A reminder that as the US continues to threaten countries around the world, fedposting is to be very much avoided (even with qualifiers like “in Minecraft”) and comments containing it will be removed.

Image is of Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi (below) and Iranian Speaker of Parliament Ghalibaf (above, right) in the Iranian parliament in 2024. These two figures have played a major role in the war so far.


My summary of the situation as I understand it is in spoiler tags below.

summary

After many long weeks, Iran and the US have agreed that they’re going to begin negotiations on certain topics in a process lasting at least 60 days. Due to America’s perfidy during previous negotiations, trust has broken down so far that Iran demanded $12 billion of their frozen funds and several other promises, such as the end to the naval blockade, to even return to the table, which seems perfectly reasonable to me. Iran also demanded that negotiations take place in two stages, and that nuclear issues will only be discussed in the second stage, which will be several weeks from now if everything goes as planned.

The terms of the MoU have themselves been a big source of confusion and suspicion, for me and many other pro-Iranian spectators. Getting the wording exactly correct is important, because the US really is like the devil - leave room for any possible interpretation in the contract that favors them more, and they’ll insist that this was the only interpretation up for discussion. Additionally, the US might be historically bad at winning wars, but they’re very, very good at winning peaces: they set up the post-WW2 order to best suit them by playing the European powers off each other; the DPRK might have survived the Korean War politically intact but existed for nearly the next hundred years as a sanctioned pariah; Vietnam was soon forced to economically engage with the country that had dropped triple of all the bomb tonnage of WW2 on them; and so on. It is no exaggeration when I say that the negotiation phase will be the most dangerous part of this war and it could lead to the most death and destruction without a single missile impacting Iran.

However, there’s one little genocidal colony in the region that could stop this whole process from even beginning, as the US appears to have promised Iran that the Zionists will stop the war against Lebanon (and perhaps Gaza too? I’m a little unclear) and even withdraw entirely from southern Lebanon, including all bases set up since this broader conflict began. Apparently, the US promised this in return for Iran not striking the Zionists in return for their most recent strike on Beirut on June 14th. Now, the issue with this whole situation is that the US greenlit the Zionist strike on Beirut, and they knew that Iran would respond to it because they did in response to an earlier strike. If the US made such major concessions to Iran in return for this response strike not occurring, then why authorize the Beirut strike at all? Why make their position worse? Right now, I can think of two reasons. First is that they attempted to create one final embarrassment for Iran, under the assumption that Iran was so desperate for a deal that they wouldn’t risk responding. Second is that this is all one big ruse or misdirection; the US does not intend to follow through with the MoU and subsequent negotiations anyway, and so the terms they’re “agreeing” to don’t really matter.

With the MoU signing apparently set for June 19th, we’ll know for sure soon.


Last week’s thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.

Please check out the RedAtlas!

The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.

The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine

If you have evidence of Zionist crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

UNRWA reports on the Zionists’ destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.

English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.

Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Sources:

Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.

Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.

Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.

Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:

Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.


  • HarryLime [any]@hexbear.net
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    Netanyahu warns fight against Iran ‘not over,’ vows continued occupation in Lebanon: The prime minister claimed he saved Israel from ‘nuclear annihilation’ while boasting of ‘destroying’ Iranian military capabilities

    Israeli Prime Minister and wanted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu declared during a news conference on 15 June that Tel Aviv has its “own interests,” stressing that his “struggle” against Iran is “not over.”

    “The agreement with Iran was made by Trump, and this is his decision; we have our own interests,” Netanyahu said.

    He also claimed he was “not sure about the details of the agreement between Washington and Tehran," while at the same time telling reporters that the framework aligns with the war goals defined by the Israeli cabinet.

    “I did not say that one of the objectives of the operation was to overthrow the Iranian regime,” he claimed, contradicting comments made early in the war.

    “It did not go wrong at all. I defined the goals — and the cabinet defined the goals — differently from what you said,” he told a reporter.

    “Many times, we see eye to eye, and there are also cases in which we see less eye to eye. I am responsible for Israel’s security interests. I stand up for them,” Netanyahu added in response to a question on his relationship with Trump.

    “When necessary, I stand firm on our security interests.”

    The premier went on to repeat what his war minister and other officials said earlier on Monday, vowing to continue the occupation in south Lebanon.

    “We established deep security zones around Israel… in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Syria … We will remain in the security zones for as long as necessary to protect our country.”

    He added that Tel Aviv “will continue to thwart threats in the region, build new alliances with countries in the region and outside the region, and ensure our security independence.”

    He then boasted that Israel “took control of key areas in Lebanon from which Hezbollah had threatened Israel."

    Hezbollah resistance fighters remain entrenched across Lebanese villages occupied by Israeli forces, and confronted new Israeli advancement attempts on 15 June.

    "We are working to maintain freedom of military action [in Lebanon] and to continue enjoying it,” Netanyahu alleged.

    The embattled premier also assured reporters that Tel Aviv continues its work to find solutions in dealing with the threat of Hezbollah’s FPV drones and other weapons, which have inflicted serious losses on the occupation forces.

    The prime minister boasted about Israel’s strikes on Iran during the war.

    “We launched the largest attack operation in Israel’s history. We targeted the nuclear scientists; we eliminated the leaders of the terror regime; we crushed nuclear facilities; we destroyed missiles and the vast majority of factories that produce missiles. We struck countless military industries and infrastructures. We destroyed their navy, their air force,” he proclaimed.

    His comments contradict US media reports, which cite intelligence assessments as saying that Tehran has retained significant military capabilities and has successfully restored missile sites bombarded during the war.

    “We eliminated base commanders who massacred the Iranian people. We caused enormous damage — [some] estimate it in the hundreds of billions of dollars, some estimate it at even close to a trillion dollars — to Iran’s economy,” Netanyahu claimed.

    Additionally, he claimed the strikes on Iran “saved” Israel from “annihilation” and prevented Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

    US intelligence has repeatedly concluded that Tehran is not looking to weaponize its nuclear program.

    The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Tehran and Washington reportedly does not cover Iran’s ballistic missile program or its backing of regional allies, which are key Israeli demands that Tel Aviv had been urging Washington to address.

    Iranian media reports say Washington has capitulated to the Islamic Republic’s demands, including ending the war in Lebanon.

    Israeli War Minister Israel Katz vowed on 15 June that Tel Aviv will not withdraw occupation forces from south Lebanon and will strike the Islamic Republic with “full force” if it responds to violations in Lebanon, as it did earlier this month.

    “During his conversation with Trump … Netanyahu made clear that Israel does not consider itself bound by the Lebanon-related clause of the US–Iran agreement,” Maariv newspaper reported.

    • culpritus [any]@hexbear.net
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      So it seems like isntrael wants to go solo against the axis of resistance in direct contradiction to Trump’s Beautiful Birthday Peace Deal. Either this is more subterfuge from USIS or the entity has lost all official support from US going forward.

      I hope Iran and their allies are well prepared for all eventualities.

      • HarryLime [any]@hexbear.net
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        Either this is more subterfuge from USIS or the entity has lost all official support from US going forward.

        I just don’t see how the latter can possibly be true. Trump has purged everyone in his group that would be sympathetic to marginalizing Israel- Tulsi, Massie, etc- and Congress is trying to integrate the Israeli military and intelligence directly into the Pentagon.

        • culpritus [any]@hexbear.net
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          Yes, it seems unlikely considering Hegs etc. I think there is some tension between Trump wanting an out/win and the ongoing zio project. The Trump brand and zio base having a separation of interests that is interesting, but it could change abruptly back the other way.