April 30, 2026

Iran Watch

Iran Claims to Have Enough Uranium to Produce 11 Nuclear Weapons– slaynews.com

pgnewser March 5, 2026 0

Blurb:

U.S. negotiations with Iran broke down after Iranian officials openly declared their intention to enrich uranium to levels capable of producing nuclear weapons, according to President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.

Witkoff revealed the details in an interview with Fox News, describing a moment during the talks when Iranian negotiators made their position unmistakably clear.

“The Iranians made it clear from the start that they believe they have an undeniable right to enrich all the uranium they possess,” Witkoff said.

DAVID BLACKMON: Geopolitical Risks In The Strait Of Hormuz And Implications For Global Energy Markets– dailycaller.com

pgnewser March 5, 2026 0

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Recent developments in the Middle East, including U.S. military actions against Iranian targets and reported damage to key export infrastructure like Kharg Island, have once again drawn attention to the vulnerability of global energy supplies.

Iran’s threats to fire on tankers trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz have created an insurance crisis for shippers, forcing oil prices to rise. At the same time, Iranian attacks on Qatar’s LNG infrastructure led the world’s second largest exporter to suspend production.

A new analysis from Enverus Intelligence Research finds that these events introduce a significant risk premium to oil prices, with Brent crude potentially facing an additional $10 to $15 per barrel if disruptions escalate. The firm’s baseline forecast had Brent at around $63, but prolonged instability in the region could push prices higher as markets price in supply concerns. Given that the Brent price had already risen by more than $9/bbl as of Tuesday, this seems a conservative projection unless the situation is quickly resolved.

ABC Accosts Iranian Kurd Chief With Forced “Forever War” Narrative– www.newsbusters.org

pgnewser March 5, 2026 0

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It is one thing to watch the Elitist Media be as unpredictably biased as they go about their business. It is entirely another to watch them inject their biases into stories from the weirdest angles, as ABC’s James Longman just did.

Watch as the network’s Chief International Correspondent James Longman closes out the videotaped portion of his report by foisting the American “forever war” terminology upon an Iranian Kurdish leader who may soon send his troops to take on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC):

Hegseth Signals Prolonged US Commitment In Iran– thefederalist.com

pgnewser March 5, 2026 0

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THE PENTAGON — Secretary of War Pete Hegseth signaled prolonged U.S. military involvement in Iran on Wednesday morning, stating a surge of forces is “accelerating, not decelerating.”

Hegseth held a press conference at the Pentagon with Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to give an update on developments in the joint U.S.-Israel war with Iran and “Operation Epic Fury.”

“As President Trump said, more and larger waves are coming. We are just getting started,” Hegseth said. “We are accelerating, not decelerating. Iran’s capabilities are evaporating by the hour, while American strength grows fiercer, smarter and utterly dominant. More bombers and more fighters are arriving.”

The Energy Squeeze China’s in Over Operation Epic Fury Is Just a Foretaste of What Is Yet to Come – RedState– redstate.com

pgnewser March 5, 2026 0

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I never thought I would say this, but this week has convinced me that the Trump Administration is possibly the first administration in decades to execute a politico-military strategy and shape events rather than just bounce, pinball-like, from one flashing light to another. Bear with me as I lay out what I think is going on, and feel free to excoriate me in the comments if you disagree.

Chris Hayes Compares Trump Bombing Iran to 9/11 Terrorists– www.newsbusters.org

pgnewser March 5, 2026 0

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MS NOW All In host Chris Hayes made a morally obscene analogy on his Monday show as he lamented that the United States allegedly does not appreciate the fact that the people who die in war are real human beings. To prove his point, Hayes tried to claim that the terror Americans felt after 9/11 is “commonplace” in other parts of the world because of “the kinds of war of aggression that Donald Trump just started.”

Hayes started with what may have seemed to be a friendly reminder that this war is taking place in the real world with real people being caught in the middle, “But outside these borders, war is having a bomb dropped on your daughter’s elementary school, seeing some alert or getting a panicked call, or on your apartment building, or the hospital where you are receiving care. Death from above. And when you only view war through our perspective, the understanding that bombs are never coming for us, it becomes nothing more than an abstraction. Gets far too easy to wave away the loss of human life. It’s priced in. It’s the cost of doing business.”

IDF Destroys ‘Secret’ Iranian Nuclear Site and Over 300 Ballistic Missile Launchers Across Iran– gellerreport.com

pgnewser March 5, 2026 0

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One of the greatest forces for good the world has ever known. And that is why the left hate her. The hatred of the good for being the good.

The secret nuclear facility—previously unknown to Western intelligence—was struck in the opening hours of the campaign and completely destroyed: Israeli Air Force jets on Tuesday destroyed a secret underground site on the outskirts of Tehran where Iran transferred much of its nuclear program after the war with Israel in June, the IDF said…. Following that war, in which Israel and the US targeted Iranian nuclear sites, Iran “did not halt its military nuclear activity, and continued to develop the capabilities required for nuclear weapons, while transferring infrastructure to an underground site protected from aerial attack,” said Defrin (Times of Israel). Foundation for Defense of Democracies analyst Thomas Joscelyn called it, “the most significant degradation of Iranian strategic capabilities in a generation” (FDD). Israel has destroyed over 300 Iranian ballistic missile launchers in coordinated strikes across multiple provinces, the Jerusalem Post confirmed (Jerusalem Post). Iran’s retaliatory capacity has been crippled. In an interview with Politico, President Trump said Iran is both running out of missiles and running out of launchers (Politico).

Defence secretary twice declines to rule out Britain joining strikes on Iran | World News– news.sky.com

pgnewser March 5, 2026 0

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Defence secretary John Healey has twice declined to rule out Britain joining strikes on Iran, when asked by Sky News.

He also said he’d had the option of deploying HMS Dragon to the Mediterranean for weeks.

Interviewed at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, the minister was asked by Sky’s Europe correspondent Ali Bunkall if he could rule out Britain joining the conflict in an offensive capacity.

What Would Be Indicators of Regime Collapse in Iran? • Stimson Center– www.stimson.org

pgnewser March 5, 2026 0

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Editor’s Note: Ambassador (retired) Robert Ford served at the American Embassy in Algeria during that country’s civil war in the 1990s, and later for nearly five years in the Coalition Provisional Authority and then the American Embassy in Iraq after the U.S. invasion. He was U.S. Ambassador to Syria from 2011 to 2014 from the beginning of the Arab Spring into the civil war.

By Barbara Slavin, Distinguished Fellow, Middle East Perspectives Project

The Trump administration has given a litany of reasons for launching a war on Iran in conjunction with Israel, from degrading Iran’s ballistic missile programs and further damaging nuclear sites bombed last June to sinking the Iranian navy.

U.S. and Iran vow to step up attacks in fast-spreading war; Azerbaijan caught in crossfire– www.cbsnews.com

pgnewser March 5, 2026 0

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The private Institute for National Security Studies in Israel has offered a range of figures that highlight the scale of the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. According to the INSS, Iran has launched more than 1,600 drones at Israel, Jordan, Persian Gulf nations, and Cyprus:

Launches from Iran at:

-Israel: Approximately 200 missiles and more than 120 UAVs

-UAE: 941 UAVs, 189 ballistic missiles, and 8 cruise missiles

How America’s war with Iran has shattered the U.A.E.’s sense of security– www.cbc.ca

pgnewser March 5, 2026 0

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When debris from an intercepted Iranian missile struck the Fairmont The Palm, a five-star hotel on Dubai’s opulent manmade archipelago on Feb. 28, it pierced not just the country’s advanced missile defence system but also its carefully crafted image of security.

For decades, the United Arab Emirates has positioned itself as an economic and cultural hub, connecting European and Asian markets.

“The U.A.E. in particular, but more broadly, the rest of the Gulf positioned itself as a haven, surrounded by a pool of chaos for the last 40 years … and that’s all been shattered now,” said Stephen J. Fallon, a political analyst who lived in the country for eight years, and now resides in Ireland.

Amid relentless US and Israeli strikes, Iran seeks to 'wreak havoc across the region'– www.france24.com

pgnewser March 5, 2026 0

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As the US war on Iran rages, Angela Diffley welcomes Dr Renad Mansour, Senior Research Fellow on the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House. Iran is operating in “survival mode,” explains Mr. Mansour. For decades, Iran relied heavily on proxy militias and non-state actors across the Middle East and now increasingly willing to directly engage in confrontation. Tehran’s strategy for an asymmetric war is strategic disruption to transform a bilateral conflict into one with regional and global economic consequences.
from www.france24.com

Iran war could disrupt supply of semiconductor materials, South Korea warns – National– globalnews.ca

pgnewser March 5, 2026 0

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The U.S.-Israel war with Iran could disrupt supplies of key semiconductor manufacturing materials, a South Korean ruling party lawmaker said on Thursday, as the conflict in the Middle East entered its sixth day.

South Korea’s chip industry, which supplies around two-thirds of global memory chips, is also concerned that a prolonged conflict in Iran will lead to higher energy costs and prices, Kim Young-bae said after meeting with executives from companies such as Samsung Electronics 005930.KS and trade groups.

Which Kurdish groups is the US rallying to fight Iran? | Donald Trump News– www.aljazeera.com

pgnewser March 5, 2026 0

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Iran has launched operations targeting Iranian and Iraqi Kurdish groups in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in neighbouring Iraq as the regional war ignited by the United States and Israel entered its sixth day, with more than 1,000 people killed across the country.

State television, Press TV, reported early on Thursday that Tehran was striking “anti-Iran separatist forces”, referring to Iranian and Iraqi Kurdish groups believed to be based in mountainous, hard-to-reach areas near the Iran-Iraq border.

Canada and Australia leaders urge war de-escalation, but agree Iran can’t get nuclear weapons– abcnews.com

pgnewser March 5, 2026 0

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MELBOURNE, Australia — The Canadian and Australian prime ministers on Thursday called for a de-escalation of the Iran war but added the Iranians must never gain a nuclear weapon.

Canada’s Mark Carney and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese discussed the war during their meeting in Australia’s capital, Canberra.

The meeting came after news that a U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean and Turkey said NATO defenses intercepted a ballistic missile launched from Iran before it entered Turkey’s airspace.

Iran hits Kurdish groups in Iraq as conflict widens– www.channelnewsasia.com

pgnewser March 5, 2026 0

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TEHRAN: Fresh blasts were reported in Iran’s capital on Thursday (Mar 5) as Tehran said it had targeted Kurdish groups in Iraq and warned “separatist groups” against action in the widening war.

The conflict that began Saturday with US-Israeli strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader has spread across much of the region, sparking global economic pressure, energy disruptions and travel chaos.

Iran’s retaliatory strikes have targeted many of its Gulf neighbours, which host US military bases, while Israel has hit Lebanon and moved forces across the border.

On Thursday, Tehran said it

Islamist Shooter Kills 3, Injures 17 in Terror Attack on Austin, TX Bar

pgnewser March 3, 2026 2

53-year-old Islamist Ndiaga Diagne opened fire on an Austin, TX bar, killing 3 and injuring 17 others before being killed himself by the police. He was wearing a “Property of Allah” shirt and has connections to a local Islamist community with suspicious ties to Islamist terrorist organizations. The attack came just after the Ayatollah Khomeini was confirmed killed in aerial strikes, leading many to believe this was related to the war on Iran.

Blurb:

ALI REACTS: Austin Bar Shooting Leaves 3 Dead, 17 Wounded — Gunman Killed by Police – wltreport.com

The city of Austin, Texas, was on edge in the early hours of Saturday morning.

A gunman opened fire inside a bar in Austin, Texas, resulting in 3 people dead and leaving 17 others wounded.

The suspect in the shooting is still at large, and a motive for the shooting is still being investigated.

CBS reported more on the horrific, deadly shooting and provided a more in depth report:

Gunfire rang out at a bar in Austin, Texas early Sunday and at least three people were killed, the city’s police chief said. Lisa Davis told reporters the shooter was killed by officers at the scene.

Fourteen others were hospitalized and three were in critical condition, Austin-Travis County EMS Chief Robert Luckritz said.

He said paramedics got the call at 1:59 a.m. and first responders were on-scene in less than a minute.

There was no initial word on the shooter’s identity or motive.

Davis noted how fortunate it was that there was a heavy police presence in Austin’s entertainment district at the time, enabling officers to respond quickly as bars were closing.

“Officers immediately transitioned … and were faced with the individual with a gun,” Davis said. “Three of our officers returned fire, killing the suspect.”

She called the shooting a “tragic, tragic” incident.

The Ayatollah is DEAD!

pgnewser March 3, 2026 1

Less than 48 hours after the U.S. and Israel launched their historic air assault on the Iranian Regime, almost all of its top leaders across all major institutions are dead, and that includes the Ayatollah Khomeini, whose 47-year reign of terror over his own people has finally come to an end. His first replacement was killed soon after he was appointed. While the DNC-CCP press mourns his loss, Americans, Iranians, and freedom-loving people of the world celebrate the end of his tyrannical reign.

Blurb:

Justice arrives for Tehran’s terror  – washingtonexaminer.com – written by Mike Pence, former VP and Progmerican rear-guarder.

Operation Epic Fury is off to a strong start, but it will not be without cost. Indeed, fighting has already claimed the lives of American service members. We must honor their sacrifice by ensuring that this mission succeeds. It would be foolish to expect the mullahs to go quietly. They will cling to power with all the desperate cruelty they have shown for decades. The president and Congress must continue to provide our military with the resources, clarity of mission, and unified support necessary to achieve lasting victory over the terrorist regime in Tehran.

Excessive restraint applied before victory is secured will be mistaken for weakness, which will only invite further aggression. History has shown that peace is preserved not by wishful thinking, but by American strength.

Markets Handle Iran Strikes Brilliantly as S&P 500 Has Biggest Intraday Recovery in 5 Months Finishing Positive for the Day– www.westernjournal.com

pgnewser March 3, 2026 0

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It’s not exactly a secret that war can have a debilitating, caustic effect on the economy.

So when Operation Epic Fury commenced over the weekend — which saw joint U.S. and Israeli forces successfully kill Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as much of Tehran’s leadership infrastructure — it was only logical for people to assume that the markets would have a volatile and negative weekend.

According to The Wall Street Journal, those wringing their hands were only half right.

Meet Masih Alinejad: The anti-hijab activist who survived Iran’s assassination squads and is now celebrating Khamenei’s death | World News– timesofindia.indiatimes.com

pgnewser March 3, 2026 0

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Masih Alinejad returned to the headlines after posting an emotional video reacting to the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. “Finally, you’re dead, finally, you’re gone, Ali Khamenei,” she said, her voice breaking. In the same clip, she is seen hugging strangers in New York. For Alinejad, those embraces were not theatrical. They were, as she later explained, acts of survival.Responding to comments about “hugging strangers”, she wrote that when you live in exile and cannot safely hug your own mother, strangers stop feeling like strangers. The people she embraced, she said, saw both joy and grief on her face. “That’s not performance. That’s survival.” She added that America had saved her life three times and that the people around her have become her new family. For Alinejad, developments in Iran are never abstract political events.

Israel Launches Invasion of Lebanon to Defend Citizens From Hezbollah– www.breitbart.com

pgnewser March 3, 2026 0

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The Israeli government says it has authorised its forces to advance into Lebanon and “take control of additional areas” to prevent Hezbollah using them to fire into Israeli border settlements as part of Operation Roaring Lion, Jerusalem’s counterpart of the American Operation Epic Fury.

Israel is reacting to the decision “of the Hezbollah terror organization to join the campaign of the Iranian terror regime” and is moving forward to occupy land used to launch attacks against Israeli border communities, they said on Tuesday morning. Air raid sirens sounded in the north of Israel again on Tuesday morning as Hezbollah rocket attacks, launched from inside Lebanon, struck the Galilee area, The Times of Israel reported.

Trump Says Attack Is Moving Much Faster Than Expected With 1,200 Targets Hit and the Entire Iranian Navy Neutralized– www.westernjournal.com

pgnewser March 3, 2026 0

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Despite there still being quite a bit of dust left to settle, it appears Operation Epic Fury is fully living up to its name.

The joint military effort between the U.S. and Israel successfully neutralized the now-deceased Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over the weekend — and that earth-shattering salvo appears to be just the tip of the spear.

According to Fox News, President Donald Trump spoke on the aftermath and fallout of Operation Epic Fury, and it appears there’s still a lot of work to do.

Marco Rubio says Operation Epic Fury was ‘proactive in a defensive way to prevent’ Iran from ‘inflicting higher damage’ | The Post Millennial– thepostmillennial.com

pgnewser March 3, 2026 0

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“We went proactively in a defensive way to prevent them from inflicting higher damage.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Monday that the Trump administration believed that Israel was imminently planning to strike Iran before the US authorized Operation Epic Fury. “Was there an imminent threat? Did you tell lawmakers there was an imminent threat?” A reporter asked.

“There absolutely was an imminent threat,” Rubio said. “And the imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked, and we believed they would be attacked, that they would immediately come after us. And we were not going to sit there and absorb a blow before we responded, because the Department of War assessed that if we did that, if we waited for them to hit us first, after they were attacked by someone else, [if] Israel attacked them, they hit us first, and we waited for them to hit us, we would suffer more casualties and more deaths,” Rubio said.

NATO Chief Praises Trump’s Handling of Iran: ‘Widespread Support for What the President Is Doing’– slaynews.com

pgnewser March 3, 2026 0

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NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte voiced unequivocal support Monday for President Donald Trump’s military strikes on Iran, declaring that America’s allies stand united as Tehran escalates missile retaliation across the region.

“There is no sliver of light between us,” Rutte said during an appearance on “Fox & Friends.”

“The Europeans, Canada, Mark Carney, the United States, the American president… All for one, one for all, because everybody supports, here in Europe, the fact that [Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei is gone, that the nuclear capability is gone, that the ballistic missile program has been now degraded,” he said.

UN nuclear watchdog says Iran nuclear site damaged in strikes– www.washingtonexaminer.com

pgnewser March 3, 2026 0

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One of Iran’s nuclear facilities was damaged in the strikes orchestrated by Israel and the United States over the weekend, the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed on Tuesday morning.

The Natanz Nuclear Facility in Iran’s Isfahan province was targeted during joint military operations, said Reza Najafi, Iran’s Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The IAEA confirmed the subsequent damage from the strikes on Tuesday morning in a social media post on X.

We Knew Israel Would Attack Iran, Which Would Lead to an Attack on America– legalinsurrection.com

pgnewser March 3, 2026 0

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio expanded on the reasons why the Trump administration chose to launch Operation Epic Fury against Iran, including knowing that Israel already planned an operation.

Rubio said:

“So, the United States conducted this operation with a very clear goal in mind. I haven’t gotten a chance to see a lot of reporting. I don’t understand what the confusion is. Let me explain it to you and I’ll do it, once again, as clearly as possible. Perhaps you’ll report it that way. The United States is conducting an operation to eliminate the threat of Iran’s short range ballistic missiles and the threat posed by their navy, particularly to naval assets. That is what it is focused on doing right now and it’s doing quite successfully. I will leave it to the Pentagon and the Department of War to discuss the tactics behind that and the progress being made. That is the clear objective of this mission.”

“The second question that’s been asked is, why now? Well, there’s two reasons why now. The first is it was abundantly clear that, if Iran came under attack by anyone, the United States or Israel or anyone, they were going to respond and respond against the United States. The orders have been delegated down to the field commanders, it was automatic and in fact, it beared to be true because, in fact, the — within one hour of the initial attack on the leadership compound, the missile forces in the south and in the north, for that matter, had already been activated to la launch. In fact, those are even pre-positioned.”

“The third is the assessment that was made that, if we stood and waited for that attack to come first, before we hit them, we would suffer much higher casualties and so, the President made the very wise decision. We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces and we knew that, if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties and perhaps even higher those killed, and then we would all be here answering questions about why we knew that and didn’t act.”