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Iran War: Pierre Lellouche Draws the Lessons of a Debacle*

By Pierre Lellouche The central issue is now the restoration of freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz. As is so often the case, it all began with a double miscalculation—one by US President Donald Trump and the other by his ally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The first mistake was to overestimate the weakness of the Islamic Republic. In the aftermath of 7 October, Tehran had watched Israel destroy Hamas in Gaza and inflict severe damage on Hezbollah, the principal instrument in Iran’s existential struggle against Israel. Decapitated following the assassination of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in September 2024, Hezbollah saw hundreds of its senior members killed or wounded the following month by explosive-laden pagers planted by Mossad. These humiliating setbacks were compounded by the fall of Iran’s ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria. Two full-scale missile and drone wars between Israel and Iran followed, in October 2024 and June 2025. Once again, they demonstrate...

Iran's Identity Beyond the Battlefield: Veteran Diplomat Rejects "United Arab Front" Narrative, Says US Unlikely to Launch Ground War

In a wide-ranging interview published by Shargh Daily, veteran Iranian diplomat and academic Dr. Seyyed Ahmad Kazemi Mousavi argued that Iran's civilizational identity remains intact despite recent military confrontations, while cautioning that diplomacy must not be overshadowed by battlefield developments. Speaking to Shargh Daily in a conversation titled "War, Iran, and the Redefinition of Identity," Mousavi — who has served in Iranian diplomatic missions in Canada, the United States, Iraq, and Egypt, and taught at universities including Maryland, Virginia, and George Washington — pushed back against the notion that recent conflicts have marginalized Iran's cultural narrative in favor of a purely military one. "Cultural Iran has not been marginalized," Mousavi told Shargh Daily, pointing to Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif's recitation of Saadi's poetry during President Pezeshkian's recent visit to Islamabad as evidence that Iran's c...

Israel Warns of "All-In" Response as Trump Threatens Iran's "Mount Pickaxe" Nuclear Site

The likelihood of direct Israeli involvement in the escalating U.S.-Iran confrontation is growing, as President Donald Trump threatened to strike Iran's newly revealed "Mount Pickaxe" nuclear facility "with great force," according to a report by YNET. Speaking during a historic White House meeting with Lebanese President George Aoun, Trump declared: "We will definitely attack the new site they are talking about, Mount Pickaxe. The whole story is about nuclear weapons, and now they may be trying to re-establish a site. We will hit that site too. Any site where they even think about nuclear activity, we will hit with very great force," YNET reported. The threat carries heightened significance following reports that Iran has transferred thousands of enrichment centrifuges — and possibly uranium — to the Mount Pickaxe facility. Israeli officials assess that if Trump follows through on expanding the war to target the site, the conflict would no longer remai...

Iran Initiated 10-Day Ceasefire Proposal, Jerusalem Post Reports

Iran was the driving force behind a ceasefire proposal now being advanced by regional mediators, seeking a 10-day pause in hostilities between Tehran and Washington, according to an exclusive report published Monday by The Jerusalem Post, citing two sources familiar with the negotiations. The revelation that Tehran itself initiated the proposal underscores the urgency with which Iran is seeking relief as US military strikes continue to expand and President Donald Trump weighs a return to full-scale military operations against the Islamic Republic, The Jerusalem Post reported. Strait of Hormuz at the Heart of Crisis According to the Jerusalem Post sources, the proposed 10-day ceasefire is designed to open a window for resolving the dispute over the Strait of Hormuz — the flashpoint that triggered the current crisis following the collapse of a memorandum of understanding signed last month. Both Tehran and Washington subsequently declared the agreement no longer in force. A ...

War Enters 10th Night as US, Iran Widen Target Lists Across Gulf

The war between the United States and Iran entered its tenth consecutive night of American strikes on Tuesday, with both sides expanding the geographic scope of their attacks beyond the Strait of Hormuz into a wider arc spanning the Gulf, Jordan and Iraq. US Central Command confirmed it carried out a new wave of strikes against Iran beginning at 4 p.m. ET on Monday, targeting Iranian military command centers, air defense and coastal surveillance sites, maritime capabilities, and missile and drone launch sites intended to reduce Iran's ability to attack commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. Explosions were reported across nine locations — Abdanan, Bandar Abbas, Bandar Lengeh, Bushehr, Chabahar, Qeshm Island, Sirik, Shiraz and Konarak — marking a notable inland extension of the campaign, with Shiraz among the newly hit cities. CENTCOM said the naval blockade imposed on Iranian ports since mid-July had already redirected seven commercial vessels and disabled one, while noting th...

Iranian Media Pair Battlefield Defiance With Cautious Opening For Diplomacy

Coverage on Monday stressed Iran’s ability to impose regional and economic costs on Washington, while exposing a growing debate over when—and under what conditions—Tehran should return to negotiations. Iranian media presented a carefully balanced message on Monday as the war with the United States entered another dangerous phase: Iran remains capable of retaliating across the region and disrupting global energy routes, but diplomacy has not been abandoned. Reports from state agencies, conservative outlets and more pragmatic publications were dominated by overnight US strikes and Iranian attacks on American military facilities. However, alongside the battlefield coverage, several outlets gave prominent space to ceasefire proposals and arguments in favour of negotiations. The immediate focus was the ninth consecutive night of US operations. Iranian media reported attacks in several parts of the country, including a military site southwest of Tabriz, where local authorities said one perso...

Ansar Allah Declares Saudi Maritime Blockade, Putting Red Sea Trade at Risk

Yemen’s Ansar Allah movement announced on Monday that it was imposing an immediate maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia, raising the prospect of renewed attacks on commercial vessels and opening another potential front in the widening regional conflict. Military spokesman Yahya Saree said the “full” embargo on Saudi maritime navigation had entered into force under the principle of “blockade for blockade.” He accused Riyadh of maintaining restrictions on Yemen’s ports and airports, seizing the country’s resources and subjecting Yemenis to a land, sea and air blockade for almost 12 years. Ansar Allah, commonly known as the Houthis, said its forces were prepared for “all options and possible scenarios” and warned that any comprehensive Saudi escalation would be met with a severe response. The movement did not, however, explain whether the embargo applies only to Saudi-owned or Saudi-flagged vessels, or to every ship calling at Saudi ports. It also gave no geographical limits or enforcement p...

Iran's Kayhan Daily Publishes Editorial Celebrating Bounty on Trump, Predicting His "Death"

Kayhan, the Tehran newspaper that functions as the editorial mouthpiece of Iran's Supreme Leader's office, published a piece framing US President Donald Trump as a marked man whose assassination is both inevitable and religiously sanctioned — the latest and most explicit escalation in a weeks-long campaign of Iranian and Iran-aligned media calling openly for his killing. The piece, bylined to a "Kayhan Int'l Staff Writer" and posted to the paper's English-language site, does not merely report on recent bounty announcements targeting Trump. It celebrates them, casts the president's death as a foregone religious certainty, and extends the pool of prospective killers to nationals of multiple countries and ethnic groups, describing the "promise of paradise" for anyone who carries out the act. The Levant Files is not reproducing the language, which functions less as commentary than as an incitement to violence against a head of state. An outlet that ...

Iranian Media Cast US Losses As Proof Of Deterrence Amid Fears Of Wider War

Iranian media placed reported American military losses in Jordan at the centre of their coverage of the confrontation with the United States over the past 24 hours, presenting them as evidence that Tehran can still impose significant costs on Washington despite continuing US air strikes. The prevailing message across state-aligned and conservative outlets was that Iran had restored a measure of deterrence by demonstrating its ability to hit US forces outside the immediate Gulf theatre. Centrist and opposition-oriented publications, however, gave greater attention to the risks of escalation, disruption in the Strait of Hormuz and the growing effects of the fighting on civilians in southern Iran. Mahr News⁠ prominently reported a US Central Command statement saying that two American service members had been killed in Jordan, while one remained missing and four others were wounded. The agency framed CENTCOM’s announcement as an acknowledgment that Iranian missile and drone attacks had inf...