|
War On Iran: – (Not-) Destroyed Missile Launchers – Seeking Ground War Allies
War propaganda doesn’t change, whoever a conflict is fought with:
Professed success is promoted by doing a countdown towards victory:
The recent war follows the scheme of ever rising enemy losses:
At some point however delusion creeps in:
People start to ask questions:
After Trump’s original plans did not survive contact with the enemy, the media are preparing the public for an escalation towards a ground war:
> President Trump and top aides spent the weekend framing their Iran operation as a resounding military success while imploring other countries to join their effort to resolve a worsening energy crisis related to the Strait of Hormuz.
The Trump administration as soon as this week plans to announce that multiple countries have agreed to form a coalition that will escort ships through the waterway, which runs along the Iranian coast, U.S. officials said. The U.S. and potential coalition countries are still discussing whether those operations would begin before or after the war ends. <
What is the use of escorting ships through the Strait “after the war ends”?
So far there are no takers of Trump’s call for allies. I doubt that there will be any.
The U.S. will have to go it alone. To take a strip of Iranian land north of the Strait of Hormuz with a depth and width sufficient to protect the Strait will require a force of some 100,000 soldiers. The U.S. no longer has such an invasion force nor the means to land it.
That does not mean that Trump won’t try it.
One can hope that the commodity and financial markets will become unruly enough soon enough to stop Trump from bombing Iran ‘a few more times just for fun‘ and from marching towards a ground war.
“Military Affairs – Rami Abu Zubaida
Double assassination in Tehran…an Israeli account awaiting confirmation
The Israeli occupation army announced the implementation of a specific operation targeting senior Iranian leaders inside the capital, Tehran, claiming the liquidation of the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, and the commander of the Basij forces, Gholam Reza Soleimani, during precise night raids.
According to the Israeli story, Larijani was targeted inside a secret apartment that he was using, based on intelligence described as “accurate,” before the operation was completed with another strike that targeted the commander of the mobilization forces (Basij).
Israeli Security Minister Yisrael Katz confirmed that the assassination was carried out, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office published scenes documenting the moment the operation was approved, in an indication of a high level of political follow-up to the operation.
In parallel, Israeli media reported additional strikes targeting leaders of the Islamic Jihad movement inside the city of Qom in central Iran, as part of a broader range of targets.
On the other hand, there has been no official confirmation from the Iranian side yet, while Mehr Agency indicated the publication of a message attributed to Larijani, which raises questions about the accuracy of the Israeli story.
The data available so far are based entirely on Israeli sources, which leaves the results of the operation within the framework of the “military claim” until an official confirmation or denial is issued by Tehran.” Via HarbAlerts
https://t.me/Military_Security
“Iranian media mourns Larijani”
https://t.me/youseffares19/108267
US resignation
https://t.me/youseffares19/108284
Posted by: Ornot | Mar 17 2026 14:33 utc | 808
Lavrov was asked if “Moscow is ready to act as a mediator to achieve a peaceful resolution of the conflict in the Middle East.” His reply was excellent:
Sergey Lavrov: Do I understand correctly that by conflict in the Middle East you mean the situation around Iran in the Persian Gulf?
I want to comment right away. Previously, when they spoke of the Middle East, they primarily meant the problem of Palestine, the problem of creating a Palestinian state in accordance with UN resolutions, which have been openly sabotaged for decades. Recently, it has been openly stated that there will be no Palestinian state. Now, when the aggression of the United States and Israel against the Islamic Republic of Iran has begun, everyone is talking about a crisis, a conflict in the Middle East, but it is not Palestine at all. Palestine is safely forgotten. [My Emphasis]
But that isn’t all he had to say, and what he said deserves to be reported in full. Yes, he did address other Q&As at the presser, but the following is the current meat of the matter:
We believe that this will be a serious blow to the reputation of the international community, primarily the United Nations. In this regard, it is necessary for everyone, and above all for the countries of the region, the Arab countries, to realize their responsibility. We will be ready to actively support this approach so that the UN is responsible for the decisions it makes.
As for the situation around Iran, our position is well known. We have set it out in several statements (1, 2, 3, 4). We will continue to express our assessments of what is happening. The most important thing is unprovoked aggression, which could not go unreacted.
Those who planned strikes on the Islamic Republic of Iran (as they did in June 2025 during the talks) hoped that they would achieve the goal of completely subjugating this state in a day, in a few hours, and now they understand how wrong and mistaken they were.
Of course, Iran is defending itself. It responds to aggression with strikes on the military infrastructure located in the region by the countries that attacked it. To our great regret, the states of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf are also suffering.
We urge you to stop hostilities and sit down at the negotiating table if there is still confidence in the negotiations.
Secondly, as an urgent and urgent step, everything must be done to ensure that all parties involved in this crisis stop actions that damage civilian infrastructure and lead to civilian casualties. Both in the Arab Gulf countries and in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
These are absolutely urgent things. I hope that we will try, together with other reasonable states, to promote this approach in the international arena.
As for the prospects of this conflict, it is difficult to say. Recently, US President Donald Trump said that Iran has been “defeated.” On the same day, an IDF spokesman declared: “We still have a thousand targets ahead of us. We will work on these goals at least until Passover” (at least three more weeks).
Therefore, it is difficult to predict what consequences this crisis may have, how it may end if we do not immediately stop, come to our senses and begin to work out agreements that will not be disrupted this time.
Guarantees are needed here. I understand perfectly well that Iran needs them.
Now everyone is talking about the Strait of Hormuz. French President Emmanuel Macron said that he had called Iranian President Mohamed Peseschkian and demanded freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.
For some reason, no one cares about the freedom of navigation in the Mediterranean Sea, in the Baltic Sea, where cases of illegal seizure of tankers have become more frequent. In the Mediterranean Sea and in the Black Sea, Ukrainian terrorists attacked tankers. One of them, the Arctic Metagas, is now almost ready to sink and is drifting in the Mediterranean. Recently, a Greek tanker was attacked in the Black Sea. Infrastructure related to the Turkish Stream and Blue Stream gas pipelines is being attacked.
All this, coupled with the crisis around the Strait of Hormuz, in the context of threats from the Ansar Allah movement to block the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Of course, those who are engaged in terror against energy infrastructure, tankers transporting hydrocarbons, at the same time as these events related to the reaction to aggression, want to draw attention to themselves.
You see, I started directly with the situation around Iran, but the consequences are much wider. They are no longer regional at all. They have a global reach.
I would like to emphasise once again that together with other like-minded countries, we will advocate an immediate cessation of hostilities and the search for a political settlement. As President Vladimir Putin has said more than once, we are ready to play an intermediary role in this political process, if this role is in demand.
We believe that we have such opportunities. But when our American colleagues say that their main goal is to take all the enriched uranium (more than 400 kilograms is uranium of any level of enrichment) and that they are interested in this, then we are no longer talking about readiness for negotiations, not about readiness to use the good offices of the Russian Federation, as was done in 2015, when the agreement on the Iranian nuclear programme was concluded and approved by the UN Security Council.
It turns out that the United States simply wants to take this energy resource for itself, just as it wants to take almost all hydrocarbon resources, whether in Latin America, in the Caribbean, in the Persian Gulf or in other expanses of our vast planet. [My Emphasis]
The closing paragraph is very weighty and will affect what Russia and China do regarding Cuba.
Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 17 2026 15:24 utc | 841
|
