Iran May Be Today, But Who Knows What Tomorrow Will Bring

August 19, 2026
Tom Engelhardt

Hey, Donald Trump couldn’t have made it clearer that he wanted to go to war with Iran, could he?

Report: US Considers Reducing Persian Gulf Military Presence After Iran War

August 18, 2026
Dave DeCamp

Many US bases in the Gulf Arab states were evacuated due to their vulnerability to Iranian attacks

President Trump and US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar on May 15, 2026 (US Air Force photo)

Personal bankruptcy filings are soaring in 2026, signaling growing economic distress

August 19, 2026
Jay L. Zagorsky
The number of Americans who file for bankruptcy is growing. More than 500,000 people took this step in 2025, nearly 50% more than in 2022. And the numbers have kept on climbing, with a 12% jump in June 2026 from a year earlier as many consumers struggled to pay their bills.

ماهها

ماههای قمریا

ز محرم چو گذشتی برسد ماه صفر

دو ربیع و دو جمادی ز پی یکدیگر

رجب است از پی شعبان، رمضان و شوّال

پس به ذی‌الحجه و ذی‌القعده بکن نیک نظر

Trump labels Strait of Hormuz ‘US territory’ as Iran says Israel is biggest obstacle to negotiations

August 18, 2026
Elis Gjevori

Tehran says the waterway will remain closed until Washington lifts its blockade and fulfils an interim agreement

On 15 August 2026, Iran rejected the US president’s threat to declare the Strait of Hormuz part of US territory, saying the crucial energy waterway it has blockaded 'will remain Iranian'. (AFP)

Trump Threatens to ‘Bomb the Shit’ Out of Oman as Strait of Hormuz Traffic Again Grinds to a Halt

August 17, 2026
Brad Reed

Trump’s warning to Oman over its negotiations with Iran comes as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is once again putting upward pressure on petroleum prices.

Imperialism in a Full World: Neomercantilism and the Return of the Zero-Sum Game

August 17, 2026
Alberto Garzón
In September 2010, a Chinese fishing vessel was detained by the Japanese Coast Guard near the disputed Senkaku Islands. China’s unofficial response was to halt rare-earth exports to Japan—a country whose entire electronics industry depended on them. The dispute was brief: Japan released the captain, and China never formally acknowledged the embargo. But that episode became a geopolitical watershed, exposing the enormous dependence of the developed world on a single country’s monopoly over the minerals that are indispensable for the energy and digital transitions. Interdependence, once praised as a virtue of globalization, had become a weapon and a vulnerability.1

Dora Weiland (1892-?) from Wietze uses a hand scoop to fill barrels with oil that has run together in pits. By Unknown author - Deutsches Erdölmuseum Wietze (Erdoel Museum), CC BY 2.5, Link.

Trump reinvents the Portuguese Empire with Plan to make Hormuz US Territory

August 16, 2026
Juan Cole
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump said in a speech on Saturday that he wants to make the Strait of Hormuz part of the United States.

Netanyahu’s réprise of the ‘Iraq WMD deceit’ – re-launched to promote war on Iran

August 15, 2026

Trump’s pivot to economic pressure as the key to Iranian capitulation is not a credible strategy.

Iran war live: US eyes ‘indefinite’ naval blockade, vows to isolate Tehran

August 14, 2026
Yashraj Sharma and Caolán Magee

• US Vice President JD Vance has outlined Washington’s key objectives in the Iran conflict as keeping energy prices stable for Americans, preventing Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons and securing a stronger US position.
• US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth says that the US can sustain its blockade against Iran “indefinitely”.
• Iran’s military disputes US assertions that maritime traffic is flowing normally through the Strait of Hormuz, maintaining that no vessel passes without its authorisation.
• US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the United States will apply economic measures against Iran that have “never been seen” before in efforts to isolate Tehran.

 

Sen. Van Hollen: Iran war is illegal and we cannot fund another dime

August 14, 2026

Martin Di Caro

In an interview with RS, the senator discusses Israeli influence in the US, whether Libya was a mistake, and more

 

Iran’s next front isn’t the Middle East — it’s America’s backyard

August 13, 2026
Jose Lev Alvarez
When Israeli officials revealed in November 2025 that Mexican security services had disrupted an Iranian plot to assassinate Jerusalem’s ambassador in Mexico City, naive Washington bureaucrats predictably responded with surprise. Mexico’s regime mendaciously denied the operation. Yet, Israeli intelligence identified its architect as Hasan Izadi, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force operative embedded within the Iranian Embassy in Caracas. Diplomatic whitewashing cannot erase the chilling warning: Tehran is actively preparing murder in the Americas.

Tehran says 'Hormuz is ours' after Trump claims ownership of strait

August 13, 2026

The president went on social media and said that the waterway is under 'full US control'

‘Lies and Fabrications’: Khatam al-Anbiya Rejects US Claims on Hormuz

August 13, 2026

Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters says Hormuz remains closed and under Tehran’s control, rejecting US claims of normalized maritime traffic.

Lieutenant Colonel Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters. (Photo: Video grab)

America’s Fatal Attraction to War

August 12, 2026
Emma Ashford

The Perverse Incentives for Presidents to Use Military Force

تاریخ

کسانی‌ که به تاریخ علاقه‌مندند و وقایع تاریخی‌ را مطالعه می‌کنند، هر یک از دید خاصی‌ به آن رویدادها می‌نگرند. ولی‌ آنچه که بیش از همه جلب توجه می‌کند جنگ‌ها و لشگر‌کشی‌هاست که در هر دورهٔ تاریخی‌ بی‌وقفه ادامه دارند. نه تنها داستان جنگ‌ها و لشگرکشی‌ها، بلکه مرور ابداعات و اختراعات جنگی و سلاح‌هائی که ضایعاتِ انسانیِ و نظامیِ نیروی خودی را کمتر، و در عوض خسارات جنگی دشمن را چند برابر می‌کنند. گرچه جوامع بشری همواره و در طول تاریخ با اختراعات و اکتشافات و نوآوری‌های خود رو به پیشرفت بوده‌ا‌ند، بلکه همواره در نقطه‌ای از این کرهٔ خاکی درگیری نظامی بین دولت‌ها و ملت‌ها رقم خورده است. ولی‌ روند جوامع همیشه به سمت بهتر و راحت‌تر زیستن بوده است، و بسیاری از جنگ‌ها نیز به منظور تحت اختیار گرفتن و یا غلبه کردن بر آن نوآوری‌های نظامی بوده‌ا‌ند. دانشمندان همیشه با کاوش و تجسّسِ خود کشف کرده‌ا‌ند که چگونه می‌توان از آنچه که در دسترس بشر قرار دارد، چون عوامل جوّی و رودها و اقیانوس‌ها، و سایر ثروت‌های طبیعت مانند کشتزارها و معادن،  و انرژی خورشیدی، و هر آنچه که در این کرهٔ خاکی یافت می‌شود، به منظور راحت زیستن استفاده بهتر و شایانی کرد.ا

US War on Iran Is Devastating for Women Who Want Life and Freedom

August 11, 2026
Iranian feminists asked for international help — but the U.S.-Israeli war has killed women, left many jobless and given the government a pretext to violate their rights.

An Iranian woman walks past anti-U.S. graffiti painted on a wall of Tehran University in downtown Tehran on April 25, 2026

Iran Has Changed the Question

August 11, 2026

Vijay Prashad
For more than three decades, the United States has treated Middle Eastern diplomacy as an exercise in writing the terms for others. Iran’s emerging regional strategy is challenging that privilege. The immediate evidence is emerging in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran and Oman are negotiating an arrangement under which Tehran could oversee vessels entering the Gulf while Muscat manages outbound traffic. The proposal remains unsettled, but it represents something larger than a maritime agreement: Iran is attempting to move the diplomatic agenda away from the narrow question of its nuclear compliance and towards the wider architecture of Gulf security.

Image Source: Wikideas1 – Own work made with Numbers for Mac and data from https://portwatch.imf.org/ – CC0

What the Iran-Oman Hormuz deal means (it’s not good)

August 10, 2026

Optimism about reaching a diplomatic solution to the Iran crisis is premature. No deal between Iran and Oman has been formally announced, but what we know is not promising. Indeed, allowing the Strait of Hormuz littoral states alone to conduct the negotiations is a fundamental challenge to freedom of the seas, a foundation of U.S. foreign policy. The specifics may be even worse.  Under one leaked version of the deal, neither US nor Israeli ships would be allowed to transit the strait, an automatic non-starter for Washington.

Marco ‘McCarthy’ Rubio: Wrong on Cuba & ‘Terrorism’

August 10, 2026
Ann Wright

Those who challenge and protest U.S. policies are not foreign-paid terrorists; Rubio and other Trump appointees are using “McCarthy” tactics to stop dissent, says Ann Wright.

Downtown Minneapolis ICE-out demonstration on Jan. 23 following ICE agent Jonathan Ross’ fatal shooting of civilian Renée Good. (Lorie Shaull /Flickr/ Wikimedia Commons/ CC BY 4.0)

Live: Israel rejects Trump's 15-point plan for Gaza

August 9, 2026 (Edited)

Meanwhile, Iran lays down six conditions for Hormuz reopening

Iran war live: IRGC says Hormuz to open after US ‘fully’ accepts conditions

August 8, 2026
Stephen Quillen & Rached El-Moctar
Sardar Mohebi, spokesperson for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), says the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is not subject to the deal with Oman, adding that it is conditional on the US “fully accepting Iran’s conditions”.

Trump’s Iran Oil Giveaway

August 7, 2026
Freddy Brewster

As war with Iran drove oil prices higher, Trump gave politically connected oil companies — not taxpayers — the chance to cash in on publicly owned oil.

Kuwait shuts down nation's only Iranian school

AUG 6, 2026

No reason was given for the closure, as families were told to transfer their children before the next academic year begins

Iran war live: Tehran says it agreed coordinates of Hormuz route with Oman

August 5, 2026
Mariem Bah and Stephen Quillen

• Iran’s foreign ministry says a deal with Oman on a route through the Strait of Hormuz is being “finalised”, but the US and Israel still pose a danger to ships in the vital waterway.
• Israel’s military says it has started carrying out attacks on southern Lebanon in response to what it calls a “blatant violation of the ceasefire” by Hezbollah. One person has so far been reported killed and 11 injured in the offensive. Earlier, Israeli media reported that two Israeli soldiers were killed and several others wounded after an IED exploded inside a booby-trapped building in the Lebanese village of Majdal Selm.
• Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB has quoted an informed source as saying the talks between Iran and Oman “have nothing to do with the United States”.
• Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank carry out large-scale raids in several areas. Soldiers have entered the Qalandiya refugee camp, storming homes and detaining Palestinians. Israeli gunfire and shelling have been reported in neighbourhoods across the Gaza Strip.

باز هم جنگ

 هفتهٔ پیش در مورد جنگ جهانی‌ سوم سخن رفت. با حملات دولت آمریکا به ایران  و حملهٔ یک هفته پیش به کیش و کشتار غیر نظامیان، حملهٔ چند روز پیش دولت فاشیستی اکراین به یک کشتی ایرانی‌ در بحر خزر، و حملات دولت ایران به کشورهای عربی‌ به منظور متلاشی کردن پایگاه‌های نظامی آمریکا، جنگ‌ها همچنان گسترش می‌یابند. این کشت و کشتار‌ها علاوه بر جنگ طولانی‌ بین روسیه با اکراین، سودان و میانمار و جنگ‌های متفرقه بین سومالی، مالی‌، بورکینا فاسو، و از طرف دیگر حملات رژیم اسرائیل به فلسطینیان و سایر کشورهای همجوارش مانند سوریه و لبنان، هر لحظه دنیا را پر آشوب‌تر می‌کنند. به این ترتیب و با کمال تاسف، به نظر می‌رسد که پیش‌بینی‌ مقالهٔ پیشین هر لحظه به حقیقت نزدیک‌تر می‌شود.ا

Report: US Has Used ‘Virtually All’ of Its ATACMS and Precision Strike Missiles in Iran War

August 5, 2026
Dave DeCamp

The US used Precision Strike Missiles for the first time on the opening day of the war, including a strike on a sports hall that killed 21 civilians

 

The Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) being fired at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, in 2025 (US Army photo)

Sanders Warns Democrats: Don’t Support Bill to Fast-Track Social Security Cuts

 August 4, 2026
Jake Johnson 

“If the Democratic Party is ever to regain the faith of ordinary Americans it must stand firm on the issue of Social Security,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks at a press conference at the US Capitol in Washington, DC on May 20, 2026.

Oil shortages escalate from wars in Iran and Ukraine, with few signs of relief

August 4, 2026
Amy Myers Jaffe 

Smoke plumes rise from Saudi Aramco’s oil refinery in Jazan, Saudi Arabia, on July 26, 2026, after Houthi missile and drone strikes were launched from Yemen. Gallo Images/Orbital Horizon/Copernicus Sentinel Data 2026

Trump teases Iran talks as Truth Social starts selling fast access to his posts

August 3, 2026

The sudden cancelation of strikes followed a week of threats that helped keep crude near $90 a barrel

The collapse of national sovereignty in the Middle East

August 3, 2026
Paul R. Pillar

The region has come to look like — to borrow a phrase from 17th Century philosopher Thomas Hobbes — a war of all, against all

Outrage Over Apparent US Use of 2,000-Pound Bomb on Iranian Family Home Builds

August 2, 2026
Jessica Corbett

“Everyone in the chain of command who authorized this should be charged with murder.”

Protesters march in the streets of downtown Austin, Texas to show opposition to the war in Iran during a protest organized by the Austin for Palestine Coalition on April 8, 2026. (Photo by Mikala Compton/The Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images)

ASEAN winners and losers in the era of the Hormuz crisis

August 1, 2026
Chris Taylor

Don’t cry for me Indonesia – and landlocked Laos surprises

A Thai‑flagged cargo ship burns after being hit by Iranian missiles in the Strait of Hormuz on March 11. Photo: Royal Thai Navy

Turkey urges Iran to halt attacks on Kurdish groups

July 31, 2026
Ragip Soylu

Ankara fears further Iranian strikes could push Kurdish opposition groups closer to Israel and undermine Turkey’s peace process with the PKK

Members of Komala, an Iranian Kurdish opposition party, attend the funeral of Peshmerga fighter Ghazal Moulai at Sheikh Ahmed Hindi cemetery in Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan, on 16 April 2026 (Shwan Mohammed/AFP)

Ukraine strike on Iran, a cynical Zelensky sales pitch

 July 31, 2026

Zelensky’s attack on Iran is aimed at boosting that illusion of Ukraine acting as a benefactor for Western security when, in reality, it is recklessly inciting more war – all to satisfy the corrupt money racket.

Complicity In Plain Sight: The West’s Scarlet Letter of Indifference

July 30, 2026

M. Reza Behnam
The architecture of international justice was built upon a single uncompromising promise: never again.  It was forged in the ashes of 20th century atrocities, with the solemn vow that regardless of station in life, wealth or power, no one is above the law. Today, that pledge is on the verge of collapse.

جنگ جهانی‌ سوم

به منظور ایجاد اسرائیل بزرگ، دولت نتنیاهو سومین جنگ جهانی‌ و تنها جنگ همه‌گیر این قرن را از یک احتمال به یک واقعیت تبدیل می‌کند. دولت صهیونیستی با پشتیبانی‌ بزرگترین قدرت نظامی دنیا، و به منظور تبدیل اسرائیل به بزرگترین دولت خاورمیانه، در پیِ نابودی و یا تضعیف کشور‌هائی در خاورمیانه است که به دولت ترامپ سر تعظیم فرو نیاورده‌ا‌ند. حملهٔ آمریکا به ایران در یکی‌ دو هفتهٔ اخیر، گسترش اسرائیل با حمله به سایر کشور‌های همجوار و با تائید کشورهای دیگر عربی‌ مانند عربستان و امارات و چند دولت دیگر، چنانکه ادامه یابد خطر جنگ جهانی‌ سوم را بیشتر می‌کند. از آنجائی که این جنگ در نهایت اتمی‌ خواهد شد، به نظر می‌رسد که به پایان دنیا نزدیک می‌شویم.اِ

Tehran slams Ukrainian strike on Iranian ship in Caspian Sea

July 26, 2026

Iran said Kiev bears ‘responsibility for the consequences’ of its attack, hours after Ukraine’s president announced the strike

 

The US Culture of Misunderstanding in Iran & the Middle East

July 25, 2026
Andrea B. Rugh
Washington, D.C. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – It has become increasingly clear that effective international communication is impossible without basic knowledge of world cultures. US officials say as much when they admit that failures in Afghanistan and Iraq were due in large part to ignorance of culture and pushing too many programs that conflicted with local values. In Afghanistan, for example, the US pushed tribal leaders to adopt a centralized form of government, when decentralization was a more familiar pattern of the past. It left the Afghan government only controlling Kabul in the end. The US also insisted that USAID-funded projects be staffed by 25 percent Afghan women. But in practice, few Afghan women had the requisite skills or the willingness to join their projects. Even when they did, social norms required that they be accompanied and transported everywhere—costly provisions that forced the cancellation of projects.

U.S. Imperialism Resurgent

July 25, 2026
Costas Lapavitsas
Evidence has been accumulating for more than a decade that the world has entered a period of profound geopolitical turmoil. Large-scale war has become a permanent feature of geopolitics, manifested in the fighting between Russia and Ukraine since February 2022—with the direct and indirect involvement of the United States and its allies—and in the devastation of the Middle East and destruction of Palestinian society and people by Israel. Alongside open violence, there has been widespread economic coercion applied by the United States, including massive commercial sanctions on Russia, freezing the reserves of its central bank, and using interbank payment mechanisms to isolate the Russian and other economies from the global monetary and financial systems.

 

Today’s Headlines: 16 Iranian Cities Hit | Al-Hayya’s Message to Mediators | ‘False Flag’

       July 24, 2026
Abu Obeida Issues Statement: Why Is the West Bank Suddenly Exploding?
PALESTINE CHRONICLE: Friday’s deadly events in Tell triggered a sweeping Israeli escalation, renewed resistance calls, and fears of a broader confrontation across the occupied West Bank.

US ramps up campaign against Iran by turning to a new weapon

July 23, 2026
Jack Davis
B-1 bombers have returned to the sky over Iran as the United States seeks to pound Iran into releasing its grip on the Strait of Hormuz.

The Iran Cease-Fire Was Doomed to Fail

 July 22, 2026

Neil Quilliam and Sanam Vakil

Why Transactionalism Won’t Deliver Peace in the Middle East

موجود هوشمند

 آیا ما تنها موجود هوشمند در این دنیا می‌باشیم؟ جهان ما آنقدر وسیع است که بسیاری از دانشمندان احتمال وجود موجودات هوشمند در منظومه‌های دیگر را قریب به یقین می‌دانند. فرضیه‌های بسیاری در مورد اینکه این موجودات چگونه هستند وجود دارد، تا جایی که حتی ضریب هوشی آنها برآورد شده است. 

Iran war live: Kuwait desalination, power plants damaged in fiery attack

July 21, 2026
Mariamne Everett and Christine Maguire

• A desalination facility and power plants caught on fire and suffered serious damage in Kuwait after new Iranian strikes targeted the crucial facilities, along with areas of Bahrain and Jordan, following a 10th-consecutive night of US bombing.
• “Massive fires” broke out on two tankers that “took an unsafe route” in the Strait of Hormuz, says Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
• Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen declare a maritime blockade against Saudi Arabia threatening to further disrupt the fragile global energy supply.
• US President Donald Trump warns Iran it will pay “many times over” for the deaths of American soldiers after a week in which at least three US personnel were killed.
• Lebanon’s army says its soldiers have begun deploying in the southern town of Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh after the withdrawal of Israeli forces as part of a US-mediated agreement.

An Iranian Vision of the New Middle East

July 20, 2026
Javad Zarif

Ending the War and Sustaining the Peace Requires a New Approach to Regional Security

Iran’s Kuwait Water Plant Strike: Oil Prices and Trans-regional War

July 19, 2026
Juan Cole
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In response to the renewed American bombing of southeastern Iran ports and facilities, including civilian infrastructure, the Iranian military responded Saturday with attacks on US bases and the infrastructure of Arab allies of the US, such as a desalinization plant and oil facilities in Kuwait and US personnel and installations in Jordan, where two American soldiers were killed and several more wounded.

Photo of Kuwait City by Optical Chemist on Unsplash

A blockade at Hormuz, a crisis for all humanity

July 19, 2026
W Julian Korab-Karpowicz

Military escalation in Middle East is exposing deep material and moral vulnerabilities in our hyper-optimized, globalized society

 
Ships idling in the Strait of Hormuz. Image: X Screengrab

What to expect after the US reimposes naval blockade on Iran’s ports?

July 18, 2026

Maziar Motamedi

Pressure is expected to build up against average Iranians, as well as global energy markets due to the US blockade.

Vessels are seen anchored in Bandar Abbas along the Strait of Hormuz [Amirhossein Khorgooei/ISNA/AFP]

The US military just emptied a third of its deepest missile magazine into Iran — and the Pentagon’s own wargames say the next war empties it in days

July 17, 2026
The U.S. Military’s Tomahawk Crisis: How Many Are Left, What the Iran War Used, and What a China War Would Take: As of July 17, 2026, the United States has fired well over 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Iran, the largest expenditure of the weapon in history, and with the ceasefire declared dead on July 8, the meter is running again. Roughly 2,000 to 3,000 missiles are estimated to remain, against a production line that has built about 90 a year. The sharper question is the one the war has forced into the open: whether the magazine that just emptied into Iran could sustain the conflict it exists to deter, against China or Russia. The honest answer, drawn from the Pentagon’s own wargames, is unsettling.

 

Donald Trump is running out of options in Iran

July 16, 2026
Andrew Gawthorpe
(The Conversation) – Serious hostilities between the US and Iran have resumed. On July 8, Donald Trump said that the ceasefire agreed by the two countries in June was “over”. Since then, he has ordered the US military to carry out intensive airstrikes on Iran and has reimposed an economic blockade of the country.