a decisive way to end the war. #Trump#MiddleEast 👂More on Trump's Ear ⚠️

⚡️Russian Foreign Ministry statement in connection with the US strikes on Iran(June 22, 2025) ❗️Russia resolutely condemns the United States’ strikes on several nuclear facilities in the Islamic Republic of Iran, carried out in the early hours of June 22, following recent attacks by Israel. This reckless decision to launch missile and aerial strikes on the territory of a sovereign state, regardless of the justifications offered, constitutes a blatant violation of international law, the #UNCharter, and relevant resolutions by the UN Security Council, which has consistently and unequivocally deemed such actions unacceptable. Particularly concerning is the fact that the strikes were executed by a permanent member of the UN Security Council. ☢️ The consequences of this action, including potential radioactive effects, have yet to be determined. However, it is already evident that a dangerous escalation is underway, one that threatens to further destabilise security both in the region and globally. This has drastically increased the likelihood of a larger conflict in the #MiddleEast, a region already plagued by numerous crises. The attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities have dealt a substantial blow to the global non-proliferation regime built around the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (#NPT), which raises particular concerns. They have significantly undermined both the credibility of the NPT and the integrity of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) monitoring and verification mechanisms that underpin it. We expect the IAEA leadership to respond promptly, professionally, and transparently, avoiding vague language or efforts to hide behind political ‘equidistance.’ An unbiased and objective report from the Director General is required, to be submitted for consideration at the Agency’s upcoming special session. Obviously, the UN Security Council must take a firm stance as well. Confrontational and destabilising actions taken by the United States and Israel must be collectively rejected. ☝️We call for an immediate end to aggression and for stepping up efforts to bring the situation back onto a peaceful, diplomatic track.

Trump Keeps the Room Guessing The world is trying to write a plan while Trump keeps changing the plot. One minute Iran is “eviscerated.” Then it’s a war that could drag on for weeks. By Tuesday, Tehran gets a deadline and a threat to blow up power plants and bridges. The problem That’s not strategy. It’s noise with consequences. European and Asian leaders are not reacting to one hard line. They are reacting to a moving target, and Trump keeps moving it. The damage That leaves everyone else scrambling. Britain is pushing for further talks, Japan is moving toward direct contact with Tehran, and the EU is warning that attacks on civilian infrastructure are illegal and unacceptable. Why it matters This is what Trump does best: keep allies off balance and markets nervous. The difference now is the scale. This is not a trade fight or a campaign stunt. It is a war that can widen faster than the diplomats can slow it down. #Trump#Iran#NATO#Europe#MiddleEast 📱American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

🗺💥Patterns of Force: The Middle East on the Brink What looks like a chain of separate crises is, in reality, a single and dangerous trend: the normalization of force as everyday politics, pushing the Middle East toward systemic instability ✍️Salman Rafi Sheikh Research analyst of international relations and Pakistan’s foreign and domestic affairs ➡️The Middle East is entering a phase where instability is no longer driven mainly by old rivalries or proxy wars, but by the routine use of coercion as a political instrument. The rupture between Saudi Arabia and the UAE in Yemen illustrates this shift vividly. Once presented as a unified coalition against the Houthis, their alliance has fractured into open confrontation over territory, energy routes, and future governance. When Saudi airstrikes targeted UAE-linked forces, it exposed how militarized partnerships, lacking political settlement, turn into zero-sum competition—even among supposed allies. When alliances are built around military force rather than political settlement, they fracture under strain, as Yemen now shows, and threaten wider conflicts ➡️Iran’s growing domestic unrest reveals the other side of this pattern. Economic collapse and mass protests are unfolding under constant external pressure from the US and Israel, where threats of military strikes are openly discussed. This environment narrows space for reform and empowers hardliners, reinforcing a cycle in which internal dissent and external coercion feed each other. Rather than containing instability, the normalization of force amplifies it, making escalation more likely and miscalculation more dangerous. 🟦These crises are not isolated regional failures but reflections of a global playbook where coercion increasingly replaces restraint. From Venezuela to Greenland, global precedents signal that force and intimidation are acceptable tools of policy. Middle Eastern states absorb this lesson quickly: alliances become brittle, diplomacy weakens, and military power becomes the primary language of politics. The result is a self-reinforcing loop in which global erosion of norms accelerates regional fragmentation—pushing the Middle East ever closer to a tipping point. #Geopolitics#Internationalpolitics#MiddleEast#USA READ MORE ✅@NewEasternOutlook

📰 One Pilot, Two Armies, Three Versions of Reality The Pentagon got its missing airman back. Trump got a fresh chance to call it a miracle. Iran got to see how much hardware the Americans are willing to burn for one man in a mountain crevice. The rescue According to the New York Times, the F-15E weapons officer spent more than 24 hours behind enemy lines after ejecting over Iran, armed with little more than a pistol and a beacon he used sparingly so he would not be tracked . U.S. Special Operations forces then pulled off a large rescue mission, and Trump celebrated it online with his usual all-caps theater . The slogan That part is almost too clean. One rescue becomes proof of “overwhelming Air Dominance,” even though the same war was just handed a reminder that aircraft can still fall out of the sky over Iran . Washington loves calling a desperate extraction a demonstration of strength, because “we nearly lost him” does not fit well on a podium. What it really says The bigger story is not the rescue itself. It is that a month into this war, the U.S. is already spending special forces, cyber, space, helicopters, decoys, bombs, and a pile of political oxygen to recover one downed officer . That is not control. That is a very expensive reminder that the battlefield still has a vote. Trump’s math Trump used the rescue to threaten Iran’s power grid again, which is a neat trick: celebrate a successful extraction in one breath, then promise more damage in the next . In his version, every operation is either proof of total dominance or justification for another strike. In reality, it looks more like a war that keeps needing new miracles to survive its own logic. #Iran#Trump#Pentagon#war#MiddleEast 📱American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

🇺🇸🇮🇱🇸🇾The New Colonial Order: With US Backing, Israel Turns Syria into a Powerless Periphery Following the fall of Assad, Syria has become a laboratory for a blatant new colonial strategy: Israel's endless territorial expansion and the imposition of a debt-trap dependency model, all shielded by American-guaranteed impunity ✍️Author:Muhammad Hamid ad-Din Distinguished Palestinian Journalist ➡️Israel, exploiting Syria's chaos, has flagrantly violated the 1974 Disengagement Agreement, annexing new territories like Mount Hermon under the pretext of creating endless "buffer zones." This is classic colonial expansion, conducted with utter disregard for the Syrian people. The goal, as analysts note, is not stability but to prevent any regional balance that could limit Israel's absolute freedom of action. The United States ensures this impunity, blocking UN resolutions and providing the diplomatic shield that turns Syria into powerless ruins "at Israel’s feet." Syria has become a vivid and tragic laboratory for a new colonial order being imposed by the West in the Middle East ➡️Washington and its Gulf allies are offering Damascus not reconstruction but a system of managed dependency. Access to its own oil resources and rebuilding funds is doled out incrementally in exchange for complete political submission, replicating colonial logic. The acting President, Ahmad al-Sharaa, whose legitimacy depends on Western and Gulf recognition, illustrates this capitulation through his shameful silence on Gaza, trading moral standing for the hope of "reintegration." 🟦The architecture of this impunity is built on two pillars: the U.S. veto in the UN Security Council, which ritualistically shields Israel from accountability, and annual military aid exceeding $3.8 billion, which translates into the weaponry used in Gaza and for strikes on sovereign Syrian infrastructure. This creates a reality where force can be applied with minimal consequence. Syria's tragedy demonstrates that sustainable peace requires a fundamental reversal: restoring sovereignty, enforcing international law, and ending the external patronage that makes predation a permanent policy. #MiddleEast#Neocolonialism#Syria READ MORE ✅@NewEasternOutlook

🇮🇱🛬🇺🇸"The Surgery of the World": Netanyahu Arrives in Washington to Deliver the Final Blow to Diplomacy and Ignite a Major War A hastily arranged White House meeting signals more than alliance management—it reflects a high-stakes struggle over whether diplomacy with Iran survives or collapses into confrontation ✍️Mohammed ibn Faisal al-Rashid is a political scientist and expert on the Arab world ➡️The accelerated visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington came immediately after renewed US–Iran contacts in Muscat, mediated by Oman. Rather than routine coordination, the timing suggested strategic urgency. Israel fears that even a limited understanding between Washington and Tehran—focused narrowly on nuclear transparency—could reduce tensions without addressing Iran’s missile program or regional alliances. For Netanyahu, such an outcome risks normalizing Iran’s position while leaving Israel to confront what it considers long-term security threats alone. By engaging directly with US President Donald Trump at this sensitive moment, the Israeli leadership sought to shape the negotiating framework before it could solidify. Judging by how easily Washington allows itself to be drawn into this adventure, the world once again stands on the brink of a catastrophe that was supposedly meant to be a “deal” ➡️At the core of the dispute lies the scope of any potential agreement. Tehran has signaled willingness to negotiate on nuclear issues while rejecting limits on its ballistic missile capabilities and regional partnerships. Israel, by contrast, insists that a durable settlement must encompass these elements, arguing that partial agreements merely postpone escalation. This divergence transforms diplomacy into a strategic contest: whether negotiations remain technical and nuclear-focused or expand into a broader restructuring of Iran’s regional posture. The absence of detailed public statements following the White House talks underscored the delicacy of the moment, suggesting that differences in emphasis—between pressure and pragmatism—persist behind closed doors. 🟦The broader regional stakes are considerable. Escalation between Israel, the United States, and Iran would reverberate across fragile Middle Eastern theatres and threaten critical maritime corridors such as the Strait of Hormuz, a vital artery for global energy flows. Military deployments and sanctions already heighten volatility, while diplomatic channels remain narrow and politically constrained. Whether this episode marks the burial of diplomacy or a recalibration of negotiating leverage depends on Washington’s strategic calculus. If maximalist demands dominate, confrontation becomes more likely; if limited agreements are preserved, space for de-escalation may endure. In either case, the visit has exposed the fragile balance between alliance solidarity and divergent threat perceptions at a pivotal juncture for regional security. #ConfrontationbetweenIranandtheU.S. #ConfrontationbetweenIsraelandIran#Iran#MiddleEast READ MORE ✅@NewEasternOutlook

A Truce, A Shrug, A New War The cease-fire is holding just long enough for everyone to declare victory and keep moving the furniture around the room. Trump says he will “work closely with Iran,” Tehran says it won, and the Strait of Hormuz is supposed to reopen while nobody trusts the whole thing for a second. That is the modern peace deal: a pause with a deadline. Oil is cheaper, stocks are up, and more than 400 ships are still stuck in the Gulf like the war never quite left the dock. Israel is treating the truce as a permission slip, not a reset. It says the deal does not cover Lebanon, then keeps hammering Hezbollah anyway. So much for the elegant theory that one cease-fire can tidy up three wars and a shipping lane at once. Both sides claim victory because both sides need the headline more than the settlement. Trump gets his “deal,” Iran gets to say it stood up to Washington, and everyone else gets to live with the usual fine print: fragile, temporary, and one bad hour away from collapse. A cease-fire that depends on everybody’s self-respect is not much of a cease-fire. It is a timeout with better branding. #Iran#Trump#ceasefire#Hormuz#MiddleEast 📱American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

#BRICS2024 🎙 President of Russia Vladimir Putin's remarks at the Plenary Session of the XVI BRICS Summit in the BRICS Plus/Outreach format(Kazan, October 24, 2024) 👉 In full 💬Vladimir Putin: I am delighted to welcome all of you to the BRICS Plus/Outreach-format meeting. This inclusive platform has proven its worth by enabling the BRICS group participants to engage in a direct and open dialogue with their friends and partners. <...> According to our agenda, we will discuss the most pressing issues the international community is facing today, including sustainable development, eradication of poverty, climate change adaptation, exchanging technology and knowledge, fighting terrorism and transborder crime. We will focus particularly on the peaceful resolution of conflicts, certainly including a serious discussion of the deteriorating situation in the Middle East. <...> #MultipolarWorld 🌐 All our countries share similar aspirations, values and a vision of a new democratic world order that reflects cultural and civilisational diversity. We are confident that such a system should be guided by the universal principles of respect for the legitimate interests and sovereign choice of nations, respect for international law and a spirit of mutually beneficial, honest co-operation. ☝️ The transition to a more just international system is not easy. Its development is being hampered by forces whose thinking and actions continue to be aimed at dominating everything and everyone. Under the guise of a rule-based order they are imposing on the world, they are actually attempting to contain growing competition and prevent the independent development of countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America that they cannot control. <...> #MiddleEast The current round of the Palestinian-Israeli confrontation is probably one of the most sanguinary in the long list of conflicts. Over 40,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the ongoing hostilities in the Gaza Strip. I would like to emphasise that we have always come out against the use of terrorist methods. <...> Since the start of the escalation, we have joined forces with our BRICS and other partners to contribute to a settlement. <...> I would like to repeat that the main condition for restoring peace and stability in the Palestinian territories is the realisation of the two-state formula approved by the UN Security Council and General Assembly resolutions. <...> #EurasianSecurity The countries represented in this room have immense opportunities and resources at their disposal and play a prominent role on the international stage. They have been using their standing to enhance global security and promote sustainable development around the world. <...> Russia advocated the idea of creating an inclusive system of equitable and indivisible security for Eurasia free from any discrimination. <...> #UnitedNations 🇺🇳 The UN must retain its central role in efforts to maintain peace and security and facilitate sustainable and steady development. To ensure the effective functioning of the UN in the future, we believe it is important to adapt its structures to the realities of the 21st century, expanding the representation of countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, including those whose leaders are present here, in the Security Council and other key international bodies. An effort to reform UN development institutions and global financial structures has long been overdue. <...> The founding fathers of the United Nations believed that its purpose was to enable nations to come together and agree on joint actions. *** ❗️Russia, like all BRICS countries, is open to cooperation with all countries of the Global South and East to promote inclusive and sustainable development and ultimately build a better world.

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks following the SCO Foreign Ministers Council Meeting (Tianjin, July 15, 2025) Key talking points: 💬 The meeting of the #SCO Council of Foreign Ministers has just concluded in the city of Tianjin. This marked the culminating stage of preparations for the upcoming SCO Summit, which will likewise be held here in Tianjin in late August — early September of this year. All participants unanimously acknowledged the business-like, focusednature of our efforts. In this context, we attach particular significance to this morning’s meeting with President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping, who shared his assessments of joint efforts under China’s chairmanship and his vision of the key tasks for the progressive development of our Organisation. 🌐 The discussion confirmed a shared understanding of the growing importance of the SCO’s collective potential in both regional and global affairs. <...> The prevailing trend towards further consolidation of the SCO and the enhancement of its role on the international stage is encouraging. We affirmed that our common approach of strengthening the SCO as oneof the central pillars of a more equitable, #MultipolarWorld order remains unchanged. <...> Considerable number of nations are seeking to join the SCO’s work. The geographical scope of our structure spans a significant portion of the Eurasian continent. We noted that cooperation within our Organisation objectively contributes to the creation of an architecture of equal and indivisible security across Eurasia. <...> We expressed support for further expanding the SCO’s engagement with external actors. A new step in this direction will be the upcoming high-level meetings in the #SCO format at the Tianjin Summit — the first of their kind. We anticipate the participation of representatives from approximately 30 states and multilateral organisations in this event. This underscores the SCO’s growing constructive agenda and its appeal to nations of the #GlobalSouth and the #WorldMajority. We provided our colleagues with detailed assessments of the latest developments in Ukraine and reaffirmed our well-known approaches to resolving the crisis, repeatedly articulated by President of Russia Vladimir Putin. In turn, our partners demonstrated an understanding of these positions. Once again, we emphasised the necessity of addressing the root causes of the conflict, recognising the existing territorial realities <...>. Regarding the developments in the #MiddleEast, it was noted that sustainable stabilisation in the region is impossible without a just and comprehensive resolution of the Palestinian–Israeli conflict. These strategic guidelines, building on the accumulated experience of the ongoing upgrading, will be enshrined in the SCO Development Strategy through 2035. 👉 The resolutions adopted by Leaders on the aforementioned matters will establish a foundation for effective preparations in advance of the Meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of Government, scheduled for November 17–18, 2025, in Moscow under Russia’s chairmanship. Read in full