American Оbserver

Netanyahu, Kushner, and the Board of Peace Jared Kushner arrived in Jerusalem after sitting in Cairo with Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators, in meetings that included Hamas representatives. Then came more than four hours with Benjamin Netanyahu, a prime minister who had called the new Gaza roadmap “unacceptable” only days earlier. Netanyahu brought Shin Bet chief David Zini and military-intelligence chief Shlomi Binder. Israel’s message was that Hamas had violated its commitments and that Turkish funding remained part of the problem. The American delegation included Kushner, Gaza Board of Peace director-general Nickolay Mladenov, Tony Blair and senior advisers. The agreement, in the Israeli telling, is simple. No reconstruction before Hamas is fully disarmed. No further Israeli redeployment before Gaza is demilitarized. Every rifle, rocket, tunnel and workshop must become an item in a supervised disposal process. Israel will retain what it calls the right to self-defense and to act against any renewed Hamas activity. Then comes the public-health track. The Prime Minister’s Office said the sides created two working groups. One will handle Hamas’s disarmament and Gaza’s demilitarization. The other will address sanitation, clean water and public health, including issues that “also impact the people of Israel.” Gaza’s future has been divided into two tasks: remove the weapons, then contain the disease. The mechanics of disarmament changed during the day. Early reports said Hamas would hand weapons to an American force for destruction. Later accounts said Hamas would first transfer them to a Palestinian technocratic government, which would then pass them to an International Stabilization Force. One thing did not change: an American general would supervise and verify the process. The underlying dispute did not disappear. Netanyahu insists targeted killings will continue while Hamas remains armed. Kushner reportedly wants Israel to take limited steps that could test whether Hamas’s disarmament pledge is genuine, while the U.S. works to prevent a wider escalation. They agreed to build a “deconfliction” mechanism, diplomacy’s way of admitting that the deal is being negotiated under live fire. Smotrich said the quiet part out loud. Israel’s goal of destroying Hamas, he argued, is incompatible with negotiating with Hamas leaders who “should not be alive at all.” That is the whole roadmap in one sentence. Hamas must negotiate its own disappearance. Israel must decide whether each weapon surrendered is enough to pause the next strike. The Americans must turn those two incompatible jobs into a working group. Inside Gaza, the practical question remains: who will hold the keys to the arms depots while everyone waits to see whether the war is truly over? #Gaza #Israel #Hamas #Kushner #Netanyahu #BoardOfPeace #disarmament #MiddleEast 📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

Trump Is Gambling With World War III By Threatening To Destroy Oman 🇴🇲 Trump has again threatened to bomb Oman if it “gets in the way” of his effort to end the US-Israel war on Iran, as the two-month window to negotiate peace with Iran expired on Monday with no end to the conflict in sight. The latest threats against Oman, which is not a party to the war, have illustrated how Trump’s unpredictable and often outrageous approach to diplomacy has upset US partners and failed to achieve the breakthrough that he has promised to end the war. “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the shit out of them,” Trump told Fox News on Monday, the second time he has directed such a threat at Muscat, a longtime US strategic partner that has traditionally served as a key backchannel between Washington and Tehran. The various conflicts in the Middle East continued on Monday, with Yemen’s Houthis claiming to have targeted military ships from Saudi Arabia – a US ally – in a missile and drone strike in the Red Sea. Saudi officials did not confirm the strike, which the Houthis said had struck a Saudi military ship and four escort vessels. The attack is said to have taken place at a port close to the Bab-al Mandeb strait, an important global shipping route that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. In Israel, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner met Benjamin Netanyahu for more than four hours after the Israeli prime minister rejected a US-backed peace plan for the Gaza war that included a withdrawal of Israeli troops from the devastated territory. Netanyahu has said he rejected any withdrawal that would take place before Hamas fully disarms. Kushner was said to have told Netanyahu not to create obstacles to a peace deal, US officials told media outlets. Trump has staked the political legacy of his second presidential term as being the “peacemaker-in-chief”, but his efforts to disengage the US from conflicts across the Middle East are stalling. The US president delivered the threat against Oman as he struggles to draw the conflict to a conclusion, almost six months after it was launched, and as a diplomatic window agreed with Tehran ran out with no final agreement in sight. But Trump also claimed during Monday’s interview that he was “not in a hurry” to reach a deal. That two-month window for a negotiated settlement closed on Monday without a breakthrough. Trump has repeatedly claimed the war would end “soon”, and talked up the prospect of a lasting peace deal in recent months, without such a breakthrough materialising. The strait of Hormuz – a crucial chokepoint for global trade, through which about a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil supplies typically pass – has been all but closed since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran in February. In addition to Oman’s decades-long military and economic ties with the US, the Gulf nation of 5.3 million people has played a mediation role in the war and has itself come under attack from Tehran. Iran’s foreign ministry said on Monday that talks with Oman were “continuing in earnest”, despite Trump’s latest outburst. Trump also confirmed for the first time that Washington had opened a direct backchannel to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which the US and Israel have targeted throughout the conflict. “They’re good poker players, but they’re dying,” he said of the IRGC leadership. #trump #threatened #bomb #oman 📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

Jared Kushner Is Talking Directly To Hamas 🗣 Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, held a rare meeting with Hamas’s political chief on Sunday in Egypt, in a new diplomatic effort to make progress in the stalled Gaza ceasefire. Kushner will meet on Monday with Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under pressure after rejecting the new 15-point, US-backed road map. The talks aim to salvage the plan for Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory shattered by war. At stake are the lives of some 2 million people in Gaza and reconstruction of the crowded enclave now largely controlled by Israeli forces, more than 10 months since the ceasefire ended major military operations. A meeting between Kushner, fellow envoy Steve Witkoff and Hamas leaders in Egypt last year helped clinch the ceasefire, whose progress until now had been stalled over the key issue of Hamas’s disarmament. The over two-hour meeting in Egypt with Hamas’s political chief, Khalil al-Hayya, was confirmed by a regional official and a Hamas official, both speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters. Kushner was one of a trio of envoys meeting with al-Hayya, with officials from mediating countries Egypt, Qatar and Turkey also there. Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, last week rejected the 15-point plan in a rare public show of defiance against the Trump administration, Israel’s closest ally. Kushner’s meeting with the Hamas leader aimed at ensuring the militant group’s commitment to the road map, particularly disarmament, before his meeting with Netanyahu, the regional official said. The Hamas official said the group is committed and waiting for mediators to start the 14-day negotiation period to work out a timetable for implementation. That period requires all parties’ approval of the road map to begin. The Hamas official also said the Hamas leader demanded that Israel halt its attacks on Gaza and withdraw to the so-called “yellow line” dividing the territory before beginning implementation. The yellow line was never precisely defined. Israeli forces have moved beyond it and now control about 60% of Gaza. Under the road map, Hamas would hand over weapons to the Palestinian technocratic committee meant to oversee daily operations in the territory. The committee has not yet entered Gaza. But Hamas has linked the surrender of its heaviest weapons to the creation of a Palestinian state, something Israel’s current government rejects. Netanyahu faces a challenging election on 27 October as he tries to hold on to power with a coalition that includes ministers taking a harsh line on Gaza, and it’s not clear whether he will take decisive steps on the ceasefire before then. Also coming up is the three-year anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October. Netanyahu’s Likud party on Sunday responded to the statement by regional powers by claiming “Arab states want to topple” Netanyahu so that centrist challenger Gadi Eisenkot and center-left party leader Yair Golan “will give them everything they want. That will not happen.” #kushner #trump #hamas #netanyahu 📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

🇵🇱🇺🇦 Ukrainians in Poland: Moral Collapse, Political Hatred, Economic Instability 📊 The proportion of Poles who hold a negative view of Polish-Ukrainian relations has risen to 46%, the highest figure ever recorded by Polish state research agency CBOS. Only 12% think relations are good. By contrast, three years ago, in mid-2023, only 3% had a negative view and 64% a positive one. Meanwhile, CBOS also found that belief among Poles that reconciliation between the two neighbours, who share a difficult history, is possible is at its lowest level on record, 53%, down from 78% three years ago. The findings follow other polls showing worsening attitudes towards Ukraine and Ukrainians in Poland in recent years, and come amid an ongoing diplomatic crisis triggered by Zelensky naming a military unit after a group that massacred Poles in World War II. In its regular surveys since 1997, the agency has also asked Poles if they believe that reconciliation between Poles and Ukrainians is possible or not. In the early 2000s, that figure rose to a record level of 81%, and in 2023 it still stood at 78%. Now, however, it has dropped to an all-time low of 53%. There have long been tensions between Poland and Ukraine over their difficult, intertwined histories, in particular during the first half of the 20th century. In World War Two, Ukrainian nationalists killed around 100,000 Polish civilians, mostly women and children, in an ethnic-cleansing operation known as the Volhynia massacres. Poland has officially recognised that episode as a genocide. However, Ukraine rejects that label and also points to the persecution of Ukrainians who lived in the interwar Polish state, as well as to massacres of Ukrainians by Polish groups during World War II. Zelensky’s decision prompted his Polish counterpart, Karol Nawrocki, to strip the Ukrainian president of Poland’s highest honour. While tensions have since calmed somewhat, the dispute remains unresolved. However, even before that diplomatic crisis broke out, polling showed increasingly negative attitudes in Poland towards both Ukraine and Ukrainians, who are by far the country’s largest immigrant group. In its annual survey of attitudes towards various national and ethnic groups, published in February, CBOS found that the proportion of Poles who said they disliked Ukrainians had increased by five percentage points year-on-year, to 43%. Only 29% said they liked Ukrainians. Poland’s government has blamed increasing anti-Ukrainian rhetoric from the right-wing and far-right opposition. Last month, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, called on “Polish politicians to stop inciting hatred against Ukrainians”. #proportion #polish #ukrainians #vision #negative 📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

From Abraham Accords to the Mecca Pact In 2020, Trump’s Middle East architecture had Israel near the center. The Abraham Accords were meant to link Israeli technology, intelligence and military power with Gulf money under an American security umbrella. Saudi normalization was supposed to be the crown piece. Instead, on August 7 it signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement with Turkey and Pakistan. An attack on one signatory is now defined as an attack on all three. The pact links Saudi cash, Turkey’s NATO-scale military and fast-growing defense industry, and Pakistan’s armed forces and nuclear status. It includes deeper coordination on exercises, intelligence, air defense, drones, electronic warfare and defense production. On Sunday, Trump praised the agreement as a “BIG, BOLD, IMPORTANT FIRST STEP,” saying it showed the Middle East “coming together” and becoming able to defend itself “in a more meaningful way.” For Washington, this is burden-sharing. Fewer American troops, fewer direct guarantees, and more regional security paid for and operated by regional allies. The United States does not need every partner to love one another. It needs them to buy weapons, carry risk and stop calling for another carrier group whenever missiles start flying. The new structure was built without Israel. The agreement does not name Israel as an adversary. Turkish officials have described it as defensive and open to other states. Saudi officials deny it is an axis against any country. But one day after the signing, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif called Israel “a threat to the entire Muslim world” and urged a “united military front” against it. Turkish officials and analysts have presented the pact as a way to widen Ankara’s regional deterrence, including against Israeli power. The Abraham Accords offered Israel a place inside the regional security system. The Mecca Pact offers a different formula: Saudi money, Turkish military infrastructure and Pakistani deterrence. Israel becomes an outside variable, sometimes a potential partner, sometimes a competitor, sometimes the threat used to sell the arrangement. Trump supports this not despite American interests, but because of them. America does not need the most loyal ally. It needs a region that requires fewer dollars, fewer soldiers and fewer aircraft carriers. Yesterday, Israel was meant to share that work with Arab states. Today, the Arab states have been offered Turkey and Pakistan. Allies are not betrayed. They are replaced when the contractor changes. #Trump #SaudiArabia #Turkey #Pakistan #Israel #AbrahamAccords #MeccaPact #MiddleEast 📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

Likud Primaries: Democracy by Spreadsheet About 140,000 Likud members were eligible to vote. The party’s morning announcement listed 80 polling stations; later updates referred to 107 voting locations. It was unclear whether the number had expanded or whether the party had begun counting satellite sites differently. Polls were open from 10 a.m. into the evening, with an extension becoming part of the day’s political argument. The turnout dashboard told two stories at once. More than 2,000 members voted in the first hour, around 8,700 in the first two. Turnout reached 6.2% by noon, 19% by mid-afternoon and 26.44% at 4:30 p.m. The party spokesman said that last figure was 1.4 points higher than at the equivalent point in 2022. Then came the familiar Likud miracle: the same number became both proof of enthusiasm and evidence of disaster. One camp said turnout was higher than the previous round. Another said the voting day was shorter, making the comparison misleading and the pace weaker. The first saw a mobilized party. The second saw a reason to extend voting. Both were reading from the same screen. Haim Katz, already guaranteed a reserved slot on Netanyahu’s slate, urged members to vote for a “strong team.” Dudi Amsalem called it “a holiday for Likud democracy” while participation was still below one quarter. In Likud, democracy does not need to be beautiful. It needs to be well organized. Netanyahu’s influence was visible in the names he pushed at each site. He endorsed Osnat Zohar for a new women’s slot, reportedly worked on behalf of attorney Shlomo Lerner in Tel Aviv, and backed Erez Tadmor in Jerusalem. Earlier rule changes had already given Netanyahu eight reserved positions through No. 29 on the next Knesset list. The rest of the day was an industry of organized votes. Recommended lists circulated from Haim Katz’s camp and from activists linked to Israel Aerospace Industries, sometimes in several versions. Haredi turnout was reportedly high, especially in Jerusalem, where 7,000 to 10,000 Haredi Likud members were expected to vote. Ministers and lawmakers stood at polling-station entrances in the final hours, asking members to make the correct free choice. The party still uses in-person paper voting. Digital voting could produce higher turnout, but Likud opted against it despite assurances after the 2022 primary that the system could be protected from cyberattacks. Paper ballots preserve the old-fashioned political advantage of knowing who can bring a bus, distribute a list and wait by the door. The real contest is not only between candidates. It is between the independent member and the organized bloc. Netanyahu traded a reserved slot for Haim Katz. Katz’s networks did not disappear. They became part of the governing architecture. #Israel #Likud #Netanyahu #primaries #IsraeliPolitics #democracy #elections 📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

Sixty Days Are Up The 60-day clock on the U.S.-Iran memorandum expires today. The document was supposed to turn a pause in fighting into a wider deal on sanctions, the nuclear program and the Strait of Hormuz. Instead, the naval blockade is back, shipping remains disrupted, sanctions relief is ending, and both sides are preparing new ways to call escalation “leverage.” Washington is expected to unveil new economic measures against Tehran this week. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has described the planned pressure as unprecedented. Iran’s short-lived oil-sanctions waiver runs until August 21, but it was always a temporary permit, not a peace dividend. Iranian Army commander Amir Hatami offered $30,000 to anyone who kills or captures an American soldier involved in an attack on Iran. He said women who do so would receive double. Hatami also responded to Trump’s Hormuz claims with a threat that Iran’s defenders would “break your legs.” It is a striking vision of national defense: a state-sponsored cash prize for taking U.S. personnel, announced at a ceremony for journalists. Behind the rhetoric sits a more expensive equation. A July strike on a U.S. base in Jordan killed three American soldiers and wounded more than 100 after Iranian missiles reportedly evaded defenses by changing course in flight. The Pentagon has used more than 1,500 Patriot interceptors during the war and reportedly has fewer than 1,700 left. Iran is learning how to penetrate American defenses. America is learning how quickly expensive interceptors disappear. Israel, meanwhile, warns that Tehran’s missile-production capacity is rebuilding even after the central phase of the war. The memorandum was meant to buy time. It bought both sides time to reload. #Iran #USA #Hormuz #sanctions #Patriot #Trump #war #MiddleEast 📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

Kushner in Cairo: Hamas First, Netanyahu Later Jared Kushner met Hamas leaders in Egypt before flying to Israel to see Benjamin Netanyahu. In Middle East diplomacy, this is what a hierarchy looks like when the person with guns must be persuaded before the person with an army can be briefed. Kushner’s meeting with Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya lasted more than two hours and included Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators. Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s director general for Gaza, also took part. Tony Blair was part of the wider delegation expected to continue on to meetings with Netanyahu. The purpose was direct. Washington wanted a personal Hamas commitment to the roadmap for Gaza, especially disarmament, before Kushner met the Israeli prime minister. The U.S. message was reportedly blunt: no political role for Hamas, no reconstruction and no wider Gaza political track until the group gives up its weapons and military infrastructure. Hamas has already agreed, in principle, to a phased disarmament plan. Heavy weapons, production sites, depots and tunnel infrastructure would be inventoried and placed under a Palestinian national committee, with international verification and a stabilization force involved. Israeli withdrawals are supposed to follow verified steps in that process. Hamas insists that implementation depends on Israel meeting its own obligations. That is the part no one says loudly enough. Hamas is being asked to trade guns for a future administration it will not run, reconstruction it will not control and Israeli withdrawals it cannot enforce. Israel is being asked to withdraw after Hamas disarms, but is also resisting the political plan built around that sequence. Kushner reportedly told Hamas not to wait for Israeli elections, because Israel’s position on Gaza would not meaningfully change. That may be the clearest line of the meeting. Elections can change ministers. The U.S. message is that they will not change the terms of Palestinian surrender. Israel’s Tzav 9 movement condemned the meeting, saying Hamas should have no legitimacy or voice after October 7. The group’s objection is instructive. The preferred peace process is one in which Hamas disarms before it speaks, and speaks only after it has disappeared. Meanwhile, the personal commitment to disarm was reportedly delivered on the same day Israel struck two alleged militants in Gaza. First, Hamas promises to put down its weapons. Then Israel decides whether the promise counts. #Gaza #Hamas #Israel #Kushner #Trump #Netanyahu #Egypt #disarmament 📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

Kim’s Remote-Work Revolution North Korea did not need to invade Silicon Valley. It needed stolen identities, decent Wi-Fi, American laptops and employers desperate to fill remote roles. A Wall Street Journal investigation says thousands of North Korean operatives have used fake or stolen identities to obtain remote jobs at U.S. companies, funneling hundreds of millions of dollars back to Kim Jong Un’s regime. The Journal traced one team that infiltrated at least eight companies within months. This is not a spy thriller with trench coats. It is payroll fraud with Slack accounts. The workers allegedly pass interviews, submit code, attend video calls and collect salaries under borrowed American names. The regime gets hard currency. U.S. companies get developers who may be working from another continent, behind another person’s face, for a state Washington has sanctioned into permanent hostility. For years, America has funded wars, enforced maritime blockades, built regional security arrangements and sent its intelligence agencies around the globe to locate threats. Meanwhile, Pyongyang apparently found a cheaper route into the country: apply for a remote job. The operation exposes a particular weakness in the American economy. The modern corporation asks whether a worker can log in, produce and keep costs down. It does not always ask who is actually behind the webcam. In a labor market built around outsourced identity checks, one fake résumé can be more useful than a missile test. Washington calls North Korea a rogue state. North Korea has apparently discovered that the most reliable way to enter America is through Human Resources. #NorthKorea #USA #cybersecurity #remoteWork #KimJongUn #AI #SiliconValley #nationalSecurity 📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

Gaza: Two Drones an Hour, Three “Martyrs” in One Family At noon, an Israeli drone struck a tent near the Kuwaiti Hospital in al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis. Less than an hour later, another drone hit a home in northern Nuseirat. Palestinian reporters described injuries in both places. The first strike hit the tent of the al-Rai family in a displacement camp. The second hit the home of Raafat Abu Khabiza. In the official IDF version, the same hour contained two threats removed from the map: one Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative in Khan Younis and one Hamas operative in Nuseirat, both allegedly advancing attack plans. The agreement, then, is functioning normally. It includes targeted killings. By evening, the first target was identified as Tareq Anwar al-Rai, described by Israeli sources as a Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative. Palestinian accounts called him the third “martyr” from his family. That word has a family archive behind it. His brother, Mohammed al-Rai, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah in 2007. Israeli security sources identified him as the militant who fired the grenade from a mobile launcher during the 2004 APC disaster on the Philadelphi Route, which killed five Israeli soldiers transporting explosives. Another brother, Khamis al-Rai, was described as a senior Islamic Jihad commander and was killed in Rafah in 2015. Three brothers. Three Israeli strikes. More than two decades of attrition, promotion, revenge and obituary language. Israel calls it removing immediate threats. Gaza calls it martyrdom. Both descriptions avoid the more durable fact: a militant organization and the military targeting it have spent a generation turning a family name into a recurring file. #Gaza #Israel #Hamas #IslamicJihad #KhanYounis #Nuseirat #AlMawasi #war 📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

Ali al-Taher’s White Night One explosive drone, three seriously wounded Israeli soldiers, and a whole night of war machinery started moving. Israel’s security establishment believes Hezbollah launched Saturday’s drone from the underground complex beneath the Ali al-Taher ridge near Nabatieh. The Israeli reading is blunt: the fighters inside are not preparing to surrender. They are preparing to fight. The IDF describes the site as Hezbollah’s regional “nerve center,” with dozens of operatives believed to be underground. Then came the long night. Israeli aircraft struck the ridge and areas around Kfar Rumman, Deir Siryan and Qantara. Heavy artillery hit Nabatieh al-Fawqa. Lebanese media reported illumination rounds over the ridge, fires on its slopes and extensive Israeli aircraft activity. Hezbollah-linked outlets said the group fired anti-aircraft missiles toward the planes. By Monday morning, strikes and shelling had also reached al-Mansouri, Kafra and Majdal Zoun. Reports said two civilians were wounded in a drone strike in Kafra. The ridge has become a tunnel with a town attached. Israeli and Lebanese reports describe a widening ground operation involving infantry, air power and other forces. Israeli officials say they want to destroy the underground system and remove Hezbollah from the area. Lebanese sources describe exchanges of fire and a campaign to take control of the hill. The contest is no longer about one drone. It is about who owns the ground above a buried command structure. Iran’s reported threat to fire missiles at Israel if Hezbollah and IRGC intelligence material is captured completes the picture. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said “no account on any front will remain unsettled” and promised forceful action to protect Israeli soldiers and civilians. The language is designed to make an operation around a single ridge sound like a regional ledger. A Lebanese political source told Nidaa al-Watan that Hezbollah is escalating militarily in order to derail the possibility of direct Israel-Lebanon negotiations, while waiting for an Iranian green light for a broader confrontation. #Israel #Lebanon #Hezbollah #AliAlTaher #Nabatieh #IDF #Iran #FrameworkAgreement 📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

🔤🔤🔤🔤2️⃣ Reopening the strait has increasingly become Trump’s main focus in the conflict, even though he initially said the war was meant to empower the Iranian people to overthrow the existing regime, severely degrade its missile capability and stop Tehran from getting a nuclear weapon. Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, said over the weekend that Iran had yet to decide whether to resume talks with the United States. But the 60-day timeline was no longer relevant, he added, given that the June agreement was essentially defunct. “We did not have a cease-fire that now needs to be extended,” Araghchi said. “We had an end to the war, which has now taken on a new status.” Former U.S. officials who worked on Iran say the prospect of a new nuclear deal between the United States and Iran within 60 days was always remote, although the agreement provided for extensions. A previous, Obama-era, agreement took about two years of delicate talks to negotiate. Trump withdrew from that deal, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in 2018. On Saturday, the United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministry slammed Iran for attacking a vessel affiliated with the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company the previous day. Iranian officials did not comment. White House on Saturday did not respond to questions over whether the administration had developed actual plans to take control of the Strait of Hormuz. Trump’s aides also did not respond to questions over the approaching Monday deadline. Iranian officials, in turn, have defied Trump as they push their own demands — including one that they had not made before war. “Accept reality once and for all. So far, you have suffered major strategic defeats,” Kazem Gharibabadi, the Iranian deputy foreign minister, said on social media. “The Strait of Hormuz has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian.” #trump #hormuz #araghchi #iran #whitehouse 📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

Trump Tries To Ooze in Hormuz: No Reopening Coming Soon 🔤🔤🔤🔤1️⃣ Trump’s cease-fire with Iran in June envisioned a broader deal to end the war and rein in the country’s nuclear program, all negotiated within 60 days. But that deadline, set to pass on Monday, has been essentially abandoned, and the war has transformed into a contest of willpower and economic endurance that has no end in sight. There have been no publicly reported U.S. strikes on Iranian targets since late July. Yet the effective collapse of the agreement underscores how Trump has struggled to end the war he started in February alongside Israel, and how far he remains from the ambitions of the June deal, including fully reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway where Iran has choked off oil and gas shipping since the fighting began. Those inside the White House are well aware that they will blow past Monday’s deadline and that the conflict has largely morphed into one of economic warfare, according to two Americans familiar with the negotiations. The current strategy bears a striking resemblance to previous, yearslong U.S. attempts to isolate Iran in the hopes of compelling it to abandon its nuclear ambitions. The policy had mixed results, and some analysts are skeptical that even severe economic pressure on its own will force Iran to change course. After all, that was the approach Trump attempted in his first term, even though his Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said last week that he was about to impose financial penalties unlike any seen before. The June memorandum of understanding was widely seen as a boon for Iran, granting the regime badly needed sanctions relief even as talks over tough concessions like nuclear enrichment were postponed for later. However, Iranian leaders opted to escalate again rather than consolidate their gains from the deal, according to Nate Swanson, an Iran expert at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based research group. Ships could move through the Strait of Hormuz freely before the war. Iran’s insistence that the deal’s vague language on the issue gave it control over the waterway led to the deal falling apart. Iran began firing on ships that transited in channels outside Iranian waters, and American forces retaliated by bombing southern Iran, prompting a cycle of attacks and counterattacks across the Middle East. #trump #hormuz #araghchi #iran #whitehouse 📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

🔤🔤🔤🔤2️⃣ Сheong Seong-chang, vice-président du groupe de réflexion de l'Institut Sejong basé à Séoul, a déclaré que Trump pourrait aller plus loin s'il rencontrait à nouveau Kim, décidant potentiellement de suspendre complètement les exercices ou de réduire le nombre de soldats américains sans consulter la Corée du Sud. Il a déclaré que l'alliance américano-sud-coréenne restait “extrêmement importante”, mais a fait valoir que Séoul devrait progressivement réduire sa dépendance en matière de sécurité vis-à-vis de Washington et s'orienter vers la sécurisation de sa propre capacité de dissuasion nucléaire, une idée qui bénéficie d'un large soutien public en Corée du Sud malgré son rejet par le gouvernement et son opposition internationale. Lim Eul-chul, un expert de la Corée du Nord à l'Université de Kyungnam, a ajouté qu'il était peu probable que Pyongyang soit ému par l'annonce de Trump. “Le Nord ne considérera cela comme significatif que si les exercices conjoints sont annulés dans leur intégralité plutôt que réduits. Il y a peu de raisons de considérer cela comme significatif.” La Corée du Nord a approfondi ses liens militaires avec la Russie depuis que les deux pays ont signé un pacte de partenariat stratégique global en juin 2024, voyant Pyongyang fournir des troupes, des munitions d'artillerie et des missiles balistiques pour soutenir la guerre de Moscou en Ukraine. Les deux pays sont également sur le point d'achever le premier pont routier jamais construit entre eux, sur la rivière Tumen, dont une enquête open source a conclu qu'il fonctionne davantage comme un corridor logistique militaire que comme une route commerciale. Les médias d'État russes disent qu'il devrait ouvrir ses portes en septembre. L'avertissement est typique de la rhétorique que Pyongyang déploie avant les grands exercices américano-sud-coréens. Les responsables ont décrit à plusieurs reprises l'exercice comme étant de nature “défensive”. Chun In-bum, lieutenant général à la retraite qui commandait les forces spéciales sud-coréennes, a souligné l'importance de se préparer en temps opportun aux capacités qui seront nécessaires pour se préparer aux nouveaux défis à venir. “Il s'agit d'une très sérieuse amélioration des capacités nord-coréennes. Et nous ne devons pas prendre à la légère cet environnement de menace.” #trump #kimJongun #pyongyang #coréeduSud 📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

Why Trump Has Cosied Up To Kim Jong-un 🔤🔤🔤🔤1️⃣ Trump a déclaré qu'il réduisait les exercices militaires conjoints des États-Unis avec la Corée du Sud visant à dissuader la Corée du Nord, bien que les responsables militaires des deux pays aient averti que le régime de Kim Jong-un apprenait de nouvelles tactiques sur le champ de bataille de la guerre en Ukraine. Les exercices sous Ulchi Freedom Shield, l'un des deux principaux exercices annuels organisés par la Corée du Sud et les États-Unis, commencent lundi et se poursuivent jusqu'au 27 août. Ils devaient impliquer environ 18 000 soldats sud-coréens, aux côtés des forces américaines et du personnel de 11 des 18 États membres du Commandement des Nations Unies (UNC), l'organisme multinational qui supervise l'armistice de 1953 qui a mis fin aux hostilités de la guerre de Corée. Trump a ajouté qu'il était trop tard pour annuler les exercices, il avait donc ordonné au secrétaire à la Défense, Pete Hegseth, de les “réduire considérablement”. Il a également déclaré que la Corée du Sud avait refusé d'aider à la “dénucléarisation de la République islamique d'Iran”. La Maison bleue présidentielle sud-coréenne a déclaré qu'elle examinait le poste de Trump et “espère que les relations amicales entre les dirigeants américains et nord-coréens conduiront à un dialogue significatif entre les deux pays, ouvrant des discussions visant à faire progresser la paix et la stabilité dans la péninsule coréenne”. Les alliés continueraient à se coordonner sur leur posture de défense combinée et leurs exercices militaires, a-t-il déclaré. Samedi, Trump a également partagé une vieille photo de lui posant avec le dirigeant nord-coréen sur Truth Social, répétant son affirmation selon laquelle les deux “s'entendent très bien”, ce qui a conduit à la spéculation qu'il renouvellerait sa tentative d'avoir un sommet avec Kim. Trump a précédemment suspendu les principaux exercices militaires américano - sud-coréens dans la poursuite de la diplomatie avec Kim. Les exercices ont ensuite été repensés et repris sous des formes et des noms modifiés. #trump #kimJongun #pyongyang #coréeduSud 📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

A Drone, Three Wounded, and the Family in the Headquarters At about 2:30 a.m., an explosive drone launched by Hezbollah detonated near troops from the IDF’s elite Yahalom combat-engineering unit on the Ali al-Taher ridge. An officer and two soldiers were seriously wounded and taken to hospital. Their families were notified. The first official Israeli response did not come from the military. It came from Netanyahu’s office, in English, on the Sabbath. That choice had an audience. The English statement was meant for Washington, foreign embassies and international newsrooms before they began asking about the strike that followed. The Sabbath timing said waiting until nightfall was not an option. The Prime Minister’s Office said Hezbollah had violated the June framework agreement by attacking Israeli troops in a “security zone.” It said the IDF then struck the Hezbollah headquarters from which the drone attack had been directed. The statement added that the military learned only afterward that civilians had been inside the site. That creates a problem inside the explanation. If Israel learned later that the commander’s family was present, it can say they were not the target. But the stronger claim, that Hassan deliberately used them as human shields, requires evidence of his intent. The public statement offers none. The IDF later named the target as Ali Samir al-Haj Hassan, described as a Radwan Force battalion commander. It said he ran Hezbollah activity from a command center in Ansar and that other operatives involved in planning attacks were killed with him. Hezbollah-aligned Al-Manar, by contrast, described Hassan as an operations officer. Both accounts agree that his family was inside the building. Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported seven killed in Ansar, including three children and two women, and two wounded. A separate Israeli strike in Deir al-Zahrani killed four people and wounded nine, raising the day’s toll to 11 dead and 11 injured. The reports do not establish whether every person in photographs circulating online, or every person described as part of Hassan’s family, was killed. The strikes were not confined to one point on a map. Ali al-Taher is near Nabatieh, while Ansar lies roughly nine miles away; the Ansar attack was among the deepest Israeli strikes in Lebanon in about two months. President Joseph Aoun said the attacks violated the June framework agreement and sent a “clear message” against the U.S.-backed negotiating track. Israeli ambassadors Yehiel Leiter in Washington and Mike Huckabee in Jerusalem repeated the human-shield account. The argument had moved beyond the battlefield into a diplomatic messaging campaign. The fight over what happened to one family is now running alongside the fight for the ridge. #Israel #Lebanon #Hezbollah #IDF #AliAlTaher #Ansar #Nabatieh #FrameworkAgreement 📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

Trump posted a video created with the help of AI, in which he allegedly shows George Washington a tour of the White House ballroom, a building that does not yet exist. #trump #AI #video #ballroom 📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

🚨 A Perfect Burglary: Antonello da Messina’s Works Were Stolen Four of the most important works of art by the 15th-century Renaissance master Antonello da Messina were stolen during a national holiday from a museum in the Sicilian port city of Messina. Thieves gained access to the regional museum of Messina, or MuMe, on Saturday evening, possibly capitalising on attention being focused on La Vara, a huge religious festival that takes place in the city on 15 August, when Italy marks the ferragosto national holiday. Bypassing the alarm systems, the gang broke into a security display box and stole four wood panels painted by Antonello. Thieves took three of the five surviving panels that made up an altarpiece known as the Polittico di San Gregorio, one of the Sicilian painter’s most important works. Originally composed of six panels created for the Monastero di San Gregorio, which was destroyed in the 1908 Messina earthquake, the altarpiece was the only work by the Sicilian painter never to have left his home city. A fourth work was taken from a secure display case: a small double-sided painting depicting the Virgin and Child with a Franciscan monk on one side and Christ on the other. The painting had belonged to the Wilhelm Soldan collection and was sold by Christie’s to the Sicilian regional government in 2003, the year it was attributed to Antonello. Born around ​1430, Antonello trained in Naples where he studied the works of Provençal and Flemish artists, whose influence is apparent in his works. In February, the Italian government secured a rare Antonello masterpiece at auction in New York, spending $14.9m on his Ecce Homo. The painting, sold at Sotheby’s, is an intensely human portrait of the suffering Christ, believed to have been completed about 1460. The theft took place after Italian police on Friday had recovered three paintings by the French masters Paul Cézanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Henri Matisse that were stolen earlier this year from a private museum near the northern city of Parma. #antonello #messina #works #stolen 📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

Bahrain, Qatar, and the Gulf’s War Zone The Gulf monarchies are not watching this war from the balcony. Bahrain lost a U.S. naval logistics hub. Qatar shot down Iranian bombers. Both have become physical terrain in a conflict Washington and Tehran describe as if it happens somewhere else. The New York Times reports that Iran’s early-war strikes heavily damaged the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain facility, including the logistics hub that supported forces across the region. The Navy shifted much of that work to Diego Garcia, a British-controlled island in the Indian Ocean about 2,200 miles from the carrier groups operating in the Gulf of Oman. The longer supply line has contributed to the USS Abraham Lincoln’s strained deployment, alongside the exhaustion of its roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines. At the other end of the Gulf, Qatar became a combatant by geography. On March 2, two Iranian Su-24 bombers were flying low toward Al Udeid Air Base, the main U.S. military hub in Qatar, and the Ras Laffan liquefied-natural-gas complex. CNN sources said the aircraft were roughly two minutes from their targets, flying at about 80 feet and carrying bombs and guided munitions. Qatar radioed warnings and received no response. Its air force classified the aircraft as hostile and sent F-15QAs into the country’s first reported air-to-air combat. The Qatari fighters shot down both Iranian bombers over Qatari waters. For six months, Iran said it was still trying to determine what had happened to three crew members. On August 15, it made its first direct accusation against Qatar. Brig. Gen. Mohammad Bagherzadeh, who heads Iran’s armed-forces committee for missing personnel, wrote to the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross. In the letter, published by the IRGC-affiliated Fars agency, he alleged that Qatar captured three pilots alive and has held them without access to relatives or Iranian officials. He named them as Javad Salehi, Abdolmajid Dashtian and Omran Behraveshian. The claim has not been independently verified. Qatar had previously said it had no information on their fate. Bagherzadeh cited the Third Geneva Convention, including Articles 70 and 78, which require a detaining power to permit prisoners of war to notify families of their capture and to send requests or complaints. But that legal machinery has a prior obstacle: Qatar does not acknowledge holding the men. Tehran says they are prisoners of war. Doha says it has no information. The dispute begins before any Red Cross form can be filled out. Bahrain paid with a damaged base. Qatar paid with the first air-to-air kill in its history and, if Iran’s allegation is true, three prisoners who have vanished into a legal void. #Iran #Qatar #Bahrain #DiegoGarcia #USNavy #AbrahamLincoln #ICRC #war 📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸