My summary of the situation as I understand it is in spoiler tags below.
summary
After many long weeks, Iran and the US have agreed that they’re going to begin negotiations on certain topics in a process lasting at least 60 days. Due to America’s perfidy during previous negotiations, trust has broken down so far that Iran demanded $12 billion of their frozen funds and several other promises, such as the end to the naval blockade, to even return to the table, which seems perfectly reasonable to me. Iran also demanded that negotiations take place in two stages, and that nuclear issues will only be discussed in the second stage, which will be several weeks from now if everything goes as planned.
The terms of the MoU have themselves been a big source of confusion and suspicion, for me and many other pro-Iranian spectators. Getting the wording exactly correct is important, because the US really is like the devil - leave room for any possible interpretation in the contract that favors them more, and they’ll insist that this was the only interpretation up for discussion. Additionally, the US might be historically bad at winning wars, but they’re very, very good at winning peaces: they set up the post-WW2 order to best suit them by playing the European powers off each other; the DPRK might have survived the Korean War politically intact but existed for nearly the next hundred years as a sanctioned pariah; Vietnam was soon forced to economically engage with the country that had dropped triple of all the bomb tonnage of WW2 on them; and so on. It is no exaggeration when I say that the negotiation phase will be the most dangerous part of this war and it could lead to the most death and destruction without a single missile impacting Iran.
However, there’s one little genocidal colony in the region that could stop this whole process from even beginning, as the US appears to have promised Iran that the Zionists will stop the war against Lebanon (and perhaps Gaza too? I’m a little unclear) and even withdraw entirely from southern Lebanon, including all bases set up since this broader conflict began. Apparently, the US promised this in return for Iran not striking the Zionists in return for their most recent strike on Beirut on June 14th. Now, the issue with this whole situation is that the US greenlit the Zionist strike on Beirut, and they knew that Iran would respond to it because they did in response to an earlier strike. If the US made such major concessions to Iran in return for this response strike not occurring, then why authorize the Beirut strike at all? Why make their position worse? Right now, I can think of two reasons. First is that they attempted to create one final embarrassment for Iran, under the assumption that Iran was so desperate for a deal that they wouldn’t risk responding. Second is that this is all one big ruse or misdirection; the US does not intend to follow through with the MoU and subsequent negotiations anyway, and so the terms they’re “agreeing” to don’t really matter.
With the MoU signing apparently set for June 19th, we’ll know for sure soon.
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The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on the Zionists’ destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
Hebrew media: The Iranians were right when they chanted ‘death to America’, we get it now
- Middle East Spectator
BREAKING: ‘The Iranian pressure has succeeded; Trump instructed Netanyahu to order a ‘partial’ Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon. An Iranian source says America has agreed to a partial Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon as a ‘goodwill gesture’. Iran is still insisting on an eventual full withdrawal from all occupied territories.’ – Israel Army Radio
- Middle East Spectator
Syrian President, Ahmad Al-Sharaa: ‘I called Trump, and told him there are other solutions than war and confrontation with Hezbollah.’
Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa: ‘You won’t see Syria interfering in Lebanon, and I don’t know why everybody keeps asking me this.’
Syrian President, Ahmad Al-Sharaa: ‘A solution in Lebanon requires dialogue among all parties and political forces, including Hezbollah, and to find a solution that everyone can agree on.‘
Syrian President, Ahmad Al-Sharaa: ‘Despite Syria being harmed by Hezbollah in the past, we are willing to engage in dialogue with them. We have a deep problem with Hezbollah, but we do not want all of Lebanon to die.’
- Middle East Spectator
An explosion occured at Ras Laffan Industrial City, the largest gas facility in Qatar The explosion was so intense that Qataris described it as an ‘earthquake’, and it was even heard in Bahrain. The cause is unknown.
- Middle East Spectator
Explosion at Ras Laffan gas facilities in Qatar “following a technical incident,” Qatar’s interior ministry says.
Iran scores a goal vs Belgium (unfortunately off-sides), and the camera immediately cuts to a crying Belgian child
NYT - The Israeli military on Sunday night said all restrictions on activities in communities in northern Israel near the Lebanese border would be lifted on Monday morning, removing previous limits on gatherings and activities amid the conflict with Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group. The assessment suggests that the Israeli military does not expect the fighting with the militant group to immediately intensify.
What was the point of the Memorandum of Understanding? I don’t believe that it was a coordinated charade by the US & Israel because everyone including NATOpedia viewed it as a humiliating admission of defeat. Everyone across the political spectrum mocked Trump for it, the US looks weaker than ever. Even if the Trump regime never intended on following through on any of it, I can’t imagine they would’ve agreed to the humiliation caused by the MoU’s announcement just for a fake-out that achieved… what exactly?
It really seems like Israel has gone rogue and the US doesn’t know how to rein it in. I don’t see how this ends any other way than the US abandoning the zionist entity. And when that happens, when its Arab neighbors no longer have to put up with its shit because of Big Daddy, Israel will finally get what it oh so deserves.
NYT - Iranian state media, citing a member of the negotiating team in Switzerland, warned on Sunday that talks with the United States would not continue unless the war in Lebanon ended. Sunday’s initial discussions were focused on the conflict there between Israel and Hezbollah, according to state media and Esmail Baghaei, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman.
Baghaei warned, in comments carried by state media, that it would not be “possible to move to the stage of negotiating a final agreement” unless both sides upheld their commitments in the initial cease-fire agreement, which stipulated an end to fighting on all fronts of the conflict, including Lebanon.
some good Mali news https://xcancel.com/Suriyakmaps/status/2068268784834544070
‘Normality’ is returning to Gao province. 🇲🇱🇷🇺 🏳️🏴
Following the joint JNIM-FLA offensive in late April, the Afrika Corps and the FAMa have been re-entering the areas abandoned in early May and expanding their military operations. An example of this can be found in N’Tillit, a town under the nominal control of JNIM but which remains the subject of ongoing disputes with ISSP. The Russian-Malian military operations met with no resistance, demonstrating a reduction in the jihadists’ initial strength from April, which had been weakened by Russian and government attacks on their camps and militants.
turns out, that much vaunted offensive which was totally going to collapse Mali, has in the end probably just burnt up a bunch of the jihadists’ manpower and left them worse off than before they launched the offensive
Israel is in full fascist deathdrive mode, they won’t stop until they lead the US to a world-historic defeat and partial economic collapse
A deranged Israeli nuke use is cresting over the horizon
NYT - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, speaking as officials from Iran and the United States were in Switzerland to negotiate an agreement on Sunday, said that “whatever the diplomatic developments may be, I will not allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons.” Netanyahu reiterated that Israel would keep its military inside southern Lebanon “for as long as it takes” to protect Israelis from Hezbollah, the Iran-backed armed group.
Spain 4-0 Saudi Arabia
halftimethe game endedSpaniards doing imperialism on the saudis
There still 45 mins leftAlso yesterday it was Germany vs Ivory coast 2-1 it was a good game, and Japan vs Tunesia 4-0 and with it tunesia is eliminated, the Dutch won 5-1 vs the swedes and Turkey was eliminated by Paraguay 0-1 they didnt score any goals
Man brazilians are so funny
Iran’s Parliament Speaker, Ghalibaf, in reaction to Trump’s threats: Do they not think to themselves that if their threats had achieved anything, they would not have reached today’s desperation? We do not take American threats seriously. They had better be careful with their statements. Our armed forces are ready to respond to them in a different way. No matter how much they talk, we are the ones who act.
- Middle East Spectator
