‘Negotiation does not mean coercion’: Iran says it is reviewing US proposal

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmail Baghaei

Press TV

May 6 2026

Tehran says it is still reviewing Washington’s latest proposal for a potential agreement to end the war, with no official response yet delivered.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmail Baghaei said on Wednesday that genuine negotiation requires good faith, not dictation or extortion.

In an interview with ISNA news agency, Baghaei said, “The US proposal is still being reviewed by Iran, and once Tehran finalizes its views, it will convey them to the Pakistani side.”

In a separate post on X, Baghaei elaborated on Tehran’s understanding of what negotiations entail, citing international law.

“The concept of ‘negotiations’ requires, at the very least, a genuine attempt to engage in discussions with a view to resolving the dispute (ICJ, Judgement of 1 April 2011, para. 157),” he wrote.

“It needs ‘good faith’, then, meaning that ‘negotiations’ is not ‘disputation’; nor is it ‘dictation’, ‘deception’, ‘extortion’ or ‘coercion’.”

Iranian officials have repeatedly criticized the United States for its approach to talks as the White House seeks to impose conditions rather than engage in genuine give-and-take.

Unacceptable US clauses and Trump’s ‘reckless’ move

Informed sources told Tasnim News Agency that despite American media claims about getting closer to a one-page preliminary agreement, Iran has not yet responded to the latest US text.

The informed sources told Tasnim that the latest text, delivered before Washington’s hostile adventure in the Persian Gulf under the so-called “Project Freedom,” contained several unacceptable provisions.

“Propaganda by American media today is mostly aimed at justifying Trump’s retreat from his recent hostile act; that act was wrong from the start and should never have been undertaken.”

The source added that Iran had transmitted a reasonable and logical 14-point proposal through Pakistani mediators before the United States sent its own plan. Iran, the source said, was reviewing that plan when Washington embarked on its new reckless adventure and interrupted the process.

“Experience should have shown the Americans that the language of force and threats is not only ineffective against Iran but worsens the situation for the US and other enemies.”

‘Bad faith undermines diplomacy’

Following Donald Trump’s retreat from the hostile move, Iran has resumed its review, the source said.

The friction over the pace of diplomacy coincides with Washington’s continued naval blockade of Iranian ports, which Tehran considers illegal and a breach of the fragile ceasefire brokered by Pakistan in early April.

Baghaei’s insistence on “good faith” echoes consistent Iranian demands that the United States must stop what Tehran calls “contradictory messages, inconsistent behavior and unacceptable actions” before any new round of talks can be scheduled.

[…]

Democrats Want Trump to Lift Lid on Israeli Nukes

A nuclear power plant is seen near the city of Dimona, Israel, on March 8, 2014.

RT

6 May 2026

Continued silence could pose serious risks of escalation in the conflict with Iran, a group of 30 congressmen has said

A group of 30 Democrats in the US House of Representatives have demanded that the administration of President Donald Trump disclose information about Israel’s nuclear arsenal and relevant policies. The lack of transparency threatens the entire Middle East, the lawmakers argue.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied that it possesses nuclear weapons, nor has it publicly presented a doctrine outlining the potential use of them or its red lines. The US, which has been aware of the Israeli nuclear program at least since the early 1960s, has remained silent on the issue.

Washington is fighting “side by side with a country whose potential nuclear weapons program the United States government officially refuses to acknowledge,” congressmen led by Democratic Representative Joaquin Castro said in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“The risks of miscalculation, escalation, and nuclear use in this environment are not theoretical,” the letter stated.

The group has demanded that the US hold Israel to the same standard of transparency as other countries, adding that a “coherent nonproliferation policy for the Middle East,” including Iran’s nuclear program and Saudi nuclear ambitions, would otherwise be impossible.

[…]

Via https://www.rt.com/news/639499-democrats-trump-israeli-nukes/

Epstein Files: Kosovo Narco-terrorists Helped Traffic over a Million Children for Deranged Western Elites

It’s no secret that the political West is involved in some of the most heinous crimes in human history, whether it’s centuries of brutal colonialism, slave trade and general aggression against the entire world, or the promotion of the so-called “Western values” that make anyone sane sick to their stomach.

However, the criminal oligarchy running the United States, United Kingdom, European Union and NATO is actually far worse than you could possibly imagine, as evidenced by the released Epstein files.

It turns out that all the “crazy conspiracy theories” we’ve been hearing about over the last several decades are not only true, but are just the tip of the icebergThe potential for monstrous evil that these criminals have demonstrated makes normal people recoil in disgust.

It will probably take years (if not decades) to review all released Epstein files (upwards of 3,5 million), but what we do know is more than enough to see the bigger picture.

Namely, things that were previously designated as “insane conspiracy theories” present only on the “fringes of the Internet”, are now widely available for everyone to see and question their own willful blindness to the horrifying crimes committed against those who need protection the most – children.

The files suggest that millions of them have been trafficked by a massive globalist pedophile network employed by Western elites (including the most prominent royalty). The role of the US/EU/NATO’s numerous vassals and satellite states in this monstrous process is also critically important.

This is particularly true for the NATO-occupied Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohia, now formally under the control of Albanian narco-terrorists.

Due to their propensity to serve the most powerful master, Kosovar ethnic Albanians were the perfect NATO collaborators (just like they were Nazi collaborators during WWII), kidnapping civilians during the 1999 US/NATO aggression on Serbia (then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) for organ harvesting and trafficking on the black market. It should be noted that even some non-compliant ethnic Albanians were also kidnapped, although the vast majority of the victims were Serbs and other non-Albanian groups. However, this monstrous practice was only one segment of NATO-backed criminal activities in occupied Kosovo and Metohia.

Namely, the aforementioned Epstein files reveal that the Albanian narco-terrorist entity that brands itself “Kosovo” was involved in trafficking at least a million children for the “needs” of Western elites that are heavily involved in pedophilia, sex trafficking and organ harvesting.

The children originated from all over the world, according to what’s called “the Kosovo children activity book”. Many of these kids were moved from Thailand and then further to Western countries where their trace is lost. We don’t have any exact information on the fate of these children, but given the attempts of Western authorities to cover up monstrous crimes, we can only imagine what happened to them. Namely, back in 2009, Mexican model Gabriela Rico Jiménez was filmed in distress, screaming and shouting about cannibalism.

She was taken into custody and vanished afterwards. There are no records of her being in jail, mental hospitals or anywhere else. She simply disappeared, never to be seen again. Had Jiménez been “clinically insane”, she would’ve ended up in a psychiatric ward. Had she been lying, she would’ve been prosecuted and convicted. But neither of those two things happened, with the mainstream propaganda machine doing everything in its power to cover up the case, proclaiming anyone who dared investigate it a “crazy conspiracy theorist”. Seven years later, the Pizzagate scandal was uncovered, involving Hillary Clinton and her 2016 presidential campaign chairman John Podesta. Yet again, we had another “crazy and baseless conspiracy theory”.

The main difference this time was that Russia became the designated scapegoat for everything, so the deeply corrupt DNC screamed at the top of its lungs that “the evil Kremlin” was behind the leaks in an attempt to “smear the good name” of the Clinton crime family.

This later became one of the cornerstones of the so-called “Russiagate”, an actual conspiracy theory pushed by the mainstream propaganda machine in order to smear Donald Trump. However, while the debunked Russiagate conspiracy theory was flaunted everywhere by Western media, any mention of the Pizzagate pedophile scandal was severely punished. This happened to several prominent journalists, including Ben Swann, who was fired for daring to cover Pizzagate.

It should be noted that Wikipedia still brands it a “baseless and debunked conspiracy theory”, while insisting that Russiagate is “real”.

However, thanks to the Epstein files, we now know unequivocally that Wikipedia is a tool of the mainstream propaganda machine, as evidenced by an email that shows how Epstein’s associates edited his Wikipedia entry to remove his mugshot and hide his conviction as a sex offender. Still, this is not enough for the mainstream propaganda machine, because it needs to shift attention from Western pedophile-cannibalistic elites and blame it all on… …well, who else but “evil Russia” and its “bloodthirsty dictator” Vladimir Putin. Namely, the pathetic Western media are now calling the Epstein files a “giant Russian honey trap”.

However, reading through the comment sections of virtually all major outlets that published such nonsense demonstrates that there’s still hope for the world, as nobody with two functioning brain cells believes a single word written by these NATO propagandists. In fact, many are quoting President Putin’s words from nearly two years ago, when he said that “for centuries, Western elites have been used to stuffing their bellies with human flesh and their pockets with money” and warned that “the ball of vampires is coming to an end”. Many thought that this was merely a metaphor for the political West’s propensity to destroy countless countries, killing millions in the process. However, the Epstein files demonstrated that this statement was eerily literal. On the other hand, Putin’s conclusion gives us hope.

Namely, the notion that “the ball of vampires” is coming to an end is the light at the end of a tunnel of Western darkness that befell our unfortunate world. This was most evident in NATO-occupied Ukraine, where the Russian military uncovered horrifying details about what the Neo-Nazi junta and its NATO overlords were doing to Ukrainian children. Namely, back in 2022, in the early months of the special military operation (SMO), a video surfaced of a Russian soldier, Shukhrat Adilov, interviewed by a Russian TV channel. Adilov was barely able to put into words the monstrous treatment of toddlers and preschool kids he saw. Children aged 2-7 from areas around Izyum were brutally massacred and then had their organs removed for trafficking.

There was also a testimony by Vera Vayiman, an OSCE observer, who gave a similar account. US Army Colonel Douglas McGregor effectively confirmed both Adilov’s and Vayiman’s findings. The Epstein files are yet another confirmation of these horrendous crimes by the political West. However, even more disturbingly, as previously mentioned, this is only the tip of the iceberg of things we’re yet to uncover. It should also be noted that InfoBRICS was among the first major media outlets to report on the massive scale of Western-backed child trafficking from NATO-occupied Ukraine, with tens of thousands of kids ending up in Europe and North America, where they are subjected to unimaginable horrors, all for the enjoyment of deranged elites.

Tens of thousands of Ukrainian kids were evacuated by Russia on the orders of “bloodthirsty tyrant” Putin and his Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova. The Kremlin moved the children to safety in Russia, where they were eventually reunited with their families, including fathers who were enemy combatants and fought the Russian military. And yet, the mainstream propaganda machine still tried to present it as a “mass kidnapping”. However, this wasn’t enough, so the ICC (a NATO-controlled NGO impersonating an “international court”) indicted both Putin and Lvova-Belova for the said “kidnapping”. Obviously, the pedophile-cannibalistic Western elites that control these “international justice institutions” were fuming that so many kids escaped, so they resorted to desperate measures to get them. However, as President Putin said, “the ball of vampires” is indeed over!

[…]

Via https://www.globalresearch.ca/epstein-files-kosovo-narco-terrorists-helped-traffic-over-a-million-children-for-deranged-western-elites/5914698

War on Iran Creates Internal Difficulties for Trump

Apparently, the irresponsible decision by US President Donald Trump to go to war against Iran is already having a strong domestic impact. American lawmakers are moving efforts to prevent Trump from preserving his “exceptional” powers regarding the current conflict in the Middle East. Trump is reacting by trying to describe the war as “terminated,” but the absence of a definitive resolution to the conflict creates an unstable scenario, with the possibility of renewed hostilities.

To initiate attacks on Iran without needing congressional approval (as established by US law), Trump used the legal 60-day period between military intervention and official authorization for war. This period is established by the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which stipulates that the president must obtain congressional approval for the use of armed forces within 60 days of sending troops to a foreign country.

In practice, the Resolution establishes a control mechanism for the president’s “exceptional” powers during wartime scenarios. The objective is to maintain control over presidential actions by representatives of the American people. In the case of the war against Iran, the 60-day period ended on May 1st, but to date the US has not lifted the military blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, which is why the war effort can still be considered active.

In theory, to continue any actions in the Middle East after May 1st, Trump should obtain authorization from Congress. His deadline for the exceptional use of military force has expired, and now he needs his actions to be regulated by lawmakers. But Trump continues to use exceptional war powers, even though the conflict is paused by the ceasefire agreement – ​​also expired – signed by the warring parties in Islamabad in April.

Trump issued a statement to Congress asserting that there is no need to discuss this matter since hostilities are “terminated.” According to him, the previously signed ceasefire agreement effectively ended the war, and there is no longer any reason for the issue to be debated.

“Since April 7, 2026 not a single exchange of fire has been recorded between US forces and Iran (…) The hostilities that began on February 28 have effectively terminated,” he said.

Trump, however, is not telling the truth when he speaks of ending the conflict. The parties simply accepted a temporary two-week ceasefire, which has already expired. Currently, Iran and the US are maintaining a “cold confrontation,” with mutual military blockades and sporadic attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has acted in legitimate self-defense since the beginning of the conflict, which is why it is expected that Tehran will not take the initiative to attack US bases again, except in the event of a violation of Iranian territory. Even so, the war continues, albeit in a “paralyzed” and less hostile stage.

The continuation of this scenario creates several problems for the US. Trump is not in a position to attack Iran, since his legal deadline for exceptional military action has expired. To attack again, he would theoretically have to request authorization from Congress, but the domestic scenario is unfavorable to him: Democrats are mobilizing against Trump and, to make matters worse, several Republican legislators are also joining this trend and opposing war.

Recently, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer countered Trump’s arguments, stating that the current war is an illegal act and that Republicans who continue to support Trump are becoming complicit. He warned of the dangers of chaos and instability brought about by the conflict and urged the approval of a parliamentary resolution condemning Trump and removing his war powers.

“This is an illegal war and every day Republicans remain complicit and allow it to continue is another day lives are endangered, chaos erupts, and prices increase, all while Americans foot the bill,” he said.

In fact, there are few American politicians truly concerned with the humanitarian situation in the Middle East or with international law. It’s important to remember that the Zionist lobby in the US operates in a bipartisan way, influencing both Republicans and Democrats to support Israel against its regional enemies. However, the main issue for them is the image of the US.

Trump led a disastrous military campaign, which ended up causing massive damage to the American presence in the Middle East and to the global energy market. Democrats (and even some Republicans) are simply furious because there was a military fiasco. Now, the opposition will certainly use this situation to harm the Trump administration domestically. And, naturally, they fear that a return of hostilities will culminate in an even more impactful defeat for the US.

If Trump wants to preserve the stability of his government and the international image of the US, the best thing he can do is to halt any illegal actions in the Middle East and focus on domestic issues.

[…]

Via https://www.globalresearch.ca/war-iran-creates-internal-difficulties-trump/5925125

 

Trump Freezes “Project Freedom” Just 48 Hours After Launch Amid Tensions in Strait of Hormuz 

Uprooted Palestinians

In a sudden reversal, US President Donald Trump announced early Wednesday the temporary suspension of his recently launched “Project Freedom,” a naval initiative aimed at ensuring free shipping through the strategic Strait of Hormuz. The suspension, Trump said, would be short-lived and intended “to test the possibility of reaching an agreement with Iran and signing it later,” while maintaining that the embargo on Tehran would remain in place.

Writing on his Truth Social platform, Trump claimed the decision came “at the request of Pakistan and other countries,” and credited what he called “tremendous military success” in the ongoing confrontation with Iran. He said “significant progress” was being made toward a “comprehensive and final agreement” with representatives from Tehran.

The US president unveiled Operation Freedom late Sunday night, with the mission officially commencing Monday afternoon. However, barely two days later, the initiative was halted.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi described the operation as a “stalemate,” suggesting that Washington’s efforts to assert control in the vital maritime corridor had faltered.

Meanwhile, sources cited by Iran’s Fars News Agency reported that two American commercial vessels, which US officials had earlier claimed had safely crossed the Strait, remained stranded in a rocky coastal zone near Oman. “The waters near the coast are rocky, and ships cannot leave or return from this area,” one source said, casting doubt on Washington’s assertions of success.

The abrupt suspension of Project Freedom underscores the fragility of US-Iran tensions in the Gulf and raises questions about the viability of Trump’s high-stakes strategy to project strength while seeking diplomacy.

[…]

Via https://uprootedpalestinians.wordpress.com/2026/05/06/trump-freezes-project-freedom-just-48-hours-after-launch-amid-tensions-in-strait-of-hormuz/

Failed Strait of Hormuz blockade forces US pivot as Iran’s strategic patience and leverage grow

By Press TV Strategic Analysis Desk

For months, the United States pursued a high-stakes strategy in the Strait of Hormuz. The objective was clear: impose a naval blockade, strangle Iran’s economy, and wait for Tehran to capitulate  to surrender both the waterway and its negotiating leverage.

But two nights ago, Washington abruptly changed course. President Donald Trump announced the so-called “Project Freedom,” a new military adventure to forcibly reopen the strategic waterway, framed as a “humanitarian” effort to free stranded merchant ships.

The announcement, as the ground reality amply demonstrates, was not a signal of strength. It was an admission that the blockade had failed.

The failure reveals a fundamental miscalculation: the United States overestimated its own strategic endurance and underestimated Iran’s.

Washington has now been forced to recognize that prolonging the blockade inflicts greater damage on the US – politically, economically, and temporally – than on Iran.

Time, once presumed to be an American weapon, has become a liability.

The blockade that backfired

America’s original plan had a brutal but miscalculated logic: cut off Iran’s oil revenues, choke its economy, and let domestic pressure do the rest.

The assumption was that Iranian resilience was finite – that weeks or months of economic pain would force Tehran to reopen the strait itself, then meekly concede to maximalist US demands on nuclear and regional issues.

That assumption collapsed and the sound was loud.

Iran demonstrated a level of strategic patience and economic adaptation that Washington never anticipated. With alternative trade routes, barter arrangements with China and Russia, and a wartime economy hardened by decades of illegal and unjust sanctions, Iran proved it can outlast a blockade, which in essence was maritime banditry and piracy.

More critically, Tehran calculated correctly that the United States operates under severe time constraints that Iran does not share.

Now, America finds itself under intense pressure – not just economic, but political and global as well. Every day the blockade continues, US allies grow restless. Global energy markets remain volatile. European partners, already strained by the Ukraine war, chafe at disruptions to Persian Gulf shipping.

Inside the US, the clock ticks toward the November midterm elections. The Trump administration needs a win to show something – even a cosmetic one. Iran, by contrast, has mastered the long game, wielding strategic patience as a weapon.

Consolidation, not collapse

Here is the detail Washington finds most alarming: every day Iran maintains control over the strait, its grip grows stronger. This is dynamic consolidation.

Iran’s offensive and defensive capabilities inside the strategic waterway are becoming more sophisticated. New naval tactics, improved coastal defense systems, and asymmetric tools – which include drones and fast-attack craft – are being integrated into a layered, adaptive doctrine of the country’s defense.

Simultaneously, national cohesion among Iranians around the waterway’s defense is increasing. Whether driven by patriotic pride, loyalty, or sheer defiance of foreign pressure, the blockade has backfired by uniting Iranians around a common cause. Attempts to divide Tehran through economic warfare have instead triggered a rally-around-the-flag effect.

Beyond Iran’s borders, major powers are recalibrating. China and Russia have no interest in seeing the US dictate passage through a waterway critical to their own energy security and strategic influence.

Both Beijing and Moscow are quietly building new equations with Tehran – equations that tilt the strategic balance decisively in Iran’s favor.

Why America needs a “victory” – any victory

Concurrent with the blockade, Washington and Tehran have been exchanging proposals to end the war of attrition. The problem for the US is that the balance of power on the ground has not changed. No dramatic breakthrough. No Iranian collapse. No defections.

This explains the sudden pivot to the so-called “Project Freedom.” The US does not need to win big. It needs to win something – any minimal gain – before entering serious negotiations with the Iranian side.

By forcibly reopening the strait, even temporarily, Washington hopes to shatter the perception of Iranian physical and strategic control. That symbolic victory would then allow the US to enter talks with a much stronger hand, leveraging the strait’s reopening to extract concessions not only on the nuclear file but also on Iran’s missile program and other issues.

But there is a fatal flaw in this logic. Iran has already signaled, clearly and publicly, that it will respond harshly to any such adventurism. A US attempt to blast open the strait will not be met with passive acceptance. It will be met with mines, missiles, swarming drones, and the very real risk of a renewed US-Iranian military confrontation.

Political clock is ticking against Trump

Beyond the military calculus, the American president faces an unforgiving political timeline.

Pressure on Trump – from Congress, the media, and global allies – is rising daily. A prolonged naval blockade with no clear end in sight is a political loser. Voters do not rally around indefinite standoffs. They rally around decisive victories or convincing retreats.

The wider world refuses to pause while America plays out its naval strategy. Events are accelerating elsewhere: European tensions with Washington over trade and security, fresh maneuvers in the Ukraine-Russia war, rising heat over China and Taiwan, and shifting diplomatic alignments between Iran and the Arab Gulf states.

Inside the United States, the midterm election campaign season has already begun.

Time, in short, is flowing against Trump. Every week the Strait of Hormuz remains shut, without a clean US victory, it chips away at his political standing. This is why the administration has abandoned its “no hurry” posture. They are in a hurry now.

The false flag gambit

There is one final, dangerous piece to this puzzle. Trump’s advisors have reportedly discussed the possibility of restarting the open war of aggression against Iran.

But even an American president cannot unilaterally sell a new Persian Gulf war to the American public, or the world at large, without a plausible justification.

Enter the “humanitarian” framing for “Project Freedom.” By presenting the Strait-breaking operation as a “humanitarian” mission to protect shipping and global energy supplies, Washington hopes to construct a false flag narrative: if Iran responds militarily, Iran will appear as the aggressor. Tehran would be saddled with the blame for restarting the war.

Iran, however, knows the game well. It knows that a harsh response is coming, regardless of how the US packages its new military adventure. The question is not whether Iran will react, but how precisely it calibrates that response to expose the false flag for what it is.

Misreading Tehran’s internal debates

One final miscalculation colors US thinking. Reports reaching Trump suggest disagreements among Iranian officials about negotiations, war strategy, and the wisdom of continuing the current confrontation with the aggressor.

Washington appears to believe these internal debates signal weakness – that Iran is divided, exhausted, and ready to offer major concessions to end the war.

This is a dangerous misreading. Every government debates strategy. The question is what emerges from those debates. Far from indicating a crumbling system, Iran’s internal discussions have consistently produced a unified external stance: no surrender on the strait, no easy concessions, and no fear of a prolonged standoff.

If anything, the American belief in imminent Iranian “concessions” may push Washington toward a more aggressive posture – and thus toward a war it is not prepared to win.

The Strait as a mirror

The Strait of Hormuz has become a mirror reflecting the true balance of strategic endurance.

The United States, for all its military might, has discovered that raw power cannot easily dislodge a determined, adaptive, and patient adversary – especially one that holds geographic and temporal advantages.

America’s shift from blockade to the so-called “Project Freedom” venture is not a pivot to strength, but a veiled acknowledgment that the maritime banditry has failed.

[…]

Via https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/05/05/768091/failed-strait-blockade-forces-us-pivot-iran-strategic-patience-leverage-grow


Israel threatens Gaza flotilla activists with death after abduction

Israeli police escort pro-Palestinian Brazilian activist Thiago Avila to an Israeli court in Ashkelon in the occupied territories, May 3, 2026. (Photo by AFP)

Press TV

Israeli forces have threatened two Gaza-bound humanitarian flotilla activists, seized in international waters last week, with death or long prison terms, according to a rights group representing them.

The two pro-Palestinian activists, Saif Abu Keshek and Thiago Avila, were among dozens detained during an Israeli raid on the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla in international waters off Greece on April 30.

On Tuesday, an Israeli court extended their detention until Sunday, May 10.

The legal rights centre Adalah, which represents the pair, said they have been subjected to psychological abuse and held in solitary confinement. According to the group, Israeli officers threatened to kill them or imprison them “for 100 years.”

Both men remain in “total isolation,” subjected to 24/7 high-intensity lighting in their cells and kept blindfolded whenever they are moved, including during medical examinations. They are also being held in very low temperatures, the group added.

Adalah said the court’s decision to prolong the detention “amounts to judicial validation of the regime’s lawlessness.” No charges have been filed, but the two face accusations including affiliation with a “terrorist organisation” and contact with “foreign agents,” which the legal centre described as “baseless.

According to the group, the activists are continuing their hunger strike, consuming only water since their abduction.

Meanwhile, the flotilla’s organisers demanded their release in a post on X, urging the international community to intervene.

They said the activists were “forcefully brought against their will to occupied Palestine, where they have been subjected to interrogations, death threats, sleep deprivation and medical neglect.”

The governments of Spain and Brazil issued a joint statement on Friday describing the detention of Avila and Abu Keshek as illegal.

During the raid on the Global Sumud Flotilla, Israeli forces attacked 22 of the 58 aid boats heading toward the besieged Gaza Strip and detained 175 activists.

Testimonies indicate that the activists were tortured while in Israeli custody following their abduction.

[…]

Via https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/05/05/768096/Israel-threatens-Gaza-flotilla-activists-with-death-after-abduction

 

Trump Brothers: Profiting from War

Donald Trump Jr. (R) and Eric Trump look on as U.S. President Donald ...

Merchants of death stand to make millions.

In the middle of March, as the war raged between Iran, Israel, and the United States, it was reported the Trump brothers, Donald Jr. and Eric, were positioned to make a deal with the Pentagon.

American Ventures, a venture capital firm, holds stakes in three crucial defense companies—Powerus, Xtend, and Unusual Machines, and all three manufacture military drones.

American Ventures backs Powerus, a Florida-based startup advancing drone technology with a focus on West Asia. Xtend, an “AI-powered platform” designed for “mission critical operations,” is an Israeli company. Unusual Machines, based in Orlando, Florida, is partnered with Powerus to manufacture “counter-UAS Systems.”

“Donald Trump’s sons are making a bold business move tied to the expanding military drone market, positioning themselves to potentially profit from defense spending during their father’s administration,” BallerAlert reported.

Bloomberg put an approximate dollar figure on the American Ventures investment portfolio: nearly $750 million across the three Florida-based companies, all of which are pursuing Defense Department contracts under the Pentagon’s Drone Dominance initiative, which targets $1.1 billion in drone procurement over the next two years, according to DroneXL, a news site reporting on drone technology. The Drone Dominance initiative plans to purchase over 200,000 drones by early 2028.

“Co-founded by former U.S. Army Special Operations veterans, Powerus builds autonomous drone systems for military and commercial use,” The Hill reported on March 10, 2026.

Brett Velicovich, a former US Army intelligence and special operations soldier, is president and COO of Powerus. Velicovich served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and was an Army special operations intelligence analyst and former Delta Force. The combat veteran was once regarded as the “world’s most dangerous drone expert.” During an interview, he declared he knows, as a victim of an attack in Iraq attributed to Iran, the “evil of the Iranian regime all too well.” More likely, the Shia resistance to the US occupation of Iraq was responsible. Velicovich is credited with helping to track down the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Omar al-Baghdad. He also helped track Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, who was assassinated by the Trump administration while visiting Baghdad on a peace mission.

Appearing on the Mark Levin Show, Velicovich said if he was “advising the President, I would tell him now is not the time to let up” on bombing Iran.

“President Trump is doing right now exactly what a commander-in-chief is supposed to do,” Velicovich told Levin. “He arrogantly claims diplomacy is surrender and brags the Trump administration is intentionally forcing a battlefield confrontation,” according to an X post.

“At no point does Levin disclose that Velicovich may stand to profit off the war expanding,” posted Chris Menahan of Information Liberation.

Fox News resident war hawk, and Trump’s former special envoy to Russia and Ukraine, retired Gen. Keith Kellogg, is on the advisory board of Powerus as a “strategic advisor,” likely the same role he performs at Fox News. In addition to involvement with Powerus, Kellogg holds “leadership positions” at Oracle Corporation, CACI International, and Cubic Defense Applications. Oracle is a one of eight Pentagon “technology partners” providing advanced AI tools for classified military networks. CACI International, one of Fortune’s 500 Largest Companies, provides information technology services to the War Department, Homeland Security, and the intelligence community. Cubic Defense Applications offers “enhanced warfighting readiness” to the US Army, the Department of the Navy, and the US Air Force.

“I think we should finish the job, Kellogg told Fox News. “The blockade has been executed brilliantly, but it should be pushed to the point where Iran is broken economically, militarily and politically.” Kellogg added that his “analogy is Sherman’s march through the South: break the regime by breaking its survival 4X.”

Sherman’s March to the Sea is considered a form of total war. General Sherman aimed to break the will of the Confederate people by causing significant destruction to civilian infrastructure and resources.

The Israeli company “Xtend holds a ‘multi-million-dollar’ Defense Department contract for attack systems and keeps its U.S. headquarters in Tampa, near US Central Command, per Bloomberg,” according to Drone XL. In addition, the company, founded in Tel Aviv and headquartered in Tampa, won a contract with the Israeli Ministry of Defense to supply a human-guided AI drone operating system, a contract valued at approximately $1.67 million.

Xtend CEO, Aviv Shapira, was an IDF soldier and “the youngest [missile] test director in the Air Force,” according to Globes, an Israeli website. Rubi Liani, co-founder and CTO, served in the Israeli Navy for twelve years.

Earlier this month, the Israeli Ministry of Defense announced it will implement the “Gaza model” in Lebanon, including the illegal demolition of homes and civilian infrastructure in southern Lebanon. Israel Katz, the Israeli Defense Minister, stated at the end of March that the Israeli army would operate in Lebanon “similar to the model of Rafah and Beit Hanoun.”

B’Tselem, a Jerusalem-based Israeli nonprofit organization documenting human rights violations in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, notes:

“Indeed, Israel has been carrying out repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, electricity and water facilities, bridges, roads, and more. Over the past month, Israel has killed more than a thousand people in Lebanon, displaced hundreds of thousands from their homes, and erased entire villages.”

In June, 2025, President Trump signed one of his many executive orders, “Unleashing American Drone Dominance,” that called for the Pentagon “to scale up domestic drone production, strengthen the U.S. drone industrial base, and prioritize American-made unmanned aircraft across agencies to the maximum extent allowed by law,” reported Quartz. Soon thereafter, the Trump administration barred imports of new models of foreign drones and critical components, thus allowing companies such as Powerus and Xtend to dominate the market.

According to Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, the director of government affairs at the nonpartisan ethics watchdog Project on Government Oversight, the Trump investment deals on warfighting drone tech “at a minimum present the appearance of impropriety.”

While the Trump Organization maintains its innocence, experts caution that the absence of a clear distinction between policy decisions and family interests poses unprecedented ethical challenges. Trump Jr., as a partner in 1789, a Palm Beach, Florida-based “patriotic capitalist” venture capital and growth equity firm, suggested “the firm influences U.S. policy outright” and “understand[s] what the administration wants to do, because [the firm] helped craft some of the messaging.”

“The emerging military tech sector has deep ties to the administration, starting with vice-president J.D. Vance’s relationship with Palantir founder Peter Thiel, who employed Vance and helped fund his Senate run,” notes William Hartung, a Quincy Institute senior research fellow. “The fact that Donald Trump Jr.—not only the president’s son but a close political advisor and unofficial spokesperson—will now profit personally from the fate of specific military tech firms adds an even more profound conflict-of-interest.”

The Trump clan shares notoriety with past war profiteers, including the G Farben/Bayer/Rockefeller alliance responsible for German chemical and pharmaceutical production, Ford Motor and General Motors, ITT, the Chase National and Morgan banks, and a number of German industrialists such as Flick, Renault, Schneider, and Krupp, involved with German chemical and pharmaceutical production during the First and Second World Wars.

[…]

Via https://www.globalresearch.ca/trump-brothers-profiting-war/5925068

The High Cost of Trump’s Crony Diplomacy

By Brahma ChellaneyProject Syndicate

May 4, 2026

In most democracies, a leader outsourcing high-stakes diplomacy to family members and business associates would provoke outrage. But US President Donald Trump has faced little pushback for doing so, with many downplaying his crony diplomacy as mere “heterodoxy.” The long-term consequences will be severe.

Instead of relying on the secretary of state and the professional diplomatic corps, Trump has placed pivotal diplomacy largely in the hands of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his business partner, the Manhattan real-estate mogul Steve Witkoff. Kushner was a senior adviser in Trump’s first administration, responsible for helping to broker the Abraham Accords between Israel and four Arab states, and is now, like Witkoff, a Special Envoy for Peace.

Together, Kushner and Witkoff have spearheaded negotiations on Ukraine, Gaza, and Iran. Yet neither had any diplomatic experience before Trump tasked them with resolving some of the thorniest and highest-stakes foreign-policy challenges of our time, and both have glaring conflicts of interest.

Start with Witkoff. Last year, Pakistan signed a controversial investment deal with World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency firm whose CEO is Witkoff’s son, Zach, and in which the Trump and Witkoff families hold a dominant ownership stake. This past January, a WLF affiliate reached another deal with Pakistan—this time, to introduce the company’s stablecoin for use in cross-border transactions.

But Pakistan has also been the site and, to an extent, the broker of talks between the United States and Iran. When actors are negotiating geopolitical outcomes and pursuing business opportunities in the same arena, diplomacy begins to resemble a marketplace: access, influence, and profit are tightly interwoven.

As for Kushner, after leaving Trump’s first administration, he set up a private-equity firm, Affinity Partners, and took billions of dollars from Gulf monarchies, including about $2 billion from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. In other words, Kushner is dependent on Saudi capital. Yet he is now expected to negotiate a détente with Iran, even as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly urges Trump to continue the war.

And it is not just Iran. Kushner’s “New Gaza” proposal, unveiled at Davos this past January, has been widely criticized as “real-estate diplomacy,” as it effectively recasts reconstruction as a business venture while ignoring questions of sovereignty and rights.

Kushner and Witkoff’s conflicts of interest, together with their lack of foreign-policy credentials, explain why Trump has not sought to appoint them to official diplomatic positions. Special envoys avoid Senate confirmation hearings, as well as the disclosure requirements, ethics rules, and congressional oversight that bind professional diplomats. Kushner and Witkoff are thus able to exercise influence without transparency, and to negotiate on behalf of the US without accountability.

Of course, Kushner and Witkoff are hardly the only figures capitalizing on their proximity to Trump. Prominent allies and donors, such as Oracle’s Larry Ellison, have won big from their investment in the majority American-owned TikTok venture that Trump effectively forced the Chinese parent company to create, supposedly over national-security concerns.

Moreover, Trump’s sons, Eric and Donald, Jr., recently joined a drone company Powerus, and are attempting to sell drone interceptors to the Gulf states to ward off attacks from Iran as it retaliates for their father’s war. Foundation Future Industries, a robotics startup where Eric is chief strategy adviser, was recently awarded a $24 million Pentagon contract.

Now, reports are emerging of possible insider trading around the Iran war, with large bets being made right before market-moving public statements from Trump. Yet the American public, whether desensitized to Trump’s breaking of norms or simply unable to keep up with the pace and scale of the violations, hardly reacts to such news. Scandals that would have brought any past US administration down—or at least prompted urgent investigation—have become routine under Trump.

With a Republican Party that bows to Trump’s every whim and justifies his every crime—while controlling both houses of Congress—a kind of resignation has taken hold. But as outrage fades, so does the restraining power of political norms. As a result, abuses become increasingly blatant and egregious, and trust is eroded. Even if Trump’s cronies did manage to reach a peace deal, it would warrant suspicion, with every concession raising questions about who really benefits—and who is compromised.

This undercuts not only specific agreements, but also US global leadership more broadly. With US foreign policy now guided by personal loyalty, informal networks, and private gain, whatever credibility the US had as a reliable partner, good-faith negotiator, and champion of the rule of law has been decimated. None of this will be easily restored.

In the meantime, if foreign governments want to influence US policy or secure the country’s geopolitical cooperation, they must make it worth Trump’s while. Nowhere is that more apparent than in Trump’s so-called Board of Peace—a putative alternative to the United Nations where a permanent seat carries a billion-dollar price tag. This is less a multilateral institution than a pay-to-play geopolitical franchise, but some countries appear willing to cough up the cash to stay in the US president’s good graces.

Others seeking to shape US policy head to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, which he increasingly uses for official diplomatic engagements. And, of course, there are those who go there to get in on the self-dealing, making business deals with Trump’s inner circle. Meanwhile, wars continue to rage, with far-reaching human and economic consequences.

Trump’s defenders argue that unconventional actors can produce breakthroughs where conventional processes have failed. But diplomacy is not merely deal-making; it depends on credibility, consistency, and a clear alignment with national interests. The personalized, opaque, and venal shadow diplomacy being pursued by Kushner and Witkoff can deliver none of that. What it can and will do is ensure that the US is less respected, less trusted, and less effective on the world stage.

[…]

Via https://chellaney.net/2026/05/04/the-high-cost-of-trumps-crony-diplomacy/

UAE deports tens of thousands of Pakistanis, seizes their savings amid war on Iran

Migrant workers wait in line for a bus in Dubai. (File photo)

Press TV

Authorities in the UAE are conducting a sweeping deportation campaign targeting tens of thousands of Pakistani workers, freezing their bank accounts and stripping them of their life savings amid growing regional fallout from the US-Israeli aggression on Iran.

While initial reports from New Lines Magazine placed the number of expelled individuals at 15,000, Pakistani sources recently confirmed to Press TV that the deportations are continuing at a rapid pace and now affect tens of thousands of workers.

The expulsions target Shia Muslims or individuals who have publicly expressed solidarity with Tehran following the recent US-Israeli aggression against Iran.

Those targeted are being expelled without formal charges or legal recourse. The systematic removals involve sudden arrests, phone confiscations, and transfers between various detention facilities before the workers are forced onto flights back to Pakistan.

Crucially, deportees are being sent back “without being given the opportunity to withdraw their funds” from Emirati banks, according to a Shia cleric cited by New Lines Magazine.

This sudden seizure of assets has left many families in financial ruin, stripping workers—some of whom spent decades contributing to the Emirati economy—of their entire life savings.

Mohammad Amin Shaheedi, chief of Ummat-e-Wahida Pakistan, told the magazine that following the outbreak of the war, the UAE government launched “what appears to be an organized campaign to deport Shia individuals from the country.”

The US-Israeli aggression began on February 28 with airstrikes that assassinated senior Iranian officials and commanders, including Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei. In response, Iranian armed forces launched daily missile and drone operations targeting locations in the Israeli-occupied territories and US military bases and assets, including those in the UAE.

The ensuing war sparked immense public solidarity with Iran across the region, particularly in Pakistan.

Sources indicate the UAE’s mass expulsions are deeply tied to Islamabad’s clear stance against the Israeli regime’s aggression on Iran and Lebanon, as well as Pakistan’s prominent role as a mediator.

On April 8, forty days into the war, a Pakistan-brokered temporary ceasefire between Iran and the US finally took effect. However, subsequent peace negotiations in Islamabad ultimately stalled amid Washington’s maximalist demands and insistence on unreasonable positions.

[…]

Via https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/05/05/768087/UAE-deports-tens-of-thousands-of-Pakistanis,-seizes-their-savings-amid-war-on-Iran–Report-