"Having failed to achieve his goals in the joint U.S.-Israel war on Iran, Trump is now attempting to disguise the setback as a victory."-Israeli military aggression."

"Enemy forces failed to attain any of their stated objectives and did not approach Iranian territorial waters."

Tehran Times 

 

"[The] immediate and permanent [end to military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon, paving the way to a] final deal [in the next 60 days] extendable with mutual consent."

"[The U.S. Treasury to waive sanctions on Iranian oil exports and the two countries to] refrain from interfering in each other's internal affairs."

Memorandum of Understanding 

A mural in Tehran depicting negotiators, Anadolu via Getty

 

The Iranian regime is ecstatic; their not-without-reason interpretation of the Memorandum of Understanding is a surrender by the United States to the greater bargaining power and wisdom of the Islamic Republic whose tactical brilliance in closing the Strait of Hormuz sent U.S. President Donald Trump's triumphant self-congratulatory messages to the world in a tail-spin of second-think. "Oil-down" this master negotiator acknowledged as he became complicit with the Iranian regime's inexorable hold on power.

 

Sinking the Iranian navy, bombing its air defences and nuclear and missile sites was a clear military victory advantaging the United States over an obdurate, resilient enemy. The death of the totalitarian mastermind Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was a triumph of decapitation, or it would have been in any ordinary theocracy that was not backed by an Islamist-obsessed Republican Guard Corps, having at its service men schooled in a death cult subservient to a hidden Mahdi soon to arrive and demolish undeserving humanity.

 

Then came the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, the attacks on Gulf oligarchies and the West reeling under an economic shock and rising energy prices, and the game suddenly turned sideways. Hesitating to invade and destroy the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the remnants of the regime's senior figures the American President held out the white flag of surrender while declaring its military victory, and its reconsideration over replacing the regime to release the Iranian people from its totalitarian bondage.

 

Donald Trump addresses the media at the G7 summit in Evian, France, 17 June 2026. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

 

The vaunted Memorandum of Understanding which excluded Israel from the partnership between the United States and the Jewish state in reality unleashed Israel from the unbreakable bond of mutual trust, friendship and comradely military functionality. Israel lacks the appeal of wealthy Gulf states whose gilded pomp and oil production figure so large in world prosperity. All the more so when one such as Qatar can bedazzle the U.S. President with its generous shower of lucre and impressive gift-giving.

 

The MOU's "the Islamic Republic of Iran reaffirms that it shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons", and "the disposition of stockpiled enriched material" will be resolved by the International Atomic Energy supervising the process need not be questioned for the surface relief it promises, with the Islamic Republic whose word of honour has become a metaphor for conniving, threatening psychopathy. 

 

"The Islamic Republic of Iran will maintain the current status quo of its nuclear program, and the United States of America will not impose any new sanctions and will not deploy additional forces in the region", according to the Memorandum of Understanding. Why would anyone dare question the reliability of such grandiloquent promises, unless they have had the misfortune of being on the receiving end of Tehran's ballistic missiles?

 

As a reward for its "compliance", the U.S. is prepared to develop a $300-billion plan for "the reconstruction and economic development of the Islamic Republic of Iran" and it will "terminate all types of sanctions", unfreeze Iran's bank accounts, and allow Iranian oil to flow, relinquishing control of the Strait of Hormuz to Iran and Oman.  Truly a victory for the ages.

 

Shipping in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, Anadolu via Getty

 

"The Islamic Republican Guard Corps navy works more like a guerrilla force at sea."

"It is focused on asymmetrical warfare, especially in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz."

"So instead of relying on big warships and classic naval battles, it depends on hit-and-run attacks."

Saeid Golkar, Guards expert, political science professor, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga

 

"When it is very bumpy, they [armed forces onboard] cannot shoot."

"[They are also ill-equipped to go head to head with a ​warship, and would likely suffer] very heavy casualties [​in any direct assault on one]."

"Even if they tried to saturate the ship’s defences by attacking from multiple directions, they would be extremely vulnerable to the air support that would be called in."

"It is going to be ​much harder to eliminate ⁠the small boat threat than it was to destroy Iran’s larger naval vessels, which were big targets that were relatively easy to find and track and, at most, only had a limited ability to defend themselves from air attack." 

Jeremy Binnie, Middle East specialist, defence intelligence company Janes 

The IRGC speed boats are fast, light, and easily replaceable. NurPhoto via Getty Images

It all began when recreational boats were mounted with rocket-propelled grenades or machine guns, when Iran first began using small boats that were fast, maneuverable, and deadly when patrolling the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf. Those recreational craft underwent a  transformation when a range of specially designed small boats, along with miniature submarines and marine drones were built to the IRGC specifications, over the years. That 'mosquito fleet' of small boats has become a real and present threat in the Strait as a consequence of the U.S.-Israeli conflict in Iran.

 

The flotilla of small, fast boats whose purpose by the IRGC has been to harass local and international shipping through the Gulf, has turned now to threatening and firing upon global shipping in the Strait of Hormuz during the recent face-off between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic of Iran -- or what's left of it, aside from the IRGC. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is separate and apart from the regular Navy of Iran, which had been struck a cataclysmic blow in the opening days of the aerial bombardment. 

 

Over 90 percent of Iran's navy's fleet was destroyed, according to U.S. General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They all, including the country's major warships, were sunk and sit now on the ocean's bottom. At the same time, an estimated 50 percent of the fast attack boats belonging to the Guards were sunk. Estimates of the total number of these small ships prior to the U.S. sinking of the fleet ranged from hundreds to thousands. They are still not now in short supply. 

 

Arrival of new shipment of IRGC fastboats. Photo via Mehdi H

 

The size of the boats make them mostly invisible on satellite images from where they're moored alongside piers, where the  excavation of deep caves along the rocky coastline shelters them, prepared for deployment at a moment's notice. During the current conflict, at least 20 vessels were attacked by the 'mosquito fleet', according to the International Maritime Agency. Analysts consider the attacks to have been by drones fired from mobile launchers on land.

 

As for the small boat arsenal which poses a major threat to commercial shipping both in the Gulf and the Strait, "It remains a disruptive force. You never quite knew what they were up to and what their intentions were", commented Admiral Gary Roughead, retired chief of U.S. Naval Operations. "The IRGC navy has always believed that it is at the forefront of the confrontation with the Great Satan", added specialist on the Guards navy, Farzin Nadimi from the Washington Institute think tank.

 

According to experts, these small boats can reach speeds of over 100 knots. Larger, more sophisticated warships were also recently developed by the Guards, and they too were targeted when the U.S. bombardments focused on bombing Iran's naval fleet as well as its fleet of warplanes. The largest drone carrier, the Shahid Bagheri, a converted container ship able to launch anti-ship missiles, was also hit by U.S. air strikes.

 

It is the swarms of small boats that pose an ongoing threat to commercial vessels which have no defences against such attacks. U.S. warships, on the other hand, can counter a potential swam of small boats with their high-caliber cannons and additional weaponry.  

 

60 percent of IRGC fast boats still threaten shipping lanes: WSJ

International Rescue Committee

 

"Even before the war in Sudan erupted in April 2023, the country was already experiencing a severe humanitarian crisis that left 15.8 million people in need of aid. Now, three years of war have drastically worsened these conditions, displacing approximately 14 million people and leaving 33.7 million people—two-thirds of the population—in need of humanitarian support."

"The country’s food system has been pushed to the brink, with millions of families now surviving on just one meal a day, or less."

"Sudan is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world in terms of number of people who need humanitarian aid. It is also the largest and fastest displacement crisis."
International Rescue Committee 

 

As Sudan marks three years of war, MSF teams continue to treat people whose lives have been devastated by the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

A lack of basic services and constrained humanitarian access are compounding people's suffering.

The warring parties must protect civilians and be held accountable for their violations, and the international community must use diplomatic pressure to prevent further crimes. 

Medicins Sans Frontieres  

Patient Saidal Altaher, 2 months old, being treated for malnutrition at the pediatric hospital stabilization center in Port Sudan on Wednesday.  Bernat Armangue / AP

 

Described as the world's largest humanitarian challenge in terms of displacement and hunger, Sudan is suffering a crisis of abandonment with the world's attention turning to the Middle East and the standoff in Iran, and its blockade of the Hormuz Strait. In Sudan, 13 million people have been forced by the threat and violence of a bloody conflict to flee their homes, becoming internally displaced. Food and medicines are scarce and diseases like cholera are running rampant. 

 

The number of  dead from the conflict stands at 59,000 with 6,000 having perished over three days alone, as the RSF (paramilitary Rapid Support Forces) bulled their way through the Darfur outpost of el-Fasher in October, an offensive that the UN considers alike "the defining characteristics of genocide". Black Darfurians once again in the rifle sights of the horsed Arab Janjaweed as they were in the early 2000s.

 

Severe acute malnutrition is set to afflict 800,000 people in parts of Sudan, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. Two of every three Sudanese require assistance, according to the United Nations. Health facilities have been impacted to the point where only 63 percent remain fully or partially functional to deal with the conflict's wounded and emerging disease outbreaks. 

 

Denise Brown, the UN's top official in Sudan, criticizing the international community for its failure to press for the end to the conflict, stating: "A plea from me: Please don't call this the forgotten crisis. I'm referring to this as an abandoned crisis", she corrected. 

 

People fleeing conflict in Sudan's Darfur risked being hit by drone strikes   Reuters

 

Following the deposed dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019, a power struggle emerged between the Sudanese military under General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and RSF commander General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who was initially Burhan's deputy at the ruling sovereign council of Sudan. Sudanese "have become powerless and are subjected to foreign dictates", claimed a Sudanese journalist and researcher.

 

Germany undertook to host a  conference in Berlin, welcoming governments, UN agencies and aid groups to take part, with a goal to rally donors to assist in funding strained humanitarian responses and to "promote an immediate ceasefire", according to the German Development Ministry. For its troubles, the Khartoum government condemned the conference as an 'unacceptable' interference on Sudan's internal affairs. 

 

The Sudanese military has control over the country's north, east and central regions, its oil refineries and pipelines, and Red Sea ports. The RSF and its allies control Darfur and the region at the border with South Sudan. Regions that both include oilfields and gold mines. Egypt supports the Sudan military, and the United Arab Emirates has been accused by the UN of providing arms to the RSF, which it emphatically denies. 

 

In the three years of conflict, widespread atrocities are known to have occurred;  rampant sexual violence in gang rapes and mass killings, among them. According to the WHO, hospitals, ambulances and medical workers have been attacked, claiming over 2,000 have been killed.  Most atrocities have been placed at the feet of the RSF and the Janjaweed, notorious for atrocities committed in the early 2000s against Black Sudanese farming communities. 

 

Sudanese army soldiers sitting atop a parked tank after their capture of a base used by the RSF, after the rival paramilitary group evacuated from the Salha area of Omdurman, the twin city of Sudan's capital, in May 2025.  Ebrahim Hamid / AFP via Getty Images

 

"Today, we began the process of establishing a new passage and we will share this safe pathway with the maritime industry soon."

"Additional U.S. forces, including underwater drones, will join the clearance effort in the coming days."

U.S. Central Command commander Admiral Brad Cooper 

 

"Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz. At some point, we will reach an “ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO IN, ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO OUT” basis, but Iran has not allowed that to happen by merely saying, “There may be a mine out there somewhere,” that nobody knows about but them. THIS IS WORLD EXTORTION, and Leaders of Countries, especially the United States of America, will never be extorted. I have also instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran. No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas. We will also begin destroying the mines the Iranians laid in the Straits. Any Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be BLOWN TO HELL!"

U.S. President Donald J. Trump 

A Navy destroyer in the U.S. Central Command area of operations transits the Strait of Hormuz, April 11, 2026.  Photo: U.S. War Department  

"The blockade will be enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. CENTCOM forces will not impede freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports."

"Additional information will be provided to commercial mariners through a formal notice prior to the start of the blockade. All mariners are advised to monitor Notice to Mariners broadcasts and contact U.S. naval forces on bridge-to-bridge channel 16 when operating in the Gulf of Oman and Strait of Hormuz approaches [per the release]."

Centcom press release  

The U.S. Department of War announced on its website that the USS Frank E. Peterson and the USS Michael Murphy are operating in the Persian Gulf, part of a broader mission to fully clear the Hormuz Strait -- an international sea passage and essential trade corridor -- of sea mines, laid courtesy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Underwater drones, along with  additional American forces, are set to join the clearance project in coming days.

 

US has deployed two Navy guided-missile destroyers to Hormuz (Representational Image)

"We're sweeping the strait. Whether we make a deal or not makes no difference to me", said President Trump, even as negotiations between U.S. and Iranian representatives -- alongside a Pakistani mediator -- on a potential ceasefire broke down. The Iranian preconditions were a non-starter, with Israel intent on continuing its strikes on Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Iran's continued insistence on its right to continue with its nuclear program, its demand that the U.S. withdraw from bombing Iran and prepare to pay reparations, along with its refusal to put a stop to its support of proxy terrorist groups ensure the talks would go nowhere.

The Islamic Republic's 'red lines' expressed as demand for damage caused by U.S.-Israeli strikes compensation and the release of  Iran's frozen assets, are a reflection of the supreme arrogance of a ruling elite that refuses to acknowledge its position as a bludgeoned theistic hegemon that threatened its neighbours and launched terror attacks by proxy internationally whose beating is its just due for the further threat its nuclear ambition poses to the world at large. 

The country of 93 million people is deserving of relief from the tyranny of a regime that persecutes its own population, using vast oil reserves to fund global terrorism rather than investing in internal infrastructure of benefit to the country's future -- not as a conquering Islamist totalitarian state, but as a responsible government adhering to international norms of human rights standards. That its disregard for and abuse of its female population's right to equal treatment and respect given to their male counterparts is ignored by the United Nations where Iran was recently appointed to a human rights group is cynicism on steroids.

United Nations General Assembly, UN Watch

The 15-point proposal by the United States includes restrictions on Iran's nuclear program and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, while Iran's 10-point proposal prior to the talks focused on a guaranteed end to the war and control over the Strait of Hormuz, where it plans to collect a maritime passage fee for each ship passing through, amounting to $1 million. An average of 100 to 130 ships passed through the strait daily, prior to the U.S.-Israel joint aerial assaults. 

That toll, if permitted to proceed, despite the deep objections of the other Gulf States that the IRGC has been bombing persistently since February 28, would enable the Islamic Republic to amass an astronomical fortune, far outstripping its revenues up to the conflict derived from its energy products. And all of it would be directed toward restoring its destroyed ballistic missile and drone stocks, along with other military assets that it has lost during the prosecution of the war, including warplanes and warships. 

"An integrated suite of unmanned maritime systems and sensors, the MCM MP counteracts mines in the littorals while increasing the host vessel’s standoff distance from the threat area."

"Embarked with the MCM MP, [a littoral combat ship] or a vessel of opportunity can conduct the full spectrum of detect-to-engage operations (hunt, neutralize, and sweep) against mine threats using sensors and weapons deployed from the MCM Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV), an MH-60S multi-mission helicopter, and associated support equipment."

U.S. Navy, new mine countermeasures mission package

Getty Images

That Elusive Peace Between Totalitarian Islam and Israel

"[International mediators, led by the U.S. are working] to force the way forward [to the second phase to cement the deal]. What we have just done is a pause. We cannot consider it yet a ceasefire."

"A ceasefire cannot be completed unless there is a full withdrawal of Israeli forces, there is stability back in Gaza, people can go in and out, which is not the case today."

"There is a root for this conflict. And this conflict is not only about Gaza."

"It's about Gaza. It's about the West Bank. It's about the rights of the Palestinians for their state."

"We are hoping that we can work together with the U.S. administration to achieve this vision at the end of the day." 

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatari prime minister 

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani shakes hands with White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, as they speak with President Donald Trump before a state dinner at Lusail Palace in Doha, Qatar, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

 

In actual fact, this conflict is about Israel refusing to depart from its resumed geographic seat on a mere portion of its ancestral homeland. It is about surrounding Arab/Muslim countries apoplectic at the presence of a Jewish state reborn on land that the Arab conquest consecrated to Islam. It is about over four millennia of historical existence of Jews being wiped off the slate of history to argue that 'Palestine' is a deserved homeland for Arabs who migrated from Syria, Lebanon and Egypt in the last century to claim it as their own, when 'Palestine' always denoted a Jewish presence.

 

It is about repetitive bouts of conflict forced on the Jewish state by hostile, aggressive neighbours in a sectarian-tribal-clan tradition of competition and conflict. And it is, above all, the collective Middle East Arab councils of those governments inciting Arab Palestinians to believe that the land in question is theirs and theirs alone. The Arab Palestinians in fact, serve as a device to convince the international community that a human rights violation of immense proportions took place when Arab Palestinians were displaced when Jews reclaimed their patrimony.

 

And while most of those surrounding states -- who forcefully exiled a greater number of Jews who had lived in Arab countries for millennia, greater in number than the Palestinians who fled 'Palestine' in 1948 -- have now softened their stance and are prepared to accept that the Jewish presence which predated their own is permanent and its presence can enhance future prospects for peace and prosperity, the Palestinians themselves see the imperative of denying Israel's presence as cast in stone. They have, of course, had great assistance from Aryan-Muslim-Shiite Iran and from Qatar and their satellite Shiite militias. Iran has provided the theological impetus and Qatar the funding for terrorist groups dedicated to Israel's annihilation.

 

The Hamas charter pledge of destroying Israel alongside that of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Fatah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are the Palestinian instruments of terror that Iran and Qatar rely upon to produce the coveted goal of Jewish annihilation. Hezbollah, Yemen's Houthis and Shia militias loyal to Iran have collectively done their utmost in that direction. Despite all odds, Israel's military has met them all in combat and remains immovable. Even so, Qatar, aided by Turkey, has no intention of allowing Israel to defeat the combined forces of Islamist jihadists.

 

US President Donald Trump hosts a trilateral phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani of Qatar in the Oval Office, September 29, 2025. (The White House)

 

Qatar is alerting the United States, Israel's powerful backer, that the Trump peace plan is in a 'critical moment' with the first phase 'over', and the second soon to begin. Actually, it is not over until it is over; the first phase is incomplete, not only because the last of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza has not yet been returned, but critically, Hamas will not, as 'agreed upon' surrendered its arms. It has actually been busy in the interval between 'phases' of the peace plan, rearming, recruiting, reordering priorities and digging in as it resumes its control over that portion of Gaza it still occupies.

 

And this not-unexpected turn of events is being engineered and supported by Qatar, Iran and Turkey, for Gaza to remain in Hamas control, despite powerful rival clans in Gaza opposing Hamas's return to power and the conflict in that sector is ongoing. Gaza 'health officials' -- which is to say Hamas health sector operatives -- warn the international community of Palestinians still being targeted by the Israeli military, but further elaboration explains that these are Hamas operatives approaching Israeli troops in areas off limits to them as per the agreement.

 

The second phase relies upon the deployment of an international security force in Gaza, formation of a new technocratic government, disarmament of Hamas which would in theory lead to an eventual Israeli forces withdrawal. There are no expectations that such an international security force will deploy to Gaza; no foreign countries are anxious to have their military personnel placed in the kind of danger facing Hamas would entail. And since Hamas leaders have stated time and again they will not surrender their arms, Israeli troops will not withdraw.

 

People walk amid the rubble of destroyed buildings as the Cold Moon, the last supermoon of the year, rises over the Nuseirat camp for displaced Palestinians in the central Gaza Strip on December 4, 2025.   Eyad BABA / AFP

 

 

"The First Step In A Movement To Peace"

"[This is the first step in a] movement to peace."

"Both leaders agreed this conflict needs to end with a lasting peace." 

"The blood and treasure that both Ukraine and Russia have been spending in this war would be better spent on the needs of their people."

White House statement

 

"We have received signals from the United States that we are talking about the ceasefire on energy facilities, so not to attack energy infrastructure, and we are also talking about the civilian infrastructure facilities."

"We talked only about one power plant, [Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in south Ukraine] which is under Russian occupation."

"[I had] felt no pressure [from Trump]. It was a fruitful conversation, perhaps the most fruitful we have had, the mood was positive."

"We instructed our teams to resolve technical issues related to implementing and expanding the partial ceasefire."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said he had ‘a positive, very substantive’ conversation with the US president. Photograph: @ZelenskyyUa/X

 

"The need to halt arms supplies to Kyiv was discussed during Putin and Trump’s conversation."

"[Ceasing military aid would be] high on the agenda in negotiations between Russia and the US, but the topic will not be discussed publicly."

Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov

 

"It’s a very strange demand, of course. He [Vladimir Putin] wants Ukraine to give up its army, to give up security guarantees, to give up its right to be in alliances, and to give up on various territories."

"This is what he’s been fighting for for three years, and he couldn’t do it militarily …"

"And now that’s what he wants from the negotiations process."

Zelenskyy aide Mykhailo Podolyak

During a lengthy telephone call on Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to seek a limited ceasefire against energy and infrastructure targets in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, an agreement that the White House felt would eventually include a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, and ultimately, a full and lasting end to the fighting between Russia and Ukraine. 

A statement by the White House added plans for negotiations to "begin immediately" on those steps, to take place in the Middle East, though it was not clear whether Ukraine is in agreement with the phased ceasefire plan. A limited ceasefire covering the Black Sea and long-range missile strikes and the release of prisoners was what Ukrainian officials envisaged at their meeting with the U.S. delegation this month in Saudi Arabia.

 

Mr. Putin, on the other hand, according to the Kremlin, welcomed President Trump's calls for the maritime ceasefire and felt confident enough it "agreed to begin negotiations to further work out specific details of such an agreement".  Russia and Ukraine were preparing to exchange 175 prisoners of war on each side the day following, according to the Putin-Trump conversation. Russia planned to hand over to Ukraine in addition, 23 badly wounded soldiers.

 

During the 90-minute conversation, Mr. Putin called on his American counterpart to end its foreign military and intelligence arrangements with Ukraine. While the White House focuses on Russia to sign off on its 30-day ceasefire proposal aimed at ending the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian officials agreed last week to the 30-day ceasefire proposal in talks led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

 

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, nonetheless remains skeptical that the Russian president is sincere in his oblique statements for peace, given that Russian forces continue to pound his country. The latest engagement is yet another turn in dramatically shifting U.S.-Russia relations reflecting Mr. Trump's pre-election statements of his intention to quickly put an end to the war as a top priority. 

 

That in so doing ties with longtime U.S. allies are strained, given their insistence that Putin must pay a price for its invasion of Ukraine, seems not to trouble Mr. Trump one whit. 

As for Ukraine's president, in his nightly video address on Monday, his statements clearly reflected his doubt that Putin is ready for peace. "Now, almost a week later, it's clear to everyone in the world -- even to those who refused to acknowledge the truth for the past three years -- that it is Putin who continues to drag out this war", he said.

 

As an aside during the conversation between the U.S. and Russian presidents, the White House later stated that what also came under discussion between the two leaders  during their extensive conversation, is the explosive situation currently unfolding in the Middle East; both purportedly agreeing that "Iran should never be in a position to destroy Israel".

 

As for Mr. Putin's longer-range designs, the Kommersant Russian newspaper reported that Putin had informed a meeting of senior business leaders of his intention to continue the fighting until such time that he obtains full control of -- along with international recognition of -- the four regions in Ukraine that Moscow annexed in 2022. Quite obviously, Mr. Putin has abandoned none of his hardline objectives in the war he imposed upon Ukraine.

 

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin meeting at a summit in Helsinki, July 2018. EPA-EFE/Mauri Ratilainen

Israel's Relentless Drive to Destroy Hamas

"It is time for the countries of the world to take seriously our unwavering commitment to bring back all our hostages home and defeat the enemy."

"Nothing will stop us from fighting to free our hostages, who have been held in brutal Hamas captivity for 527 days."

"We will show no mercy against our enemies while our hostages languish in Hamas terror tunnels."

Danny Danon, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations

Israeli troops in southern Gaza. Pic: IDF handout

Extensive strikes have been conducted against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military on Monday, negating a ceasefire that had exacerbated the pain of Israel's hostage families in the terrorists' hollow gestures of complying with the rules of hostage return while mocking the process as a generous gesture on the part of the Palestinian terrorists. The 'ceasefire' that had given Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other such groups the opportunity to recruit, rearm and reaffirm their ironclad intention to continue planning and executing attacks on Israel for which the October 7, 2023 invasion and savagery remains their model.

 

In essence, the 'ceasefire' had ended itself when Israeli intelligence analyzed the intention of Hamas leaders to carry on with their death mission for Israel, leading to the inescapable conclusion that the only fitting response to the situation would be a return to Israel's original goal of wiping out the entirety of the Hamas organization; fighters, leaders, weapons stocks, organizational capability. The essentially vital target, the removal of the Hamas leadership.

 

To that end, it was confirmed by the Israel Defense Forces that "the Hamas prime minister and a senior government figure in the Gaza Strip", Essam al-Dalis was among a number of senior terrorists eliminated in the early stages of the campaign. As is usual for the IDF, a vital warning had been issued Tuesday urging residents of Gaza within specific areas to immediately evacuate, as the Israeli forces' operations intensified. 

Civilians were called  upon by IDF spokesperson Avichay Adrace, to relocate to designated shelters located in western Gaza City and Khan Yunis to avoid becoming casualties of the attacks. Citing local Gaza health officials, the Associated Press reported that over 400 Palestinians had been killed in the overnight airstrikes. No one can actually be assured of the veracity of any such claims made by either Hamas or any of its operating arms. Hamas, in any event, reporting on casualties makes no differentiation between civilians and its terrorist operatives.

 

Pic: IDF handout

"[An Israeli official] claimed that in recent days during the ceasefire Hamas has been preparing to carry out new attacks against Israel and has taken steps to rearm."

"The official said the IDF kept the operational plan top secret and within a relatively small circle in order to surprise Hamas."

Axios Report

 

"[The IDF is] attacking targets of the Hamas terrorist organization throughout the Gaza Strip in order to achieve the objectives of the war as they have been determined by the political echelon including the release of all of our hostages, the living and the deceased."

"Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Office statement

The attack coincided with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Somewhat similar to Egypt and Syria attacking Israel in 1973 on Yom Kippur, the Judaic holy Day of Atonement. There is an interpretation that this could signal a full resumption of the war, incited by Hamas when terrorists invaded southern Israel on October 7, 2023, thousands of terrorists primed to enact a scene straight out of Hell, complete with mass rape, mutilation, torching of family homes with the residents huddled for safety in their 'safe rooms', where the mostly civilian population of southern Israel's farming kibbutzim were targeted for annihilation.

 

Hamas terrorists stand in formation ahead of a hostage release in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Feb. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Hamas's plans included the hostage-taking of families, the elderly, infants, teens, women, foreign farm workers and Israeli soldiers. Even the dead were considered useful pawns as hostages, bundled off with the terrified living hostages to the extensive tunnel systems of Gaza, to be confined in dark, dank underground cells without natural light, breathing foetid air, and experiencing a lack of adequate food and water and medical supplies. The remaining two dozen hostages believed to still be alive, remain in terrorist hands.

 

"We are shocked, angry and terrified by the deliberate dismantling of the process to return our loved ones from the terrible captivity of Hamas", mourned the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. And one can only commiserate with their anguish, hoping against hope that their loved ones will somehow be returned to them. Hamas enjoys its sadistic cat-and-mouse games with vulnerable and helpless captives.

 

While the United States and Israel have been stepping up attacks across the region this week, the retaliatory campaign against Hamas is being carried out with a view to bringing Israel's goal of eradicating the terrorist group entirely, closer to accomplishment as an end-game goal. In concert with the U.S. launching strikes against Yemen's Houthis spurred on by Iran, Israel has targeted Iran's terrorist proxies in Lebanon and Syria.

 

Israeli soldiers patrol a street in northern Gaza on Wednesday. The Israeli military launched a new ground offensive in Gaza, a day after Israel 'broke a ceasefire' with a punishing series of airstrikes. Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images

"[U.S. President Donald Trump] has made it clear: Hamas, the Houthis, Iran, all those who seek to terrorize not just Israel but also the United States of America will see a price to pay."

"All hell will break loose."

"[All of] the terrorists in the Middle East [should take Trump] very seriously when he says he is not afraid to stand for law-abiding people ... and our friend and ally Israel."

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt

The Anguish of The Wait...

"Hamas said last week that it needed seven days to locate all the hostages and then another week to prepare them for release."

"Such offerings are the Hamas way of extending an olive branch. Compel Israel to cave to their terms because of domestic public fury."

"Every Hamas video taunts and the tortures the country. It knows that."

"Since the U.S. election, Hamas has posted three videos, two of which showed signs of life of hostages."

"The terrorist group has issued statements on Telegram, including one last Friday that hostages are now guarded by suicide squads."

Vivian Bercovici, journalist, Israel

Israelis react to the ceasefire announcement as they take part in a demonstration in Tel Aviv, Israel, January 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

 

Guarded by suicide squads; yet another not very subtle message for Israel: try to mount rescues and however few of your precious Israelis are left in our hands alive will no longer be among the living. This is Hamas, extracting every ounce of bitter anguish from the families of the captured innocent civilians; infants, adolescents, girls, boys, the elderly and the ill, women and men, and oh yes, Israel Defense Forces' service-men and -women among them.

Toying with the fragile emotions of Israelis; of the families whose loved ones are held by Palestinians who love dead Jews and abhor live ones. Playing with the minds of Israeli authorities mulling strategies to somehow discover the whereabouts of the hostages and mount rescues to reunite them with their families suffering the agony of loss. Teasing the poor lost souls held in their dank, airless underground prisons by forcing them to deliver videoed pleas of rescue.

In Israel, hospitals are in preparation mode to receive the hostages, broken in spirit, mind and body. Hostages out of Gaza after having suffered dread privation, torture, fear and hopelessness. Is there, could there ever be a cure for relentless infliction of pain on helpless people? Of clearing the confusion from the minds of captured children whose vacant eyes abandoned the search for their parents?

Captured terrorists under interrogation revealed details of the conditions of the hostages. The supposition is that the hostages, men and women, girls and boys, and fragile infants are all in failing health. How could it be otherwise? Imprisoned deep in tunnels from the time of their capture 15 months earlier. Given scant food and water, and no opportunity for hygiene. There are reports that many among them are incapable now of standing on their own.

 

Photographs of some of those taken hostage by Hamas in Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 18, 2023.

Leon Neal/Getty Images

 

Imagine a crowded, dank and airless dungeon, the air putrid with human waste, and barely breathable, lacking sufficient oxygen. A total absence of natural light. Among them are those who have been bound or chained for prolonged periods. And those who have been repeatedly raped -- both men and women, and of course, adolescents. 

Among Israelis, most oppose any agreement where all hostages are not simultaneously freed. And certainly they are not agreeable to a ceasefire agreement under any conditions. Yet saving the hostages is of primary importance. Even so, Israeli negotiators speak of the reality of the situation, only one deal has been eked out and that is the hand they and others must work with. To secure the freedom of the hostages, even as the dire need is acknowledged to destroy the capabilities of terrorists to continue mounting deadly attacks, as they are sworn to do.

The conditions stipulated in the agreement are not by any stretch of the imagination optimum for those waiting in agony to see their loved ones, for those being held in these inhuman conditions to breathe free and scent a glimmer of  hope for their future. It will take three months, at release intervals, for the first stage of the release of 33 hostages to play out. Israel is holding its collective breath for baby Kfir and Ariel, now two and five, with their mother Shiri Bibas, to be released.

Early in their capture, Hamas had told the children's father that his wife and children were dead, struck in an Israel airstrike, though never confirmed. The video of that little drama was one of the first ones released by Hamas. In return for the 98 Israeli hostages --both dead and alive -- released bit by bit, Israel has pledged to release no fewer than a thousand Palestinian terrorists, some of whom were convicted of dreadful crimes.

Relatives and friends of people killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, react to the ceasefire announcement as they take part in a demonstration in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Stoking Divisions Trudeau Style

"[The attack on a Hindu temple in Canada over the weekend was an] appalling [attempt at intimidation]."

"Such acts of violence will never weaken India's resolve."

"We expect the Canadian government to ensure justice and uphold the rule of law."

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi

 

"The attack by Khalistanis on the Hindu-Canadian devotees inside the premises of the Hindu Sabha temple in Brampton shows how deep and brazen Khalistani violent extremism has become in Canada."

Liberal MP Chandra Arya  

 

"[India's a lot more cooperative with the U.S.,] and I think that's telling of Canada and maybe something we need to take more seriously."

"I'm not sure dealing with the diplomatic tensions that came with this [Trudeau's pandering to Sikh-Canadian separatists] are potentially worth it. I think that's telling of Canada and maybe something we need to take more seriously."

"I think leaving it up to the Mounties [RCMP] and the intelligence agencies, that certainly could have been done."

Rupinder Lidar, PhD student, McGill University

Members of Brampton’s Hindu community hold a rally at the Hindu Sabha temple Monday. Peel police say they issued a public safety alert after some participants were wielding weapons at the demonstration. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

 

Last Sunday while Indian consular officials were at a Hindu temple in Brampton, violence suddenly erupted, ending with three people arrested and charged by Peel Regional Police. Demonstrators carrying banners in support of a separate Sikh portion of India named Khalistan clashed with Hindu-Canadians, some of whom held India's national flag aloft. The Khalistani movement is held by India to be illegal and a threat to its sovereignty. Khalistanis are thought of as terrorists in India, some of whom have been convicted of serious crimes in their zeal for separatism.

Videos in circulation on social media show fist fights, with opposing groups striking one another with poles, on the grounds around the Hindu temple. Police are investigating "several acts of unlawfulness" in connection with the protests.According to India's Ministry of External Affairs, the temple had been attacked by "extremists and separatists", asking the government of Canada to protect all places of worship. "Anti-India elements" orchestrated "violent disruption" outside a consular camp in Brampton on November 3, the Indian High Commission in Ottawa posted on X.

Since last fall when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stood in the House of Commons and accused the Indian government of being involved in the killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Alberta, both countries have been in a deep diplomatic freeze with one another. More latterly, each country ejected the other's diplomats. Additionally, a top Canadian official claimed that Indian Home Minister Amit Shah authorized a campaign of violence, intimidation and intelligence gathering against Sikh separatists in Canada.

 

A large crowd gathered at the Hindu Sabha Mandir temple in Brampton on Monday. Nick Lachance/Toronto Star file photo

"I can't see how it's helped [Justin Trudeau informing a federal enquiry into foreign interference that Indian agents are playing a role in widespread violence in Canada, including killings, all of which India denies]."

"It's a really grave and serious accusation. There has to be an investigation. It has to be completed ... But I think the fact that senior political leaders have gotten involved makes it harder to find a resolution, certainly publicly."

"I imagine there are back-channel discussions going on at the highest level to the extent that that's possible"

"But publicly, there's a standoff and an impasse between the two governments. [Diplomatic relations between Canada and India] are in the deep freeze."

"India has consistently refuted these allegations and tensions have escalated. [When leaders including Trudeau and Modi wade in, it] ups the ante. [That's] going to incentivize both governments to really stick to their positions, at least publicly."

Sanjay Ruparelia, associate professor of political science, Toronto Metropolitan University

On Monday night hundreds of protesters marched in close proximity to the temple until police dispersed them. Weapons had been observed in the possession of the protesters. Police announced the arrest of three people related to Sunday's violence. In British Columbia three protesters were arrested at a Hindu temple in Surrey. 

"This kind of fanned the flames for a lot of people who have existing anti-immigrant sentiments or they feel that immigration in Canada has gone too far."

"That we've imported issues from the other world here."

"It's kind of given them a leg to stand on with those arguments."

 Rupinder Liddar

A crowd gathers outside Hindu Sabha Mandir temple Sunday evening, hours after a protest outside the temple prompted a police investigation. The temple has reinstated a priest who had been suspended for his involvement in a clash with protesters, according to a statement Thursday. (Britnei Bilhete/CBC)

IDF In Gaza Pursuing Deadly Terrorism

"The strike eliminated terrorists who had planned to carry out terror attacks and advance imminent terror schemes against our forces."

"Many steps were taken before the strike to minimize the risk of harm to uninvolved people [including analyzing aerial footage and making use of precise intelligence]."

Israel Defense Forces statement

Youths inspect damage to a storage container that was hit by an Israeli strike at the Asmaa school, run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), in Gaza City's Shati refugee camp, June 7, 2024. The IDF says a Hamas cell was operating from the container. (Omar Al-Qattaa / AFP)

A compound  within a United Nations school located in central Gaza saw the usual Hamas formula being played out with Hamas operatives using a school, generally viewed by the international community as being off limits to any kind of military operations, for their own purposes, of shielding themselves from direct confrontation with the Israeli military using school pupils, and in this particular instance, Palestinian internally displaced citizens who were sheltering at the school as human shields. 

The Israel Defense Forces has, over time, and experience with Hamas subterfuge and its deliberate endangerment of its own civilian population, established protocols of its own in dealing with the imminent threat posed by the terrorists while at the same time doing its utmost to prevent if at all possible in conditions of conflict, collateral damage from military actions that have the potential to injure or take the lives of men, women and children not engaged in combat.

 

A UN school housing displacing Palestinians that was hit by an Israeli strike in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, on June 6, 2024. The IDF said it hit a compound where Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were gathered, killing many of them. (Bashar Taleb/AFP)

 

There are, as usual two conflicting versions of what came next. The IDF explained its precautions taken in an effort to reduce any harm to civilians with the use of its "precise strike" on  a compound embedded within a UNRWA school in Nuseirat. Its target was between twenty to thirty terrorists known to be sheltering at the compound, among them participants in the October 7 invasion and slaughter that took place in southern Israel on October 7. 

 

These terrorists, known to have been involved in that singular atrocity must face justice and the kind of justice meted out ensures they pay the ultimate penalty.

While the members of the terror groups were gathered in three classrooms held separately from the areas where civilians displaced by the war were sheltered, they were struck and killed. The media office of Hamas made claim to 27 people having been killed in an Israeli "massacre". The number of those who were reported dead, according to UNRWA's communications director, was held to be between 35 and 45; the actual numbers unconfirmed, the individual admitted.

The IDF identified the Hamas Nukhba force involved at the school, known to have taken part in the October 7 massacre of Israelis. They, as well as members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad "directed terror attacks from the area of the school, while exploiting it as a civilian location and as shelter", the army further explained. The strike in question was fine-tuned with the intention of avoiding harm to civilians, and as such had been twice postponed.

 

A graphic issued by the IDF in the aftermath of a strike at the Asmaa school run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), in the Shati camp west of Gaza City on June 7, 2024. The IDF says a Hamas cell was operating from the container (Israel Defense Forces)

 

That Hamas uses schools, UN offices and other civilian infrastructures such as mosques and hospitals where it is known that civilians take shelter, is a well-established reality. As the governing body of the Gaza Strip, Hamas is not held accountable for the dire harm it brings to the Palestinians dependent on the terrorist group for security, yet the target of Hamas's lethal campaign against Jews and Israel, is held accountable by the international community for the outcome of a situation where Hamas deliberately places its own population in harm's way for propaganda purposes.

 

What is even more difficult to digest, is the resounding success Hamas realizes from its slanderous propaganda holding Israel accountable for all the human suffering that Hamas alone, along with other Palestinian terrorist groups, is responsible for. 

 

The ancient curse of the Jews exemplified by the Phoenix-like flare ups of antisemitism is reawakened by terrorist-dominated public relations aimed at the West whose legacy media, government agencies, academic institutions and unions weigh accounts emanating from terrorists as equal in credibility to those coming from a democracy whose system of laws and strict adherence to human rights responsibilities reflect their own.

 

A graphic issued by the IDF on June 7, 2024, shows eight Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives, in addition to nine previously identified, whom the army says it killed in a June 6, 2024 airstrike on a UN school in central Gaza’s Nuseirat (Israel Defense Forces)