"Based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, of North Korea, I am not happy with the fact that the United States has, long ago, agreed to participate in Joint Military Exercises with South Korea."

"These exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America [as usual], but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful."

U.S. President Donald J. Trump 

Chinese President Xi Jinping made a rare visit to North Korea to meet with Kim Jong Un, where the two moved closer to improving economic ties despite North Korea strengthening its relationship with Russia. Still from video, CBC News

 

Mr. Trump's great good friend saw to it that Pyongyang test-fired a ballistic missile recently over the Sea of Japan, warning it was prepared to respond to the annual joint military exercises shared by the United States and South Korea as practise runs in preparation for a potentially possible attack by North Korea on the South. All of the region has been made nervously expectant by the obvious militancy of Kim Jong Un, leading North Korea on a military and nuclear arms trajectory that traditional U.S. allies like South Korea, the Philippines, Japan and others view as threatening, along with that of Beijing, North Korea's 'big brother'.

 

There is also no secret about an alliance between Russia, North Korea, China and Iran. Much less the fact that Russia's war on Ukraine has been aided by the presence of North Korean troops. All four of those countries are anything but friends of the Democratic West. And while the U.S. military views Russia, North Korea and China as volatile military enemies, and is at war, directed by their president, with Iran, this tangled version of friends and allies versus military belligerents and adversaries of all that the West values is as puzzling as it is nonsensical.

 

A museum in North Korea honors soldiers who have fought for Russia

 

 The U.S. president wrote on his Truth Social site that he had ordered the Pentagon to scale back "inappropriate and hostile" military drills with South Korea, mere hours prior to the drills taking place. The exercises, according to South Korean officials, proceeded as planned. South Korea officials, in fact, expressed the hope that the personal relationship Mr. Trump speaks of with the South's political nemesis could yield a resumption of talks, and with that, some forward movement in reconciliation between the two Koreas.

 

While U.S. allies in East Asia cringe over displays of weapons' technical capabilities forever moving forward and displayed with militant pride by Pyongyang, along with the hermit nation's growing alignment with Vladimir Putin's territorially aggressive agenda, not to mention North Korea's historical mentorship by China, the annual drills offered a notional reassurance of having the support of the United States should the situation of military threats continue to accelerate.

 

"I recently asked the President of South Korea if they would like to join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they said, 'No thanks!'." That disinclination to become embroiled in a conflict outside their own internal interest zone appears to have sealed and delivered a verdict that Mr. Trump has applied elsewhere, when allies have failed to join America's spontaneous military decisions with no outreach before conflict has been launched with the heads of governments later expected to lend themselves to the American enterprise of war.

 

U.S. army soldiers are seen during joint military exercises with South Korea in Yeoncheon, South Korea, in March 2025. (Ahn Young-joon/The Associated Press)

 

The normal 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, designed to prepare the region for a potential war with North Korea, proceeded, though to "substantially reduced" impetus. That, reflecting the fact that when Mr. Trump decided he no longer wished the United States under his rule to continue with the drills, it was too late to cancel them, but Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth was ordered to reduce them.

 

Seoul's presidential office assured the press that it remained in "close coordination" over the exercises with Washington, expressing the "hopes that the friendly relationship between the leaders of the United States and North Korea will lead to meaningful dialogue". That's called diplomacy. Or looking on the bright side of things as expressed by Monty Python, in a skit somewhat resembling his tongue-in-cheek, sardonic episodes of portraying human lunacy.

 

There are some 28,500 American troops stationed in South Korea as a show of support for the country's defences since the 1950-53 armistice that ended the Korean War. Tellingly, American commitments to security in East Asia now appear fairly wobbly given U.S. President Trump's repeated criticism of what was once universally thought of as rock-solid alliances.

 

South Korean soldiers watching a joint live-fire exercise with the U.S. Army in Pocheon, South Korea, last year.   SeongJoon Cho / Bloomberg via Getty Images file

 

"Among the several commitments Canada has made to Qatar in the hopes of convincing the Gulf autocracy's ruling Al Thani family to double down on its energy investments in Canada is a June 25 memorandum of understanding between Canada's Public Safety ministry and Qatar's Internal Security Force. It's also under wraps, like the RCMP agreement with Beijing's Public Security ministry."

"The deal is supposed to extend Canada's co-operation on a variety of law enforcement portfolios, including money laundering, financial crime and terrorism."

"This will be unavoidably awkward, owing to the Al Thani family's conviction that the terrorist front Hamas, the Palestinian offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, is merely a national liberation movement."

"Qatar is already notorious in Canada's national security circles for the hundreds of millions of dollars it lavishes on the Muslim Brotherhood and its Canadian fronts and affiliates."

Terry Glavin, journalist, National Post  

Carney is greeted by Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani as he arrives to Amiri Diwan in Doha, Qatar. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

 

Canada is at an impasse in attempting to deal with mercurial U.S. President Donald Trump, wedded to the big stick he wields with wild abandon, striking friend and foe alike with threatening tariffs geared to make them tremble in trepidation over the suddenly-wobbly state of their economy. The entire world economy is shaken to its foundations when America suddenly becomes unreliable, both in its trade and commerce cooperation with allies and competitors alike, ditching diplomacy for belligerence in expressions of bad faith and contempt toward other nations.

 

"I like this guy!" CBC

 

Trade dependency on a geographic neighbour may make common sense when one country is viewed as the junior, valued for its abundance of natural resources, prepared to continue its trade relationship with the other whose appetite for energy and mineral extraction is boundless. The exchange of raw resources with finished products has always been reflected in the trade relationship. Advanced to the junior partner in later decades through the sharing of production to the benefit of both. 

 

Canada's standard of living reliant on the good graces of its neighbour, received a shock when that neighbour suddenly began growling and grumbling about being taken for granted, insufficiently adored for its generosity, and become fed up with being milked in unfair trade practises. And the trade deficit!!!Then the junior reeled back in dismay at the very pronouncements of a trade-enforced geographic-sovereign-lost-merger, genially imposed by its powerful neighbour. 

 

Trade-diversion and -diversity imposed becoming the order of the day, the month, the year, stretching into infinity. Pierre Elliott Trudeau back in the distant past embarked on a similar adventure, but it somehow never progressed to the point of being. Canada's new foreign-policy trade agreements under current prime minister Mark Carney, a self-professed economic genius, now has his turn. Jean Chretien in his day made frequent exploratory-trade visits to China with a full regalia of government ministers and corporate elites in tow.

 

Prime Minister Mark Carney and Diana Fox Carney disembark a government plane in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, July 7, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

 

In a year-and-a-half, Mr. Carney and his ministers have gone to 29 foreign capitals to drum up trade agreements with countries Canada has much in common with; Liberal democracies, and unsavoury others as well. He launched a "new world order" partnership with China, opening Canadian manufacturing and vehicle production in particular, to the trade-predatory Chinese Communist Party in Beijing. Taking no notice at the same time of China's human rights record on Tibet and Xinjiang.

 

China's predation is right out there in plain sight; countries that have imported cheaply-produced Chinese products valued by global consumers for their low prices have seen their own industries eviscerated,  unable to complete with the low wages and CCP subsidies to make Chinese goods preferable to their own. Europe's vast trade deficit with China was exemplified by the president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China commenting on the situation comparing it to a "400-metre-long giant container ship loaded with 24,000 containers going to Europe, and coming back almost empty". 

 

Mark Carney — pictured with Chinese President Xi Jinping — reached a 'landmark' trade deal with China. (Sean Kilpatrick/Reuters)

 

Volkswagen's plans to rescue its Osnabruck plant along with 2,300 jobs y converting to production of components for Israel's Iron Dome defence system met a roadblock when Qatar objected, since the Qatari sovereign wealth fund purchased 10.4 percent of Volkswagen shares and 17 percent of its voting rights. Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Turkey is another potential trade partner for Canada under Mr. Carney's wide-ranging plans of rescue from the American trade orbit. 

 

Turkey's Erdogan is committed to the reestablishment of a Global Caliphate. Achieved perhaps, in a trifle more sophisticated way -- without the beheadings and crucifixions seen exercised by the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, but equally devoted to its inevitability, with the considerable assistance of the Muslim Brotherhood globally, and regionally the MB offshoot, Hamas in Gaza. Only two weeks earlier Mr. Carney announced Ottawa's negotiations with Ankara toward a free trade agreement.   

"Last year, the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy [ISGAP] published an in-depth study of the reach of Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood in Canada, recommending that Canada's intelligence agencies keep much closer tabs on Qatar's promotion of extremist ideology and support for extremist organizations in Canada:

"'It is imperative to assess their level of penetration, areas of influence, and long-term goals in order to effectively manage the risks posed to Canada' [ISGAP]."

Terry Glavin  

Another opportunity for Canada's Liberal Carney government arose with discussions on a free trade agreement with the 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc of which Myanmar is a member, albeit a police state. Myanmar is listed among three other countries -- Iran and North Korea -- on the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force. Details, inconvenient details, so inconsequential, no need to bother with them. 

 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gifted Prime Minister Mark Carney and other NATO leaders a custom revolver with each recipient's name engraved on the barrel during the alliance's summit in Ankara, Turkey. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

 

"So it's all well and good for Canada to be looking for deep-pocketed police state investors and maybe even some customers beyond the United States, at least for now."

"But the lasting damage to Canada's national security, diplomatic sovereignty, moral conscience, democratic alliances and international reputation might also be taken into account from time to time."

Terry Glavin, journalist extraordinaire, National Post 

"[Prime Minister Mark Carney has] negotiated a terrible deal for Canada."

"We took the risk and the cost. We deserve to recover our money."

"What precisely will be divided? Gross toll revenues, operating profit, net profit after expenses after Canada has fully recovered its investment?"

Conservative Canada-U.S trade critic Shuvaloy Majundar

 

"I'm happy the bridge is going to be open. We need it. We need it because we're expanding."

"The word 'net' does a lot of work in this. We are sharing after Canada is paid back. We get the revenues. Then the servicing of the costs of the bridge and paying the debt of the bridge, and then what's left over, there's a split of that for 15 years." 

"We are sharing after Canada is paid back. It's manning the toll booths, it's maintenance, it's snow removal, a series of other operational costs. So we get the revenues, then the servicing of the cost of the bridge and paying the debt of the bridge."

"And then what's left over, there's a split of that for 15 years."

"There's not going to be a lot of net to split. It's a good deal for Canada." 

Prime Minister Mark Carney 

 

"I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them, and also, importantly, Canada treats the United States with the Fairness and Respect that we deserve." (February) 

"The new deal is great, and fair. Thank you and congratulations to the Canadian Government."

"May we both have many years of success with this wonderful new development."  (July)

"I was able to cut a MUCH BETTER DEAL for America, and by so doing, will be allowing the new and spectacular Gordie Howe International Bridge, spanning Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, to open on July 27th, as scheduled. The original deal made was unacceptable to me! The new deal is great and fair." 

U.S. President Donald J. Trump 

Gordie Howe International Bridge

 

Under the original agreement between Canada and Michigan which was signed as a contract in 2012, Canada, which paid for the construction of the $6.4 billion bridge, offered half ownership to Michigan. The contract stipulated that Canada would collect bridge tolls until such time as the capital costs expended by Canada were recouped. Following that, bridge toll revenues would be evenly split between Canada and Michigan. Because President Trump vetoed that understanding, a new, opaque agreement was reached to satisfy U.S. demands.

 

"Mark Carney's capitulation to Trump on the Gordie Howe Bridge is awful for Canada", commented opposition MP Andrew Lawton. While MP for Calgary Heritage Shuv Majumdar named it as "a terrible deal for Canada". He had written to Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc that the full agreement be released before the official bridge opening on July 27, so that the those who paid for the bridge -- Canadian taxpayers -- would be in possession of "a complete account of what was given away, what was received, and the true cost of this deal". 

 

An American official, reported Bloomberg News, contradicted Mr. Carney's statements; interest costs are not to be included in the calculation. In 2018 a bridge connecting Windsor and Detroit went under construction, although the owners of the long standing Ambassador Bridge made every attempt beforehand to stall and stop the initiative that would compete with the revenues they had long received as the sole bridge handling over a quarter of all trucked Canada-U.S. trade. 

 

Gordie Howe International Bridge from Detroit, Detroit Free Press

 

And while Mr. Carney stated no split of toll revenue would occur  until the debt is fully repaid, U.S. President Trump in February announced the terms of the deal did not pass muster with him as final arbiter, eventually blocking a June opening ceremony following completion of construction. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is credited with bringing the president around to that opinion. The Moroun family, owners of the Ambassador Bridge had the ear of the Trump administration. All the more so as significant $1-million contributors to Trump's MAGA campaign. 

"I'm proud to have fought for its opening and congratulate my partners who have worked on this issue alongside me for years."

"This bridge is a testament to the enduring partnership between Michigan and Canada and what we can et done when we think big and bet on our shared future together."

"Thank you to our allies in Canada and to the Michiganders who advocated for years to get this done."

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer 

 Trump's tariffs have disrupted trade flows between the U.S. and Canada, but not entirely. There was an exchange of some $880 billion in goods and services in 2025, slightly diminished by about five percent less than the year before. While many Canadians have taken to boycotting recreational travel to the United States in protest of the tariffs as well as the U.S. president's anti-Canadian rhetoric, not to mention his constant musings and urges over the '51st State', these conditions may presage a lighter traffic flow than originally envisioned.

 

President Trump on Tuesday reposted an image with himself in the Oval Office surrounded by other world leaders, obviously produced by AI. A map of North America appears in the image, with the U.S. Stars and Stripes imposed over Canada and Greenland.  

 

 

 

"Perhaps Canada's willingness to pay a bribe was the correct thing to do in the short term, but signing long-term deals with the U.S. on anything has suffered an additional blow."

"[The opening was a] plus for commerce, but] it's bad for credibility, faith in contracts and a system of law and order, the viability of making long-term deals with the U.S., and democracy. It's blatantly unfair and commingles donor politics with commerce once again."

"Canadians have a right to know the full details, like was the Moroun family paid off somehow in the murky language of shared proceeds?"

Derek Holt, vice-president, head of capital markets economics, Scotiabank, Toronto 

"[Iranian officials pushed to include a clause in the interim agreement finalized earlier this week requiring Israel to leave] the security zone in Lebanon."

"The prime minister said to the U.S. President: 'We understand the concerns, but this is a critical issue for our national security and we won't pull out'."

Zev Elkin, security cabinet member, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ally 

June 18: Khamenei okays MOU in written statement, says talks with US do ‘not mean accepting its views’

 

The agreement reached between the United States and Iran had no input from Israel. This, despite that the aerial attacks launched on February 28 on the Islamic Republic was a joint enterprise shared by both Israel and the United States in a unified stance against the Iranian regime ever breaking the barrier toward achieving nuclear weaponry through its stealth uranium enrichment enterprise. That partnership broke down when Israel was excluded from negotiations carried on between Pakistan and Qatar as intermediaries between the U.S. and Iran, to achieve a ceasefire deal and end to the conflict.

 

And because Israel was not a member of the negotiations -- even though any such arrangement as was negotiated based on Iran's 'word of honour' that it had no intention of achieving nuclear arms, even while it threatened to destroy Israel, and its terrorist militias, Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and the Yemeni Houthis were all delegated by Iran to take part in a pincer-movement of destroying Israel -- there was no expectation incumbent upon Israel to heed any of the conditions it felt to be inimical to its own survival.

 

President Trump made no secret of his disapproval of Israel's ongoing incursion into southern Lebanon, the stronghold of the Hezbollah-Lebanese terrorist group whose rockets continued to rain down on Israel at the behest of Iran whose proxies tend to respond to commands from the Shiite Islamist fundamentalist state that have been formed, trained and armed by the al Quds arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the power behind the Ayatollahs' throne of command.

 

Trump insists Iran deal will open Strait of Hormuz 'toll-free' as he meets world leaders  BBC News

 

That being so, Israel did not appear to hesitate when rejecting the U.S. request to withdraw its troops from Lebanon, not as long as Hezbollah controlled Lebanon, despite the complications that ensued between the 'partnership' of Israel/U.S. defense coalition. The U.S./Iran agreed-upon interim deal stipulates hostilities must ease on all fronts, including -- at Iran's insistence -- in Lebanon, where Israel has been fighting a parallel war ever since Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the joint attack on Iran. 

 

President Trump's dissatisfaction with Prime Minister Netanyahu's ongoing commitment in the face of Israeli security challenged by Iran's proxies and Iran itself, to continue its defensive offences has been publicly stated much to Israel's chagrin; re-stated more emphatically by Vice-President JD Vance in fairly offensive terms verging as close to rabid antisemitism as conceivable, helping to shake Israeli confidence in steadfast American support for Israel's survival.

 

On the other hand, a senior U.S. official stated that Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon did not represent a condition of the deal; that Israel, in the opinion of the U.S. administration has the right to respond to any attacks by Hezbollah. Scathing condemnation from JD Vance, aside, which assurances is Israel to pin its decision-making upon? Grin and bear Mr. Trump's truculent insults, and turn aside from his vice's commentary, or put stock in what other Trump officials interpret...?

 

Israel has committed to destroying Hezbollah's capacity to continue lobbing rockets and drones into Israeli territory. So it continues to forge deeper into southern Lebanon, to oust Hezbollah from its perch there. In discussions with the Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Israel has assured him that any territory it clears of Hezbollah's threatening presence, while degrading its weaponry stockpiles and eliminating its leaders, will be turned over to the Lebanese National Army, in 'pilot' zones.

 

Lebanon's President Aoun has accused Tehran of using Lebanon as a bargaining chip. The Hezbollah drone incursions led Israel to bomb Beirut on June 14, enraging President Trump. As insurance, Israel now focuses on new means whereby it can neutralize the threat the drones pose, hoping to be able to sidetrack responses that would once again raise tensions with Washington. According to PM Netanyahu, Hezbollah's pre-war arsenal of 150,000 rockets have been reduced to 12,000; still capable of more than ample damage.  

 

 

 Smoke rises from Israeli bombardment near the village of Kfar Tibnit in southern Lebanon on June 14, 2026. AFP via Getty Images

"[The Board of Peace would] work with many others, including the United Nations."

"Once this board is completely formed, we can do pretty much whatever in conjunction with the United Nations. You know, I've always said the United Nations has got tremendous potential."

"Every one of them [those signing on the 'Board of Peace'] is a friend of mine. A couple, let's see, a couple I like, a couple I don't like."

"No, I like, actually, this group. I like every single one of them, can you believe it? Usually I have about two or three that I can't stand." 

"[I wish that] we didn't need a Board of Peace [but the UN had failed to help solve the world's conflicts]."

U.S. President Donald J. Trump

U.S. President Donald Trump, centre, sits with leaders of other countries during a signing ceremony for his 'Board of Peace' initiative aimed at resolving global conflicts, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

"I think what you're seeing is a board that has been cobbled together for Gaza with much bigger aspirations. But with a set of skills and a set of people that is really very Middle East centric, and I think has quite little relevance to crises outside of that region."

"Yes, the UN has very serious problems. But I think that doesn't mean that Europeans [and] many others — in South America, for example — want to see a world in which the White House, in which Trump, in which Americans acquire disproportionate power over these sorts of decisions."

"This is not just a contest that the U.S. can shape by itself and say, 'I'm done with the UN, it's over.' The Chinese will keep playing this game. Very powerful rising countries like Brazil and India will have a stake in the UN, and they will seek to influence its agencies and bodies more and more as the U.S. draws back." 

Shashank Joshi, defence editor, The Economist  

President Donald Trump in Davos officially launched his Board of Peace initiative, claiming his very personal project so dear to his heart which may yet gain him 2026's nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, joined on stage by his board's founding members comprised of political allies such as President Javier Milei of Argentina, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and representatives from Bahrain, Morocco, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan.

 

All of whom were pleased to join Mr. Trump at the document signing table where the board's charter was declared to be 'in full force', as an "official international organization". Phase two of the Peace Plan is set to proceed, despite the fact that Phase one has not been fully implemented. And considering the critical nature of fully implementing the first portion of the plan focusing on dismantling and disarming the Hamas terrorist group governing Gaza, to follow on seems a trifle premature. It represents, in fact, a failure.

 

Not according to Mr. Trump who considers the initial peace plan phase successful, emphasizing his intention and that of the United States to have Gaza 'properly rebuilt'. There are some heads of state who, given the uncertainties that lie ahead and their concerns regarding the makeup of the board's membership who prefer to hang back before finalizing their decisions to join, and others who are certain there is no good reason for them to be part of the notional planned success. 

 

US President Donald Trump (C) speaks during the Sharm El-Sheikh Peace Summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on October 13, 2025. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)

 

American allies, part of the Group of Seven, remain uneasily on the sidelines. Originally the board was proposed to help oversee the reconstruction of Gaza. A broader purpose has been newly revealed: to "secure enduring peace on areas affected or threatened by conflict", a vision that places many U.S. allies on alert, concerned there is a hidden agenda to rival and perhaps replace the traditional 'relevance' of the United Nations.

 

That a new draft plan suggests countries joining the board contribute $1 billion each should they wish to  place themselves past the initial three-year registration to permanent status, may have taken many aback. The view being that Mr. Trump will remain its chairman in perpetuity, making all the decisions as its "inaugural chairman". The invitation extended to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarus's Alexander Lukashenko certainly persuaded Volodymyr Zelenskyy to politely turn down his own invitation, while raising eyebrows throughout Europe.

 

Altogether some 60 leaders were given invitations to join. France, the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway and Germany have declined their invitations. Canada accepted, but given its trade overtures to Beijing that followed, has been  summarily disinvited.  The UN Security Council had originally endorsed the Gaza plan, but may since have had second thoughts.

 

 

 

Trump 'Monitoring the Situation in Iran'

"The truth is only President Trump knows what he's going to do and a very, very small team of advisers are read into his thinking on that."

"He continues to closely monitor the situation on the ground in Iran."

"All options remain on the table." 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt 

 

"President Trump is a man of action, not endless talk like we see at the United Nations."

"He has made it clear all options are on the table to stop the slaughter."

Mike Waltz, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations

At least 52 prisoners were executed in Iran based on prior non-political convictions during a period of nationwide protests and an ongoing internet shutdown.  Iran International

 

Last June Leavitt had read a message to reporters saying it had come "directly from the president". Trump himself would decide, he maintained, whether to strike Iran "within the next two weeks"; this at a time when Israel was carrying out strikes on Iran, and the president was weighing whether he would order the U.S. military to become involved. Before two days elapsed B-2 bombers were ordered to carry out strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. 

 

"It might be that they're delaying things and using the time for getting that posture correct", ventured Jeremy Shapiro, research director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, on the theory that the American president might have been concerned over the current U.S. force posture in the Middle East spurring him to hesitate. No U.S. aircraft carriers, an asset during a military operation in the region were available having been deployed to an operation focused on Venezuela.

 

The perceived shifting tone of U.S. President Donald Trump leaning away from his threats to attack Iran following his continued warning issuing warnings against Tehran for its brutal crackdown on Iranians mounting a countrywide protest against the oppressive Islamist Republic's theocratic regime saw a drop in oil prices as markets reacted to the uncertainty of this mercurial president's changeable sentiments.

 

The intervention of top officials from Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar warning that an American military intervention would have the effect of destabilizing the global economy as well as shaking an already volatile region moving it close to a total regional war appears to have had an effect on the president's decision-making. This is a Muslim Brotherhood reaction to the potential removal of the Islamist theocracy ruling Iran.  

 

Anti-government protesters demonstrate on January 8, in Tehran.   Getty Images

 

While Oman and Qatar are in full support of Iran, as Muslim Brotherhood-linked states, the Muslim Brotherhood has been officially proscribed in Egypt, where it was formed almost a century ago, as a fundamentalist Islamist group dedicated to strict Sharia and jihad by any means, and in Saudi Arabia as well it is outlawed, though it seems that the severe orthodoxy of totalitarian Islamism dictates the decision making in favour of the Muslim Brotherhood whose agenda the Islamic Republic of Iran represents a living example.

 

Qatar in particular, with its massive oil wealth, has bought respectability and recognition as a 'moderate' Muslim state in the United States. Its persuasive power lies in its massive financial investments there, in its universities where it has been able to influence academia to respect its agenda of portrayals of Islam as benign, not the Western values-destructive totalitarian threat it carries. President Trump admires the trappings of wealth and power and is not immune to appreciating those whose generosity benefits him personally.

 

Iranians took to the streets despite the danger they face from their despotic, oppressive government that has, over almost a half-century persecuted them through force of threats and state punishment from imprisonment, torture and a relentless death penalty. Despite Iran's authorities warning the population that taking part in mass protests against the government would be construed as grounds for capital punishment, Iranians kept turning out in their hundreds of thousands in cities across the nation, facing police violence.

 

Iran International

 

Estimates of the rising death count have reached well over 30,000 people. The wounded have overwhelmed hospitals and now reports emerge that the Basij are entering hospitals to take away and execute those wounded in the protests. As for families frantic to recover the bodies of their loved ones for burial, without the thousands of dollars demanded by the regime to release them, those families that cannot afford the price to redeem the corpses are left disconsolate in their grief. 

 

After having issued vehement threats to the Iranian regime for the rising death count, and promising Iranians that the U.S. military is prepared to rescue them,  Trump's assurances that "help is on its way", while urging Iranians to take over their country's institutions, abruptly declared information had been given him from "very important sources on the other side" that Iran  had put a halt to killing protesters and executions were no longer proceeding. No need, therefore, to intervene.

 

At the same time that Qatar, Oman, Egypt and Saudi Arabia persuaded Trump to stand down from his word to the Iranian people, they urged Iranian officials to end the visible repression of protesters, warning that continued Iranian responses or an action against the U.S. would significantly impact Iran. Through social media Trump repeated the speaking lines of those persuading him not to strike Iran: "This is good news, hopefully, it will continue!", he posted over the commutation of a death sentence for a young Iranian shopkeeper-protester.

 

Iran's response was to once more completely shut down the Internet connections across the nation.  And nor can cellphones be operational. No news in or out of the theocracy, other than what the regime may permit. No guarantees that the hunting down and slaughter of Iranians, disconsolate over their abandonment by the world at large and fearing now to emerge from their homes, is ongoing. This is what is meant by a pact with the devil some might compare to the 'art of the deal'. 

"[Thousands have been killed], some in an inhuman, savage manner."

"Those linked to Israel and the US caused massive damage and killed several thousand."

"We consider the US president criminal for the casualties, damages and slander he inflicted on the Iranian nation."

"[Iran considered President Trump to be a] criminal. [The US must be] held accountable [for recent unrest]."

"America's goal is to swallow Iran."

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei 

Iran's supreme leader has for the first time publicly acknowledged that thousands of people were killed during recent protests, blames the West. Iranian leader press office via Getty Images

 

"We Will Achieve This By Force"

 

Photo montage, Getty Images

"We need to sit down and discuss this seriously."

"[President Donald Trump's plan is] a set of issues put forward for discussion [rather than a draft agreement]."

"If Ukrainian troops withdraw from the territories they occupy, hostilities will cease."

"If they don't withdraw, we will achieve this by force."

Russian President Vladimir Putin 

Russian President Vladimir Putin reviews the honor guard during a welcoming ceremony at Yntymak-Ordo in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, November 26, 2025. Igor Kovalenko/EPA/Shutterstock

 

Force, of course, is what this revanchist imperialist employed with his 'special military operation' launched against a sovereign Ukraine, with the intention of dragging the nation back into the fold of the Soviet Union that Vladimir Putin is planning on reconstructing. It is the reason Russia's near neighbours shudder at the Kremlin's actions in Georgia, Moldova, Transnistria, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. 

 

Speaking of Ukraine in holding its own territories as 'occupied' is typical Putian logic. It is, of course, Russia/Putin that 'occupies' Ukrainian territory starting with the coveted Crimean Peninsula and going on six years later to add Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson oblasts. Even that is not enough for Putin, vowing to fight on 'until the last Ukrainian dies'.  

"Putin does not want an agreement." 

"The only agreement he wants is diktat -- a Ukrainian surrender. Otherwise, he wants to continue fighting."

"I suspect if Ukraine had accepted those dreadful 28 points, Putin would come back for more."

"He realizes those 28 points reflected great flexibility moving his direction on the part of the United States, and he would say, 'See what else we can get'."

John Herbst, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine  

Vladimir Putin's idea of an end to war and the arrival of peace, is that Ukrainian forces must vacate the areas they 'occupy', for if they insist on remaining in defense of Ukrainian territory, Russian troops will roll right over them. With Russia's larger military, generously equipped, the original Ukrainian defensive swiftly turned into an offensive, demonstrating the courage and determination of a unique social/political order and historical culture to protect its inalienable sovereignty from the malign grasp of a warmonger.

 

Russia is demanding territory from Ukraine it has devastated throughout the course of the nearly four-year war (AFP/Getty)

 

The U.S. president's confidence that his status as the reigning world leader would convince two warring parties to submit to reason; enough blood shed, enough material destruction, enough displacement, enough refugees, and more than enough madness in the fog of war, greed, revenge, fear and misery. The tactics employed to date; strong-arming and verbally abusing and threatening the defender, while deferring to the offender have failed in their aberrant and clumsy overtures.

 

What is obvious that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will not bow to the unreasonable pressures he has been plied with, while acknowledging the need to placate to a certain measure some of the demands impressed upon him. Putin, on the other hand, remains fixated on the enterprise he set out to accomplish; acquiring by limitless force as much of the geography of Ukraine for a Greater Russia that the sacrifice of lives on both side can accomplish.

 

Andriy Yermak (right) said Ukraine’s Zelensky (left) would never give up land before he resigned on Friday amid an anti-corruption probe.  Reuters

 

Ukraine, as far as Putin is concerned, must withdraw completely from all of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions to make way for Russian annexation. Until this demand is satisfied, Moscow has no interest whatever in 'peace negotiations'. Nor can Ukraine be permitted to join NATO. Much less be permitted to host NATO troops for security reasons. 

 

European leaders, in their support of Ukraine while regarding the scenario that has been unfolding for the past three years in that country to be a potential prelude to what they too might experience should Russia prevail, are anxious to be consulted along with Ukraine for any alterations to the draft peace plan the Trump administration has pieced together. 

 

Europe is well aware that their adversary in Moscow plans to outwait their commitment in supporting the Ukrainian war effort. They are also acutely aware that it wouldn't take much for this irascible president who does not take kindly to opposition, to walk away from American past obligations in upholding the world order. Ukraine shudders at the prospect of being left adrift without any support at all from the U.S., whether it be badly needed military arms, or intelligence.  

"I see nothing at the moment that would force Putin to recalculate his goals or abandon his core demands."

"He feels more confident than ever about the battlefield situation and is convinced that he can wait until Kyiv finally accepts that it cannot win and must negotiate on Russia's well-known terms."

"If the Americans can help move things in that direction -- fine. If not, he knows how to proceed anyway." 

Tatiana Stoyanova, founder, R.Politik, senior fellow, Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center