Tic-Toc Thread On The War On Iran - 5

This is dangerous. The majority of Muslim in the Middle East are Shia. Killing the Ayatollah would make the war personal to them.

Defense Minister: Taking out Khamenei, ‘the modern Hitler,’ is a goal of the operation - YnetNews, Jun 19 2025

Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a statement to the media at the site of the direct missile hit in Holon, and for the first time threatened to eliminate Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. "Preventing the existence of Khamenei, the modern Hitler - one of the goals of the operation," he said. "A dictator like Khamenei, who leads Iran and has inscribed the destruction of Israel on his flag - he cannot continue to exist."

Fake outrage:

Hala Jaber @HalaJaber - 9:53 UTC · Jun 19, 2025

🔴 IMPORTANT: Israel is yelling “hospital!” to distract from the real headline - the actual targets. Iran didn’t strike Soroka Hospital directly, it hit IDF’s C4I & cyber ops HQ in Gav-Yam tech park, Be’er Sheva:

📍 Digital command & C4ISR systems
👥 Thousands of troops stationed
📏 Just 1–2 km from the hospital, not “far,” not “accidental,” not “random.”

The military intelligence nerve center was the real target.
Soroka’s damage? Collateral from a strike on an active war machine.

PS: If you set up a military base next to a hospital, don’t act shocked when the windows rattle.

Behind the scenes negotiations continue:

Exclusive: Iran delivers response to new US proposal

The Iranian response was sent to the White House just before noon EDT on June 18. The high-ranking source with insight into proceedings described the document to Amwaj.media as "a polite no, but with a good explanation.”

A second senior source described the communication as "long" and in essence stating that Iran, in principle, does not object to negotiations to "discuss possible ways forward." However, the source stated, it is not politically feasible to do so "while our people are under bombardment."

The source declined to get into specifics on the substance of the response, but Iran has in the past indicated that it would be open to the idea of a multilateral consortium—as long as such a facility is built on Iranian soil.

The exchanges over June 17-18, which are believed to be direct, come as President Trump has publicly demanded Iran's “unconditional surrender” while hinting that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may be Israel’s next target.

Palestine Open Thread 2025-136

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Ukraine Open Thread 2025-135

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Open (Neither Ukraine Nor Palestine) Thread 2025-134

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Tic-Toc Thread On The War On Iran - 4

Alastair Crooke is summarizing the first days of USrael's war on Iran:

The situation in the broadest terms is that the attempt by Israel and allied Intelligence services to launch a surprise ‘synergistic psychic-shock’ to the Iranian state through simultaneous muti-domain decapitations, assassinations of scientists, disruption of Air Defence systems and the insertion of drone saboteur teams, failed.

It failed in its expected outcome -- that of paralysing and panicking the Iranian leadership and even creating the space for ‘the hoped for’ regime-change vibe to take hold. (It never happened. Iranians buried political differences and rallied to national sovereignty).

Rather, despite the loss of eight military line commanders, the system quickly re-booted itself: the Air Defence systems were restored within 8 hours, and Iran retaliated with missile attacks on Israel.

The point here was that – other than superficial surface damage – there was no setback made to Iran’s nuclear programme. And to be clear, that was never the Israeli aim. They simply do not have the ability to destroy infrastructure buried 800 metres into mountains. They (with their allies -- the US and European States) rather hope for ‘regime change’.

[...]

So, the situation has inverted from that of 13 June. Israel now is in big trouble: Its Air Defences are performing badly and it is Israel sustaining (verified) substantive damage to key assets. Basically, every politician in Israel now is begging the US to enter the war for them.

Israeli Minister & Cabinet member, Gila Gamliel: “We categorically demand that the United States join the war against Iran”.

While it first looked yesterday as if Trump may join the war with more overt action that changed after a meeting with his national security council.

As Larry Johnson observes:

Cont. reading: Tic-Toc Thread On The War On Iran - 4

English Outsider - The 'West' Is A Farce

by English Outsider
lifted from a comment

There's nothing funny here, though it's true that the Western military and political establishments are now pure farce. Nothing funny because the farce has had lethal consequences. The unrestrained carnage in Gaza will be a reproach to the West for ever. As for Ukraine, "b" summed up, must be two years ago now, what we are putting our proxies in Ukraine through. A "crime", he stated. So it is. Has been since 2014. Worse now, after a million and more deaths and economic and societal ruin for Ukraine to match.

As for the military reality Putin, in the video embedded in the Simplicius article above, sums up the military reality that has been clear to us Europeans since February 2022. NATO, the US and all, is a paper tiger. Even with the substantial manpower of the original Ukrainian armed forces NATO has neither the troops nor the equipment for a ground war on Russia’s doorstep and never has had. All we do have is the nuclear threat and neither Biden, nor, now, Trump, will risk Chicago frying for Vilnius. Nor for Berlin. Nor for London. That accepted, the only puzzle lies in working out what the European politicians hope to gain from prolonging a war long since lost.

Seems a simple enough puzzle assuming, that is, that the European politicians are rational. The gamble they took in 2022 was a gamble on destroying Russia with sanctions. Their only way out of that failed gamble is to save face by taking us into the new Cold War. We must strain every nerve, they tell us, to face the Russian threat. Only keeping us in a state of permanent war hysteria will serve. Otherwise, should we recover from that hysteria, the danger is that we shall look about us and hold the politicians to account for the damage they have done and are still doing to our own economies and to our own societies.

The outcome of the war with Iran is still unknown. That of the war in Ukraine is set in stone and always has been. It remains only to attempt to guess how the Russians will accomplish their local objectives there.

Those local objectives are simple enough. To protect the inhabitants of the Donbas, an objective often forgotten or glossed over but the primary initial objective of the SMO. To prevent NATO's use of Ukraine, and now of whatever remnant Ukraine turns out to be, as a means of attacking Russia.

That means no more sabotage and assassination missions run out of Ukraine into Russia from the bases we set up in Ukraine for that purpose. No more "look no hands" missile and drone attacks from out of Ukraine. If we wish to continue with those various lines of attack we'll have to do so out of Europe, or from elsewhere along the Russian perimeter. Remnant Ukraine will no longer be at our disposal for those purposes.

Cont. reading: English Outsider - The 'West' Is A Farce

Tic-Toc Thread On The War On Iran - 3

...

Russia Weaponizes UK Climate Project

When "we" do it:

• UK scientists will attempt to dim the sun in controversial experiment costing taxpayer £800 million - Daily Record, Apr 27 2025
  The controversial technology aims to reflect sunlight back into space in a bid to combat climate change
• Experiments to 'dim the Sun' to be given green light by UK government - Manchester Evening News, Apr 23 2025
• Cloudy with a chance of taxpayer’s funds: UK to pay for less sun - York Vision, June 5 2025

When others may intend to do it:

• Britain’s enemies could dim the sun and weaponise weather - Telegraph, Jun 15 2025
• Warning as Britain's enemies could 'dim the sun' over UK skies - Express, Jun 16 2025
  The terrifying tactic could see malign powers fire substances into the atmosphere to affect sunlight hours over Britain.
• Could Putin attack Britain by blocking the SUN? Fears hostile actors might deploy 'weather weapons' as ministers order probe into 'risks' - Daily Mail, Jun 16 2025

The tun of headlines is not astonishing to anyone who has seen how Russia is weaponizing everything.

Tic-Toc Thread On The War On Iran - 2

Machine translated from Hebrew:

Yossi Melman @yossi_melman - 5:50 UTC · Jun 15, 2025

The euphoria was brief. On Friday morning, I asked if it was even necessary to start a war with the Iranians. Shiites are historically willing to suffer. I mentioned their willingness to sacrifice as demonstrated in the 8 years of attrition with Iraq. I recommend that we cut our losses. Ask Trump to stop the scramble for a reasonable agreement. Otherwise, we'll end up begging for a cease-fire and Iran will refuse.

Yossi Melman @yossi_melman - 6:22 UTC · Jun 16, 2025

There is no one to stop the madness. Ariel Kahana, political commentator for Israel Hayom, writes about Israel's response plan to attack population centers: The IDF will announce in the coming hours an evacuation order for neighborhoods in Tehran. After that, the air force will bring down buildings, similar to what Israel did in Beirut.

Tic-Toc Thread On The War On Iran

Current tic-toc round:

• Iranian strike at Israel's electric infrastructure.
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