White House, after top counterterrorism official quits, says Trump had ‘strong’ evidence Iran would attack US
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back Tuesday on “false claims” in the resignation letter of the nation’s top counterterrorism official, saying President Donald Trump had “strong and compelling evidence” that Iran was going to attack the United States first.
Joe Kent wrote on X earlier this morning that, “After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today.” Kent said he could not in “good conscience” support the ongoing war with Iran, claiming that “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
“There are many false claims in this letter but let me address one specifically: that ‘Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation,” Leavitt responded. “This is the same false claim that Democrats and some in the liberal media have been repeating over and over.”
“As President Trump has clearly and explicitly stated, he had strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the United States first,” she added.
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Leavitt said, “This evidence was compiled from many sources and factors,” and, “President Trump would never make the decision to deploy military assets against a foreign adversary in a vacuum.”
The press secretary said Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism – a sentiment that House lawmakers agreed with earlier this month when they passed a resolution containing the same language.
“The Iranian regime is evil. It proudly killed Americans, waged war against our country, and openly threatened us all the way up to the launch of Operation Epic Fury,” Leavitt continued.
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“Iran was aggressively expanding their short-range ballistic missiles to combine with their naval assets to give themselves immunity – meaning they would have a degree of a capabilities that would give them immunity to hold us and the rest of the world hostage,” she added. “The regime aimed to use those ballistic missiles as a shield to continue achieving their ultimate goal – nuclear weapons.”
Leavitt said the president “ultimately made the determination that a joint attack with Israel would greatly reduce the risk to American lives that would come from a first strike by the terrorist Iranian regime and address this imminent threat to America’s national security interests.”
She also slammed the “absurd allegation that President Trump made this decision based on the influence of others, even foreign countries,” calling Kent’s claim “insulting and laughable.”
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“President Trump has been remarkably consistent and has said for DECADES that Iran can NEVER possess a nuclear weapon,” Leavitt said. “As someone who actually witnesses President Trump’s decision-making process on a daily basis, I can attest to the fact that he is always looking to do what’s in the best interest of the United States of America — period. America First.”
White House slams ‘fake narrative’ that Vance is absent from Iran strikes amid Operation Epic Fury
White House officials balked at reporting that Vice President JD Vance had been distant from Operation Epic Fury as strikes continued from both Iran and U.S.-Israeli forces in the Middle East Tuesday.
Critics have claimed that Vance has intentionally distanced himself from public appearances and potentially negotiations related to U.S. active military engagement in Iran and the Middle East.
“This fake narrative is absolutely laughable to every single person who is in the know in Washington,” a White House official told Fox News Digital. “It’s a classic mainstream media creation.”
ABC News had reported that a senior White House official punched back at the idea that Vance wasn’t present during the early days of the strikes, saying the national security team had been huddled “all day” and “was deliberate on letting the president’s statements and addresses to the nation stand as the operation unfolded.”
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“The vice president and other administration officials conducted multiple media interviews and will continue to do so,” the senior White House official told ABC. “The national security team also held multiple briefing calls with members of the press and key stakeholders after the operation began.”
Vance appeared on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime” March 2, making him the first Trump administration official outside of President Donald Trump’s pre-recorded announcement to speak on live TV about the strikes. The interview was one of nine reported public appearances Vance has made since the beginning of Operation Epic Fury.
During the interview, Vance emphasized the White House’s reasoning behind striking Iran and addressed the idea of an unnecessary, elongated war.
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“President Trump will not get the United States into a years-long conflict with no clear objective,” Vance told Watters.
“The vice president hasn’t been keeping a low profile,” a spokesperson for Vice President Vance’s office told Fox News Digital. “He’s attended two dignified transfers at Dover Air Force Base, went on primetime TV after the start of Operation Epic Fury, held a press gaggle and delivered two speeches in which he discussed the heroic sacrifice of America’s service members.”
Dignified transfers at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware took place after American soldiers were killed during the beginning days of the U.S. military operation against Iran.
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Reports have also indicated that Vance has been averse to the idea of a war with Iran and alluded to comments the former Ohio senator made about some of the basis for his support for Trump stemming from Trump not having started a war during his first presidential term.
Vance joined Bill Hemmer on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” for a State of the Union reaction on Feb. 25, days before the strike on Iran, and Vance echoed the president’s condemnation of the Middle Eastern country obtaining nuclear weapons.
“You can’t let the craziest and worst regime in the world have nuclear weapons,” Vance told Hemmer. “That’s what the president is accomplishing. That’s what the president has set as our goal. He’s going to try to accomplish it diplomatically.
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“The president has a number of other tools at his disposal to ensure this doesn’t happen,” Vance continued. “He’s shown a willingness to use them, and I hope the Iranians take it seriously in their negotiations tomorrow, because that’s certainly what the president prefers.”
With regard to the status of the ongoing conflict and his involvement with strategy itself, Vance addressed reporters at an event in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Friday, saying negotiations among White House officials are classified but noting he has been involved with discussions.
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“I sit there with [Secretary of War] Pete Hegseth and [Joint Chiefs Air Force] Gen. [Dan] Caine and [Secretary of State] Marco Rubio and the entire White House team, and the president and I and the entire senior team are talking about the options and about what we need to do and about how we must best protect the American people,” Vance told reporters.
“I’m not going to show up here and in front of God and everybody else, tell you exactly what I said in that classified room, partially because I don’t want to go to prison and partially because I think it’s important for the president of the United States to be able to talk to his advisors without those advisors running their mouth to the American media.”
FIFA rejects Iran’s push to move World Cup matches out of US to Mexico
The 2026 World Cup will take place as scheduled, FIFA announced Tuesday after the Iranian ambassador and embassy in Mexico City claimed the country was negotiating with FIFA to move Iran’s three group-stage matches out of the U.S.
In a statement obtained by The Associated Press, FIFA said it is in “regular contact” with all countries competing in the upcoming tournament, which will largely take place in the U.S., but said the matches will take place as previously determined.
“FIFA is in regular contact with all participating member associations, including (the Islamic Republic of) Iran, to discuss planning for the FIFA World Cup 2026. FIFA is looking forward to all participating teams competing as per the match schedule announced on 6 December 2025.”
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Iran is scheduled to play in Inglewood, California, against New Zealand on June 16 and Belgium on June 21 before finishing group play against Egypt in Seattle on June 26. The U.S. is hosting the tournament with Canada and Mexico from June 11 to July 19.
Iran’s ambassador to Mexico Abolfazl Pasandideh urged FIFA to move the team’s games to Mexico in comments posted Monday on the embassy website. He reportedly said that the “best situation” for Iran would be to move the team’s games to Mexico.
FIFA’s statement Tuesday ended speculation that there would be any adjustments to the schedule, including match locations.
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President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post last week that Iran would be welcome to compete in the World Cup but that it might not be “appropriate” as the conflict in the Middle East continues.
“The Iran National Soccer Team is welcome to The World Cup, but I really don’t believe it is appropriate that they be there, for their own life and safety,” he said.
Trump was indifferent the previous week when asked about Iran’s participation in the World Cup, telling Politico, “I really don’t care.”
FIFA President Gianni Infantino also said last week that Trump “reiterated” to him in their recent talks that Iran’s soccer team would be “welcome to compete” in the U.S.
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“We all need an event like the FIFA World Cup to bring people together now more than ever, and I sincerely thank the President of the United States for his support, as it shows once again that Football Unites the World,” he said in a post on Instagram.
Previous remarks from Iran’s sports minister have cast doubt on the country’s participation, but the men’s soccer team released a statement Thursday saying that “no one can exclude” the squad from competing, and urged FIFA and the U.S. to ensure the team’s safety.
Next US move on Iran: Seize Kharg Island, secure uranium or risk ground war escalation
As the U.S.–Iran war enters a new phase, the range of options now being discussed stretches from hitting Iran’s economic and oil lifeline at Kharg Island to the far more dangerous prospect of a ground invasion, or a narrower operation focused on Iran’s nuclear material.
The urgency comes as recent U.S. strikes have degraded parts of Iran’s military infrastructure without collapsing the regime, raising pressure on the Trump administration to decide what comes next.
Each option carries significant risks: disrupting Kharg Island could shock global oil markets, a ground invasion could draw the U.S. into a prolonged regional war, and operations targeting nuclear material could trigger escalation while still failing to eliminate the threat.
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What happens next could determine not only the trajectory of the conflict with Iran, but also the stability of global energy supply and the future of Tehran’s nuclear program.
Recent U.S. strikes already hit military targets on Kharg Island, a small island in the Persian Gulf that serves as Iran’s main oil export terminal that has emerged as a central pressure point in the conflict, while sparing its oil infrastructure, underscoring just how consequential the next move could be.
Seizing or neutralizing Kharg Island
Kharg Island is the centerpiece of Iran’s oil export system. The island handles about 90% of Iran’s oil exports, and Iran recently has been exporting roughly 1.1 million to 1.5 million barrels of oil per day, mostly to China.
Recent U.S. strikes on Kharg targeted military installations while leaving key oil facilities intact — a sign that Washington is trying to preserve a major pressure point without immediately detonating global oil markets.
Abdullah Aljunaid, a Bahraini analyst, told Fox News Digital that after Iran’s military capabilities were weakened, the U.S. focus could shift to economic pressure on Iran.
“The Iranian military capacity and offensive abilities have been totally degraded, so we need to probably do something else,” Aljunaid said.
Aljunaid pointed to key strategic sites, including Bushehr — a coastal city in southern Iran on the Persian Gulf that hosts the country’s only operational nuclear power plant and a key port — and Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export hub.
“We need to take certain strategic assets — geography — like Bushehr and Kharg, out of the equation,” he said. “Those two, especially Kharg, represent the jewel of the crown, and without that, Iran’s economic ability to finance itself is going to be dead.”
He added that control over key maritime choke points could further shift the balance.
“If the U.S. decided to take Bushehr at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, then I believe we can really see a different equation, forcing the Iranians to come to the negotiating table on our terms — the U.S. terms, and probably the rest of the world.”
Retired Gen. Jack Keane has argued that the U.S. could take Iran’s main oil export hub if it chose to do so, but so far has chosen “not to take that now,” he said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
Keane said such a move would effectively put the Iranian regime in “checkmate,” given how heavily its economy depends on the island.
“Now we (would) own all of their major assets,” Keane said. “It’s 50% of their budget, 60% of the revenue, 80, 90% of the distribution points for their oil.”
That view reflects the logic behind a Kharg scenario: disable the regime’s cash flow without launching a full-scale war across Iran’s interior. At the same time, the fact that Kharg’s oil infrastructure was reportedly spared suggests Washington thinks taking the island fully offline could send energy prices sharply higher and shake global markets.
Kharg’s facilities include major storage capacity and any serious disruption there could remove up to roughly 2 million barrels a day from global supply.
There also is a nonkinetic version of this scenario.
In an analysis shared with Fox News Digital, Rick Clay, who served as a senior deputy advisor in Iraq from 2003 to 2009, argued that maritime insurance can function as a strategic choke point.
His argument is that a tanker without recognized coverage cannot easily dock, finance cargo or operate in compliant markets, meaning the United States could pressure Iran’s export system financially even without physically seizing the island.
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A ground invasion of ‘Fortress Iran’
Public analyses have long described Iran’s geography as deeply unfavorable to invading armies, with mountain barriers and desert terrain complicating any large-scale advance.
Historical comparisons often point to Iraq’s failed 1980 invasion of Iran, which turned into a long and bloody war rather than the quick victory Saddam Hussein expected.
The term “Fortress Iran” is often used by analysts to describe the country’s natural defenses — a combination of vast mountain ranges, including the Zagros and Alborz, along with deserts and difficult terrain that have historically made invasion and occupation extremely challenging.
For those reasons, analysts say a ground invasion remains the most extreme — and least plausible — path, given Iran’s size, terrain and history.
Aljunaid made a similar point, noting that even the 1991 liberation of Kuwait required more than half a million troops, and warning that a war inside Iran would be exponentially more complicated.
That concern is reinforced by the current state of the conflict.
Despite sustained U.S.-Israeli strikes and heavy damage to Iran’s military infrastructure, the regime itself remains intact and more hardline, The Washington Post reported, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps consolidating power rather than collapsing.
In other words, air superiority has not translated into regime collapse, which makes the leap to occupation even harder to imagine.
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“We’re not going to put troops on the mainland,” Clay said. “The only troops you might see, if anything, would be to take out those three islands. That’s it.”
He added that there is “no appetite” for a sustained ground presence inside Iran, arguing that any internal change would ultimately depend on the Iranian people.
“It’s going to be in the Iranians’ hands at that point — the Iranian people — whether they rise up,” he said. “We’ve done damage. We’re still going to do some more damage. We’re not done.”
Pointed ops to secure uranium
A third scenario would aim not at occupying territory, but at Iran’s nuclear program itself.
A narrower operation likely would involve targeting Iran’s enriched uranium stockpiles and deeply buried facilities — potentially including efforts to locate, secure or disable nuclear material that cannot be destroyed from the air.
Although President Donald Trump said the June 2025 U.S. strikes had “obliterated” key nuclear sites, analysts note that critical elements of Iran’s program — particularly enriched uranium stockpiles and deeply buried facilities — likely remain intact.
Iran is believed to possess roughly 440.9 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60%, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), with more than 200 kilograms likely stored in the underground Isfahan tunnel complex, Reuters reported March 9.
That matters because the material is small enough to hide and move, unlike oil infrastructure, and some of these deeply buried facilities are believed to have survived conventional air attacks — raising the possibility that securing or neutralizing nuclear material could require more targeted, specialized operations.
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Kharg Island offers a way to squeeze Iran’s economy. A ground invasion offers the possibility of a decisive force at extraordinary cost. Targeted operations against nuclear equipment offer a narrower path, but one with high operational risk and no guarantee of finality.
The next phase of the war may depend on which of those risks Washington is willing to take.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital, “President Trump and the administration have clearly outlined the goals of Operation Epic Fury: destroy Iran’s ballistic missiles and production capacity, demolish their navy, end their ability to arm proxies, and prevent them from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon.”
“This effort will continue until President Trump, as commander in chief, determines that the goals of the operation, including for Iran to no longer pose a military threat, have been fully realized,” she added.
The Pentagon chose not to provide a comment.
Joy Reid says US is ‘marginally’ better than Iran, compares pro-life laws to Islamic regime
Far-left podcast host Joy Reid argued that the United States is only “marginally better” than Iran and compared American pro-life laws to the oppressive tactics of the Iranian regime.
Appearing on the “One54 Africa” podcast March 11, Reid made the comparison as U.S. forces continue Operation Epic Fury, a military campaign targeting Iran.
“Our regime has secret police. They have secret police,” Reid said, sitting alongside host Akbar Gbajabiamila and comedian Godfrey.
“Our regime is oppressing women, taking away abortion rights, taking away women’s rights in like 26 states, some states where they’re trying to have the death penalty for having an abortion. They also oppress women,” she added.
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Reid, who was fired last year by MS NOW when it was still called MSNBC, opened by clarifying she wasn’t arguing the Iranian regime is “not bad,” but rather placing the U.S. on a similar moral level.
She also claimed Iran has the “highest rate” of women in STEM fields. Reid argued the U.S. is “kicking women out” of the military and universities, making it harder for them to work in science after the rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) mandates.
“So, we’re marginally better. And we’re doing it for Christianity. They’re doing it for Islam, right?” said Reid.
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The former cable news host, whose show was canceled by MSNBC last year, also argued that Iran’s hostility toward the West is justified, pointing to the 1953 coup backed by the U.S. and Britain.
“We get told, particularly when it comes to Arabs and Muslims and Africans, that people are just diabolically evil for no reason. That they do things because they’re just, they hate our freedoms,” Reid said.
“But it turns out there’s a lot of reasons Iran should hate us. We took their freedom. And we don’t get told that.”
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President Donald Trump has not provided a timeline for the conclusion of what he previously called an “excursion” but said the mission is ahead of schedule. At least 13 U.S. troops have died in the conflict.
The Pentagon announced a formal investigation into a Feb. 28 strike after Iranian officials claimed more than 100 children were killed at a school next to a military compound.
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Trump says most NATO allies ‘don’t want to get involved’ in Iran operation, but US ‘NEVER’ needed their help
President Donald Trump declared in a Tuesday Truth Social post that most NATO countries have noted that they do not want to involve themselves in the U.S. attack against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO ‘Allies’ that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the president declared in the Truth Social post.
“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” he added.
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Trump continued, “Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military — Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again! Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer “need,” or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance — WE NEVER DID! Likewise, Japan, Australia, or South Korea. In fact, speaking as President of the United States of America, by far the Most Powerful Country Anywhere in the World, WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
The U.S. has been waging war against Iran in conjunction with Israel, a close American ally.
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Joe Kent resigned from his position as director of the National Counterterrorism Center on Tuesday because he does not support the war.
“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” Kent said in his resignation letter, which he posted on X.
TOP IRANIAN OFFICIAL, COMMANDER KILLED IN STRIKE, ISRAEL DEFENSE MINISTER SAYS
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Trump pushed back on Tuesday, saying that “it’s a good thing that he’s out because he said that Iran was not a threat. Iran was a threat. Every country realized what a threat Iran was. The question is whether or not they wanted to do something about it.”
EU pushes for end of Iran war in a manner where ‘everybody saves face’
The European Union’s foreign policy chief said Tuesday that the bloc is consulting with Gulf countries to potentially “bring forward proposals for Iran, Israel and the U.S.” to get out of their war in a situation where “everybody saves face.”
Kaja Kallas, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, made the remark to Reuters, adding that “it would be in the interest of everybody if this war stops.”
“We have been consulting with regional countries like the Gulf countries, Jordan, Egypt, [about] whether we could also bring forward proposals for Iran, Israel and the U.S. to get out of this situation so that everybody saves face,” Kallas was quoted as saying.
“The problem with wars is that it’s easier to start than to stop them, and it always gets out of hand,” she also reportedly said, noting that the EU is willing to assist “diplomatically to bring the parties together to really stop this war.”
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Kallas also pushed back after President Donald Trump said over the weekend that, “Many Countries, especially those who are affected by Iran’s attempted closure of the Hormuz Strait, will be sending War Ships, in conjunction with the United States of America, to keep the Strait open and safe.”
“Nobody is ready to put their people in harm’s way in the Strait of Hormuz,” Kallas told Reuters on Tuesday. “We have to find diplomatic ways to keep this open so that we don’t have a food crisis, fertilizers crisis, energy crisis as well.”
TOP COUNTERTERRORISM OFFICIAL RESIGNS IN PROTEST OF US WAR AGAINST IRAN
Trump said on Truth Social on Saturday that, “We have already destroyed 100% of Iran’s Military capability, but it’s easy for them to send a drone or two, drop a mine, or deliver a close range missile somewhere along, or in, this Waterway, no matter how badly defeated they are.”
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“Hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others, that are affected by this artificial constraint, will send Ships to the area so that the Hormuz Strait will no longer be a threat by a Nation that has been totally decapitated,” Trump wrote. “In the meantime, the United States will be bombing the hell out of the shoreline, and continually shooting Iranian Boats and Ships out of the water. One way or the other, we will soon get the Hormuz Strait OPEN, SAFE, and FREE!”
Iranian Americans in Los Angeles react with mixed emotions as Iran conflict escalates
LOS ANGELES, California – Los Angeles — home to the largest Iranian population outside Iran — has become a focal point for the Iranian diaspora as tensions surrounding the conflict in the Middle East intensify.
Thousands of people gathered in the streets of Los Angeles following the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran that reportedly killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. For many in the community who remember life in Iran before the 1979 revolution, the news brought a moment they said they had waited decades to see.
Roozbeh Farahanipour, an Iranian American who was just 7 years old when clerics took control of Iran, said he couldn’t believe it.
“I grabbed a bottle of champagne, opened it, and drank it up,” Farahanipour said. “It was the moment we waited for, for many, many years.”
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Farahanipour participated in student protests in Iran in 1999, events that eventually forced him to flee the country after authorities arrested him. He recalled learning that his execution had been announced in a newspaper before his trial, prompting him to escape Iran.
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“[The] night before my trial, they published my execution judgment in the newspaper, day before back to trial. That’s the last day I was in Iran,” Farahanipour recounted.
While he initially supported the U.S. and Israeli strikes that targeted senior leaders of Iran’s government, he now worries the military operation has continued longer than necessary.
“Minute one, after starting the war, they killed the head of state. They should announce the victory at minute two,” he said. “Why should we stay there and make it more complicated?”
Mohammad Ghafarian, who left Iran years before the revolution to study abroad, now runs a grocery store in Los Angeles. He said he has not heard from his family in Iran for nearly a month and fears for civilians caught in the violence.
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“I would love for the governments of America and Israel to overthrow the regime,” Ghafarian said. “But when they are bombing our country — facilities, power plants, water reservoirs, houses — they can’t divide the people from bad to good.”
Despite concerns about the ongoing conflict, some Iranian Americans believe the strikes could open the door for Iranians inside the country to challenge the regime.
Top Iranian official, commander killed in strike, Israel defense minister says
Iranian Supreme National Security Council secretary Ali Larijani and Basij Commander Gholamreza Soleimani have both been killed, according to the Israel Defense Forces and Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz.
“I have just been updated by the Chief of Staff that Larijani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, and the head of the Basij — Iran’s central repression apparatus — Salimani, were eliminated last night and have joined Khamenei, the head of the annihilation program, along with all those eliminated from the axis of evil in the depths of hell,” Katz said, according to a translation provided to Fox News by his office.
The news comes more than two weeks since Israel launched a war against the Islamic Republic of Iran in conjunction with U.S. President Donald Trump.
“Ali Larijani, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and the regime’s effective leader, has been eliminated,” the Israel Defense Forces noted in a post on X.
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“Throughout the years, Larijani was considered one of the most veteran and senior figures within the Iranian regime leadership, and was a close associate of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. During the most recent wave of protests against the Iranian terror regime, Larijani personally oversaw the massacre that was carried out against Iranian protestors,” the post added.
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Another IDF post noted, “Yesterday, the IDF targeted & eliminated Gholamreza Soleimani, who operated as commander of the Basij unit for the past 6 years. Under Soleimani, the Basij unit led the main repression operations in Iran, employing severe violence, widespread arrests, and the use of force against civilian demonstrators.”
The U.S. government had previously indicated that it would offer a reward for information on Larijani.
“Rewards for Justice is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information on the key leaders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its component branches,” rewardsforjustice.net notes. “Under this reward offer, RFJ is seeking information on the following individuals,” the webpage notes, listing Larijani and others.
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“Over a dozen Basij officials were targeted in Iran last night in different strikes, including the head of the Basij forces Gholamreza Soleimani. This was a joint U.S. and Israeli effort,” a senior Israeli official noted. “A strike in Tehran targeted the Basij commander and around a dozen others, including the most senior figures in the Basij forces—people with a lot of blood on their hands.”
Al Jazeera op-ed praises US-Israel operation against Iran, says Dems, media critics are wrong
Operation Epic Fury is receiving praise from an unlikely source. Al Jazeera, the Qatari government-funded news organization, published an op-ed Monday declaring in the headline, “The US-Israeli strategy against Iran is working.”
“Two weeks into Operation Epic Fury, the dominant narrative has settled into a comfortable groove: The United States and Israel stumbled into a war without a plan. Iran is retaliating across the region. Oil prices are surging, and the world is facing another Middle Eastern quagmire. US senators have called it a blunder. Cable news has tallied the crises. Commentators have warned of a long war… But this narrative is wrong,” the piece began.
“Not because the costs are imaginary, but because the critics are measuring the wrong things. They are [cataloging] the price of the campaign while ignoring the strategic ledger.”
Muhanad Seloom, an assistant professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, authored the piece.
“When you look at what has actually happened to Iran’s principal instruments of power – its ballistic missile arsenal, its nuclear infrastructure, its air [defenses], its navy and its proxy command architecture – the picture is not one of US failure. It is one of systematic, phased degradation of a threat that previous administrations allowed to grow for four decades,” he continued.
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Seloom marveled at how “every aspect of Iran’s ability to project regional power is being successfully degraded” and “collapsing in real time.”
He also pointed out how Iranian ballistic missile launches “have fallen by more than 90 percent” since Operation Epic Fury was first underway, dropping from 350 to roughly 25 — similar to its drone launches going from 800 on Day 1 to 75 by Day 15.
“Hundreds of Iranian missile launchers have been rendered inoperable. According to some reports, 80 percent of Iran’s capacity to strike Israel has been eliminated,” Seloom wrote. “Iran’s naval assets, fast-attack craft, midget submarines and mine-laying capabilities are being liquidated. Its air [defenses] have been suppressed to the point at which the US is now flying nonstealth B-1 bombers over Iranian airspace, a decision that signals near-total confidence in air dominance.”
FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE CONDOLEEZZA RICE CALLS ON TRUMP ADMIN TO ‘TAKE CARE’ OF IRAN FOR GOOD
The Qatari professor insisted the Iranian regime is facing a “strategic dilemma” — that firing any remaining missiles will expose the launchers and would promptly be targeted by the US and Israel while reserving missiles “forfeits the ability to impose costs of the war.”
“This is a force managing decline, not projecting strength,” Seloom said.
After highlighting the damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities, Seloom pushed back against Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who claimed the Trump administration misjudged Iran’s retaliation, as well as CNN’s suggestion that the administration lost control over the war regarding the Strait of Hormuz, saying their framing “inverts the strategic logic.”
HEGSETH BLASTS BRITS, SAYS IRAN’S CHAOTIC RETALIATION HAS DRIVEN ITS OWN ALLIES ‘INTO THE AMERICAN ORBIT’
“Closing the strait was always Iran’s most visible retaliatory card, and always a wasting asset. About 90 percent of Iran’s own oil exports pass through Kharg Island and then the strait,” Seloom wrote. “China, Tehran’s largest remaining economic partner, cannot receive Iranian crude while the strait is shut. Every day the blockade continues, Iran severs its own economic lifeline and alienates the one major power that has consistently shielded it at the United Nations. The closure does not just hurt the global economy; it accelerates Iran’s isolation.”
He continued, “Meanwhile, the naval assets Iran needs to sustain the blockade – fast-attack boats, drones, mines, shore-based antiship missiles – are being degraded daily. Its naval bases at Bandar Abbas and Chahbahar have been severely damaged. The question is not whether the strait reopens but when and whether Iran retains any naval capacity to contest it. Critics compare the challenge of escorting a hundred tankers daily to an impossible logistical burden. But you do not need to escort tankers through a strait if the adversary no longer has the means to threaten them. That is the operational trajectory.”
Seloom also pushed back against the notion that the war is expanding through Iran’s proxies like Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iraqi militias, stressing that the command structure of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) “has been decapitated at multiple levels” and that the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei “eliminated the apex of the [authorization] pyramid.”
“When proxies launch retaliatory attacks across the region, this is not evidence of an expanding network; it is evidence of predelegated response authority, which is what a [centralized] command system activates when it anticipates its own destruction,” he wrote. “Predelegation is a sign of desperation, not strength. It means the centre can no longer coordinate. The attacks will continue, but they will become increasingly uncoordinated, strategically incoherent and politically costly for the host states where these groups operate.”
Seloom went on to say President Donald Trump‘s rhetoric “has not helped” combat critics who question the endgame, which the professor said is the “permanent degradation of Iran’s ability to project power beyond its borders through missiles, nuclear latency and proxy networks.” He also acknowledged critics like Murphy have a “legitimate concern” about what happens in Tehran after the fighting stops, something he says the Trump administration needs to lay out.
“Call it strategic disarmament. This is closer to the approach of the Allies to Germany’s industrial war-making capacity in 1944-1945 than to the US war on Iraq in 2003,” Seloom said. “The campaign’s execution has been imperfect, its public communication poor and its post-conflict planning incomplete. War is never clean. But the strategy – the actual strategy, measured in degraded capabilities rather than cable news cycles – is working.”
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Iranian women’s soccer players practice with Australian club after being granted asylum
Two Iranian women’s soccer players, who decided to stay in Australia instead of returning to their home country in the middle of a conflict with the U.S. and Israel, were seen training with a club on Monday.
The Brisbane Roar posted photos on its Instagram account showing Fatemeh Pasandideh and Atefeh Ramezanisadeh with the professional club. It was their first publicly shared appearance since it emerged they were among the players granted asylum in the country.
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The two players were seen smiling without wearing a hijab as they posed alongside members of the Roar.
“We remain committed to providing a supportive environment for them whilst they navigate the next stages,” Brisbane Roar CEO Kaz Patafta wrote in the social media post.
Ramezanisadeh commented, “Thank you for everything.”
The club plays in Australia’s elite A-League women’s division. The club denied further comment and referred all questions to Australia’s Department of Home Affairs. Brisbane offered Iranian women’s soccer players a “place to train, play and belong” last week.
SOME IRANIAN SOCCER PLAYERS GRANTED ASYLUM BY AUSTRALIA CHOSE TO RETURN HOME, LOCAL OFFICIAL SAYS
The Australian government offered each member of the Iranian women’s soccer team asylum as they were leaving to head back to Iran last week. The scramble resulted in seven members of the team staying in Australia. But at least five left the country to return to their club afterward.
President Donald Trump was among world leaders who called on Australia to grant the women asylum.
At least one Iranian broadcaster called the women “wartime traitors” as they didn’t appear to sing their national anthem before a Women’s Asian Cup match.
An Iranian official brushed off suggestions that the women would be unsafe if they returned home.
“Iran welcomes its children with open arms and the government guarantees their security,” Iranian first Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said. “No one has the right to interfere in the family affairs of the Iranian nation and play the role of a nanny who is kinder than a mother.”
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The rest of the team flew from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur and then to Oman.
MORNING GLORY: What will Donald Trump’s legacy be as a wartime president?
Every American alive today has been living in wartime. Every president since December 7, 1941, has been a wartime president. All of them. They can, and should, be judged by how they have waged war, both “cold” and “hot,” against imposing foes and against dangerous irritants. Provided he remains tough, determined and ruthless in this conflict with Iran, President Donald Trump will be the equal of any of them and far superior to most.
There have been stretches of time of largely noncombatant war since the conclusion of World War II, stretches that look a lot like the “peacetime” of the 1920s and 1930s.
From the fall of the Berlin Wall to 9/11 — 25 years ago this September — for example, the illusion of “peace” was pervasive. Indeed, a “peace dividend” was demanded and paid via deep cuts in defense spending because of that illusion.
LIZ PEEK: IRAN WAR COULD BECOME THE ACHIEVEMENT THAT ENSURES TRUMP’S LEGACY
That illusion survived the United States invasion of Panama and the first Gulf War, the American cruise missile strikes on Iraq in 1993 which President Clinton ordered, the dozen years of conflict with Saddam that followed under both the first Bush and Clinton with the “no-fly zones,” Operation Infinite Reach — when Clinton ordered cruise missiles fired at al Qaeda targets in Afghanistan and Sudan — and NATO’s Operation Allied Force which was the 78-day NATO bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from March 24 to June 10, 1999.
Not until 9/11 did most of America collectively conclude that the world contained very bad actors and would never leave us alone or allow us to be indifferent to rising threats.
After 9/11, through the debacle of our collapse in Afghanistan in 2021, no one doubted we were in wars. There were obvious reminders in the tragic killings and wounding of American service members in both the Afghanistan and Iraq theaters. And there was the no-longer-possible-to-ignore threat posed by the rise of China into our “pacing threat,” the descent of Russia into dictatorship and the successful lunge of North Korea for a nuclear arsenal.
Through both the long period of illusory peace and the obvious wartime of 2001 to 2023, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been at war with the United States. It has been thus since the hostage crisis of 1979, through the bombing of the Marine Corps barracks in 1983, the bombing of the Khobar Towers in 1996 and the long shadowy campaign of Iranian surrogates against our military in Iraq which killed and wounded thousands of our troops. The fanatics in Iran have not stopped chanting “Death to America” since 1979. They have always meant it.
TRUMP’S OPERATION EPIC FURY PROVES REAGAN-STYLE PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH IS BACK
Iran’s grand plan was to gain nuclear weapons. Its secondary plan was to amass a missile force so vast and threatening to its neighbors (and eventually Europe and perhaps even America) to assure that the United States and Israel would never strike at the nuclear weapons assembly line. With the immunity that comes with nuclear weapons, the ayatollahs would have been free to pursue their agenda of the destruction of Israel and America.
Presidents before Trump have all vowed that Iran would not be allowed to have such weapons. All of them since Iran set out on this path. None of them acted. They did not act either against Iran’s expeditionary force of terrorists — the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard built and deployed in the first instance by Qassem Soleimani — or Iran’s proxies. Until Trump.
President Carter was paralyzed by the mullahs. President Reagan, intent on confronting the Soviets, withdrew from the confrontation with a much smaller threat in the 1980s, and while President George H.W. Bush destroyed Saddam’s army in 1991, he did not advance to Baghdad, much less beyond and into Iran.
MORNING GLORY: PRESIDENT TRUMP AND THE US ARE WAGING A RIGHTEOUS BATTLE — AND WINNING
President Clinton could not stop North Korea from acquiring nuclear weapons because he believed the cost to be too high. He would not concern himself with a distant threat when he could not contain the immediate one. North Korea became a nuclear power on Clinton’s watch.
President George W. Bush was a superb wartime president as he battled Islamist extremism and eventually won through to stability in Iraq. He and every other leader in the West were wrong about WMDs, but he persevered, and the Iraqi people have a much brighter future ahead than they would have had under Saddam’s sadist sons. The conclusion of Bush’s intelligence community was that Iran, afraid and chastened, had abandoned its nuclear ambitions. That “IC” was wrong.
President Obama has been the worst of the post-war presidents because he failed even at doing nothing. He did worse than nothing. He acted to legitimize Iranian ambitions and made a $1.7 billion dollar down payment on his policy of appeasement followed by billions of dollars more in sanctions relief through the meaningless promises of the “JCPOA” — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action negotiated by Secretary of State John Kerry with the ayatollahs in 2015.
TRUMP VOWS TO HIT IRAN ‘VERY HARD’ AFTER OBLITERATING NEARLY ’90 PERCENT’ OF REGIME MISSILES
When Trump gained the presidency in 2017, ruthless realism returned to the Oval Office. Trump tore up the JCPOA — as it had not been a treaty but simply an “Executive Agreement.” It was, of course, his right to do so.
Trump struck Syria twice for using chemical weapons, restoring a “red line” Obama had erased. (Will the new Obama Library have a “Red Line” room into which visitors disappear?) Trump also ordered the destruction of Russia’s “little green men” who dared to attack U.S. forces in Syria. And when Iran would not stop trying to kill Americans in Iraq, Trump ordered Soleimani killed in January 2020, when the Iranian terrorist set foot in Iraq.
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Then the 2020 election and the disaster for the world that was the long regency of whomever was running Joe Biden around while the sadly diminished Biden inhabited the Oval. We won’t know for years who designed the national security policy in those years, but we know whoever was making the decisions oversaw the debacle in Afghanistan which led to the second Russian invasion of Ukraine —the first had come under Obama — and Iran’s lurch towards nuclear weapons and more and more missiles with which to defend that lurch.
ALL 4 IRAN WAR ASSUMPTIONS DEAD WRONG — TRUMP PROVES EXPERTS GOT FOOLED AGAIN
Five months after he returned to power, Trump ordered Operation Midnight Hammer and the Iranian nuclear weapons program was obliterated. At that point, Trump gave the theocrats in Tehran a choice — abandon your ambitions or face another round of punishment. Ayatollah Khamenei misjudged Trump. The Iranians began again to seek nuclear weapons and, this time, to also produce so many ballistic missiles that no one dared stop them.
Trump, along with the Israeli prime minister, dared. Iran’s military, including their nuclear weapons facilities and their missile factories are in ruins. The ongoing campaign is leveling the regime’s ability to rebuild others, and it may yet destroy the oil infrastructure it would need to begin to pay to start again down this path.
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By being tough with the mullahs, indeed ruthless and transparent, Trump has already done the world a great favor. The “Alliance of Tyrants” has suffered blow after blow since Trump returned and more are coming as Iran shudders and communist Cuba teeters on the brink of throwing off their dictators.
President Trump really would like to leave a legacy of peace. But he is the sort of tough and indeed ruthless commander in chief the U.S. needs to put away its enemies, not merely put them in timeout. Here’s hoping he sees this battle through until Iran cannot menace us, Israel, the Gulf Nations or anyone for a generation or three.
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