Hattip Chaos Cat

Related Content; from 2025 below

Some excerpts

The base at Abu al-Duhur had been dead for thirteen years. Wrecked in the Syrian war, out of service since 2012, its runways cratered and its hangars stripped, it sat in Idlib province about 60 kilometers from the Turkish border, useful to no air force. On the night of August 18 eight Israeli missiles fell on it. Israel said it had struck to stop Turkish troops from moving in.

Six days before the strike, Israel had gone to Washington with the same warning. Its intelligence, it said, indicated there might be Turkish movement into the airfield. The Americans took the warning and ran it down through their own agencies. Tom Barrack, Donald Trump’s ambassador to Ankara and his envoy for Syria, described what came back. “We all did our due diligence. We went back to our respective intelligence agencies. The answer we got is, no, that’s not happening.”

Then Barrack said the thing an envoy is not supposed to say in public about an ally. “One theory is they were just baiting Turkiye.” He called the strike aggressive and timed, and he named what it was timed to. Israel votes on October 27.

Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, called Barrack’s account “full of inaccuracies” and said the intelligence had been clear. Both cannot be true. Either Turkey was about to seize a derelict runway and the closest ally Israel has could not find the evidence, or it was not, and a NATO member’s base was bombed on a claim that dissolved the moment anyone checked it. The envoy who checked it settled the matter to his own satisfaction on a podcast, five days after the missiles landed, by guessing at the motive.

The motive was on a billboard before it was in the air. Along Tel Aviv’s main highway, above the traffic, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had appeared beside Iran’s supreme leader, the head of Hezbollah and the mayor of New York, under a single line: “They want Netanyahu to lose. Don’t let them win.” Benjamin Netanyahu is the first sitting Israeli prime minister to be tried for corruption. His Likud has been falling in the polls. Trump has told him to wind down the wars on Iran and Lebanon that filled his last two years. A man who runs as the wall between his country and its enemies had run short of enemies he was still allowed to fight.

Turkey filled the gap, and filled it safely. Iran could be bombed toward collapse. Turkey cannot. It holds NATO’s second-largest army, its president has a warm line to the American one, (disagree) and a quarrel with it can be conducted in airstrikes on other people’s territory and in warnings traded through the press, at no risk of a war that reaches Israeli cities. The opposition read the timing on sight. Yair Lapid, who backed the strike, ridiculed the noise around it: “if you struck, stay quiet.” Ehud Barak wrote that the whole escalation smelled of a plan to fight the election on a war footing.

More related content from 2025

A year before the strike, a committee Netanyahu had appointed under his former acting national security adviser, Jacob Nagel, told him to prepare for direct war with Turkey. The Syrian threat, the report said, “could evolve into something even more dangerous than the Iranian threat.” It urged raising the defense budget by up to 15 billion shekels a year and buying the long-range aircraft such a war would require. After October 7 Israel had already traded deterrence for prevention: not to wait for a threat and answer it, but to destroy it before it forms. Abu al-Duhur was that rule carried out on concrete. Hit the runway while it is still only a runway, before Turkish soldiers arrive and turn it into a piece of NATO. The rehearsal was on the record too. In the spring of 2025 Turkish teams had surveyed the airfields at T4, Palmyra and Hama for a deeper presence, and Israel had struck each in turn.

The legal cover was being drafted while the fires were still out at Abu al-Duhur. Two days after the strike a former Israeli official, Shay Gal, wrote in the Adelson-owned daily Israel Hayom that Turkish soldiers in Syria would be, in plain terms, targets. Article 5 of the NATO treaty, he argued, “protects Turkish territory; Turkish troops do not carry that territory with them” onto Syrian ground. Israel had acted, he wrote, “before Turkish military depth matured.” The paper is owned by Miriam Adelson, the largest single donor to the American president. An opinion column in such a place is not a fringe position tossed into the void. It is a balloon released over friendly airspace to see who salutes.

The two designs for Syria cannot both hold on the same soil. Turkey wants a single Syrian state under Ahmed al-Sharaa, its Kurdish militias folded into a national army, its refugees sent home, its northern border shut. Israel wants Syria kept weak and split, its minorities shielded from Damascus, its south left open to Israeli entry. The foreign minister in Jerusalem has been clear that Turkish radar and air defense and aircraft would close skies that Israeli jets now cross at will, and would make a future strike on Iran harder to fly. Al-Sharaa, pressed from both sides, takes Turkish training and reconstruction while quietly thinning the Turkish-shaped units inside his own army, unwilling to become anyone’s client. Syria is not where the rivalry is happening. Syria is what it is over. The place it is most likely to tear is the Kurdish seam, where a force armed by Washington is being pushed into a state that Turkey wants it dissolved by, and that Israel would sooner see it armed against.

That Turkey is not Iran is the danger, not the reassurance. It carries NATO’s second army, a new mutual-defense pact with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and a president nearer to Trump than any in years. To bomb a base that Turkey backs is to strike at the rim of the alliance that underwrites Western security, and the alliance has no agreed answer for the morning after. The shield may bring the collision on rather than hold it off. If NATO membership tempts Ankara to push a little deeper into Syria, trusting that Israel will not risk hitting a protected army, and if that trust pushes Israel to strike sooner, before the protection attaches, the deterrent has turned into its opposite. Washington sees it. Barrack has spent weeks trying to build a channel among Israel, Turkey and Syria so that jets do not meet by accident. Israel does not want the channel. A formal mechanism, its officials fear, would set into intelligence-sharing and bind their hands, taking from them the freedom to strike whenever they alone decide a threat is forming.

Netanyahu once ran precisely such a channel with Vladimir Putin, to keep Israeli and Russian pilots from firing on each other over Syria, and it held for close to a decade. It worked because both sides wanted it to. This time one side is bombing empty runways two months before an election and filing the result under deterrence.

More content from 2025

For a generation the region was arranged on the belief that Israel stood at its center, wired to Washington, its supremacy the fixed point the Abrahamic accords and all that followed were built around. That belief is coming apart. The strike on Abu al-Duhur was not the confident act of a power sure of its place. It was the nervous act of one no longer sure of it, a country cratering a dead airbase to prove a dominance that a NATO member’s drones and export ledgers are quietly taking away. The threat the missiles answered could not be found by the ally sent to look for it. What could be found was the billboard, the trial, the sinking polls, the rival in an Istanbul cell, the constitution still to be rewritten in Ankara, the engines Netanyahu wants Turkey never to hold. Two men who need the same war moved a step nearer to it, on land that belongs to neither, over a runway no one was using.

NATO will NOT back Turkey in a battle with Israel

NATO does NOT back Turkey as Ukraine attacks it’s ships.

Turkey has long been targeted by Usrael for destabilization and balkanization- so while the anti war piece is interesting, I disagree completely with the premise NATO will side with Turkey as Israel escalates. And Israel will escalate.

Turkey, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia announced the formation of a new alliance which will treat an attack against one as an attack against all. Well, that’s lovely, but can we please see the actual treaty? No. We can’t? Oh, that’s funny, why would you keep that secret?…

Give a listen. Some are claiming Iran is the target, but, Iran seemed quite subdued..

Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye, however, have been careful not to antagonise any regional or international actors while finalising what they said was the result of years of hard work and negotiations. They have stressed the pact, which does not identify a specific threat, is not targeted against any country – particularly Iran – and does not abrogate or replace any existing agreements with others.

In Tehran, the reaction has largely been subdued, with officials mostly focusing on aspects of regional and Muslim cooperation and what they perceive as a declining role for the US.

Any thoughts?

Col D.K. Turenne – For extraordinary leadership and diplomatic skill as director of the Combined Air Operations Center during the Israel-Iran conflict, synchronizing multinational air operations and enabling the safe evacuation of 10,000 personnel from the Al Udeid Air Base, Doha, Qatar, June 2025;

Came back to Alberta after having spent 5 years in Colorado with NORAD.

New Commander of 4 Wing no stranger to CFB Cold Lake

Colonel David Turenne assumed command of 4 Wing on June 3rd. He has spent the better part of 26 years in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF).

Turenne is originally from Edmonton. He received his wings in 1999 and, after training, headed to 3 Wing in Bagotville.

He’s no stranger to 4 Wing, having trained here and been posted as a Fighter Pilot with 409 Tactical Fighter Squadron and 410 Tactical Fighter (Operational Training) Squadron. The last few years have seen him south of the border with the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) team in Colorado.

“I’ve been in Colorado Springs, at the NORAD headquarters, for the last five years which isn’t a normal length of time,” says Turenne. “Because of COVID, there were changes in cross-border moves. I was doing a few jobs down there, including working for the Chief of Staff of the Headquarters, I was director of NORAD inspections, and I’m currently the Deputy Director for J7 Joint Training, Exercises and Wargaming Directorate.”

Col Turenne has 2800 flight hours, with over 2000 of them via the CF-18. This is his first Wing Command position.

So, through NORAD Canada was involved?? Not a shocker.

1. Trump thought opening the Strait of Hormuz was imminent. Iran had other plans.

President Trump had been laying the groundwork to declare victory in the Iran war if Tehran fully reopened the Strait of Hormuz—even privately floating to senior aides that he’s willing to walk away without a nuclear deal. But Iran’s recent demand for billions in reparations and a total U.S. troop withdrawal has thrown those plans into chaos. The recent hardline shift shows how Tehran is narrowing the White House’s options to wrap up the conflict ahead of the midterms.

WSJ via Archive.ph

WASHINGTON—For weeks, President Trump had been laying the groundwork to declare victory in the Iran war should Tehran fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz, even floating the idea privately to senior aides that he’s willing to walk away without a nuclear deal, U.S. officials said.

But that scaled-back objective became more difficult when Iran insisted Saturday on its highest price yet for permitting the free flow of traffic in the waterway, seeking billions of dollars in U.S. payments, the removal of American troops from the region and an end of the U.S. naval blockade, among other things.

This rapid chain of events suggests Trump’s options for walking away from the conflict have again narrowed. Trump has repeatedly threatened—and then backed away from—a massive escalation of its bombing campaign. But the recent chaos in negotiations signaled Tehran is prepared for a long and grinding conflict.

“Iran’s recent hardline demands for reopening the strait make it increasingly difficult for the president to manufacture a face-saving off-ramp from the conflict,” said Mona Yacoubian, director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

Trump and Bibi should have never attacked Iran.

Gregory Brew, an Iran expert at the Eurasia Group consulting firm, said, “The Iranians fully believe Trump wants out and is focused on opening the strait, which is why they are playing hardball.”

Trump and Bibi should have never attacked Iran.

Hanging over diplomatic talks since April has been the White House’s ultimatum that Iran will never obtain a nuclear weapon. Trump sought to include nuclear talks as part of broader negotiations with Iran, but those have proven too difficult, leading the White House in recent weeks to focus more on reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s ability to essentially choke off the waterway through sporadic missile and drone attacks has proven to be powerful leverage for the country, stalling commercial traffic and roiling global oil markets.

Trump and Bibi should have never attacked Iran.

Trump has declared repeatedly in recent weeks that the Strait of Hormuz was already fully open, but each of those promises has proven premature.

Now, with less than three months until the midterm elections and the price of gasoline still much higher than it was before the war started in late February, Trump has been looking for ways to tell the American public that the war is won.

Trump and Bibi should have never attacked Iran.

Trumpflation could threaten Wall Street’s bull market: How the Iran war is keeping inflation high

Iran war is pushing up oil and other costs, keeping US inflation high and raising fears that higher rates could threaten Wall Street’s bull market. 

And the upcoming election in the US.

From earlier today- Bibi flips off Trump

Tough to save face when your best ally is giving you the finger, no?

Trump leads the most powerful country on the planet…???

Aljazeera

“Israel rejects the 15-point document,” Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting on Sunday, referring to the plan endorsed last month by Hamas.

The Israeli army “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed … and will continue to thwart threats against our forces and our citizens”.

When would Israel actually consider Hamas “genuinely disarmed”?? They never will.They will continue to genocide the Palestinians under their ruse of an excuse

This is plainly and obviously clear from Netanyahu’s statement

“Speaking to his cabinet Sunday, Netanyahu vowed that “as long as I am prime minister, no Palestinian state will arise” and emphasised that Israel would not abide by the US-backed plan.”

I’m going to repeat Netanyahu’s own statement

Speaking to his cabinet Sunday, Netanyahu vowed that “as long as I am prime minister, no Palestinian state will arise” and emphasised that Israel would not abide by the US-backed plan.

The genocide of the Palestinians will continue

NYT’s

President Trump’s Board of Peace announced an agreement last month that aimed at Hamas giving up its weapons alongside an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza

Hamas agreed Israel said no

Netanayahu said “ “as long as I am prime minister, no Palestinian state will arise”

Israel’s intent is plainly and obviously clear- genocide.

At least 15 people were killed and more than 50 injured after Russia launched a large-scale overnight missile and drone attack on Kyiv and the surrounding Kyiv Oblast, causing widespread destruction, major fires, and extensive rescue operations.

The heaviest losses were recorded in Brovary district, where nine people were killed. Four more civilians died in Bucha district, while one person was killed in Fastiv district. Authorities said 12 people were injured in Brovary district, seven in Bucha district, and three in Fastiv district.

Emergency responders were deployed to seven locations across the three affected districts. Large warehouse fires broke out in Brovary, Velyka Dymerka, Kvitneve, and Peremoha. In Fastiv district, firefighters extinguished a blaze involving vehicles at a business site. In Bucha district, crews continued battling a warehouse fire in the village of Chaiky, while another fire at a logistics facility in Sofiivska Borshchahivka was brought under control.

In Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 15 of the injured required hospitalization, with four reported in critical condition. Search-and-rescue teams pulled two people alive from beneath the rubble of a collapsed warehouse in the Holosiivskyi district, although officials warned more victims could still be trapped.

Damage was reported in several parts of the capital, including the Holosiivskyi, Obolonskyi, Desnianskyi, and Sviatoshynskyi districts. In Obolonskyi, a ballistic missile struck a 20-story residential building, triggering a major fire. Another apartment building and two warehouse facilities also caught fire. In Desnianskyi district, a warehouse burned while missile debris landed near residential buildings. A large fire also broke out in the Kyiv-Sviatoshynskyi area outside the capital.

Ukraine‘s Air Force said Russia launched 24 ballistic missiles, four hypersonic missiles, and 115 Shahed-type attack drones during the overnight assault.

According to the military, none of the ballistic or hypersonic missiles were intercepted. Why?

No interceptors? Or refusal to use what they do have? I don’t know.

Read below;

Sweden Herald

During last night’s major attack on Kyiv, Ukraine appears not to have intercepted any Russian missiles, according to preliminary data from the country’s air defenses. That is neither surprising nor good, says military expert Joakim Paasikivi.

This could be a sign that Ukrainian missile stocks have reached a critically low level.

However, it cannot be ruled out that Ukraine is deliberately withholding information to further reinforce the message that the outside world needs to send more air defence, according to Lieutenant Colonel Johan Huovinen.

So, lack of air defence or holding out for more? Maybe a bit of both?

Ukraine’s former ambassador to US faces anti-corruption probe

Two days after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy officially dismissed Olha Stefanishyna as Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, she has been formally notified that she is a suspect in an anti-corruption investigation.

Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s former ambassador to the US, is under investigation in an anti-corruption case, with the High Anti-Corruption Court holding a hearing on the matter in Kyiv on Wednesday.

Two days after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy officially dismissed Olha Stefanishyna as Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, she has been formally notified that she is a suspect in an anti-corruption investigation.

Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s former ambassador to the US, is under investigation in an anti-corruption case, with the High Anti-Corruption Court holding a hearing on the matter in Kyiv on Wednesday.

Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne reports that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) served Stefanishyna with a new notice of suspicion on 5 August.

According to the SAPO prosecutor, Stefanishyna – a former ambassador to the US and ex–deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration – is accused of failing to declare two apartments and cash used to pay for renovations, airline tickets and the rent on another apartment.

She is also alleged to have failed to disclose her use of a car registered to one of her subordinates.

She hasn’t fled to Israel at this point in time.. Perhaps she can’t like so many other corrupt Ukrainian officials? Or she just hasn’t got there yet?

Most recent corrupt Ukrainian that headed straight to Israel

Legal proceedings expected to take place in absentia against entertainment tycoon Timur Mindich, who is accused of masterminding $100-million embezzlement plot at state companies

There is also..Alexander Tsukerman: A prominent businessman implicated alongside Mindich in the energy sector graft scandal, who also escaped to Israel

Denys Komarnytskyi: A former member of the Kyiv City Council suspected in separate land-related corruption schemes who also fled to Israel

But, I digress

Morocco clearly shipped tens of thousands of people to the border crossing- we’ll start with that. Then we’ll talk about the role of Israel. For those who may be unaware Israel’s been a player in North Africa for some time now.

Experts say Morocco may have triggered Ceuta migrant crisis for political reasons

The crisis triggered by migrants trying to enter the EU via a Spanish exclave in North Africa may have been created by Morocco as part of a political game.

The guards look away

Eliasson links the migration chaos, among other things, to the fact that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez made a controversial visit to Morocco’s neighbour and archenemy Algeria the other week.

“Go to Ceuta”

Dagens Nyheter has spoken to one of the migrants on site in Ceuta who confirms that many were encouraged to try to cross the border.

People came and knocked on our door and shouted “go to Ceuta,” Ayoub Elharous tells DN.

According to Carl Bildt (M), former Minister of Foreign Affairs, it appears that Morocco has controlled the process.

There is much to suggest that the Moroccan authorities have transported people to the border and that the Moroccan border guards have removed parts of the border barriers, Bildt tells Ekot, saying that it may be a mark on the part of Morocco.

Countries use migration pressure for political purposes.

Hope you can all see the video

Moroccan gendarmerie offloading men near the border with Ceuta, Spain. This was all planned by the Moroccan king, Trump and Netanyahu.

Let’s read this article from Ynet news, dated April 26/26

Analysis: US-Spain tensions over NATO, Iran create opening for Morocco to press claims on Ceuta and Melilla, with Israel positioned to back Rabat diplomatically within US-led alliance that increasingly favors cooperative partners over European holdouts

The geopolitical earthquake shaking Washington’s relationship with Madrid has opened an unexpected window for one of the Arab world’s oldest territorial grievances. Spain’s refusal to allow the United States access to its Rota and Morón military bases during the Iran campaign, its consistent failure to meet NATO defense spending targets, and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s confrontational posture toward the Trump administration have collectively generated something rare in North African affairs: a genuine crack in Spain’s strategic armor over Ceuta and Melilla. Into that crack, Morocco's most consequential new partner, Israel, is uniquely positioned to press.

This is obvious gloating on Israel’s part

The pieces have been assembling for months. In March 2026, Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute, writing through the Middle East Forum, called on the Trump administration to formally recognize Ceuta and Melilla as occupied Moroccan territory, branding Spain "a colonial power running colonies across the Strait of Gibraltar." Days later, Representative Mario Díaz-Balart, chairman of the House Subcommittee on National Security and one of Marco Rubio’s closest congressional confidants, declared publicly that the enclaves “are not in the geographic territory of Spain” but rather in Moroccan territory, and that their fate should be “established, negotiated, and discussed between friends and allies.” This was not the fringe speaking. This was the architecture of a coordinated strategic repositioning.

Ironic, the US being concerned with “a colonial power”

Michael Rubin and AEI. An Israeli mouthpiece pushing any and every agenda favourable to Israel- Readers here may recall his numerous articles lashing out at Turkey. If not- look at the one re linked below

Spain’s estrangement from Washington has deepened further. An internal Pentagon email, reported by Reuters in April 2026, outlined options including suspending Spain from NATO over its refusal to facilitate U.S. operations against Iran. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made the administration’s contempt for European free-riding explicit, singling out allies who refused to contribute to the Strait of Hormuz campaign. Trump himself had already called Spain “terrible” in March and directed his Treasury Secretary to cut economic dealings with Madrid. Critically, Article 6 of the Washington Treaty explicitly excludes territories in continental Africa from NATO’s collective defense obligations, meaning Ceuta and Melilla stand legally exposed. The alliance umbrella Spain has long relied upon to insulate its colonial holdouts from diplomatic pressure simply does not extend there.

The Abraham Accords transformed Morocco from a quiet interlocutor with Israel into a formal military partner. In January 2026, Israel and Morocco signed a joint military work plan for the year during the third meeting of their Joint Military Committee in Tel Aviv, which the IDF described as deepening cooperation with a “key partner for regional stability.” The two countries had already concluded a security cooperation agreement in 2021. This bilateral architecture gives Israel something it has rarely possessed in North African politics: direct strategic stake in Rabat’s regional success.

That stake has an obvious application to Ceuta and Melilla. The Trump administration’s Abrahamic coalition, built around shared opposition to Iran and common economic incentives, has created an operational triangular relationship between Washington, Jerusalem, and Rabat. Israel’s voice in that triangle carries disproportionate weight. When Israeli officials signal alignment with a partner’s strategic interests, that signal registers powerfully in a White House that has placed Abraham Accords expansion at the center of its foreign policy vision. Morocco’s territorial claim over the enclaves is not simply a bilateral dispute with Spain; it is increasingly a litmus test for whether the Trump administration will reward its most cooperative partners over its most obstinate NATO members.

Spain is being targeted by Israel, the US and the EU is playing it’s role as well.

The migrants have largely left- of their own accord-

Tens of thousands of migrants were expelled from this tiny Spanish city on the coast of North Africa almost as quickly as they came, and calm returned to the beaches and sidewalks, after a mass breach of the border from Morocco. For Spain, however, the political fallout and intrigue only deepened Saturday.

WSJ

Most of the immigrants who had poured across the border Thursday and early Friday seemingly left of their own accord, hungry and thirsty after finding no help in the enclave. The immigrants had arrived either by swimming around breakwaters or climbing over fences to find shops were shuttered and some inhabitants angry and afraid at being overwhelmed by strangers.

Many of those returning were disconsolate, having had no food and little to no water over the past two days, and feeling misled by social-media posts that suggested they would find refuge in the enclave and eventually be allowed to move on to mainland Europe, where several have relatives.

Social media posts? Who made those posts?

EU chief says Ceuta migrants returned to Morocco, calls for stronger border controls

“The good news is that the vast majority of those who arrived illegally have returned to Morocco, due to the effective work of Spanish and Moroccan law enforcement. Not a single person reached mainland Spain or the rest of the EU,” von der Leyen said on the US social media company X.

Israel and the US are definitely targeting Spain.. I have zero doubts about that.

Overtly, Israel declines intervening in Ukraine to keep the peace with Russia

Former British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace revealed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government rejected his direct personal request for military aid to Ukraine in the early stages of the war. This was done to avoid angering Moscow and jeopardizing its interests.

COVERTLY… it’s a different story

Secret support and the Ukrainian quid pro quo

Conversely, reports from the Geopolitics Prime platform indicate that Israel has been secretly providing Ukraine with military and intelligence support since 2022, despite its official declaration of neutrality. According to these sources, this support included Mossad lie-detection software with up to 90% accuracy and satellite imagery via NATO.

Israel also supplied Ukraine with Matador RGW-90 anti-tank missiles and addressed its shortfall in Patriot missile batteries.

Furthermore, Red Alert warning systems and strategic materials were transferred through intermediaries and with covert funding.

In addition, Ukraine shared its field defense expertise in countering drones with Israel. This cooperation has been confirmed by officials from both sides in numerous official statements.

Israel in way more involved with the destabilization campaign of Russia.. Of course!

March 5th of this year

June 29th of this year

Here one news article, from AA, covering the strikes

A missile and kamikaze drone attack struck Iraq’s northern city of Sulaymaniyah on Friday, triggering a fire, local media reported.

Erbil-based Rudaw TV reported that the attack involved both missiles and a kamikaze unmanned aerial vehicle. A fire broke out at one of the targeted sites, and ambulances were dispatched to the area.

Iraqi President Rejects Attacks on Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, Reaffirms Sovereignty

Sovereignty, Iraq? That’s funny

Article from National Context

Including excerpts – read entirely at link above. Thank you

At least nine Iranian Kurdish fighters from the Komala movement were killed today in an Iranian attack in Sulaimani province. The strike caps a violent stretch inside Iran’s majority Kurdish northwest, where at least nine armed incidents were documented in June, killing more than 20 Iranian Kurdish militants. Most of the significant engagements were initiated by the IRGC through ambushes and intelligence-driven operations.

The spike in incidents has coincided with a reported buildup of Iranian forces and special operations units in the same areas where the clashes occurred. On 14 July, Alhurra quoted senior Iranian Kurdish opposition figures describing an Iranian deployment along the frontier of roughly 3,000 Saberin special forces personnel, arriving in waves of approximately 1,000, alongside IRGC Ground Forces units, Aerospace Force elements, artillery, rocket launchers, armour and drones. Ali Khoshnamak, a senior figure in the Komala Revolutionary Organization of the Toilers of Kurdistan, told the channel these were trained and trusted regime forces whose scale and composition indicated preparation for possible ground warfare. The same sources described daily drone reconnaissance over the frontier and approaches to the Kurdistan Region, along with electronic warfare systems for jamming and satellite disruption.

Through March, the contours of a potential Kurdish front became public. On 6 March, Reuters reported, citing two Iranian Kurdish sources and one Israeli source, that Israel was supporting Iranian Kurdish planning to seize border areas around Oshnavieh and Piranshahr, with thousands of fighters gathering on the Iraqi side and opposition strength estimated between 5,000 and 8,000. The parties wanted air support and political guarantees before committing. They never received them. Turkey, Reuters reported in May, opposed and helped suppress the offensive proposal, fearing it would strengthen PKK-linked networks and derail Ankara’s own process with the PKK. The KRG, for its part, had no interest in becoming the staging ground for a war against its neighbour.

Hope you can see the linked images??

In short:

The global economy was spared from the worst of the biggest oil shock in 50 years because of large oil reserves, according to the International Monetary Fund.

It says lower consumption in Asia and higher oil production outside of the Gulf helped absorb further price shocks.

What’s next?

Experts say global oil prices are likely to increase as reserves dwindle.

Depleted oil reserves have left economies vulnerable to soaring fuel prices as the US-Iran conflict resumes, the IMF has warned.

Before the war began, global oil supplies were at about 2 million barrels a day above demand.

The IMF the closure of the Strait of Hormuz had not led to a “full-blown price shock” because the reserves absorbed what the market could not.

It said that by the end of May oil reserves were estimated to be about 1.2 billion barrels, which was half the level prior to the conflict.

“That cushion, however, has been spent,” the IMF said.

“If the disruption were to persist at current rates, that lower bound would be reached by early 2027.“

“Well before that point, prices would likely move sharply higher, as the market would effectively be operating without a safety net.”

Trump and Bibi look like they want to keep this one going..