“Iranian military says US is ‘negotiating with itself’ after Trump says Tehran wants deal ‘so badly’,” BBC, 3-25-26.
“US deploys troops to Middle East while pursuing Iran talks on Thursday,” i24, 3-25-26.
There may not be recorded/documented evidence. “Judge Orders Records Search After Trump Ties Cole Attack to Iran,” NYT, 3-25-26. “The bombing of the ship by Al Qaeda killed 17 U.S. sailors in 2000. President Trump has said Iran was “probably involved.” But we don’t know for sure. Until then, there are other known ties between AQ and Iran such as harboring.
No ransom required for this tanker, but what about the others? Remember, if one thing is ingrained in the Regime, it is taking people and ships (and now oil) hostage. “Thai tanker passes Hormuz safely after coordination with Iran,” Iran International, 3-25-26. “A Thai oil tanker has safely transited the Strait of Hormuz after coordination with Iran, a Thai official and the vessel’s owner said. “They responded that they would take care of it,” Thailand’s foreign minister said after requesting safe passage for Thai ships. The tanker was not required to make any payment and is now on its way back to Thailand.” I suggest that someone close to Pres. Trump remind him of what Pres. Jefferson did with the Barbary Pirates, the first U.S. war after Independence. The Ottoman Empire and its four pirate deys along the northern coast of Africa held 20% of the new U.S. country’s budget paid to ransom for our ships to pass through Gibraltar and trade in the Mediterranean. What did the Navy and Marines do? That’s right. The other part of that story which is often not realized is that the countries of Europe, all paid the annual tribute payments for many years and were too afraid to fight. Many ships were taken and thousands of persons were taken into slavery or killed over the years. Thank you Pres. Jefferson.
“In Iran War, Cheap Drones Remain Wild Card,” NYT, 3-25-26. “Iran was still able to launch 70 to 90 drones per day. That was down from more than 400 drones launched on March 1. … Many are intercepted. The Saudi Defense Ministry said on Saturday that it had shot down dozens of drones overnight, while sirens warned of another incoming attack in Bahrain. The United Arab Emirates’ Defense Ministry said it intercepted three more ballistic missiles and eight drones on Saturday. … Estimates of how many Shaheds Iran had at the start of the war vary widely — from thousands to tens of thousands. … There are many different models of the drone known as the Shahed, but the most commonly used is the delta wing Shahed-136, which is in many ways a slow, rudimentary cruise missile. Just over 8 feet wide and around 12 feet long, with a top speed of 115 miles per hour, it launches from a rail-based rack off the back of a military or commercial-grade truck. Once in the air, the Shahed has a range of up to 1,500 miles and uses GPS to find the target for its 90-pound warhead. All at an estimated cost of $35,000 per drone. To combat the threat posed by the Shaheds, Gulf States are firing interceptors that cost millions apiece and scrambling fighter jets that must slow down almost to stall speed to deal with the puttering low-tech machines. They also have Apache attack helicopters machine-gunning them out of the sky. Even if Iran’s ability to manufacture drones were to be severely degraded, it may be able to count on assistance from Russia. Gordon B. Davis, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis who served as a deputy assistant secretary general for NATO’s Defense Investment Division after retiring from the U.S. Army as a major general, said in a briefing on Thursday that Russia was working to produce as many as 1,000 drones a day. Iran is not trying to defeat the United States in any traditional sense, Mr. Davis said, adding, “Iran has adapted quickly, targeting air defenses, radars and command-and-control nodes rather than simply trying to compete symmetrically.””
Yes, Ghalibaf is a likely suspect to be speaking for Iran. Also the FM, Araghchi. Not the president though. “Ghalibaf warns US over troop deployments in region,” Iran International, 3-25-26.
“Pakistan passes US proposal to Iran as fighting continues,” Iran International, 3-25-26. “Two Pakistani officials said separately that Iran had received a 15-point US ceasefire proposal covering issues including sanctions relief, nuclear limits and access through the Strait of Hormuz, the Associated Press reported, though Iran has denied holding negotiations with Washington.”
“Trump’s ‘absurdly incoherent’ Iran pleas leave allies befuddled,” Politico, 3-25-26. “In practice, Europe could deploy destroyers to help Washington escort convoys through the strait, said Sidharth Kaushal, a senior research fellow and naval military expert at the Royal United Services Institute, since the U.S. only has around 25 of the heavily-armed, missile-capable type of vessel available to immediately deploy worldwide. Europe could also supply counter-mining capabilities, he argued, one area where the U.S. is “quite constrained.” Germany, Estonia, France, Romania, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and the U.K. together operate roughly 40 counter-mine vessels, he said, compared to America’s four.”
We don’t want this to become a regional war. Russia does. Iran does. “Moscow finalizing drone and aid assistance to Iran – report,” i24, 3-25-26. “Deliveries of humanitarian aid and drones reportedly began in early March and are expected to be finalized by month’s end as Moscow moves to support Tehran.” … If verified, the move would be the first known case of Russia providing direct lethal aid to Iran during the current conflict. Officials cited in the report say Moscow has already been assisting Tehran behind the scenes with intelligence sharing, including satellite imagery and targeting data.” The Gulf states are going to remember they have been getting slammed by drones made not only in Iran but in Russia.
So who else besides Ghalibaf and Araghchi is speaking for Iran? Leave it up to Iran International to tell us. And guess what, as some of us have predicted, it appears the IRGC now rules Iran. ***I suppose this is the moment Iran is no longer a theocracy but officially a military-led regime because Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr is the new head of the Supreme National Security Council. I do, though, have the question if Zolghadr has asked the Pakistanis to ask Israel and the U.S. to protect his life, as they have accomplished (for the moment) for G and A. Which would be an embarrassment for a military leader to take such action. See “Zolghadr, the IRGC insider at the heart of Iran’s power structure,” Iran International, 3-25-26. Hmm. We will have to change the name from the “Islamic Republic of Iran” (it was never a republic) to the “Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran.” To mark this moment, I have pasted the entire I.I. article. “A foundational figure of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr’s rise signals not a shift, but a moment of clarity — the same hardline system, now accelerating and more visible than ever. The longtime hardliner is the new chief of the Supreme National Security Council to replace his slain predecessor Ali Larijani, state television said Tuesday. Zolghadr is not a new figure emerging in a moment of crisis, but a product of the Islamic Republic’s original revolutionary security networks. A man whose career spans armed militancy, senior command within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and influential roles across Iran’s political and judicial institutions. “He is one of the last remnants of the radical revolutionaries that armed themselves against the Pahlavi monarchy,” historian Shahram Kholdi told Iran International. A former deputy commander of the IRGC, Zolghadr belongs to the generation that helped transform the Guards into the backbone of the Islamic Republic not only as a military force, but as a political and economic power center. Over decades, the IRGC expanded its reach across the state, embedding itself in key institutions from the interior ministry to the judiciary. Kholdi traces Zolghadr back to the early networks that evolved into the Quds Force — the IRGC’s elite unit responsible for managing Iran’s proxy militias and projecting power across the Middle East placing him alongside the system later commanded by Qassem Soleimani, the architect of Iran’s regional strategy. His appointment following the killing of Larijani underscores what many analysts see as an accelerating trend: the consolidation of power by hardline military figures. What has been a gradual shift over decades appears to have intensified amid the current conflict, with the Guards tightening their grip over both national security and political decision-making. The Quds Force, the IRGC’s external arm, has been at the center of Iran’s regional power projection, training and directing militias from Iraq to Syria, where it helped sustain Bashar al-Assad’s war in a conflict marked by widespread civilian suffering. “He is part of the three to four thousand families that have been forming the power core of the Islamic Republic,” Kholdi said. Zolghadr’s rise does not mark a departure from that system, but a continuation of it, reflecting the enduring dominance of a tightly knit network of insiders drawn from the Islamic Republic’s revolutionary and security institutions. His role in internal repression also stretches back decades. During the 1999 student protests — a pivotal moment in the regime’s violent suppression of dissent— Zolghadr was among a group of senior IRGC commanders who signed a sharply worded letter to then-reformist President Mohammad Khatami. The message warned that if the government failed to decisively crush the unrest, the Guards would act on their own. The episode is widely seen as a turning point, marking a more overt willingness by the IRGC to intervene directly in politics and, for many Iranians, cementing the reform movement’s ultimate failure. His political trajectory has long aligned with Iran’s most hardline currents. He played a role in the rise of former hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and later acknowledged that conservative factions had carried out coordinated efforts to secure that victory. In office, he adopted a confrontational posture toward the United States, warning that Iran would respond to any attack with overwhelming missile strikes. During the Iran-Iraq War, he led units he fought in cross-border operations, which is experience that would help shape the regime’s enduring emphasis on asymmetrical warfare. According to Kholdi, Zolghadr was among those who helped design that doctrine alongside figures like Qassem Soleimani — building a decentralized system capable of operating even under sustained attack. “They created this asymmetrical hierarchy where units can act independently… and continue operating even if leadership is cut off,” Kholdi said. That system is now visible in Iran’s military posture, with dispersed missile and drone capabilities across the region. Kholdi also points to Zolghadr’s deep institutional knowledge as a key factor in his significance today. “The fact that he hasn’t been eliminated is bad news — he is one of the main people who knows a lot about how this system works,” he said, adding that Zolghadr likely has insight into sensitive areas including the country’s nuclear program. For ordinary Iranians, his rise is much the same as his predecessor Ali Larijani, who was eliminated in an Israeli airstrike overnight on March 16 in Tehran. “No, he is much the same,” Kholdi said when asked whether Zolghadr differs from figures like Larijani. His appointment underscores a consistent reality: power in the Islamic Republic remains concentrated within a small circle of entrenched insiders — many of whom have been at the center of the system since its earliest days.”
For speed’s sake, I am using initials of G and A and Z when looking at whose life is currently apparently protected. Uh oh, this is not putting them in well with friends. “Reports of Ghalibaf-Trump channel sparks political storm in Tehran,” Iran International, 3-25-26.
“Group behind European antisemitic attacks may be only a facade, warn experts,” AFP, 3-25-26. “Targeting of Jewish sites in several cities raises concerns that Tehran may be behind newly-established, shadowy organization, already labeled ‘Iranian-backed proxy’ by Israel.”
Attacks against Jordan by Iran continue. “Civil Defense responds to thousands of incidents across Jordan in 24 hours,” Roya News, 3-25-26.
“We punish those who no longer allow us to control them” seems to be the message. See “Iran missile hits Lebanon after Tehran envoy expelled from Beirut,” Iran International, 3-25-26.
They are trying. “50 arrested in northern Iran over alleged contacts with exile media – Tasnim,” Iran International, 3-25-26. “Iranian authorities have arrested 50 people in the northern Mazandaran province for allegedly sending information about military and security sites to the Persian-language broadcasters Iran International and Manoto, IRGC- affiliated Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday. The arrests were made by the police intelligence organization in the province since the start of the war. The report said the suspects were identified through surveillance and technical intelligence measures. It also said arrests were being carried out across the country, including in villages and remote areas, and warned that those detained would face severe punishment.”
“Iran launches missile attack toward Israel for 7th time in three hours | LIVE BLOG,” i24, 3-25-26.
“The Narrow Path to a U.S.‑Iran Deal,” WSJ, 3-25-26.