Davey Crockett
Elite Member
If Iran wants to put a toll booth on the Strait, it is not any of America's business to get involved.
Everyone needs to read General Smedley Butler's War Is A Racket.
US Perspective on the Iran - Israel / US War
- Thread starter AZ_HighCountry
- Start date
Everyone needs to read General Smedley Butler's War Is A Racket.
Lulldapull
Trusted Member
Kuwaits Victoria base has just been struck pretty hard by the Iranians……
Whole buncha shit on
Again!
Davey Crockett
Elite Member
$42.5 million a day (@$100/barrel) from the Middle East. And what are we spending each and every day defending the bandit state Israel?
Far cheaper to stay out of Middle East affairs and pay the toll.
Davey Crockett
Elite Member
UNPRECEDENTED EVENT IN WORLD CUP HISTORY!
The United States has become the first World Cup host to refuse accommodation in the country to a national team that qualified for the tournament.
The U.S. administration officially notified FIFA that it does not want the Iranian team on its soil throughout the tournament, despite all three of Iran's group matches being scheduled to be played within its own borders.
The Iranian National Team will conduct its entire World Cup camp, training sessions, and accommodations in Tijuana, Mexico.
On match days, they will cross the border to take the field in Los Angeles or Seattle and return to Mexico the same night. There is no fixed camp in the U.S., no hotel, not even a single overnight stay.
No national team in soccer history has ever faced such a logistical challenge in a World Cup.
This is embarrassing.
The United States has become the first World Cup host to refuse accommodation in the country to a national team that qualified for the tournament.
The U.S. administration officially notified FIFA that it does not want the Iranian team on its soil throughout the tournament, despite all three of Iran's group matches being scheduled to be played within its own borders.
The Iranian National Team will conduct its entire World Cup camp, training sessions, and accommodations in Tijuana, Mexico.
On match days, they will cross the border to take the field in Los Angeles or Seattle and return to Mexico the same night. There is no fixed camp in the U.S., no hotel, not even a single overnight stay.
No national team in soccer history has ever faced such a logistical challenge in a World Cup.
This is embarrassing.
Davey Crockett
Elite Member
Donald Trump has ignored American law
The War Powers Act was designed to keep misguided presidents in check, but Congress is not capable of using it to challenge himBy Jonathan Sumption
Donald Trump has ignored American law
The War Powers Act was designed to keep misguided presidents in check, but Congress is not capable of using it to challenge him
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
Davey Crockett
Elite Member
Fatman17
Moderator
EDITORIAL: The Abraham Accords were presented as a historic peace initiative in the Middle East. In reality, they were agreements brokered during US President Donald Trump’s first presidency, under which several Arab states normalised ties with Israel without resolving the Palestinian issue.
Trump now appears keen to expand the Accords again, pushing more Muslim countries to join after the recent Iran conflict. It is a dangerous and deeply dishonest move, driven less by regional peace than by pressure from Israel’s supporters in Washington and America’s hard-line pro-Israel right. The attempt to connect the Iran conflict with the Abraham Accords makes little sense.
Read more: https://www.dawn.com/news/2003384
AZ_HighCountry
INT'L MOD
- Thread starter
- #4,028
A Marine brother of mine has been referencing Butler a lot lately.
AZ_HighCountry
INT'L MOD
- Thread starter
- #4,029
Just read some early morning news reports. Kuwait not confirming where the attacks originated nor is the US confirming anything was hit.Kuwaits Victoria base has just been struck pretty hard by the Iranians……
Whole buncha shit on
Again!
AZ_HighCountry
INT'L MOD
- Thread starter
- #4,030
Very much so. Even the professional tennis organizations and countries on the tour are not discriminating against players from Belarus or Russia.
Team Iran was originally scheduled to be hosted in Tucson, Arizona.
AZ_HighCountry
INT'L MOD
- Thread starter
- #4,031
In principle, I have to agree with this.
Fatman17
Moderator
But unfortunately politics are unprincipled everywhere.
VCheng
THINK TANK: CONSULTANT
What's in the Iran deal and does it meet US war aims?
Despite US claims of an imminent deal, Iran still in effect holds the Strait of Hormuz.
www.newsweek.com
May 27, 2026 at 10:21 AM EDT
updated
May 28, 2026 at 05:24 AM EDT
0:16 / 0:30
Brendan Cole
By Brendan Cole
Senior News Reporter
The United States has said it is close to a deal to end the Iran war, but there are still conflicting messages over what each side is prioritizing.
The countries continue to hold sharply different positions on Tehran's nuclear program, its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium (HEU), and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. While some details of a potential agreement have emerged, many do not appear to address the core concerns that prompted the U.S. and Israel to launch the war in February.
"The blowback from a bad deal will be significant," former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Len Khodorkovsky told Newsweek.
What We Know About the Deal
There are conflicting reports about what has been called a U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding (MOU) that might lead to a final agreement.
President Donald Trump said on May 23 that a deal to end the war had been "largely negotiated" and was awaiting finalization, while Tehran’s officials are presenting the possible MOU as contingent on U.S. concessions and continued Iranian leverage.
There have been reports that an incremental approach may have been agreed upon, starting with the most urgent issues: ending the war and guaranteeing safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz. They would then move on to more technically and politically difficult matters, such as the nuclear program.
Reopening the Strait of Hormuz
Reporting on draft frameworks includes consistent elements of any deal, such as Iran's reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and the restoration of maritime traffic. The strait is an international waterway through which one-fifth of the world’s energy transits. Traffic dwindled from around 100 vessels a day before the war to only a handful.
Trump says any deal involves reopening the strait but has not clarified whether that would mean Tehran would have sovereignty there. Meanwhile, Iranian officials have introduced transit tolls, which they are presenting as "protection fees" against attacks.
Tehran has said it could reopen the strait to some traffic in exchange for the U.S. ending its blockade of Iranian ports, which began on April 13 after the failure of talks in Islamabad. However, Tehran has continued to claim that it, along with Oman, controls the Strait of Hormuz as territorial waters.
A U.S. official said a draft agreement would fully open the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the U.S. lifting its blockade of Iranian ports.
"On the Strait, Iran has consistently insisted on recognition of its sovereignty-related role, but it has recently shown greater flexibility regarding demands for transit tolls," Hamidreza Azizi, an Iran expert from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, told Newsweek.
Tehran says it will only reopen the strait to civilian ships under "Iranian arrangements," and Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said Iran must leverage the strait for economic gain. This contradicts the U.S. position on freedom of navigation, because freedom of navigation through an international waterway has no "arrangements" imposed by another state.
Sanctions Relief
Iran wants the unfreezing of $25 billion in the first phase of sanctions relief, with frozen funds released further over time.
The U.S. has proposed a package to Tehran that includes releasing 25 percent of Iran’s frozen assets—about $25 billion—allowing uranium transfer abroad, and accepting 3.67 percent enrichment limits, according to reports.
Iran has demanded that the U.S. immediately release the first half of frozen Iranian assets upon signing the agreement and the second half within 60 days, according to Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) media.
However, the Iranian Foreign Affairs Ministry has said that Iran would use its unfrozen assets to reconstitute its ballistic missile and drone programs, which would be unacceptable to the U.S.
"The main sticking point is whether the United States is prepared to remove the naval blockade at an early stage and release at least part of the frozen Iranian assets as part of an initial package," Azizi told Newsweek.
Nuclear Program
Iran has not publicly committed to removing its HEU stockpiles or to halting uranium enrichment, despite the Trump administration's claims to the contrary.
Iranian officials have stated that any U.S. demand for zero enrichment—or a return to the 3.6 percent level in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) struck between Iran and the U.S in 2015—would be a red line for Tehran.
Trump insisted any deal must be "great and meaningful," and rejected "anything like the JCPOA," which eased sanctions in return for curbs on Tehran’s nuclear program.
Azizi said if the objective is a framework agreement or memorandum of understanding, both the Strait of Hormuz issue and the nuclear question can be managed.
"On the nuclear issue, the technical complexity of the matter inevitably requires detailed negotiations," he said. "I would expect the framework agreement to include a general formulation stating that Iran commits not to pursue nuclear weapons, while leaving the technical details for future negotiations."
Khodorkovsky, who is senior adviser to the chairman of the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue University, said: "allowing a weak and broke regime to survive—and resurrect its nuclear program at the earliest opportunity, even if that’s after President Trump leaves office—will undoubtedly haunt us."
"It will be much harder and much costlier to deal with a richer and stronger regime later," he added.
Reaction and Response on Both Sides
Azizi said there are hard-liners on both the Iranian and U.S. sides who firmly oppose any deal seen as insufficient for priorities and maximalist demands. "I believe this constraint is currently even stronger on the U.S. side than on the Iranian side," he said.
As of May 26, Iran and the United States had not bridged differences on all the major demands. Iranian officials said they would not discuss their nuclear program and that the U.S. should observe Iran’s right to enrich uranium on Iranian territory.
Meanwhile, mediators and U.S. officials have said they will not offer economic relief to Iran without serious commitments from Iran on its nuclear program, which the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) described as "a major impasse."
Abraham Accords
Potentially complicating the prospect of an Iran deal, Trump has also linked an agreement with Tehran to a broader diplomatic push expanding the Abraham Accords—the 2020 normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab states.
Trump posted on Truth Social that negotiations are "proceeding nicely," but tied any eventual agreement to expanded participation in the accords struck during his first term.
Trump said on Monday that he asked Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan to join the Abraham Accords to normalize relations with Israel as part of a broader regional diplomatic push to end the war with Iran. However, Pakistan rejected the proposal, while no other countries have reacted to Trump’s demand.
"Trump’s demand that more states join the Abraham Accords as part of a deal is totally unrealistic," Benjamin H. Friedman, the policy director of the Defense Priorities think tank, told Newsweek. "Hopefully it’s a symbolic sop to the Israelis before constraining them in Lebanon; most likely it’s just empty talk."
Friedman said that a U.S.-Iran ceasefire that reopens the Strait of Hormuz and defers talks on nuclear issues is "probably the best outcome under the circumstances."
"The Trump administration should close this deal, which is essentially what Iran reportedly offered weeks ago," he added.
Iran Draft Peace Deal
Iranian state media reported on Wednesday that a copy of an unofficial draft deal showed that Tehran would completely open the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping within a month and the U.S. would lift its blockade and withdraw its forces from the "vicinity" of Iran.
U.S. officials have dismissed the report as a "complete fabrication," but the circulation of the proposal in Iranian media likely reflects Iran’s effort to secure recognition of its sovereignty over the strait in any deal.
Trump, who had repeatedly teased an imminent deal suggested Washington was unhappy with Tehran’s demands.
"They’re negotiating on fumes," Trump said Wednesday, adding Tehran wanted a deal, describing Tehran as "very much intent" on making a deal but "haven’t got there, we’re not satisfied with it."
The U.S. leader has also denied Washington would consider easing sanctions on Iran, as proposed by the reported deal, or agree to immediately unfreezing around $24 billion in oil revenues held overseas.
"We’ll keep control of that money," Trump said, "when they behave properly and when they do what’s right, we’ll let them have their money."
Davey Crockett
Elite Member
"The bigger picture is that crude is still on course for a second weekly decline, suggesting investors are not yet pricing in a worst-case disruption," Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Matt Britzman said.
"For now, the market looks caught between short-term nerves over renewed hostilities and a lingering hope that both sides still have enough incentive to get energy flows moving," he added.
Investment strategist Ed Yardeni wrote in an overnight note that "oil markets will be in dire straits" if the Strait of Hormuz doesn't open soon. He sketched out looming crisis points that have turned the U.S.-Iran negotiation into the "ultimate game of chicken."
The U.S. blockade of Iranian ports means the country's oil industry is producing too much and storage capacity is quickly filling. Yardeni concludes that Iran has until mid- or late June before storage is maxed out, forcing a sharp cut in production to domestic consumption levels. "The toll on Iran's oil industry and its broader economy is certainly one of President Trump's best negotiating cards," he wrote.
Yardeni further notes that oil inventories in Asia are already approaching minimum levels, meaning the war-driven dearth of oil imports will soon lead to shortages.
Europe faces the same situation, possibly by late June.
Yardeni highlighted International Energy Agency Director Faith Birol's warning that depleted stocks and high usage during the summer travel season could push global oil markets into "the red zone in July or August."
www.zerohedge.com
"For now, the market looks caught between short-term nerves over renewed hostilities and a lingering hope that both sides still have enough incentive to get energy flows moving," he added.
Investment strategist Ed Yardeni wrote in an overnight note that "oil markets will be in dire straits" if the Strait of Hormuz doesn't open soon. He sketched out looming crisis points that have turned the U.S.-Iran negotiation into the "ultimate game of chicken."
The U.S. blockade of Iranian ports means the country's oil industry is producing too much and storage capacity is quickly filling. Yardeni concludes that Iran has until mid- or late June before storage is maxed out, forcing a sharp cut in production to domestic consumption levels. "The toll on Iran's oil industry and its broader economy is certainly one of President Trump's best negotiating cards," he wrote.
Yardeni further notes that oil inventories in Asia are already approaching minimum levels, meaning the war-driven dearth of oil imports will soon lead to shortages.
Europe faces the same situation, possibly by late June.
Yardeni highlighted International Energy Agency Director Faith Birol's warning that depleted stocks and high usage during the summer travel season could push global oil markets into "the red zone in July or August."
'Tank Bottoms' Loom At Cushing After Across-The-Board Inventory Draws, Another Huge SPR Drain<!-- --> | ZeroHedge
ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
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