Author: M Barbu

On the streets of Tehran, the oppressive heat continues, with a drought and water crisis putting the city of 10 million under pressure. The 12-day war between Israel and Iran may have ended in June, but nerves are frayed.

Some Iranians have fled abroad, while others have returned from their Caspian Sea hideaways or rural relatives to a capital that doesn’t quite feel like itself, despite numerous official attempts to portray the country as being back to normal.

Israel’s assault on Gaza City intensifies: tanks and airstrikes demolish entire blocks in a bid to seize control.

Israel is levelling entire neighbourhoods in its push to occupy Gaza City on Wednesday, using tanks and airstrikes to flatten residential blocks.

Declassified files show Britain has long known of Israel’s criminality against Palestinians, as Whitehall has deepened its military, trade and diplomatic support.

The parallels are remarkable.

The world is celebrating the anticipated signing of a security agreement between Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa and Israel, hailed as evidence of Sharaa’s moderation and a departure from his radical Islamist past. However, this narrative is misleading. Islamist doctrine permits, and even encourages, temporary truces—up to 10 years—with adversaries until conditions favor a stronger position. This strategy is modeled on the Prophet Muhammad’s Treaty of Hudaybiyyah with the Quraysh of Mecca in 628 CE. Hamas has repeatedly proposed 10-year truces with Israel as an alternative to peace or a two-state solution.

With Iran still reeling from its 12-day war, Israel retains a hidden weapon in its arsenal against the Islamic Republic—disaffected minorities who also seek to overthrow the government.

Analysts and former Israeli officials tell Newsweek that discussions toward endorsing such activities are gaining traction as tensions continue to simmer across the Middle East.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei rejected recent calls by Iranian reformist officials to reform Iran’s domestic and foreign policies.[1] Khamenei delivered a speech on August 24 in which he claimed that “Iran’s enemies” failed to defeat Iran during the Israel-Iran War and are now trying to do so by “creating discord in the country.”[2] Khamenei claimed that agents of the United States and Israel, along with “heedless speakers and writers,” are creating division.[3] Khamenei may have used the term “heedless speakers and writers” to refer to reformist officials who have recently called on the regime to reform its domestic and foreign policies. Former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called on August 13 for the regime to make concessions to the Iranian people, strengthen societal resilience, and reduce tensions with the West.[4] The Iranian Reformist Front separately issued a statement on August 17 that called for political reforms and foreign policy shifts, including suspending uranium enrichment under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) oversight.[5] Khamenei rejected this and similar calls to engage with the United States in his speech on August 24, stating that the conflict between Iran and the United States is “unsolvable.” Khamenei additionally rejected direct talks with the United States but did not explicitly rule out the possibility of indirect negotiations.