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It is unlikely that the Lebanese Army would remain intact if they were ordered to attack Hezbollah, as a large component of its fighters are speculated to sympathise with the Party that is resisting Israeli aggression. Although there is no census allowed, it is speculated that the Lebanese Army itself could be composed of between 25% to 50% Shia Muslims, the same sect as Hezbollah.

The post Failing To Destroy Hezbollah, Israel Seeks To Spark A Lebanese Civil War appeared first on MintPress News.

Many stores and markets are empty, not because the island does not produce food, but because there is no way to transport it from the countryside to the cities. The United Nations has warned of a possible “humanitarian collapse,” due to the economic war. Havana-based journalist Luis de Jesus Reyes labeled it an attempted genocide in the making. 

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News that the move to free up 140 million barrels of oil was aimed at preventing China gaining from the situation. “That’s about 10 days to two weeks of supply that the Iranians had been pushing out that would have all gone to China,” he said. “In essence, we will be using the Iranian barrels against the Iranians to keep the price down for the next 10 or 14 days as we continue this campaign.”

The post Embarrassing Pivot: US Considers Dropping Iran Oil Sanctions Amid War appeared first on MintPress News.

Yet despite the intensity of Israel's bombardment, Hezbollah has not collapsed. On the contrary, the group continues to demonstrate significant military capability. Reports indicate that just in the last three weeks, 50 Israeli tanks have been destroyed, and Hezbollah units remain active across multiple fronts. Far from being diminished, the organization is widely believed to retain a force numbering in the tens of thousands—potentially exceeding the size of the Lebanese army itself.

The post Hezbollah Destroys 50 Israeli Merkava Tanks in Three Weeks As Israel Fails to Occupy South Lebanon appeared first on MintPress News.

Joe Kent resigned as head of the National Counterterrorism Center over Iran war. He said Iran poses "no imminent threat" and claimed the war began due to pressure from Benjamin Nentanyahu and the Israel lobby.

The post Top US Counterterror Chief Joe Kent Resigns Over Iran War, Blames Israel Lobby Pressure appeared first on MintPress News.

Great strategic importance has been attached to the islands, with Iran deciding to develop their military capabilities there since at least 2008. In particular, Abu Musa, the largest of the three islands, is home to a broad range of Iranian military capabilities. Former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, credited as one of the architects of Tehran’s “Mosaic Defence” strategy, even labelled Abu Musa Island as “Iran’s beating heart” in the Persian Gulf at the beginning of 2019. 

The post US May Sieze Three Iranian Islands, Including Kharg, Targeting Critical Oil Routes & Military in Hormuz appeared first on MintPress News.

Terror Alarm promotes itself as a service that can predict who will carry out attacks, based on their social media posts, and can share that information with governments and police forces. However, its own source code, netizens have exposed, dictates which groups are considered worthy of support and which are “opposed entities.” While the UAE, Turkey, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Israel and “Jews and Zionists worldwide” are considered positive groups, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, the Chinese Communist Party are all placed on their own private terrorist list. 

The post Terror Alarm: Inside the Shady Israeli Group Crowdfunding the Kidnapping of Dr. Marandi appeared first on MintPress News.

 Openly declaring its intent to illegally occupy southern Lebanon, Israel finds itself in a costly ground battle with Hezbollah, from which there are indications Syria may soon be roped in. This is born from the understanding that in order to successfully weaken the Lebanese resistance, the Israeli military must penetrate the Bekaa Valley area and that's why Israel wants Syria’s military to invade Lebanon's border and attack Hezbollah, aiming to go after what is labelled critical infrastructure belonging to the Lebanese group. The Trump administration has directly put pressure on Syrian leader Ahmed al-Shara’a to do just that but growing resistance inside of Syria against Israel is pushing back.

The post Failing to Defeat Hezbollah, Israel & US Pressure Syria’s Ahmed al-Sharaa to Join War appeared first on MintPress News.

In this week’s episode of the MintCast podcast hosted by MintPress director Mnar Adley, we are joined by Iranian political analyst Ali Alizadeh to talk about Trump’s miscalculation in the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran which went from shock & awe to strategic failure. Twenty-seven days into the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, what was expected to be a swift and decisive campaign is instead spiraling into a far more dangerous and unpredictable confrontation with massive econimic global fallout because of the closure of the Straight of Hormuz. Early assumptions that Iran’s leadership could be “decapitated” through targeted airstrikes—triggering internal collapse—have proven dramatically misplaced.

The post Trump’s Iran Gamble Is Spiraling Out of Control: From Shock & Awe to Strategic Failure appeared first on MintPress News.

War with Iran has been the goal of both neoconservative and Zionist factions in Washington for decades. With an increasingly belligerent and erratic Trump in the White House, it could be that the warmongers finally achieve their dream.

The post Scott Ritter: US vs Iran: What War Would Really Look Like –Military Power, Oil Shock & Global Fallout appeared first on MintPress News.