"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

 

"I've been harassed. For us, it's not about whether you are legal or not, and that is why everyone is very careful right now."

"As long as you are a Nigerian, you are profiled and you are stereotyped immediately."

"We are all very careful."

"We are in the dark because we don't know how our government [in Nigeria] is going to react if any of us is to be affected or is to be killed."

"[Both Pretoria and Johannesburg have the] biggest [migrant communities]."

Chairman, Nigerian Union in South Africa, Olaniyi Abodedele

 

"It is not okay because we are blacks, we are brothers... everybody comes here just to survive."

"It's not what we expected as fellow African."

"It's just making us scared - imagine if we're scared in our own African continent - what if we go to Europe?"

Immigrant Security Guard

 

"[The president ordered the] evacuation of imperiled Nigerian citizens who consider their lives at risk by continued stay in South Africa."

"The price of  your peace, and the safety of your children is not worth any sacrifices you have to make, or any assets you have to leave behind when fleeing a conflict zone or hate-infested environment."

Nigerian Foreign Minister Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu 

 

"[Nigerians] living in South Africa legally [are being dreadfully mistreated]."

"If there were issues of illegality, that would be determined on a person-to-person basis. You can't just crown the entire Nigerians living in South Africa as living there illegally."

Nigerian Humanitarian Affairs Minister Bernard Doro  

Hundreds took to the streets of Pretoria to protest against immigration   BBC / Thuthuka Zondi

"I am very scared and traumatized."

"The people came to my house and told me: 'You must leave. We don't want you people to stay here any longer, so you have to go to your country.' There were 10 and they were carrying weapons [machetes and whips]."

"They cut my husband on his head and his neck. They were holding his neck like they wanted to kill him."

"Because of God he still survived, but he's in the hospital."

Esnat Joseph, 36, Malawian 

Esnat Joseph said a gang of men came to her home in Durban to threaten the family - forcing her to flee with her triplets   Thuthuka Zondi / BBC

"If you come into South Africa with a passport that allows you to stay for 30 days. When it's 50 days, when it's two years, when it's five years, you know you're breaking the law."

"We can't have South Africa being turned into a refugee site for all failed African states… every country prioritizes its citizens and we want the South African government to do the same."

March and March leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma    

Ghana's diplomatic mission told Ghanaians in the country to "place the highest priority on personal safety... [and] take precautionary measures" during the protests. BBC / Thuthuka Zondi

 

Part of repatriation ordered by the government of Nigeria following violent anti-immigrant protests, the initial group of Nigerians returned home from South Africa this week. On board the flight to Lagos was a total of 262 passengers and three officials, according to the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs which earlier stated that over 1,000 Nigerians have registered with them for voluntary return.

 

According to authorities in South Africa, those returnees were found to be in the country illegally, effectively contradicting the Nigerian officials who had stated unequivocally that Nigerians were fleeing xenophobic attacks against them by hordes of South Africans who march in the streets, intimidating migrants as well as legal immigrants with the violent vehemence of their expressed hatred of the presence of 'foreigners'. Bearing sticks the marchers chant: "Mabahambe" - a Zulu phrase meaning "They must go".

 

Such flights have been organized from South Africa by other African nations whose nationals have been targeted by hate messages and threats of violence, including Zimbabwe, Malawi, Ghana, Mozambique and others which make up the 3 million non-South-Africans in the country, representing 5 percent of the population. Many of whom are there in South Africa, welcomed for their cheap labour. While South Africa is the wealthiest and most-developed of the regional African countries, it has a high unemployment rate.

 

Countries like Nigeria have taken note that since April, a series of new anti-immigration protests have resulted in attacks against some foreigners in South Africa; protests that highlight tensions between foreign workers and locals who claim their jobs are being taken by foreigners. Some South African officials speak of the protests and the threats inherent in them as acts of xenophobia; words lacking any action leading to a solution to the anger, resentment and fear. 

 

According to some returnees questioned by authorities in their home countries, they lacked proper documentation in South Africa, while others stated they had been unable to renew their residency papers for years, the result of immigration bottlenecks imposed on Nigerians by South African authorities. "I was in South Africa for 11 years, and I was treated badly/ They did not give us [Nigerians] resident permits because we were Nigerians", complained Eminaba Beatrice.  

 

Around 7,000 people have gathered in Durban asking to be repatriated to Malawi  AFP via Getty Images

  

"Political parties are scraping the bottom of the barrel in trying to lie to people that all our problems are the migrants, and if we get rid of the migrants, then we'll have no problems in South Africa."

"This has been an ongoing phenomenon in South Africa and more recently, it has been associated with elections."

Sharon Ekambaram, human rights lawyer, member, Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia movement 

"[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

"These details are important as this investigation involves at least six shooting incidents in the Greater Toronto Area linked to a 9mm handgun, and at least 11 shooting incidents in the Greater Toronto Area linked to a .45-calibre firearm."
"We are still doing ballistic testing, and more arrests and charges could come at a later date."

"What we are dealing with in this case and in other unrelated incidences, including shootings at synagogues and Jewish schools, is a reoccurring and similar modus operandi. And that is criminals for hire." 

"Young people are hired [through encrypted messaging apps including WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal] to carry out attacks against various targets."

"And in order to get paid, they're required to film their attacks."

Toronto Police Service Chief Myron Demkiw 

Chief Myron Demkiw announces the loss of Constable Marc Pinizzotto alongside Toronto Police Association President Clayton Campbell and Mayor Olivia Chow.Toronto Police Service

 

 It was finally made official through a news conference Monday, that Toronto Police have linked the shooting at Toronto's U.S. Consulate and another at a private industry, to a number of repeat shootings at Toronto-area synagogues and Jewish schools. Just a week earlier as a Toronto Police squad arrived at an uptown apartment complex to deliver a warrant, a shootout took place between several youth wanted for involvement in those very shootings, that led to the death of one of the police officers, Constable Marc Pinizzotto, 43, a member of the Emergency Task Force, whose death in the line of service suddenly made the investigation into the mystery shootings very personal for the Toronto Police Service.

 

The young shooter, Nicholas Bennett, 19, wounded in the shootout and currently in hospital faces a first-degree murder charge for Constable Pinizzotto's killing, while his companion Zara Jabbi, 19 -- both suspects in the March 10 U.S. Consulate attack on University Avenue -- is a fugitive, with an active police search ongoing. "We are doing everything we can to find and arrest him", assured Chief Myron Demkiw at a press briefing. "This is an incredibly difficult moment for all of us. Marc's family has lost a husband, a father and a son, and as a service, we've lost a colleague and a friend."

 

Constable Marc Pinizzotto with his wife and children.

 

 During the investigation, police retrieved two guns on Thursday, the product of a raid on an apartment complex, where Constable Pinizzotto was shot to death, in the area north of Black Creek Drive and Eglinton Avenue West. According to Chief Demkiw announcing the find, the 9 mm handgun and .45-calibre handgun had both "originated in the United States of America". Some of the gangs that are known to recruit young offenders to steal vehicles throughout the Toronto area to ship them abroad, have been known to use their profits from stolen-vehicle sales to finance the illegal purchase of weapons smuggled from the U.S. into Canada.

 

According to U.S. prosecutors, the attack on the Toronto U.S. Consulate had been directed by Mohammad Baqeer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, a commander of an Iraqi militia linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. A wiretapped conversation with al-Saadi soon after the March 10 shooting, reported through an unsealed criminal complaint in the U.S. has evidenced his involvement when he claimed "our people" to have been responsible for the attack, along with another on "the Knesset", referencing the Toronto synagogue fired on almost simultaneously. 

 

Will it ever occur to the Toronto Police Service that the 'our people' would be in reference to the many IRGC members who have slipped into Canada, particularly in and around Toronto, to live comfortably away from the messy nuisance of the Israel-U.S. bombing in Iran? And while their presence is fairly well known to Canadian Intelligence and the federal government who appear to view their presence with a certain blase nonchalance, that very presence is a threat? 

 

The entrance to Congregation Beth Tikvah in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, following an antisemitic attack, December 18, 2024   (photo credit: SIMON-MARC CHARRON/RADIO CANADA)

 

Two men were seen to emerge from a stolen Honda CRV to "fire multiple rounds" into the U.S. Consulate building, according to the TPS Chief Superintendent of Detective Operations, Joe Matthews. "While the building was struck by gunfire, thankfully nobody inside was injured", he noted, adding that the shooters had recorded their actions on their phones. The CRV they had stolen, later "was found abandoned in Scarborough", a Toronto suburb. 

 

Superintendent Matthews went  on to state that investigators determined the shooting was connected to "several other firearm discharge investigations across the Greater Toronto Area, both in terms of the individuals involved and the firearms being used." Police are still attempting to identify "individuals responsible for pulling the triggers", along with "those who may have directed or organized these acts of violence." There are, it appears, "multiple networks" of shooters for hire that are "multi-layered", explained the TPS superintendent. 

 

Three suspects in a Toronto police investigation into a series of recent shootings are shown. The suspects are from left to right: Jayon Burgher, 18, Sheldon Tracey-Stewart, 18, Zara Jabbi, 19. Police say Burgher and Tracey-Stewart have been arrested, while Jabbi is still at large. A fourth suspect, 19-year-old Nicholas Bennett (not pictured) is in custody in hospital. CTV News

  

"I know there's been a lot of reporting about criminal groups and foreign actors, but what I can tell you is that we are still working actively to investigate who's responsible for orchestrating these criminal acts."

"What we know is that bad actors are using criminal elements in our city to carry out these dangerous incidents."

"And it is clear that some of these individuals want to create a sense of fear in our communities, including in the Jewish community."

Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw 

"[UNRWA's firings were a] small beginning. [The UN's] incoherent [position is notable]."

Firing people while refusing to acknowledge why reveals an institution still more interested in protecting itself and its Hamas-embedded workforce than in genuine neutrality or accountability."

Hillel Neuer, UN Watch

 

"Most of these alleged acts correspond to war crimes and, when perpetrated as part of a widespread or systematic attack, they would constitute crimes against humanity."

"There was a campaign to prevent that letter from going out. There were weeks of being bullied and deterred from writing it and telling me that everything in it was false."

"Some other special rapporteurs and working groups had wanted to sign on, but they also had been bullied by others not to sign on, and there was this concerted effort for this letter not to put on record some allegations that had been received."

UN special rapporteur on torture, Alice Edwards

The US Agency for International Development’s Office of Inspector General (USAID) submitted 101 more names for debarment or suspension based on their “participation” in the attack that killed 1,200 in Israel, including 46 US citizens. REUTERS

 

If there were any doubts over charges by Israeli intelligence that many UNRWA staff were members of Hamas, and that some of those members were present in southern Israel on 7 October 2023 when Hamas lead thousands of Palestinian terrorists on a deadly rampage through Israeli farming communities, towns and villages, and at a Nova Music Festival where thousands of music-loving young Israelis had gathered, and were subjected to mass rape, mutilation, murder and hostage-taking, that doubt was dispelled when UNRWA, given inescapable evidence, admitted that some of its hires were terrorists aligned with Hamas.

 

And then just a week ago the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine outright fired 70 of its employees, obviously in recognition of their deep ties to Gaza's terrorist groups. Canada's former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper did not need such blatant evidence of UNRWA's connection to terrorism. Its record of UNRWA schools teaching children in Gaza from curricula depicting Jews as enemies and exposing the children to music, stories, television series and plays emphasizing the importance of pledging allegiance to the noble jihad of bombing, shooting, knifing the 'enemy' set them up for life as martyrs.

 

And with a direct and clear vision of the UNRWA mission to maintain Palestinians as victims and 'refugees' in perpetuity, the Harper Conservative government cut off Canada's contributions to that grotesquely compromised arm of the UN. When the Liberals returned to govern Canada 11 years ago, then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reinstituted Canada's payments to UNRWA, and now that same Liberal government under Marc Carney has done the same.

 

A tunnel shaft was found in 2023, near a school run by Naji Abu Aziz. govextra.gov.il

 

In the immediate wake of the UNRWA firing announcement, Canada's minister of Foreign Affairs, Anita Anand announced $100 million of Canadian funding for the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, which came to a total of $500 on top of earlier pledges. The latest donation, according to the minister was in support of the UN, Red Cross, Red Crescent and assistance-delivering NGOs in the region delivering aid to Palestine. The very 'State of Palestine' that PM Marc Carney joined the U.K., France, Spain and Australia in formally recognizing earlier in the year at the UN.

 

To add to what is well enough known of the waywardness of the UN regarding Israel, a special rapporteur for the UN has publicly revealed having been 'bullied' by colleagues for her efforts in attempting to reveal the scale of the atrocities that took place on October 7. An investigation by USAID earlier this month laid claim to 101 current or former UNRWA members -- principals, teachers, security personnel, attendants, psychosocial counsellors and medical professional being part of the October 7 massacre, which led to the 70 staff being fired.

 

At least 1,462 UNRWA employees in Gaza are members of Hamas, PIJ, or similar organizations—comprising nearly 12% of the agency's workforce in Gaza were verified up to this point

 

Yet UNRWA stated that "The dismissal of the staff is not part of a disciplinary process and does not constitute in any way a validation of the claims made against them", a statement which Hillel Neuer  of UN Watch made mincemeat of. And then the case of UN special rapporteur on torture, Alice Edwards, whose exploratory visit to Israel to document what had occurred on October 7, when everything she witnessed was laid out in a letter meant to be released to the public under the auspices of the United Nations, which she represented.

 

During that trip which Ms. Edwards personally funded, she witnessed evidence of murder, decapitation, torture, mutilation, the burning alive of people, sexual torture including gang rapes, mutilation of sexual organs, and hostage-taking. A severe backlash within the United Nations to the content of the letter was what resulted. Ultimately the adverse comments from her UN colleagues saw to it that "the letter shrank considerably", in content and impact. And that letter was then "transmitted" via the Permanent Mission of the State of Palestine in Geneva -- to Hamas. 

 

Mohammad Abu Itiwi has been employed by UNRWA since July 2022. On October 7th, 2023 Mohammad Abu Itiwi led the murderous attack on the bomb shelter on Route 232 in the area of Re'im in southern Israel in which **16 were murdered, 4 were kidnapped, and only 7 survived**.

 

"Our credibility depends on maintaining public confidence that human rights are applied universally."

"Where people perceive selectivity, double standards or political alignment, confidence is weakened."

"Politicization is not new to the United Nations; it reflects the divisions of the world it serves."

"No entity -- state or non-state -- should be left without scrutiny."

Alice Edwards, UN special rapporteur on torture 

"This is a person [Recep Tayyip Erdogan] who keeps his word — a man."

"He does not follow his tail. If he believes it is advantageous for his country, he goes to the end"

"There is an element of predictability, and it is very important to understand who you are dealing with."

Vladimir Putin, 2021

 

"[Putin’s words are] exactly how I have known Mr. Putin since I first met him."

"He is straightforward and keeps his word."

"It is rare to have such strong relations with any state."

Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Kremlin on March 5, 2020 in Moscow, Russia/ Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images

  

"On Nov. 24, 2015, Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet over Syria, resulting in the deaths of two Russian soldiers and prompting a sometimes spine-chilling war of words. At his annual press conference in December that year, Putin’s description of Erdoğan was quite different from the one he gave five years later. He said he did not “see any prospect of improving relations with the Turkish leadership,” whom he accused of trying to “lick the Americans in a certain place”."

"Sinking the knife in even deeper, Putin accused Erdoğan of betraying the secular system put in place by Turkey’s national hero, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. “The creeping Islamization would probably cause Atatürk to turn in his grave,” he said. Erdoğan, for his part, lambasted Russian “war crimes” in Syria. Russia imposed sanctions, with the package holidays that brought hundreds of thousands of tourists to Turkey’s Mediterranean coast halted and goods like Turkish tomatoes no longer welcome in the other direction."

Stuart Williams, New Lines Magazine  

Suddenly Turkey is Ukraine's best friend -- no, really. With Erdogan's courteous assistance, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy now has cordial ingress to the movers-and-shakers of the Middle East. Many of whom have been under extreme violent duress, with the Islamic Republic of Iran punishing the Gulf states for their friendliness with the United States, not to mention Israel. U.S. military bases in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait, all of whom have been, to some degree targeted by the IRGC; above all, the United Arab Emirates.

 

If any leader of any country currently knows anything about counteroffensives and self-preservation, it is the Ukrainian President, and he is more than pleased to be able to demonstrate what the Ukrainian military has learned while it has been under massive bombardment by an aggressive, much larger conventionally armed neighbour. The Iran war has enabled Mr. Zelenskyy to cultivate closer ties with Gulf states. The Shahed-136 kamikaze drones that Russia uses in Ukraine have been supplied to Iran by Russia and China.

 

At the Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a meeting with President of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.  President of Ukraine

 

Ukraine's answer to the devastating attacks on its cities and civil infrastructure was almost-instant devising, production and use of surprisingly simple advance drone technology which has given it longer reach into Russia itself, demonstrating what's good for the goose is fine for the gander in blowing up Russian military bases, bridges, ships, weapons storage, and oil depots. Ukrainian resistance has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands Russian servicemen monthly, dealing severe blows to Russia's troop numbers and recruitment.

 

With all that experience behind them, Ukraine was pleased to dispatch air defense teams to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Turkey, in ushering Ukraine into the comfort zone of making new contacts in the Middle East, has a new partner, as it leaves behind the old one with which its own agenda was never quite a perfect fit. After all, during the drawn-out civil war in Syria, Turkey armed the Sunni groups trying to break Bashar al-Assad's Alawite grip on the country, even as Erdogan targeted Kurds whose fighting prowess was superior to all of the regime's opponents.

 

And it was Russian warplanes out of the Russian air base in Syria that constantly flew over Sunni strongholds bombing them mercilessly. Just incidentally the very same Sunni fighting groups that Mr. Putin has attempted after the fall of President Assad, (domiciled now in Russia), to ingratiate himself with, hoping to be able to maintain both his remaining naval and air bases in the new Sunni-led government of Ahmed al-Sharaa. 

 

The Russian military presence in Syria has declined significantly over the past two years, from 114 military sites to only two bases today. [Getty]

 

In the early years of Russia's conflict in Ukraine when Moscow was isolated by the West, Turkey, though a standing member of the NATO alliance, spurned the sanctions. In the process becoming a link for Russian trade, investment and energy flows. A situation that gave Ankara greater leverage over Moscow. Russia, before the ouster of the Syrian Alawite regime, could do anything it wanted there and had hundreds of military bases; now under the new Sunni-led regime, reduced to two, albeit its major bases. 

 

It is Turkey that is now the power lever in Syria, helping its interim president al-Sharaa to be presented to the EU, the U.S. as the new, kinder, 'democratic' face of Syria with whom they could all do business with confidence. And in the process, Turkey has become the king-maker, which suits its future plans of greater dominance in the Middle East very well. A role that as a junior partner to Russia for so many years, Russia cultivated for itself, while it is Turkey now that has inserted itself in helping to rebuild the Syrian Army.

 

By openly giving assistance to Ukraine's President Zelenskyy, Mr. Erdogan is amply demonstrating that once again Turkey has spurned its sometimes-tenuous, but generally past-useful allyship with Russia, moreover a Russia that has, by its territorial aggression served to isolate itself, while continuing to aggravate and threaten his eastern European neighbours and needling NATO, of which Turkey is a member. Vladimir Putin and his war-wearied economy has lost the projection of global power, and Turkey for the time being has no further use of his allyship with Russia. 

 

Russian and Turkish delegations at a summit in Tianjin, China, September 2025 Vladimir Smirnov / Reuters

 

"We are at this juncture pint. Are we going to maintain the view of the world that we had before, or not? Is this war going to mutate our DNA?"

"[The DNA of the United Arab Emirates, and much of the Persian Gulf region was coded for] connectivity and economic relations despite political strife."

"The whole world economy is [now] Iran's human shield. This is now Iran's new-found nuclear weapon." 

Mohammed Baharoon, director general, Dubai research centre B'huth

 

"[In attacking so grievously, Iran attempted to] break the model we successfully embodied."

"They failed, because the people stayed. We are already building resilience."

"We know that a military solution alone will not work." 

Anonymous U.A.E. official

 

"We can be under no illusion: this has gone on longer than any of us imagined."

"Trump doesn't inspire any confidence. You hear there is a deal, then you hear bombs."

"There is an incredible amount of interest in being here. Everyone understands: ending the war] is not in their hands."

Cherif Sleiman, chief revenue officer, Property Finder real estate company   

Brookfield Place at the Dubai International Financial Centre on June 10. (Katarina Premfors for The Washington Post)

 

 In Dubai, schools have reopened now that the missile and drone alerts no longer arrest people's attention to impending danger. The UAE's financial centre is back in business. Traffic has resumed its street-choking normalcy. All seems back to normal, but uncertainty over new strikes on Iran by the U.S. and Israel occasioning the certainty of the Islamic Republic reacting by targeting its near neighbours remains. An active return to the conflict haunts the minds of those who had enjoyed their lives in this thriving metropolis.

 

Mohammed Baharoon's mind returns to the reality of Iran's regime's use of violence for the purpose of pressuring its adversaries. And should the regime continue its control of the Strait of Hormuz its ramifications in continuing to strangle local economics is certain to have its impact beyond the Gulf as a financial and logistical linchpin. 

 

The unforeseen was realized when the aerial bombardments of the United States and Israel, and the pinpoint assassinations of key Iranian figures led fundamentalist Islamists in the country to a devious scheme demonstrating it had no need to develop a nuclear device when control of the Strait could accomplish economic Armageddon.

 

When the war was yet young, the United Arab Emirates saw a barrage of over 2,500 missile and drone strikes rain down, mostly in the most populated of its seven emirates, Dubai. The strikes were a menacing warning to the U.A.E. that its reputation as an oasis of wealth and stability was vulnerable to punishment by the Islamic Republic. 

Residents said there are quiet signs everywhere that things are not quite right, from the closed yoga studios to the exodus of students from international schools. (Katarina Premfors for The Washington Post)

 

Of Dubai's four million residents, 90 percent are comprised of foreign citizens living and working in the futuristic city. Landmarks such as the Fairmont Hotel and the Birj Al Arab, Dubai International Airport and buildings in the financial centre were targeted by Iranian bombs. Following the ceasefire in April those strikes decelerated and halted, enabling many resident who had left, to return. The stock marketed rebounded and though tourism was badly wounded, construction is ongoing. 

 

The 80 percent hotel occupancy in Dubai had dropped precipitately to 10 percent and no signs yet have arisen that tourism will rebound any time soon. Should the current uncertainty drag on, according to Cherif Sleiman, families may decide to leave and enroll their children at schools in their countries of origin. Living in Dubai the past 20 years, Sleiman is staying, committed to the U.A.E. and trustful of the government.

 

Cherif Sleiman fears ongoing uncertainty around the war will cause more families to leave Dubai. (Katarina Premfors for The Washington Post)

 

 In neighbourhoods at the outskirts of the city, where migrant workers live, the war's effects is felt particularly among those who represent the working backbone of the Dubai economy. Migrant workers who support their families back home suffered most of the war casualties. These workers were laid off en masse, as hotels and restaurants closed while the conflict proceeded. Higher fuel and food prices afflict them most acutely. "It is not OK, but we are managing for now" security guard, 52-year-old Ghanian Isaac Antwi stated.

 

Despite the fear of  higher prices, Ugandan Simon Obbo, 27, fails to recognize an option of leaving. "I still need to achieve my dream, he explained. "That dream is supporting my family." Alex, manager at one of the oldest companies, spoke of the current dilemma over future prospects. "Business is down 95 percent. We fear that this will not end, that it will become like Ukraine."

 

"It is not okay, but we are managing, for now,” Isaac Antwi, 52, said of rising food prices. (Katarina Premfors for The Washington Post)