Just my opinion for good reason

Defense officials have cited “controlled unclassified information” in the annual report by the Government Accountability Office to prevent public release of an annual oversight report.– American Machinist

Some problems cited by the GAO office just last month from the end of the article:

Earlier in June GAO issued “F-35 Sustainment: Actions Needed to Ensure Updated Strategy Improves Persistent Readiness Challenges,” in which it reported:

2025 :“F-35 sustainment costs have continued to increase, but the F-35 has not met performance goals and performance has trended down. Across the fleet from fiscal year 2021 through fiscal year 2025:

The mission capable rate (percentage of time the aircraft can perform one of its tasked missions) declined from 67 percent to 44 percent.
The full mission capable rate (percentage of time the aircraft can perform all of its missions) declined from 38 percent to 25 percent.”

The Pentagon is blocking release of a June Government Accountability Office report on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, indicating that the report contains “Controlled Unclassified Information.” CUI is designation used by federal officials to characterize information created or possessed by the government that requires safeguarding or limited public access.

No details about the specific CUI have been offered by the Pentagon. The unreleased, June 25 report is titled, “F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: Update on Production and Modernization Efforts.”

However, program costs difficult to establish. It was not until September 2025 that the Pentagon and Lockheed settled a $24.3-billion contract for 296 aircraft in Lots 18 and 19, with those aircraft already in production. A year earlier the two sides had negotiated a framework agreement on production costs, generally fixing the unit price at $82.4 million per aircraft.

In December 2025 the Pentagon’s own inspector general reported that the F-35 Joint Program Office has not consistently held the lead contractor Lockheed Martin accountable for poor performance in sustainment activities for the fighter aircraft. It established that the F-35 jets had achieved a readiness rate of just 50%, though the contractor was paid in full without any fees or adjustments.

Smells like a cover up to me!

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..

More interesting reads below:

Russia warns coalition of willing forces in Ukraine would be ‘legitimate military targets’

Russia on Tuesday warned that the military contingents from the so-called “coalition of the willing” in Ukraine would be “legitimate military targets” if stationed there.

Commenting on remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron about plans for deploying forces in Ukraine at a press briefing in Moscow, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called this possible move “unacceptable.”

“In this context, we would like to once again emphasize that the deployment in Ukraine of any military contingents from the so-called coalition of the willing is unacceptable for our country,” she stressed.

Zakharova added: “This would, I repeat, de facto amount to foreign intervention and an increase in threats to Russia’s security. Such units will be regarded by us as legitimate military targets.”

The official also said that Western arms deliveries remained one of the main obstacles to a settlement of the conflict in Ukraine.

She referred to previous remarks by former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who said the conflict would have ended “within days, weeks, or a month” if Europe stopped arms supplies to Ukraine.

“If the Western Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe participating states genuinely want to end the confrontation, which is draining the resources of their own taxpayers, they simply need to stop supplying weapons to the Kyiv regime,” she said.

The spokeswoman urged Europe to “stop hiding behind talk of peace and openly admit that they want only one thing—aggression.”

Zakharova also said that Western-supplied weapons had been used against Russian civilians and warned that some of the arms had entered illicit circulation.

“Such cases have already been documented,” she said, adding that weapons had allegedly surfaced not only in Europe but also in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.

Separately, Zakharova criticized military exercises conducted by Poland near the borders with Russia and Belarus, describing them as an attempt to “flex its muscles.”

She said the drills, held on July 13-14, reflected what she called Warsaw’s desire to strengthen its position as “the leader of Eastern Europe” and “the main bastion of NATO’s eastern flank.”

“The intensification of Poland’s military activity near the borders of Russia and Belarus once again demonstrates the complete irresponsibility of the Polish elite,” Zakharova said.

Russia and China are set to meet in Ankara

Russian Ambassador to Ankara Sergey Vershinin, will host an intriguing event on 16 July. In fact, it is a joint initiative with China’s Ambassador to Ankara Jiang Xuebin , though the venue has been set as the Russian Embassy. A conference will mark the 25th anniversary of the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation between Russia and China.

The same program is being held in capitals around the world. In Australia, for example, the venue is the Chinese Embassy in Canberra. In some countries the conferences are hosted by Russian embassies, in others by Chinese missions.

Speaking at the conference held at the Russian Embassy in Beijing, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Bin said that Russia and China regard each other as “foreign policy priorities” and “support one another on core interests.”

Ukraine has been attacking Turkish vessels in the Sea of Azov- Interesting

Lavrov: Russia expects Türkiye to send strong signal to Ukraine over attacks on Turkish vessels

Russia hopes Türkiye will send a strong signal to Ukraine following attacks on Turkish vessels in the Black Sea, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, APA’s Moscow bureau reports.
avrov described Ukraine’s attacks on civilian vessels in the Sea of Azov as terrorism.

The Russian foreign minister added that such actions could not even be described as piracy.

“Because pirates seize cargo, they do not destroy it,” Lavrov said.

He said Moscow expects Ankara to publicly assess Kyiv’s actions.

FETÖ members enjoy freedom in US after plot against Türkiye

Of course they do! At my censored blog there are many, many articles covering the US backed coup attempt on the Turkish leader.

Russia calls for immediate halt to military hostilities in Persian gulf/Strait of Hormuz

New US Sanctions Target Russian Oil Exports and Shadow Fleet

New U.S. Sanctions Bill Targets Russia’s Oil Exports and Shadow Fleet
By RFE/RL staff – Jul 15, 2026, 9:00 AM CDT

The revised bill replaces the earlier proposed 500% tariff with tariffs of up to 100% aimed primarily at the largest buyers of Russian oil and gas.
The legislation would impose broad sanctions on Russian officials, financial institutions, energy projects, oligarchs, and the shadow fleet used to evade existing sanctions.
Although the proposal enjoys strong bipartisan Senate support, it faces criticism in the House over the amount of tariff authority granted to the president.

Chinese FM rejects US unilateral sanctions targeting Russian energy buyers

Chinese Foreign Ministry (FM) spokesperson Lin Jian on Wednesday rejected a new US sanctions bill targeting countries that continue energy trade with Russia, saying China firmly opposes “illegal unilateral sanctions” that lack a basis in international law or authorization from the UN Security Council.

China will take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of its enterprises and citizens, Lin said, warning that applying double standards and resorting to coercion and pressure will ultimately “end up shooting oneself in the foot.”

US issues new non-proliferation sanctions against those tied with Iran and Russia

The United States has imposed new non-proliferation sanctions targeting individuals and entities in Russia and Iran, according to a post on the US Treasury Department’s website, The Times of Israel reports.

I’m going to post a bunch of links and other information for readers to view/read for themselves

Iran’s IRGC attacks on US military assets in Bahrain, Kuwait in ‘Operation Nasr 2’

Iran claims strikes on weapons depots in Bahrain, drones in Kuwait

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said its navy and aerospace forces destroyed several weapons storage depots and vessel and aircraft parts at Bahrain’s Sheikh Isa base in a combined missile and drone strike, in its tenth communique on Operation Nasr 2, IRNA reported on July 14.

The IRGC said the same operation also hit the ramp used to deploy US MQ-9 drones at Kuwait’s Ali Al Salem base, destroying or damaging a number of the aircraft.

The UK proscribed “state enemy” group described the strikes as retaliation for US attacks that afternoon on several coastal stations belonging to Iran’s armed forces, and warned of further reprisals if the strikes continued, saying it would meet any repeat with what it called surprising responses.

The statement said Iran would keep responding in kind for as long “American crimes” continued, and warned that no oil or gas would be exported from the region while what it called American hostility persisted in the area, adding that the attacks would only delay the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

The claims form part of a wider wave of communiques issued by the IRGC on July 14 under Operation Nasr 2, in which it earlier said its forces had struck weapons-support depots, a satellite communications centre and accommodation used by US personnel at Bahrain’s Juffair base, along with a Patriot radar, a Fifth Fleet air control radar and a counter-rocket, artillery and mortar radar system.

The attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait are in response to US attacks on Iran, earlier today

The Saudis attacked Yemen- Yemen retaliated

Report: Trump Backed Saudi Strike on Houthis

Trump approved this. I have zero doubt about that.

President Donald Trump approved Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s request for U.S. backing before a military strike targeting Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement, according to two U.S. officials cited by Axios.

Houthis: Saudi airport targeted in retaliation for strikes on Sanaa airport

Yemen’s Houthis say they struck Saudi Arabia’s Abha airport with missiles and drones in retaliation for a strike on Sanaa’s international airport

Again, thanks Trump and Bibi…

It seems the people of Bahrain are cheering the bombing of their country (majority Shia) Leadership Sunni

So much for the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed by Trump on June 18 at Versailles. It was essentially a lucrative deal for Iran to reopen the strait—the conduit for 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas. Trump pledged many billions of dollars in economic relief for Iran by lifting sanctions, unfreezing Iranian funds, and providing reconstruction assistance.

This deal was widely criticized as an act of appeasement on Trump’s part after failing to reopen the waterway by military force or to achieve his other military objectives—the overthrow of the Iranian regime and the abandonment of its nuclear program, its missile program, and its support for terrorist proxies across the region.

Yet, hardliners in the Iranian regime are apparently not satisfied to pocket the lucrative gains their country could accrue from this deal.

“Not satisfied to pocket the lucrative gains”

This is rubbish, because ships were attempting to negate the agreement by using Oman’s coastline to avoid Iran making any “lucrative gains” In other words, they were not following the MOU signed between the US and Iran

A fact that is acknowledged right in the oped and I quote

“Iran attacked merchant ships trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz near the Oman coast, rather than the Iranian shoreline.”

Trump has, predictably, responded by bombing Iran and reinstituting the U.S. blockade while claiming that the U.S. will charge its own tolls on traffic through the strait, thereby seemingly abandoning the United States’ age-old commitment to freedom of navigation through international waterways.

Trump’s threat to collect tolls is probably just bluster, but the bombing and the blockade are real. The question is what will they accomplish?

Yes, Trump is claiming he’s going to collect 20 percent fees on ships

President Donald Trump announced that the United States is reinstating a naval blockade targeting Iranian shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and said Washington would impose a 20% charge on cargo passing through the strategic waterway.

Back to CFR oped

The United States and Israel bombed Iran for thirty-nine days (February 28-April 8) without overthrowing the regime or forcing it to give in to U.S. and Israeli demands. Iran ultimately made Trump back down and agree to a humiliating MOU by holding the Strait of Hormuz and the energy infrastructure of U.S. Persian Gulf allies hostage. Trump is in a weaker position to pressure Iran today, after having let the regime cash in on his temporary lifting of sanctions; by one estimate, Iran earned at least $5 billion in oil exports since the United States lifted its blockade on June 17.

The fundamental problem, as I previously noted, is that for all of Trump’s bluster—and that of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth—they have no good military options to bring Iran to its knees. Truly defeating Iran and overthrowing its regime would require an invasion by hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops. This contingency is impossible to imagine given how unpopular the war already is with the American public. In one recent poll, 60 percent of those surveyed said the Iran war was not worth it.

Trump is left facing the same dilemma as many of his predecessors in the Oval Office: He is fighting a limited war with limited means and, not surprisingly, achieving limited results, at best. The most that can be said for Trump’s war is that it has degraded Iranian military capabilities, but Iranian drones and missiles remain as much of a threat as ever, and Iran has actually increased its ability to blackmail the world since the war began. Even after the signing of the MOU, maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz never returned to prewar levels. Now, with Iran claiming the waterway is closed, even fewer ships are likely to pass through it.

Trump is left with an unpalatable choice: Either acquiesce to Iran charging a toll for traffic through the strait or else run the significant risks of military escalation. More than four months in, the Iran war once again shows why presidents should be wary of starting wars of choice based on wishful thinking and without an obvious exit strategy.

Russia, Iran said to be close to a gas deal

Russia’s Minister of Energy Sergey Tsivilev and Iran’s Minister of Petroleum Mohsen Paknejad met today as the two sides move closer than ever to finalizing a gas trade agreement between the two countries, Iran’s Shana agency reported on Monday, AzerNEWS reports.

Paknejad told the agency that this is a “subject whose negotiations have seen significant progress over the past months” and that “the main clauses of this contract have been agreed upon.”

According to the minister, only two clauses that require supplementary negotiations remain. The move comes as Russian chief diplomat Sergey Lavrov is preparing to visit Tehran.

Mr Lavrov’s visit is highly suggestive that Russia and Iran are going to make this deal.

Kurdistan24

U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the United States is preparing for another round of military strikes against Iran, just hours after declaring that the ceasefire had effectively ended following Iranian attacks on American military sites in the Gulf.

Speaking on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, Trump said the U.S. had carried out heavy strikes overnight and suggested more military action was imminent.

“We hit them very hard last night,” Trump told reporters. “We’ll probably hit them hard again tonight.”

Trump said the strikes were in retaliation for what he described as Iranian attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, accusing Tehran of launching drones and missiles at ships transiting the strategic waterway.

“They are behaving very badly,” he said.

The renewed exchange of fire has intensified fears that the conflict between the United States and Iran could escalate again after weeks of fragile calm. Trump further heightened those concerns by declaring that the temporary ceasefire was effectively finished.

“For me, I think it’s over,” Trump said when asked about the truce. While he said U.S. representatives could continue diplomatic talks with Iran, he expressed little confidence in the negotiations.

“They can talk, but I think they’re wasting their time,” he said.

The remarks triggered renewed uncertainty in global markets, with oil prices rising amid concerns that a wider regional conflict could once again disrupt energy shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important oil transit routes.

Responding to Trump’s remarks, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf struck a defiant tone, writing on X: “The era of bullying and extortion is over. It leads nowhere. We don’t fold.”

The latest developments underscore the fragile security situation in the Middle East, where repeated military exchanges have threatened to derail diplomatic efforts and reignite a broader regional conflict.

Ukraine has publicly shown off a truck-mounted missile launcher it received in secret four years ago and has kept hidden from cameras ever since, revealing for the first time exactly what its American-supplied Harpoon coastal defense system looks like.

During a visit to Ukraine’s Odesa region this week, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s military officials displayed the country’s full arsenal of shore-based anti-ship weapons, including the domestically built Neptune missile system, Norway’s Naval Strike Missile, Sweden’s RBS-15, and, for the first time publicly, the Harpoon coastal battery Ukraine received from the United States and Denmark back in 2022.

Ukrainian naval command separately confirmed to Interfax-Ukraine that the visit included a briefing on the Naval Forces’ strike capabilities, listing Neptune and Harpoon missile systems alongside new-generation unmanned systems and torpedoes as part of the coordination meeting on security in the southern region.

The Harpoon has actually been fighting for Ukraine since shortly after it arrived, and Pentagon officials have said the system helped sink at least two Russian vessels in the Black Sea, but Ukraine’s navy deliberately kept its exact appearance secret, blurring or omitting the launcher from official footage for years even as the missile itself became one of the most consequential weapons systems Kyiv received early in the war. This week’s display finally revealed the specific configuration Ukraine operates, a launcher mounted on a cargo truck chassis carrying four missile canisters, a setup adapted from the ship-based system the U.S. Navy originally designed the Harpoon around. The missile itself, built by Boeing, is a decades-old design that has been repeatedly upgraded, flying just above the water’s surface using active radar homing to strike ships from ranges that most versions place in the neighborhood of 70 to 130 nautical miles depending on the specific variant fielded.

Neptune, the domestically produced missile displayed alongside it, remains Ukraine’s signature anti-ship weapon and the system credited with sinking the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s flagship cruiser Moskva in April 2022, an attack that forced Russia to keep its remaining major surface combatants farther from Ukraine’s coast for years afterward. Developed by Kyiv’s Luch Design Bureau using the Soviet-era Kh-35 missile as a starting point before substantially upgrading its range, targeting, and electronics, Neptune’s anti-ship variant carries a roughly 150-kilogram (330-pound) warhead out to a maximum range near 300 kilometers (186 miles), while a newer land-attack derivative called Long Neptune, which Zelensky unveiled in combat footage in late 2025, extends that reach to approximately 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) for strikes deep inside Russian territory.

Norway’s Naval Strike Missile, shown alongside the Ukrainian and American systems, represents a more modern design built specifically to be difficult for enemy radar to detect. The missile carries a 120-kilogram (265-pound) penetrating warhead out to 200 to 300 kilometers (124 to 186 miles) depending on the version, cruising at speeds up to roughly 1,100 kilometers per hour (684 mph), and it navigates toward its target using a combination of GPS, inertial guidance, and a terrain-comparison system that matches the terrain it flies over against a preloaded map, before switching to a passive infrared seeker in its final approach that can automatically recognize its target without emitting any signal an enemy could detect and jam. Discussions about supplying Norwegian Naval Strike Missiles to Ukraine had circulated since 2023, but this week’s public display marked the first confirmation that the system has actually reached Ukrainian hands rather than remaining a topic of speculation.

Sweden’s RBS-15, officially named Gungir after the mythological spear wielded by the Norse god Odin, rounds out the displayed arsenal and has its own confirmed combat record in Ukrainian service.

The Ukrainian Navy used RBS-15 missiles in April 2026 to destroy the Sivash drilling platform, a Russian-held rig in the Black Sea that Moscow’s forces had been using for airspace monitoring, electronic warfare, and as a makeshift air defense position. The missile carries a heavier, roughly 200-kilogram (441-pound) semi-armor-piercing, high-explosive fragmentation warhead than the Naval Strike Missile, reaching similar ranges of 200 to 300 kilometers (124 to 186 miles) at comparable speeds, but relies on an active radar seeker in its terminal phase rather than infrared guidance, giving it the added ability to home in on the source of enemy jamming if a target tries to blind the missile electronically.

Displaying all four systems together sends a message well beyond simple military inventory disclosure, since it demonstrates that Ukraine has assembled a genuinely layered coastal defense network built from four different countries’ missile technology, each with distinct strengths in range, warhead design, and guidance that complicate any single Russian countermeasure from working against the entire arsenal at once. A

Let’s look at what’s been happening. The article linked directly below fits in with a recent arrest made by Turkey. And ties nicely into a video from Brian Berletic

Russian Military Returns to Afghanistan

Interesting. Suggest of a counter move to the American empire’s agenda. Keeping in mind that Pakistan is hosting ISIS- K– Remember the attack on the Crocus City Hall Music Venue.

Covered in previous posts

Just as the Soviets were forced out of Afghanistan in 1989, the Americans were forced out in 2021, and Trump is surrounded by military officials who feel this loss in the same way that officers such as Putin felt the shame of the Soviet withdrawal. For two of America’s top geopolitical strategists of the 20th century, Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzeziński, it comes down to geography and Afghanistan’s position in relation to Russia and China. For them, US control over Afghanistan was essential to influencing what they called ‘the Eurasian chessboard’ of Central Asia.

British military thinkers in the 19th century, such as Halford Mackinder and Thomas Holdrich, thought similarly, designing the Afghan map to keep the Russian Empire away from the British Empire. Fast forward 200 years and the same themes were at play in the Cold War, immortalised in the popular imagination by the 2007 film Charlie Wilson’s War starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, in which an American politician quietly works with the CIA to fund and equip the Afghans fighting the Soviets. Decorated CIA officer Milt Bearden, who was a consultant on the film, has issued warnings from history about the importance of not ignoring Afghanistan.

I’ve talked about Mackinder’s theory more than once at this site and the other one (censored)

Economically, China is the biggest investor in Afghanistan today. Both Moscow and Beijing, who dominate the BRICS group, want Central Asian states such as Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan to invest in Afghanistan as well.

Although the Taliban has no ideological fans in a region averse to fundamentalism, relations are dictated by pragmatism and realpolitik. Neither Russia nor China wants Afghanistan to fall back into the American orbit. By recognising the Taliban and, most recently, striking a defence accord with Kabul, Moscow will hope to have stolen a march on Washington in the ‘great game’ that Hopkirk referred to.

Turkish Arrest Renews Focus on ISIS-K Presence in Pakistan

Aziz Maarij, a former diplomat, said: “This case serves as documented evidence showing that ISIS centers, its growth, and its safe havens are located in Pakistan. It also disproves Pakistan’s repeated claims that terrorists and ISIS militants originate from Afghanistan or receive support from India.”

The arrest of Ahmad Kazanji, a member of ISIS-Khorasan, by Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) has once again drawn attention to the group’s operational hubs in Pakistan.

ISIS-K is in Pakistan because that’s where the Americans want them

According to a report by the Turkish media outlet Kısa Dalga, Kazanji traveled to Pakistan in 2024 and produced Turkish-language propaganda materials for ISIS-Khorasan in the mountainous regions of Balochistan.

Brian Berletic talks about ISIS-K in the video below

Just days after the U.S. and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran announced the critical waterway is closed again, threatening oil flows after they had barely started to rebound. (Thanks Israel!)

On Saturday, Iran’s military command said it closed the strait, citing continued Israeli attacks on Lebanon and U.S. “bad faith” in failing to uphold commitments to end the war. It also warned that “if the aggression continues, subsequent steps have been planned.”

Not to be outdone, President Donald Trump threatened to charge U.S. tolls for “services rendered as the Guardian Angel to the countries of the Middle East,” if a final deal with Iran isn’t reached in 60 days.

Guardian Angel Trump- the entire reason the Straits are shut down is because the US and Israel attacked Iran

While the U.S. ended its naval blockade on Iran as part of the MOU, Central Command also said “U.S. forces remain present and vigilant to ensure all aspects of the agreement with Iran are adhered to, obeyed, and in full force and effect.”

For its part, Tehran’s new Persian Gulf Strait Authority warned that ships must follow a regime-established route that passes along the Iranian coast and that alternatives are prohibited.

And despite its deal with the U.S. banning tolls for 60 days, the PGSA is requiring insurance that will eventually come at a cost.

“At present, this insurance is provided free of charge to the vessel owner, with all expenses covered by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Iran said. “The PGSA reserves the right to introduce insurance fees in the future, which will be determined by the relevant insurer. Owners will then be required to purchase and renew coverage accordingly.”

For ships that require assurances of safe passage, recent developments aren’t helping. Oil prices tumbled after the U.S. and Iran announced the deal last weekend, but a return to normal flows will take months.

And until supplies recover, global oil inventories will continue to remain under pressure. In the U.S., the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has already plunged to the lowest level since 1983.

The situation in the Strait of Hormuz, which was the scene of regular skirmishes between the U.S. and Iran before the latest deal, highlights the private sector’s role.

“But it’s not Iran or the US who decide that the strait is open—it’s shipping and insurance companies,” Eurasia Group senior analyst Gregory Brew posted on X.

While other Iran experts predicted Saturday’s announcement of the strait’s closure would scare off ships just as traffic was showing signs of climbing, Brew questioned if that will be a sufficient threat

Again, it’s up to the ships to decide.

“Will the Iranian announcement be enough to deter them? Or will Iran need to resort to force and directly violate the MOU’s terms?” he added.

Even before the latest flurry of mixed signals, the industry had doubts. One shipping executive told the New York Times on Friday that he deemed the conditions too uncertain for his ship to leave the Persian Gulf.

Israel ‘ready to sabotage’ US-Iran memorandum, Turkish top diplomat says

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan cautions that Israel may act cynically to derail the US-Iran agreement implementation during the ongoing regional diplomatic negotiations process

Trump is counting on it.