Peace with the Islamic Republic of Iran is a Fantasy

by Nima Gholam Ali Pour  •  September 6, 2026 at 5:00 am

• At some point, people will also ask the obvious question: if the US had military dominance, why is the regime still in power? This is a regime that defied America yet remains in power. What does that mean? Can the US no longer defeat its enemies? Has the regime of the mullahs transformed Iran into a country that can actually defy the US? If so, then they have fulfilled the promise they made to the people in 1979. Iran was supposed to become a country that would not be ruled by "American imperialism." Through the Islamabad MOU, the mullahs have fulfilled that promise.

• What people in Iran see is that the United States made promises that this regime would be removed from power. The US and Israel did everything they could and failed. The Islamabad MOU gives the impression that Iran is the victor dictating its terms to the US. All of this provides a great deal of legitimacy to a regime whose ideology is based on hostility toward the US and Israel.

• The Islamabad MOU will not lead to peace.

• Every Friday, the regime's supporters chant, "Death to America, Death to Israel." The regime does not promise welfare reforms or tax cuts. Its ideology is hostility toward the United States and Israel -- and by appearing as the victor in this war, it has gained legitimacy.

• This is an aggressive regime that will start more wars and that must be removed from power.

• Peace with the Islamic Republic of Iran is a fantasy. Both Obama and Trump appear to have embraced that fantasy, and future generations, along with the Iranian people, will pay the price for it.

Every Friday, the Iranian regime's supporters chant, "Death to America, Death to Israel." They do not promise welfare reforms or tax cuts. The regime's ideology is hostility toward the United States and Israel -- and by appearing as the victor in this war, it has gained legitimacy. Pictured: An anti-American billboard at Enghelab Square in Tehran on August 3, 2026. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)

The US and Israeli military conflict with Iran, which began on February 28 and does not appear to have come to an end, was a complete failure for both the United States and Israel. If this has not yet been recognized by everyone because the current US administration needs to portray itself as victorious for the midterm elections, it is nevertheless important to see this reality.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has so far emerged as the victor from this military conflict. The Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) cements the current regime in Iran and its legitimacy among the enemies of the United States and Israel, especially jihadists. President Donald Trump himself keeps repeating that he is not seeking regime change in Iran.

In the public narrative, a military victory for the Islamic Republic has always been defined as the defense of Iranian territory and the survival of the Islamist regime. This definition also applied when Iraq invaded Iran in 1980.

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War With Iran: Time for a Rethink

by Amir Taheri  •  September 6, 2026 at 4:30 am

• The leftover Khomeinists... want the war to continue at a low intensity to keep their claim of "resistance" alive and postpone the inevitable volcano of popular anger against their ramshackle rule.

• They need the war to continue to justify their failure in all domains and their repression of dissidents.

The leftover Khomeinists... want the war to continue at a low intensity to keep their claim of "resistance" alive and postpone the inevitable volcano of popular anger against their ramshackle rule. Pictured: Supporters of the Iranian regime commemorating the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei at the Imam Khomeini Mosalla Grand Mosque in Tehran, on July 14, 2026. (Photo by Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)

Long before some American politicians and pundits were beating the drums for war against Iran, Victor Davis Hanson reminded his readers that two of the nine "landmark battles in the rise to Western power" were against Persia.

The battles mentioned by the respected military historian were in Salamis, where the Greek city-states, led by Athens, sunk the Persian fleet, and Gaugamela, where Alexander of Macedonia defeated Darius III.

The late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a vocal advocate of an attack on Iran, wrote in March 2026 that neutralizing Iran was the key to "ending a 2,000-year-long conflict."

Last week, Trump ordered a strike on rocket launchers on the Iranian island of Larak, which was supposed to be the opening salvo in a fresh round of attacks.

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Do Not Be Fooled: Iran's Islamist Regime Is Building a Post-Trump Nightmare

by Majid Rafizadeh  •  September 5, 2026 at 5:00 am

• Iran's Islamist regime has not been in power by accident for nearly 50 years. The regime is already laying the groundwork for conditions that will make the world far more perilous after President Donald Trump's term of office ends.

• What Iran is doing now is preparing for the post-Trump era — as in the series of arrangements and agreements with Oman for the Strait of Hormuz — control over roughly one-fifth of the world's oil transit outside U.S. or Western control.

• Without another leader as willing as Trump to confront Tehran directly, the regime will extract concessions, dictate terms, and attain hegemonic power in the region.

• The regime only has to wait out two small remaining years of this administration before it can resume doing anything it wants.

• Above all, Iran's current leadership cannot stay. If this regime is allowed to remain in power, the world after Trump will not be the same. The United States would do itself a great service to resume working closely with Israel.

• There is no realistic path for Iran to become a constructive, peaceful country while its current leadership remains.... If it stays, there will be no lasting peace, security, or good life for democracies or the West

Iran's Islamist regime has not been in power by accident for nearly 50 years. The regime is already laying the groundwork for conditions that will make the world far more perilous after President Donald Trump's term of office ends. Pictured: A billboard pledging revenge against the United States, in Tehran, on July 27, 2026. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)

Iran's Islamist regime has not been in power by accident for nearly 50 years. The regime is already laying the groundwork for conditions that will make the world far more perilous after President Donald Trump's term of office ends.

The regime is a dictatorship, oriented long-term. What Iran is doing now is preparing for the post-Trump era — as in the series of arrangements and agreements with Oman for the Strait of Hormuz — control over roughly one-fifth of the world's oil transit outside U.S. or Western control. Recent joint meetings of the Hormuz Committee and frameworks for temporary corridors, mine-clearing, and permanent management reveal that — no surprise — Iran is seeking lasting influence over the waterway, "service fees" of a few million dollars per tanker, day after day, as well as geopolitical leverage over oil-dependent countries, even in the West.

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Iran Was Losing. Then Washington Gave It Time. But What about the Kitchen Table?

by Pierre Rehov  •  September 4, 2026 at 5:00 am

• Trump's biggest objectives at the moment concern not only Iran, Russia and China, but also how to help his party retain control of the House of Representatives and Senate. Most important is to remind voters not of his accomplishments, but to return to what got him elected in the first place: focus on them. He will need to tell Americans, whose wages have not kept up with inflation, what, in the most practical terms, he will do to help.

• Voters possess a healthy, survival-dose of self-interest. They do not need to hear about Trump's many accomplishments, as praiseworthy as they are. They need to hear from Trump what he will do for them. The cost of food, housing, electricity and gasoline — combined with subversive foreign propaganda to induce a fear of artificial intelligence and data centers — are all too real. It is hard to be impressed even by a spectacular and extremely necessary campaign against Iran if you are one of the 271,000 people whose jobs were cut by the administration, or one of the the 180,000 who were laid off by Big Tech. Too many voters are understandably terrified. They are looking toward anyone who will address their immediate concerns. Every morning, Trump needs to repeat "Kitchen Table" a hundred times.

• Yes, Trump needs to win in Iran, continue his crucial reshoring, expand his economic boom even further to the middle class and the disadvantaged, and keep Russia, China and North Korea in line. To have a historic final two years of his term, however, Trump will need to reassure voters about their future, not his past.

President Donald Trump's biggest objectives at the moment concern not only Iran, Russia and China, but also how to help his party retain control of the House of Representatives and Senate. Most important is to remind voters not of his accomplishments, but to return to what got him elected in the first place: focus on them. He will need to tell Americans, whose wages have not kept up with inflation, what, in the most practical terms, he will do to help. Pictured: Trump answers questions from reporters during a Cabinet meeting on July 31, 2026 in Camp David, Maryland. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Military superiority rarely decides wars against regimes that measure victory by survival. The Islamic Republic of Iran, since its Islamic Revolution in 1979, has been refining this distinction.

By the first week of April, Iran was losing. Its naval fleet was on the seabed, its aircraft grounded, and American and Israeli aircraft were operating in Iranian skies unopposed. Washington then began granting extensions. Five months later, the Iranian regime is still setting conditions rather than receiving them.

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He Will Not Give Up

by Ahmed Charai  •  September 3, 2026 at 12:00 pm

• [Jared Kushner] then... told me something simple: he would not give up.

• There was no drama in the words. They were an expression of conviction—the promise of a man who believes that the next generation deserves a different future.

• For him, a method has value only if it produces results—if it brings people closer to peace, dignity and a better life.

• This is why World Herald Tribune chose to present Jared Kushner with the Abraham Shield Award 2026.

• He did not invent the connection between commerce and peace. His innovation was to place economic cooperation, human exchange and shared prosperity at the center of the diplomatic architecture—not to postpone them until after a final political settlement.

• He understood that trade is not merely the movement of goods and capital.... A contract requires reliability. Investment requires confidence in a shared future. A joint enterprise turns a distant stranger into a partner whose success becomes connected to one's own.

• Over time, these relationships move beyond companies. They reach communities, universities, families and future generations.

• At first, this approach...was dismissed as "transactional," as though transactions were inherently unworthy. But there is dignity in two people freely choosing to build something together. There is moral value in creating opportunity where ideology has produced only sacrifice....— not only among diplomats, but among entrepreneurs, students, families and young people who can experience its benefits directly.

• The world has changed since 2017, and so has our understanding of peace. We now see more clearly that peace cannot survive on signatures alone....It must improve lives. It must give people a personal stake in one another's stability and success.

• The responsibility now belongs to the leaders of the region.

• They must decide whether they will remain captive to slogans that have failed their people or choose security, dignity and prosperity.

• He will not give up. Neither should we.

In Jared Kushner's vision, peace would not remain an agreement signed by governments and protected by protocol. It would become a lived relationship sustained by flights, investment, technology, tourism, education and personal encounters. Pictured: US President Donald Trump listens to Kushner speak during the inaugural meeting of the "Board of Peace" in Washington, DC, on February 19, 2026. (Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

I went to present Jared Kushner with the Abraham Shield Award 2026 because of what he had achieved. I left thinking even more deeply about who he is.

We spoke for nearly an hour. There was no ceremony in his manner, no distance and none of the self-importance that so often accompanies power. He was relaxed, warm and remarkably down-to-earth.

He asked questions—not the questions of someone waiting for his turn to speak, but those of a man genuinely seeking to learn. He listened carefully. He tested ideas. He wanted to understand.

What struck me most was his humility.

Here was a man who had sat with presidents, kings and prime ministers; who had been entrusted with one of the most intractable conflicts of modern history; and whose work had helped alter the political landscape of the Middle East. Yet he carried none of the weight of his résumé. He seemed far more interested in the work still ahead than in the credit already earned.

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Hamas Has No Intention of Disarming — So Why Is the US Still Negotiating?

by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  September 3, 2026 at 5:00 am

• Hamas official Osama Hamdan recently said, "No one said that we will hand over our weapons." According to Hamdan, the word "hand over" was never part of the agreement his terrorist group reached with the mediators. Instead, Hamdan said, the agreed framework calls for the "containment and storage" of Hamas's heavy weapons. He added that this would be carried out by the Palestinian Committee for the Administration of Gaza and the Palestinian "resistance factions."

• Hamas... is talking about keeping its weapons.

• When [senior Hamas official Ghazi] Hamad's interviewer asked him, "Does that mean the annihilation of Israel?," Hamad responded, "Yes, of course."

• Hamas cannot have it both ways. It cannot demand an end to Israel's military presence in Gaza while simultaneously insisting on retaining the weapons that it has used — and clearly plans to use again — to attack Israel. The victims of Hamas's weapons have a say in the matter too.

• The question is not who gets to decide what happens to Hamas's weapons. The question is why Hamas should be allowed to keep them at all.

• Hamas is essentially saying: First give us political power and remove Israelis forces from the Gaza Strip. Afterward, we may discuss what happens to our weapons.

• Hamas's laying down its weapons and relinquishing its political and military control over the Gaza Strip must be unconditional. Hamas is a terrorist organization that launched the October 7, 2023 invasion and massacre. It is not a sovereign state entitled to negotiate the terms of its own disarmament.

• Trump's 20-Point Gaza Peace Plan calls for the "demilitarization" of the Gaza Strip and the "decommissioning" of weapons. Point 13 states:

• "Hamas and other factions agree to not have any role in the governance of Gaza, directly, indirectly, or in any form. All military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, including tunnels and weapon production facilities, will be destroyed and not rebuilt. There will be a process of demilitarization of Gaza under the supervision of independent monitors, which will include placing weapons permanently beyond use through an agreed process of decommissioning, and supported by an internationally funded buy back and reintegration program all verified by the independent monitors."

• Yet somehow, nearly three years after October 7, the discussion has apparently moved from demilitarization and decommissioning to "containment" and "storage."

• Who will guarantee that Hamas terrorists will not simply take them out of storage when they decide that the time has come to resume their jihad (holy war) against Israel?

• Would the new Palestinian Committee for the Administration of Gaza really be capable of preventing Hamas and other terrorist groups from accessing these weapons? Would foreign troops... be expected to stand guard over weapons belonging to terrorist organizations and prevent them from storming the warehouses?

• Was al-Qaeda ever asked to "contain" its weapons? Was ISIS ever asked to "store" its weapons? Terrorist organizations are supposed to be disarmed. Their weapons are supposed to be confiscated and destroyed. There is no legitimate reason for Hamas or any other Palestinian terrorist faction to possess weapons either in the Gaza Strip or in any other territory.

• Palestinians do not need rockets, explosive drones and anti-tank missiles to build a better future. They need economic development and accountable institutions.

• Why are the United States and other mediators talking to Hamas about elections when the organization has not even agreed to genuine disarmament?

• Time is on Hamas's side, or so its leaders might calculate. US presidents come and go. Administrations change. International attention shifts. Why surrender weapons today if Hamas can simply wait and see who occupies the White House tomorrow?

• Allowing Hamas-affiliated candidates to participate in Palestinian elections while it retains its weapons would create the absurd situation of a terrorist organization being permitted to transform its military power into political power — a perfect recipe for legitimizing Hamas.

• So why is Washington still negotiating the terms? Striking deals with Islamist terrorist organizations is not a substitute for enforcing their disarmament. Agreements that allow terrorists to keep their weapons are not worth the paper on which they are written.

• Hamas must be eliminated as a political and military entity. Its weapons must be confiscated or destroyed, not "stored", "contained," or hidden. Until that happens, Hamas remains armed, Iran remains influential, and the threat of another October 7 massacre — or more — remains in the works.

Hamas official Osama Hamdan said, "No one said that we will hand over our weapons." According to Hamdan, the word "hand over" was never part of the agreement his terrorist group reached with the mediators. Instead, Hamdan said, the agreed framework calls for the "containment and storage" of Hamas's heavy weapons. Hamas's laying down its weapons and relinquishing its political and military control over the Gaza Strip must be unconditional. Hamas is a terrorist organization that launched the October 7, 2023 invasion and massacre. It is not a sovereign state entitled to negotiate the terms of its own disarmament. Pictured: Hamdan on a podcast on November 10, 2025. (Image source: MEMRI)

Hamas, like its long-time benefactor Iran, has once again made its position unmistakably clear: It has no intention of surrendering its weapons, abandoning its armed "resistance" against Israel, or relinquishing control over the Gaza Strip.

If anyone in Washington or elsewhere still believes that Hamas has agreed to disarm under the Gaza peace plan presented by US President Donald J. Trump and his Board of Peace, they should listen carefully to what Hamas officials themselves are saying.

Two recent interviews with senior Hamas officials leave little room for doubt.

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Nothing Spontaneous About Anti-Israel Protests
Terror Links, Foreign Funding and Highly Coordinated Activism

by Robert Williams  •  September 2, 2026 at 5:00 am

• "Today's anti-Western influence networks are global, coordinated, top-down, well-funded and sanitised. Viewed graphically, they resemble a series of concentric circles. At their centre sit hostile state actors (Iran, China, Russia, Qatar), terrorist organisations (Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda), and extremist religious-political movements (Muslim Brotherhood). Around them operate charities, campaign groups, protest movements and advocacy organisations that can provide legitimacy, amplify propaganda and serve as vectors of transmission for extremist agendas to society more broadly. Some of these groups are directly funded by hostile actors, or in turn, divert publicly raised donations back to them." — From the NGO Monitor report "Imported Influence," July 8, 2026.

• In the UK, the same six organizations – Stop the War Coalition, Friends of Al-Aqsa, the Muslim Association of Britain, the Palestinian Forum in Britain, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament – were involved in 32 out of the 40 protests mapped by NGO Monitor.

• "Many of these groups are overtly linked to Hamas and other terrorist actors. It is time to see these demonstrations as a significant destabilizing threat and for governments to investigate these networks." — Anne Herzberg, legal advisor to NGO Monitor, speaking at the UK House of Lords, July 8, 2026.

• "[T]he response too often appears to be more security funding, barriers and police protection, rather than addressing the root causes of this hate and violence." — From the NGO Monitor report "Imported Influence," July 8, 2026.

• Why is the British government arresting more than 30 British citizens on average each day, including mothers and pensioners, for mostly harmless social media posts, while activists with links to terrorist groups working against those very societies are left free to unleash their worst?

Since the beginning of the pro-Hamas protests, which began as their October 7, 2023 atrocities in Israel were still unfolding, the media has been driving the notion that these are spontaneous, grassroots protests. According to a new explosive report by the acclaimed international organization NGO Monitor: Dream on. Pictured: Anti-Israel protesters in London on January 13, 2024. (Photo by Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images)

Since the beginning of the pro-Hamas protests, which began as their October 7, 2023 atrocities in Israel were still unfolding, the media has been driving the notion that these are spontaneous, grassroots protests. According to a new explosive report by the acclaimed international organization NGO Monitor: Dream on.

"As thousands of Hamas invaders murdered, raped and kidnapped men, women and children across southern Israel on 7 October 2023, mass anti-Israel demonstrations began appearing on the streets of London, New York and other Western cities. Despite their being thousands of miles apart and spread across the globe, marchers carried the same professionally printed signs and shouted the same slogans and chants....

"The protests have been widely portrayed in the media as grassroots and spontaneous. In reality, they are professionally organised and are part of a well-funded, coordinated global advocacy network."

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The Chinese Dragon Lurks Beneath the Pacific
China's Atomic-Powered Submarines, With Nuclear-Tipped Missiles, Can Reach US Cities, Pacific Rim

by Lawrence Kadish  •  September 1, 2026 at 5:00 am

Pictured: China's Long March 10, a Jin-class nuclear submarine, participates in a naval show in Shandong province on April 23, 2019. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein/AFP via Getty Images)

In an era when artificial intelligence is guiding drones in deadly attacks in Ukraine, it would be understandable to focus exclusively on what that now means on the battlefield.

This would be a grave mistake.

Few in the West have noticed that China just test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile from a nuclear-powered submarine, using the waters of the South Pacific as their testing site.

The Chinese were quick to announce that the missile carried a dummy warhead, but the implications were clear for everyone who appreciates the enormous strategic threat implied from this underwater weapons test. The timing was also instructive: naval authorities reported that the Chinese had not conducted a similar test in decades.

Press reports say the test came on the same day China and Russia were holding joint naval exercises off the Chinese coast. A coincidence? Not likely.

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Egypt's Dangerous Palestinian 'Unity' Project to Legitimize Terrorists

by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  August 31, 2026 at 5:00 am

• The real question, however, is: Unity with whom, and against whom?

• Why is Hamas being treated as a legitimate political organization rather than a terrorist group that needs to be disarmed, dismantled, and removed from power?

• Egypt, a key ally of the United States, should be asking these questions. Instead, Cairo appears to be doing exactly the opposite.

• The Trump Administration and the Board of Peace might make clear to Cairo that Hamas cannot be both a terrorist organization that needs to surrender its weapons and a political partner invited to negotiate the future of the Palestinians. One approach eliminates Hamas. The other rehabilitates it.

• Even more alarming are reports of a possible electoral alliance involving former Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan's Democratic Reform Current, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other factions such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – all terrorist groups that do not recognize Israel's right to exist.

• What possible role should these terrorist organizations have in Palestinian elections or a future Palestinian government?

• If Egypt welcomes the designation of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, why is it simultaneously trying to give Hamas – which emerged from the same organization – renewed political legitimacy?

• The Trump Administration would do itself a great service to tell Cairo that Palestinian reconciliation cannot include organizations that retain weapons, embrace terrorism, and seek the destruction of Israel. There is no need to unify the Palestinian ranks around Hamas. There is a need immediately to remove Hamas from those ranks.

• Egypt should be using its considerable influence not to persuade Fatah to reconcile with Hamas, but to pressure Hamas and other terrorist groups to surrender their weapons and permanently leave the Palestinian political arena. A politically rehabilitated Hamas, still armed and still committed to its Islamist ideology, will only strengthen the very ideological current that the Egyptian government has spent more than a decade trying to suppress.

Egypt should be using its considerable influence not to persuade Fatah to reconcile with Hamas, but to pressure Hamas and other terrorist groups to surrender their weapons and permanently leave the Palestinian political arena. A politically rehabilitated Hamas, still armed and still committed to its Islamist ideology, will only strengthen the very ideological current that the Egyptian government has spent more than a decade trying to suppress. Pictured: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (R) welcomes Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Cairo on March 4, 2025, photographed from a large screen at the Arab League summit. (Photo by Khaled Desouki/AFP via Getty Images)

Egypt is reportedly preparing to host another round of talks between the Palestinian factions, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's ruling Fatah faction and the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group.

The stated goal sounds appealing: achieving Palestinian "national unity."

The real question, however, is: Unity with whom, and against whom?

Nearly three years after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel, why is anyone still talking about bringing Hamas back into the Palestinian political system? Why is Hamas being treated as a legitimate political organization rather than a terrorist group that needs to be disarmed, dismantled, and removed from power?

Egypt, a key ally of the United States, should be asking these questions. Instead, Cairo appears to be doing exactly the opposite.

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Why Is the Trump Administration Determined to Arm Hostile Jihadist States That Will Outlast It?

by Pierre Rehov  •  August 30, 2026 at 5:00 am

• An institution built around one person, such as US President Donald J. Trump, carries the expiration date of that person's term in office. The states that join it do not.

• The real plan, as can be seen from Saudi Arabia's recent moves, seems to be to avoid joining the Abraham Accords, and instead position themselves in Gaza, right on the border of Israel, to be able to attack it after Trump leaves office. No one will have his determination to make sure that any agreements are enforced.

• Early on, Saudi Arabia came up with a "poison pill": the kingdom conditioned joining the Abraham Accords on the creation of a Palestinian state. Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman has since reached an agreement with the US that reportedly allows Saudi Arabia to develop domestic uranium enrichment capabilities under safeguards that fall short of the stringent standards previously demanded by Washington, rather than importing nuclear fuel as other Gulf countries do. The uranium enrichment would, of course, be supposedly "for peaceful purposes." However, these enrichment centrifuges could also be used to make nuclear weapons -- the same kind Iran is not allowed to have.

• Secretary of Energy Chris Wright signed the nuclear framework before Trump, to his great credit, the next day presented his own "poison pill": first, Saudi Arabia would have to normalize its relations with Israel and join the Abraham Accords. This requirement seems to have been, revealingly, a dealbreaker.

• Instead, Saudi Arabia organized the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement with Turkey, which has a vast military, and Pakistan, which has nuclear weapons. Based on the Middle East's frequent schoolyard excuse that "it all started when he hit me back," the three countries could, for instance, provoke or attack on Israel, then when Israel responds for its own self-defense, claim that all three of them had been attacked and "forced" to retaliate: Turkey with its conventional military, Pakistan with a nuclear weapon, and Saudi Arabia by financing the expedition.

• [T]he most senior levels of the Israeli security establishment that concluded that Turkey is still financing Hamas. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan holds a seat on the Gaza Executive Board, the body charged with implementing the disarmament of Hamas.

• When the White House named the executive board for the Board of Peace in January, its members included Fidan, senior Qatari official Ali Al-Thawadi and Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated publicly that the composition had never been coordinated with Israel and ran contrary to its policy.

• The Board of Peace itself, 28 countries operating under UN Security Council Resolution 2803, released an interim report to the UNSC that identified Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United States as the four mediating states. The 15-point roadmap that now governs Hamas's disarmament was drafted by those four "guarantors"... What, though, will they actually be guaranteeing?

• A former senior Shin Bet officer with three decades in the service has argued that the parties actually driving developments inside the board are Qatar and Turkey, assisted by Egypt. The arrangement amounts to the Muslim Brotherhood supervising the supposed disarming of its own Palestinian branch, Hamas.

• Turkey has been strengthening its hold on Syria and positioning its military there, potentially for a pincer attack on Israel: from Syria on Israel's east and Gaza on Israel's west.

• Senior Israeli officials trace the Iranian money reaching Hamas and Hezbollah along a route running through Istanbul with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's implicit permission.

• Money often settles what communiqués leave open. Eight governments -- among them Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco -- signed the founding donors' declaration behind roughly $17 billion in reconstruction pledges... Whoever pays the contractors, the suppliers and eventually the policemen, will decide who governs the streets they patrol.

• The political alignment already exists on paper. On August 3, Qatar, Egypt and Turkey published a declaration in their capacity as mediating countries, condemning Israeli operations in Gaza and calling on the international community to compel Israel to stop.

• Trump's term of office ends in January 2029. He personally chairs the Board of Peace and will pass on that position to whoever succeeds him. Every month of delay moves the supposed complete disarmament of Hamas closer to Trump's successor, and to the states that will still be seated at the table when he or she arrives.

• [T]he US State Department informed Congress that Turkey has not met the statutory conditions... which require Ankara to give up its Russian-made S-400 surface-to-air missiles. Although Turkey tested the S-400 following its delivery and has not returned it to Russia, the Turkish government claims that the system is in storage — presumably until it is taken out of storage.

• Erdogan has made no secret of his intentions regarding Israel, as well as Syria, Cyprus and Greece. As recently as March 30, 2025, he stated, "May Allah, for the sake of his name ... destroy and devastate Zionist Israel" He also reportedly prayed for "mercy upon the martyrs" of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and a "speedy recovery" for their wounded terrorists. Previously, Erdogan stated, "Jerusalem is our city," and "Patience brings victory," and that "We are determined to not give up on our rights on Jerusalem." This is the country to which Trump wants to supply stealth fighter jets?

• The Saudi nuclear file runs on an identical clock. The draft nuclear cooperation agreement reported to Congress does not contain a Saudi commitment to forgo enrichment and reprocessing, a commitment Washington spent two decades calling the gold standard for nuclear nonproliferation. The Agreement refers instead to additional "safeguards" in the most sensitive areas of cooperation, which is diplomatic phrasing for enrichment centrifuges on Saudi soil.

• Even if the S-400 batteries have been shipped off from Turkey to another country, and Hamas offices in Istanbul are shuttered and independently verified as closed, no F-35 stealth fighter jets should be supplied to Turkey. After all, the S-400 missile batteries could always find their way back.

• In addition, no uranium enrichment centrifuges should be allowed in Saudi Arabia, even if a binding Saudi renunciation of enrichment and reprocessing were written into the operative text, not a side letter. As we have seen with Iran, no one but Trump can be counted on to enforce international commitments.

• Not one dollar for Gaza reconstruction should be disbursed through channels controlled by governments that Israel has identified as financing Hamas, the organization the money is meant to displace.

• What Turkey and Saudi Arabia want from Washington is hardware, and those F-35s will still be flying and those centrifuges will still be spinning, long after the people that vouched for them have left office.

An institution built around one person, such as US President Donald J. Trump, carries the expiration date of that person's term in office. The states that join it do not. Nothing better explains the conduct of Turkey, Qatar, Egypt and Saudi Arabia over the past eight months — and nothing in current American policy appears to be taking the countless danger signals from them seriously. Pictured: Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman shakes hands with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, on June 22, 2022. (Photo by Adem Altan/AFP via Getty Images)

An institution built around one person, such as US President Donald J. Trump, carries the expiration date of that person's term in office. The states that join it do not.

Nothing better explains the conduct of Turkey, Qatar, Egypt and Saudi Arabia over the past eight months — and nothing in current American policy appears to be taking the countless danger signals from them seriously.

The real plan, as can be seen from Saudi Arabia's recent moves, seems to be to avoid joining the Abraham Accords, and instead position themselves in Gaza, right on the border of Israel, to be able to attack it after Trump leaves office. No one will have his determination to make sure that any agreements are enforced.

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The Specter that Haunts America

by Amir Taheri  •  August 30, 2026 at 4:00 am

• After the crushing failure of European revolutions in 1848, many communist leaders... sought refuge in the US to escape European police. Though some morphed into capitalists, they gave local politics a leftist accent that is still there.

• The gospel of American neo-communists is riddled with contradictions. They want to defund the police and virtually abolish the armed forces, while all communist systems so far did the opposite by creating a police state backed by a huge military machine.

• They also talk of collective ownership of "the means of production and exchange." Yet those "means" are owned by 58 percent of Americans who hold stocks and won't be happy to be dispossessed in the name of "collective control."

• And that's not to mention countless Americans who own small- and medium-sized businesses.

(Image source: OpenAI)

"A specter is haunting America; the specter of communism!"

Until recently this re-writing of the opening of The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels might have sounded like a sour joke. Now, however, we have in the United States politicians who describe themselves alternately as the Democratic Socialists of America or straight communists.

Their morale boosted by the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City and the nomination of Abdul El-Sayed as a candidate for a Senate seat from Michigan in the upcoming elections, they openly talk of seizing control of the Democrat Party and reshaping it as an instrument for creating an "egalitarian" system in the US. One of their stars, US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is even putting out teasers about a possible presidential run in the 2028 elections.

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Iran's Regime: 'The Only Solution Is to Build a Nuclear Bomb and Fire It'
What Happens After President Trump Leaves Office?

by Majid Rafizadeh  •  August 29, 2026 at 5:00 am

• "The only way to save the country... is building an atomic bomb and firing it, no other way is left for us. We should create a tsunami whose waves hit the American coasts." — Iranian cleric Mohammad Bagher Kharrazi, secretary-general of Iran's proxy, Hezbollah, and closely tied to Iran's current Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei

• The real question needs to be: What happens after Trump leaves office?

• The regime's character — Islamist, anti-Western, anti-American and expansionist — has not changed. If Western powers are truly serious, they must work to completely eliminate Iran's present regime.

• Recent developments show the danger of permitting recovery. Iran's army is claiming that weapons systems damaged in the 2026 war have already been "rebuilt" -- either domestically or after having been imported, and with a shift toward offensive capabilities. Satellite imagery and intelligence assessments reveal rapid reconstruction of missile bases, tunnel entrances, production facilities, and infrastructure — faster than many anticipated. Israeli officials have expressed surprise at the speed of recovery in ballistic missile capabilities. Leaving these arsenals in place would simply make further military efforts more dangerous both for US bases and allies in the Gulf. Any rebuilding of Iran's military infrastructure must be disrupted; leaders driving this belligerency need to be removed from power.

• Economic isolation also remains critical, as US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has laid out, complete with universally enforced secondary sanctions. The European Union should close remaining diplomatic and commercial channels that provide legitimacy or revenue.

• The West should not have to wait for Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon -- when it would be impossible to stop, which is why the regime wants one -- before taking Iran's threats seriously. The war with the Iranian regime -- to contradict those who claim it was a war of choice – is anything but that. Iran, China and Russia have been trying to take down Western civilization for decades. Only Trump had the vision and the determination to take on these threats.

• For both US and international security, it is obligatory for the world's leading superpower, the United States of America, to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and to protect countless lives. Iran's regime must not be allowed to rebuild its military or remain in power. Every available measure needs to be pursued until the Islamic Republic of Iran is totally dismantled. For decades, half-measures have failed.

• The alternative is for the West's nuclear-capable adversaries -- whose "only solution" will assuredly put the world at risk -- to succeed in their mission.

In the ideology of Iran's ruling establishment, nuclear weapons are still openly contemplated not just as a deterrent but as instruments of mass destruction. If an extremist regime acquires a nuclear weapon, the question is: What happens afterwards? The regime's character — Islamist, anti-Western, anti-American and expansionist — has not changed. If Western powers are truly serious, they must work to completely eliminate Iran's present regime. Pictured: Crowds gather for the funeral procession of Iran's late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in Mashhad, on July 9, 2026. (Photo by Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)

For anyone who has ever harbored doubts—and for those who still do—that Iran's regime stands against humanity, peace, and the basic norms of civilization, the latest remarks from hard-line Iranian cleric Mohammad Bagher Kharrazi -- secretary-general of Iran's proxy, Hezbollah, and closely tied to the current Supreme Leader -- should be impossible to ignore. "The only way to save the country... is building an atomic bomb and firing it," Kharrazi recently declared, "no other way is left for us.... We should create a tsunami whose waves hit the American coasts".

In the ideology of Iran's ruling establishment, nuclear weapons are still openly contemplated not just as a deterrent but as instruments of mass destruction. If an extremist regime acquires a nuclear weapon, the question is: What happens afterwards?

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Syria: Turkey's New Battleground Against Israel

by Con Coughlin  •  August 28, 2026 at 5:00 am

• Turkey's continued financial support for Hamas and its provision of safe haven to Hamas terrorists only adds to Israel's view of Turkey as a hostile actor, an attitude that is not helped by Erdogan's constant use of anti-Israel rhetoric in political campaigning and official communications. In June, for example, Turkey's interior minister called for the "liberation of Jerusalem."

• Israel's intelligence establishment, though, presented the US with evidence that Erdogan has other ambitions, which include expanding and solidifying Turkey's military presence at Syrian bases previously used by the Assad regime's Iranian and Russian allies.

• In addition, Erdogan has stated that "Jerusalem is ours," and as recently as March 30, 2025, "May the Lord make Zionist Israel destroyed and devastated."

• Erdogan published a 758-page document that outlines his long-term phased plan to take over "Israel, the Middle East and the Free world."

• Amichai Chikli, Israel's Minister of Diaspora Affairs, said, "Ahmed al-Sharaa's military is Erdoğan's military. Al-Sharaa's ideology is Erdoğan's ideology. Erdoğan and al-Sharaa's ideology is Al Qaeda and ISIS ideology," and cited what he described as their barbaric treatment of non-Muslim minorities in the region.

• [I]t is vital that Erdogan not be allowed to pursue his expansionist aims in Syria and certainly not to have F-35 stealth fighter jets.

Israel has become increasingly concerned about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's attempts to expand his influence in neighbouring Syria, where he played a key role in helping the country's Islamist president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, to overthrow the Assad regime and seize power in December 2024. Pictured: Al-Sharaa shakes hands with Erdogan during a press conference in Ankara, Turkey on February 4, 2025. (Photo by Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images)

Amid deepening tensions between Turkey and Israel over Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's attempts to extend his influence over Syria, Israel's decision to strike a Syrian air base on the outskirts of Idlib is designed to send a clear signal to the Turkish leader to rein in his ambitions.

Since the overthrow of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, Syria has increasingly become the focus of the deepening hostility between Israel and Turkey.

In particular, Israel has become increasingly concerned about Erdogan's attempts to expand his influence in neighbouring Syria, where he played a key role in helping the country's new Islamist president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, to overthrow the Assad regime and seize power in December 2024.

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America's New Scam?: Hamas Elections by Another Name is Still Hamas

by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  August 27, 2026 at 5:00 am

• Hussein al-Sheikh, vice president of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and deputy chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), revealed this week that Hamas... has reached an understanding with the US permitting figures affiliated with the terrorist organization to participate [in the upcoming November 29 PA elections] through a "new political framework."

• If this account is accurate, the scheme amounts to a dangerous exercise in deception.

• Changing Hamas's name does not change Hamas. Pretending that Hamas-affiliated election candidates are somehow different from Hamas because they are running under another banner is a scam.

• Perhaps they could call themselves the "Palestinian Peace Movement," or the "Palestinian Party for Democracy and Transparency"?

• Hamas does not recognize Israel's right to exist. It has never accepted the PLO as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people." It rejects the Oslo Accords. Its ideology remains centered on "resistance" and the claimed "liberation" of Palestine — which in fact has never existed — wishfully from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

• Most importantly, Hamas has still not demonstrated that it is prepared to surrender its weapons and cease functioning as an armed organization.

• Hamas will promise anything if doing so helps it survive and return to political legitimacy.

• Hamas has proved itself adept at telling outsiders what they want to hear while pursuing its long-term objectives.

• The same danger applies to elections

• Why, after October 7, should anyone, let alone the Trump administration, be searching for formulas to facilitate Hamas's return to Palestinian political life?

• Why, nearly three years after October 7, 2023, does a terrorist organization such as Hamas continue to be treated by various international and regional parties as some kind of indispensable political actor? Hamas officials continue to participate in negotiations and meetings through regional mediators, while discussions increasingly seem aimed not at removing Hamas from Palestinian political life but at finding ways to accommodate it.

• There can be no loophole called "Hamas-affiliated independents." There can be no cosmetic rebranding and no supposedly "new political framework" designed to disguise the identity of candidates who continue to embrace Hamas and its jihadist ideology.

• Stop the deception. Stop searching for ways to sneak Hamas back into Palestinian political life through the back door. It is not good for either their election or America's.

Changing Hamas's name does not change Hamas. Pretending that Hamas-affiliated election candidates are somehow different from Hamas because they are running under another banner is a scam. If candidates are affiliated with Hamas, support Hamas or subscribe to its extremist ideology, what difference does the name of their electoral list make? Pictured: The Palestinian Legislative Council building in Ramallah on January 28, 2006, three days after its last election. (Photo by Zharan Hammad/Getty Images)

If reports about an agreement between the United States and Hamas concerning the terrorist group's participation in the upcoming Palestinian Authority elections are true, the arrangement is not only outrageous, it is a fraud.

Hussein al-Sheikh, vice president of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and deputy chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), revealed this week that Hamas would not participate in the November 28 parliamentary elections under its own name or in its current form. According to al-Sheikh, Hamas has reached an understanding with the US permitting figures affiliated with the terrorist organization to participate through a "new political framework."

If this account is accurate, the scheme amounts to a dangerous exercise in deception.

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'They Are Against the Principles of the Country They Live In': The Islamization of Europe

by Robert Williams  •  August 25, 2026 at 5:00 am

• "Europe should wake up. If they remain silent it will be destroyed from within. It is almost already destroyed. If Europe does not wake up and prosecute these people... these people are not only Hamas. These people are against freedom, against democracy, against secularism, they are against the basic principles of the country they live in." – A Gazan living in Belgium, Channel 12 News, July 2026.

• After the report was issued, Belgian federal MP Sam van Rooy... requested a city council emergency session, but could not find enough votes to get one. No meeting was held; no other party found it necessary.

• This indifference to the security of the local Christian and Jewish communities, the city and country at large, is particularly jarring after documentation exposed that Hamas was planning an October 7-style mass attack against Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe, scheduled to coincide with the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023 atrocities.

• Perhaps one might argue that the Belgian government, which has shown itself to be extremely anti-Israel, does not care that Hamas raises funds in the country: the victims are "only" Israelis and Jews. So far.

• "Germany and other European countries are now increasingly being viewed as operational areas for possible attacks." —German Federal Prosecutor General Jens Rommel, Jerusalem Post, June 16, 2026

• In 2024, Belgium received half of all Palestinian asylum applications submitted in the entire EU. In that year alone, 3,281 Palestinians were granted formal refugee status by Belgium.

• "This is not a Jewish problem, but a European problem." – Ralph Pais, vice-chair of the Jewish Information and Documentation Center, Antwerp, Belgium, September 11, 2025.

• Twice already, Hamas has thanked Belgium for its support. Perhaps Belgium and other countries that align with and harbor terrorist groups should be viewed as security threats to Europe?

Twice already, Hamas has thanked Belgium for its support. Perhaps Belgium and other countries that align with and harbor terrorist groups should be viewed as security threats to Europe? Pictured: An anti-Israel protest in Brussels, on October 2, 2025. (Photo by Emile Windal/Belga/AFP via Getty Images)

At the heart of the European Union, Belgium exemplifies better than perhaps any other Western European country the extent to which political elites seem to almost relish the degree to which Europe is being Islamized.

In July 2026, Israel's Channel 12 News aired a report warning that Hamas terrorists, including high-ranking members of the organization's Al-Qassam Brigades, now live in Antwerp -- some of whom, according to local Gazans opposed to Hamas, are receiving Belgian citizenship.

"Little Gaza," as the neighborhood in northern Antwerp is called in the report, has a large population of Gazans from Khan Younis, a major Hamas stronghold. Hamas-linked residents there traffic in illegal narcotics, run shops and restaurants, and send the proceeds to Hamas in Gaza, according to the interviewed Gazans, who only dared speak anonymously out of fear of revenge from local Hamas supporters.

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