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Netanyahu’s General Assembly Tirade Telegraphs A Resumption of Israel’s War On Iran.

Dimitri Lascaris, Sep 28, 2025, https://reason2resist.substack.com/p/netanyahus-general-assembly-tirade?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=2811845&post_id=174714909&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

On September 26, indicted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a bombastic speech in the UN General Assembly in which he set Israel’s sights squarely upon the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Netanyahu also castigated many of Israel’s few remaining allies for taking the purely cosmetic step of recognizing a Palestinian state.

Shortly before Netanyahu’s speech at the UN, U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth summoned hundreds of senior U.S. military officers from around the world to a highly unusual, emergency meeting in Virginia. The Trump regime is being tight-lipped about the purposes of this meeting.

n this episode of Reason2Resist, I examine these recent developments and argue that we may be mere days away from a resumption of Israel’s criminal war of aggression on Iran.

I also discuss a new poll by Quinnipiac University which confirms that support for Israel continues to plummet in the United States.

September 30, 2025 Posted by | Israel, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Iran angry as sweeping UN sanctions take effect after failure of nuclear talks

Foreign ministry attacks ‘unjustifiable’ return of measures expected to have wide effects on troubled economy

Guardian, Agence France-Presse 28 Sept 25

Widespread UN sanctions against Iran have come back into force for the first time in a decade, prompting anger from Tehran, after last-ditch nuclear talks with western powers failed to produce a breakthrough.

The sanctions, which came into effect late on Saturday and three months after Israel and the US bombed Iran, bar dealings related to Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missiles programme and are also expected to have wider effects on the country’s troubled economy.

In a statement on Sunday, as the Iranian rial plummeted to a record low against the US dollar, the Iranian foreign ministry hit out at the move. “The reactivation of annulled resolutions is legally baseless and unjustifiable,” it said. “All countries must refrain from recognising this illegal situation.”

European and US diplomats stressed immediately after the resumption of sanctions that diplomacy was not over…………………………………

Iran has allowed UN inspectors to return to its nuclear sites, but the president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said the US had offered only a short reprieve in return for handing over its whole stockpile of enriched uranium, a proposal he described as unacceptable.

An 11th-hour effort by Iran’s allies Russia and China to postpone the sanctions until April failed to win enough votes in the security council on Friday, leading to the measures taking effect at 1am BST on Sunday…………………………………..

The sanctions are a “snapback” of measures frozen in 2015 when Iran agreed to major restrictions on its nuclear programme under a deal negotiated by the former US president Barack Obama.

The US has already imposed massive sanctions, including trying to force all countries to shun Iranian oil, in steps taken by Donald Trump when he withdrew from the deal in his first presidential term.

Iran and the US had held several rounds of Omani-brokered talks this year before they collapsed in June when first Israel and then the US attacked Iranian nuclear facilities.

Iran recalled its envoys from the UK, France and Germany for consultations on Saturday, state television reported…………………………………………. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/28/sweeping-un-sanctions-on-iran-come-into-effect-after-nuclear-talks-fail

September 30, 2025 Posted by | Iran, politics international | Leave a comment

Steve Witkoff’s Latest ‘Peace Plan’ Is A Scam

Only weeks after Israel attempted to murder the negotiating team of the Palestinian resistance in Qatar, Israeli media report that Donald Trump’s ‘peace envoy’, Steve Witkoff, has developed a 21-point peace plan.

Moreover, both Trump and U.S. Vice-President Donald Trump claim that the U.S. government is on the precipice of ending Israel’s war on Gaza.

Is any of this credible?

Dimitri Lascaris examines closely the reported substance of Witkoff’s proposal, as well as the record of the Trump and Netanyahu regimes, with a view to assessing whether Witkoff’s proposal stands a serious chance of ending Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

September 30, 2025 Posted by | Israel, politics international, USA | Leave a comment

Netanyahu Tells UN Israel Will ‘Finish the Job’ in Gaza

The Israeli leader gave his speech to a mostly empty room after a mass walkout

by Kyle Anzalone | September 26, 2025, https://news.antiwar.com/2025/09/26/netanyahu-tells-un-israel-will-finish-the-job-in-gaza/

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to a mostly empty room at the UN as delegates engaged in a mass walkout before the Israeli leader began speaking. Netanyahu claimed Israel had eliminated leadership in Yemen, Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria. He went on to say Israel would “finish the job” in Gaza. 

“The final remnants of Hamas are holed up in Gaza City. They vow to repeat the atrocities of Oct. 7,” Netanyahu said on Friday. “That is why Israel must finish the job. That is why we want to do so.”

He demanded the release of the remaining 48 Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. The family members of the captives released a statement following Netanyahu’s speech, saying his calls to finish the job endangered their loved ones. 

“Netanyahu’s call to ‘finish the job’ and continue fighting endangers the very people we’re fighting to save,” their statement explains. “Every day of continued war puts the living hostages at greater risk.”

The father of one hostage attempted to disrupt Netanyahu’s speech. 

Tel Aviv has undermined the diplomatic process to free the Israeli captives and end the onslaught in Gaza. In March, Israel broke a deal that would have led to the release of all hostages. 

Earlier this month, Israel attempted to assassinate Hamas leadership as they were meeting to discuss a proposal made by Donald Trump that would have seen the release of all the Israeli hostages before a ceasefire was implemented. 

The Israeli leader asserted in 2024 that Israel was close to “finishing the job” by eliminating the remnants of Hamas in Gaza. While the IDF completely destroyed Rafah last year, Hamas continues to have tens of thousands of fighters in Gaza and holds Israeli hostages. 

“We are advancing to the end of the stage of eliminating the Hamas terrorist army; we will continue striking its remnants,” Netanyahu said last July. 

Several top Israeli officials have said the goal in Gaza goes beyond returning the hostages, and the actual objective is to ethnically cleanse Palestine from the Strip. 

Additionally, the Israeli leader’s remarks put him at odds with the American President. Trump told reporters on Friday before Netanyahu’s address that a deal to end the war was “close.”

Trump and Netanyahu also appear divided on the future of the West Bank. The President held a meeting with Arab leaders on the sidelines of the UN summit and said that he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. 

Netanyahu asserted that Israel would never allow the creation of a Palestinian state, calling the idea “sheer madness.” He added, It would be like “giving Al-Qaida a state one mile from New York City after September 11.”

Tel Aviv’s refusal to allow the two-state solution to materialize has put the US out of line with its European and Arab allies, who voted to recognize the state of Palestine earlier this week. 

During his address, Netanyahu claimed Israel has waged multiple successful wars across the Middle East over the past two years. He asserted that half of Ansar Allah’s leadership in Yemen had been killed. While Israeli forces assassinated the Prime Minister of Yemen, Ansar Allah continues its blockade of Israeli shipping in the Red Sea, and a drone launched from Yemen injured 22 people at a hotel in southern Israel on Wednesday. 

He went on to say Israel had eliminated the leadership of Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Syrian government led by Bashar al-Assad. Netanyahu then threatened to attack Shia militias in Iraq and restart Israel’s aggressive war against Iran. 

While most UN delegates left the General Assembly hall as Netanyahu began to speak, the Israeli leader said the IDF was broadcasting his speech to Gaza via loudspeakers and by livestreaming it through Palestinians’ phones. 

Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Anitwar.com and news editor of the Libertarian Institute. He hosts The Kyle Anzalone Show and is co-host of Conflicts of Interest with Connor Freeman.

September 29, 2025 Posted by | Israel, politics international | Leave a comment

A hungrier, poorer and more anxious Iran awaits ‘snapback’ of UN sanctions over its nuclear program.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS, 28 September 2025, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-15139177/A-hungrier-poorer-anxious-Iran-awaits-snapback-UN-sanctions-nuclear-program.html

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – As Iran’s ailing economy braced Saturday for the reimposition of United Nations sanctions over its nuclear program, it is ordinary people who increasingly find themselves priced out of the food they need to survive and worried about their futures.

Iran’s rial currency already sits at a record low, increasing pressure on food prices and making daily life that much more challenging. That includes meat, rice and other staples of the Iranian dinner table.

Meanwhile, people worry about a new round of fighting between Iran and Israel – as well as potentially the United States – as missile sites struck during the 12-day war in June now appear to be being rebuilt.

Activists fear a rising wave of repression within the Islamic Republic, which already has reportedly executed more people this year than over the past three decades.

Sina, the father of a 12-year-old boy who spoke on condition that only his first name be used for fear of repercussions, said the country has never faced such a challenging time, even during the deprivations of the 1980s Iran-Iraq war and the decades of sanctions that came later.

“For as long as I can remember, we´ve been struggling with economic hardship, and every year it´s worse than the last,” Sina told The Associated Press. “For my generation, it´s always either too late or too early – our dreams are slipping away.”

Early Sunday at 0000 GMT (8 p.m. Eastern), barring any last-minute diplomatic breakthrough, U.N. sanctions on Iran will be reimposed through “snapback,” as the mechanism is called by the diplomats who negotiated it into Iran´s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Snapback was designed to be veto-proof at the U.N. Security Council, meaning China and Russia cannot stop it alone, as they have other proposed actions against Tehran in the past.

The measure will again freeze Iranian assets abroad, halt arms deals with Tehran, and penalize any development of Iran´s ballistic missile program, among other measures.

France, Germany and the United Kingdom triggered snapback over Iran further restricting monitoring of its nuclear program and the deadlock over its negotiations with the U.S.

Iran further withdrew from the International Atomic Energy Agency monitoring after Israel´s war on the country in June, which also saw the U.S. strike nuclear sites in the Islamic Republic. Meanwhile, the country still maintains a stockpile of uranium enriched up to 60% purity – a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90% – that is largely enough to make several atomic bombs, should Tehran choose to rush toward weaponization.

Iran has long insisted its nuclear program is peaceful, though the West and IAEA say Tehran had an organized weapons program up until 2003.

Tehran has further argued that the three European nations shouldn´t be allowed to implement snapback, pointing in part to America´s unilateral withdrawal from the accord in 2018, during the first term of President Donald Trump´s administration.

“The Trump administration appears to think it has a stronger hand post-strikes, and it can wait for Iran to come back to the table,” said Kelsey Davenport, a nuclear expert at the Washington-based Arms Control Association. “Given the knowledge Iran has, given the materials that remain in Iran, that´s a very dangerous assumption.”

Risks also remain for Iran as well, she added: “In the short term, kicking out the IAEA increases the risk of miscalculation. The U.S. or Israel could use the lack of inspections as a pretext for further strikes.”

Iran on Saturday recalled its ambassadors to France, Germany and the U.K. for consultations ahead of the sanctions being reimposed, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

The aftermath of the June war drove up food prices in Iran, putting already expensive meat out of reach for poorer families.

Iran’s government put overall annual inflation at 34.5% in June, and its Statistical Center reported that the cost of essential food items rose over 50% over the same period. But even that doesn’t reflect what people see at shops. Pinto beans tripled in price in a year, while butter nearly doubled. Rice, a staple, rose more than 80% on average, hitting 100% for premium varieties. Whole chicken is up 26%, while beer and lamb are up 9%.

“Every day I see new higher prices for cheese, milk and butter,” said Sima Taghavi, a mother of two, at a Tehran grocery. “I cannot omit them like fruits and meat from my grocery list because my kids are too young to be deprived.”

The pressure over food and fears about the war resuming have seen more patients heading to psychologists since June, local media in Iran have reported.

“The psychological pressure from the 12-day war on the one hand, and runaway inflation and price hikes on the other, has left society exhausted and unmotivated,” Dr. Sima Ferdowsi, a clinical psychologist and professor at Shahid Beheshti University, told the Hamshahri newspaper in an interview published in July.

“If the economic situation continues like this, it will have serious social and moral consequences,” she warned, with the newspaper noting “people may do things they would never think of doing in normal circumstances to survive.”

Iran has faced multiple nationwide protests in recent years, fueled by anger over the economy, demands for women’s rights and calls for the country’s theocracy to change. The most recent came in 2022 over the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died after being detained by police allegedly for not wearing her hijab, or headscarf, to their liking.

In response to those protests and the June war, Iran has been putting prisoners to death at a pace unseen since 1988, when it executed thousands at the end of the Iran-Iraq war. The Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights and the Washington-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran put the number of people executed in 2025 at over 1,000, noting the number could be higher as Iran does not report on each execution.

“Political and civic space in Iran has shrunk to nothing, and outside Iran, civil society activists and dissidents face transnational repression,” the center warned. “The Iranian people, millions of whom aspire to more than a closed and brutal theocracy, have tried every option within their reach. Their leaders have not.”

Vahdat reported from Tehran, Iran. Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran contributed to this report. ___

September 29, 2025 Posted by | business and costs, Iran | Leave a comment

UN Security Council rejects Russia and China’s last-ditch effort to delay sanctions on Iran

By  FARNOUSH AMIRI, STEPHANIE LIECHTENSTEIN and EDITH M. LEDERER, September 27, 2025

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council on Friday rejected a last-ditch effort to delay reimposing sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, a decision that the country’s president immediately called “unfair, unjust and illegal.” The decision on the “snapback sanctions” came a day before the deadline and after Western countries claimed weeks of meetings failed to result in a concrete agreement.

The resolution put forth by Russia and China — Iran’s most powerful and closest allies on the 15-member council — failed to garner support from the nine countries required to halt the series of U.N. sanctions from taking effect Saturday, as outlined in Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. The vote was 4-9 with two abstentions.

“We had hoped that European colleagues and the U.S. would think twice, and they would opt for the path of diplomacy and dialogue instead of their clumsy blackmail, which merely results in escalation of the situation in the region,” Dmitry Polyanskiy, the deputy Russian ambassador to the U.N., said during the meeting.

Shortly after the vote, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian spoke at a meeting with journalists and Iran experts on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, a day before the deadline for the sanctions to kick in. Pezeshkian said that despite previous threats, Iran won’t withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty like North Korea, which abandoned the treaty in 2003 and then built atomic weapons.

Barring an eleventh-hour deal, the reinstatement of sanctions — triggered by Britain, France and Germany — will once again freeze Iranian assets abroad, halt arms deals with Tehran and penalize any development of Iran’s ballistic missile program, among other measures. That will further squeeze the country’s reeling economy.

The move is expected to heighten already magnified tensions between Iran and the West. But despite previous threats to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Pezeshkian said in an interview with a group of reporters that the country had no intention to do so right now. North Korea, which abandoned the treaty in 2003, went on to build atomic weapons.

Four countries — China, Russia, Pakistan and Algeria — once again supported giving Iran more time to negotiate with the European countries, known as the E3, and the United States, which unilaterally withdrew from the accord with world powers in 2018 during Trump’s first administration…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Barring an eleventh-hour deal, the reinstatement of sanctions — triggered by Britain, France and Germany — will once again freeze Iranian assets abroad, halt arms deals with Tehran and penalize any development of Iran’s ballistic missile program, among other measures. That will further squeeze the country’s reeling economy.https://apnews.com/article/iran-snapback-sanctions-united-nations-nuclear-program-europe-1f1f6e1781bdb6b27f8bfad2661db4c5

September 29, 2025 Posted by | Iran, politics international | Leave a comment

UN sanctions on Iran set to return as nuclear diplomacy fades

September 27, 2025, https://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/un-sanctions-on-iran-set-to-return-as-nuclear-diplomacy-fades/news-story/0c414f139787f2be580259e3e8daba7f

Iran was set to come under sweeping UN sanctions late Saturday for the first time in a decade — barring an unexpected last-minute breakthrough — after nuclear talks with the West floundered.

The UN nuclear watchdog on Friday said that inspectors had been allowed to return to Iranian sites, but Western powers did not see enough progress to agree to a delay after a week of top-level diplomacy at the UN General Assembly.

European powers set the clock ticking a month ago for the “snapback” of the UN sanctions, accusing Iran of failing to come clean on its nuclear program — including through countermeasures it took in response to Israeli and US bombing.

Iran on Saturday recalled its envoys in Britain, France and Germany for consultations, after the three European countries triggered the mechanism, Iranian state television said.  

The sanctions are set to go into effect at 0000 GMT on Sunday (8:00 pm on Saturday in New York). 

They will set up a global ban on working with companies, people and organizations accused of developing Iran’s nuclear program or ballistic missiles.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said there was no reason to reach a deal when, in his view, Israel and the United States were seeking to use the pressure to topple the Islamic republic.

“If the goal had been to resolve concerns on the nuclear program, we could easily do that,” Pezeshkian told reporters, as he insisted again that Iran will never pursue nuclear weapons.

Pezeshkian, who met during the week with French President Emmanuel Macron, said France had proposed that Iran give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium in return for a one-month delay in the return of sanctions

“Why would we put ourselves in such a trap and have a noose around our neck each month?” he said.

He accused the United States of pressing the Europeans not to reach a compromise.

Steve Witkoff, Trump’s friend and roving negotiator, had said that the United States does not want to hurt Iran and was open to further talks.

But Pezeshkian charged that Witkoff lacked seriousness, saying he had backtracked on agreements during earlier talks — which abruptly stopped when Israel launched its military campaign.

– No Russia enforcement –

The sanctions are aimed at imposing new economic pain to pressure Iran, but it remains to be seen if all countries will enforce them.

Russian deputy ambassador Dmitry Polyansky said Friday that Moscow, a top partner of Iran, considered the reimposition of sanctions “null and void.”

Russia and China sought at the Security Council Friday to delay the reimposition of sanctions until April but failed to muster enough votes.

The United States already has unilateral sanctions on Iran and has tried to force all other countries to stop buying Iranian oil, although companies from China have defied the pressure.

Trump imposed a “maximum pressure” campaign during his first term when he withdrew from a landmark 2015 nuclear agreement negotiated under former president Barack Obama, which had offered sanctions relief in return for drastic curbs on Iran’s nuclear program.

The new sanctions mark a “snapback” of the UN measures that were suspended under the 2015 deal, which had been strongly supported by Britain, France and Germany after Trump’s withdrawal.

The International Crisis Group, which studies conflict resolution, said in a report that Iran seemed dismissive of the snapback as it had already learned to cope with the US sanctions.

But it noted that the snapback was not easy to reverse as it would require consensus at the Security Council.


“It is also likely to compound the malaise around an economy already struggling with high inflation, currency woes and deepening infrastructure problems,” the report said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a defiant UN address Friday urged no delay in the snapback and hinted that Israel was willing to again strike Iran’s nuclear program, after the 12 days of bombing in June that Iranian authorities say killed more than 1,000 people.

Pezeshkian said that Iran would not retaliate against the sanctions by leaving the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, warning that unnamed powers were seeking a “superficial pretext to set the region ablaze.”

September 29, 2025 Posted by | Iran, politics | Leave a comment

The Shift: 50 States, One Israel

Amid the ongoing genocide, the largest-ever delegation of U.S. lawmakers attended the “50 States, One Israel” conference in Jerusalem last week. It’s clear from the event, and the local reactions it sparked, that Israel’s isolation is only worsening.

It seems clear that this event was organized out of a growing sense of desperation, not a position of strength.

By Michael Arria  September 25, 2025 https://mondoweiss.net/2025/09/the-shift-50-states-one-israel/

Multiple installments of this newsletter have covered congressional delegations to Israel, but the “special relationship” goes far beyond Washington and permeates politics at the most local of levels.

Last week, lawmakers from across the U.S. flew to Jerusalem to attend “50 States One Israel,” which was billed as the largest delegation of politicians to ever visit the country.

“I thank you for coming here to stand with Israel. Thank you, Democrats and Republicans alike,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the attendees. “We value and cherish your support. This is an active effort to counter attempts to besiege Israel – not isolated, not symbolic, but a real effort to push back.”

“It may sound a little bit this afternoon as if I’m almost speaking on behalf of Israel rather than the U.S.,” Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told the group.

“If you came to my house tonight for dinner and you came in and you said, ‘Oh, Mike, we like you,” he continued. “We really think the world of you. We just enjoy being with you. So excited to be here with you and have dinner with you. ‘But your wife, we can’t stand her. We don’t like her a bit. I hope she’s not going to be at the table.’ I would say, ‘Well, she will be. You won’t be. Get out.’ Because if you were to insult my partner, you have insulted me.”

Normal stuff.

There wasn’t much coverage of the event in the mainstream media, but you can find a lot of interesting coverage in local outlets, and see how the battle over Israel is taking shape in multiple states.

Let’s start with the Idaho Capital Sun, where Clark Corbin covered the state’s participants. Idaho sent five lawmakers to Israel, four of whom were Republicans. The only Democrat to attend was House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel (D-Boise).

A group of state Democrats is circulating a letter condemning Rubel for attending and calling for her to step down from her leadership position. The Idaho Young Democrats published a statement criticizing the move as well.

Shiva Rajbhandari, an Idaho human rights advocate, wrote an Op-Ed for the Idaho Statesman, arguing that Rubel and her Republican colleagues “lack the moral courage for public service of any kind.”

Rubel published her own Op-Ed, in which she wonders why we can’t all just get along.

“If you want someone that will indignantly shun the other side, I’m not your person,” writes Rubel. “I prefer useful results.”

It’s unclear what results Rubel’s referring to, but she goes on to dismiss the anti-genocide position as an example of “ideological purity,” giving people “false comfort.”

Next, the Alaska News Source. Wil Courtney reports on four Alaskan lawmakers making the trip.

Courtney says his paper “sent all members of the delegation questions..including questions over the war in Gaza, which were not answered.”

He notes that the World Health Organization estimates over 640,000 people will face “catastrophic levels of food insecurity” in the Gaza Strip.

Alaska’s News Source also reached out to the governor’s office, but did not receive a response.

On Instagram, the daughter of New Mexico State Senator Jay Block (R) posted a video criticizing her dad and other “loser politicians” for attending the conference.

“It seems like he sold his soul to the devil and is now just peddling lies and propaganda,” she declared. “I just genuinely hope this will be the end of my dad’s political career.”

“50 States, One Israel” occurred amid growing international solidarity against the ongoing genocide in Gaza and Israel’s further isolation on the world stage. Lately, Netanyahu has expressed anxiety about the country’s actions impacting its economy.

A recent piece by Mitchell Plitnick, explains why BDS is so crucial at this juncture. “An isolated Israel is a failed Israel, and Netanyahu knows it. So do his business cronies,” he wrote.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar called on the conference attendees to combat the BDS movement within their communities.

“Instead of boycotting Israel, promote engagement with Israel,” he told the lawmakers. “Instead of divesting from Israel, promote investments in Israel. And instead of sanctioning the only Jewish state, speak out clearly against those who recycle age-old hatred in modern form.”

It seems clear that this event was organized out of a growing sense of desperation, not a position of strength.

Block the Bombs

The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) has voted to endorse the Block the Bombs Act.

The news was first reported by Prem Thakker at Zeteo.

“The Block the Bombs bill is the first step toward oversight and accountability for the murder of children with US-made, taxpayer-funded weapons,” said Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL), who leads the bill. “In the face of authoritarian leaders perpetrating a genocidal campaign, Block the Bombs is the minimum action Congress must take.”

The legislation currently has 50 House co-sponsors.

It focuses on bunker buster bombs, 2,000-pound bombs, Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), 120mm tank rounds, and 155mm artillery shells.

Many find it difficult to take the merits of this bill seriously.

It does nothing to deter “defensive weapons” like Iron Dome. In fact, it allows Israel to keep receiving all weapons by simply providing “written assurances satisfactory to the President.”

On top of all that, it obviously has no chance of passing.

However, the Progressive Caucus is one of the largest in Congress, and it has traditionally avoided the issue altogether. This is the first time it has endorsed legislation directly related to Palestine.

The fact that it’s backing an effort that’s opposed by groups like AIPAC is certainly notable, as it points to the decline of Israel’s brand among Democratic voters.

In a recent Common Dreams Op-Ed, Peace Action president Kevin Martin puts this bill, and recent related efforts, in a wider context:

The bill is as close as we have to a de facto arms embargo on Israel, as it would ban transfers of seven specific offensive weapons systems, from bunker busting bombs to tank ammunition to white phosphorus artillery munitions. While House Speaker Mike Johnson and the Republican majority will probably not allow the bill to advance, even to consideration by a House committee, building support to Ban the Bombs to Israel can help put pressure on President Trump (who recently blurted out that Israel had lost its “total control” of Congress) to exert leverage on Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to end his inhumane slaughter in Gaza.

In addition to further votes on Joint Resolutions of Disapproval on specific weapons transfers to Israel, the Senate could also move privileged measures including a War Powers Resolution to prevent further support for Israel’s actions in Gaza, or an inquiry under section 502(B) of the Foreign Assistance Act for Israel’s clear violations of U.S. law. Or, the Senate could attach language such as that in the House Block the Bombs bill as an amendment to an Appropriations Bill.

None of those actions would be an easy lift, and would not be likely to pass (or override an expected presidential veto) but the reality now is the political tide has turned decisively against Israel.

Perhaps the simplest way to look at this is that advocates for peace and human rights have done their job, and the public has responded, as only 8% of Democrats approve of Israel’s actions in Gaza, with the overall number at only 32%, according to a recent Gallup poll.

September 28, 2025 Posted by | Israel, media, politics, USA | Leave a comment

50 States One Israel – Wikipedia

26 Sept 25 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_States_One_Israel

50 States One Israel was a conference held in Israel from September 14, 2025 to September 18, 2025[1] for state legislators from the United States and members of the Israeli government.[2][3] Hosted by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the conference was described as the largest delegation of elected officials to visit Israel.[2] According to Lior Haiat, Deputy Director for North America at the Foreign Ministry, lawmakers including state legislators from all 50 states were in attendance.[2]

Background

………………………….. The conference, including travel, is paid entirely by the Israeli government.[4] 

According to a July 8, 2025 letter to Oregon Representative David Gomberg sent by Israel’s consulate-general to the Northwest, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will provide “roundtrip economy airfare from New York to Tel Aviv (including domestic U.S. flights to NYC),” and “all in-country transportation, accommodations, meals, and guided programming.”[1] Five lawmakers from every state were expected to attend.[5

……………… On September 15, 2025, attendees visited the Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.[6] Later, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar urged American lawmakers to pass anti-BDS laws in their states.[7] In the evening, Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu gave a welcome address to the delegation.[8][9] ……………………..

On September 17, 2025, President of Israel Isaac Herzog addressed the delegation, saying that Israel’s “ironclad bond with the United States of America [exists] because we drink from the same fountain: the values of the Bible”.[11]………………….

Attendees…………incomplete list of 105 lawmakers named here

Impact

In the period following the conference, several participants faced criticism from constituents, the general public, and family. The daughter of New Mexico State Senator Jay Block took to social media platforms to register her disgust with her father’s participation in the conference, stating “It seems like he sold his soul to the devil and is now just peddling lies and propaganda… I just genuinely hope that this will be the end of my dad’s political career…”[61] Leading up to a potential government shutdown, Republican House Speaker Matt Hall of Michigan had instructed the Republican caucus not to leave the state while the budget was not completed and removed all bills from Representative Jaime Greene’s committee for her absence in attending the event.[62]

References.…………………………………………………

September 27, 2025 Posted by | Israel, politics international, USA | Leave a comment

‘Near Daily’ Israeli Assaults on Lebanon Have Become Non-News for Western Media

Belén Fernández, September 26, 2025, https://fair.org/home/near-daily-israeli-assaults-on-lebanon-have-become-non-news-for-western-media/

The Israeli military unleashed a large wave of air strikes on densely populated towns in South Lebanon on Thursday, September 18—although you’d never know it from the Western corporate media, who have increasingly lost interest in reporting on Israel’s unceasing war on its northern neighbor. This proceeds unabated in spite of a ceasefire, brokered by the United States and France, that ostensibly took hold last November. Prior to Thursday’s strikes, area residents were given an hour to evacuate.

The BBC (9/18/25) was one of the few corporate outlets that managed to find a bit of space for these events, under the headline, “Israeli Air Strikes Hit Southern Lebanon.” The outlet noted that

an Israeli military spokesman said the targets were infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah and in response to the group’s attempts to re-establish activities in the area. He provided no evidence.

The piece also explained that Israel “has carried out air strikes on people and places it says are linked to Hezbollah almost every day, despite a deal that ended the war with the group in November.”

Reuters (9/18/25) managed an even shorter writeup—and took Israel’s word for it in the headline: “Israel Attacks Hezbollah Targets in South Lebanon.”

No casualties were reported in these particular attacks, but the fiery spectacle naturally sent a whole lot of people fleeing in terrorized panic. The fact that such terrorism by the state of Israel transpires “almost every day” is perhaps part of the reason the media have largely relegated it to the realm of non-news.

Another part of the reason might be that outlets are too busy serving as apologists (FAIR.org, 4/11/25, 4/25/25, 6/6/25) for the ongoing US-backed genocide in the nearby Gaza Strip, which Israel launched in October 2023, and which has thus far officially killed more than 65,000 Palestinians, including 20,000 children—although this is likely a grave underestimate.

‘Along the border’

It was the momentum of this very genocide—and the accompanying astronomical increase in America’s already-astronomical financial and military assistance to Israel—that spurred Israel to once again go after Lebanon (pardon, “Hezbollah infrastructure”). Between October 2023 and November 2024, Israel killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon and injured nearly 17,000 (Al Jazeera, 8/7/25).

In the seven months following the “ceasefire” agreement, another 250 people were killed, as the New York Times (7/9/25) acknowledged in one of its sporadic reports on Israel’s “near-daily strikes,” while also acknowledging that the Israelis had “held onto five positions along the border in violation of the agreement.” Had the paper wanted to be precise, it might have specified that these five positions are not simply “along the border,” but rather entirely within Lebanese territory.

Speaking of occupying Lebanese territory, it bears mentioning that the US is currently wrapping up construction of a gigantic fortress in the hills overlooking Beirut, which will soon serve as the country’s new embassy. It “dwarfs any government facility in Lebanon,” as observed by Lebanese journalist Habib Battah in an article for MERIP (4/10/24).

Boasting a trapezoidal swimming pool and buffed marble courtyard, the “19-structure ziggurat” also comprises a “labyrinth of megalithic blast walls emerging from deep excavation pits.” In other words, it’s the perfect setting for the US to continue strong-arming Lebanon into disarming Hezbollah, which, in addition to being one of Israel’s pet nemeses, has long been a thorn in the side of US empire, complicating America’s pursuit of regional hegemony.

And while Lebanese President Joseph Aoun is fully on board with the disarmament plan and the handing over of Hezbollah’s weapons to the Lebanese army, he warned in the aftermath of Thursday’s air strikes that the “silence of the states sponsoring the ceasefire agreement is a dangerous failure that encourages these attacks.” It is hardly a stretch to add that media silence similarly encourages such aggression, adding an extra layer to the impunity Israel already knows so well.

Given that Hezbollah is the only force in Lebanese history that has proved capable of defending the country from Israeli predations, pretending that Israel isn’t continuously bombing Lebanon during a “ceasefire” also seems like a pretty good way of denying that there is any further need for Hezbollah. The Lebanese army, for its part, has not once managed to protect the nation from its bellicose neighbor to the south—a failure directly related to the US’s longtime “security cooperation” with Lebanon’s armed forces.

When corporate media outlets do find themselves obliged to document Israeli strikes on Lebanon, this is done in typically decontextualized fashion. Hezbollah are generally understood to be the “bad guys”; rarely is it mentioned that the group owes its very existence to the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, greenlit by the US, that killed tens of thousands of Lebanese and Palestinians, and occurred in the context of a brutal 22-year Israeli occupation of South Lebanon.

‘Governments have been largely silent’

On Sunday, September 21, there was a relative flurry of corporate media activity after reports emerged that four of the five people killed in an Israeli drone strike on the South Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil—three of whom were children—were US citizens. The four got top billing, for example, in the CNN headline “Four US Citizens Killed, Including Three Children, in Israeli Strike on Lebanon, Says Lebanese Government,” with the fifth, non-American victim banished to the text of the article (9/21/25). CNN has now updated the headline as follows: “Five Killed in Israeli Strike on Lebanon, But Claim Some Were US Citizens Is Being Disputed.”

Indeed, the frequent selectivity of media coverage means it is sometimes easier to keep up with Israel’s activities in Lebanon by checking the Israeli military’s English-language X account—although the content must first be translated from Israel-speak about “terrorists,” “precision strikes” and so forth.

On Thursday, the same day as the underreported attacks on South Lebanon—and one year and one day after Israel detonated personal electronic devices across the country in an unprecedented terrorist attack, killing 12 and wounding thousands—the army’s X account broadcast another attack on eastern Lebanon that was unreported by the corporate media.

The next day, Friday, there was so much news out of Lebanon that the X post required bullet points, including one registering that “a Hezbollah ‘Radwan Force’ terrorist was eliminated in Tebnine, southern Lebanon.”

Bullet points were incidentally also necessitated the previous week when Israel slaughtered 31 journalists in air strikes on Yemen—another of the no fewer than six countries that Israel managed to attack in the span of 72 hours. The X version of this particular event began by claiming that the Israelis had “struck military targets belonging to the Houthi terrorist regime in the areas of Sanaa and Al Jawf in Yemen.

As the Washington Post (9/19/25) noted, the Israeli army “did not respond to a request for evidence of military activity at the site” where the journalists were struck. But why bother presenting evidence when you are never, ever held accountable? Even the Post found it worth remarking that “governments have been largely silent on the Israeli strike.”

‘Raising fears for truce’

As for intermittent media silence on Lebanon, one effect of this is to normalize Israel’s unending war on the country. And yet sometimes it does have to be talked about at length, as in the aforementioned New York Times article (7/9/25) acknowledging Israel’s “near-daily strikes” that ran under the headline “Israel Launches New Ground Incursion in Lebanon, Raising Fears for Truce.” No kidding.

This article was occasioned by the visit to Beirut of US special envoy Tom Barrack, who was set to receive the Lebanese government’s response to the “road map” to Hezbollah’s disarmament. The Times reported: “Just hours before Mr. Barrack’s visit, Israel launched a wave of airstrikes across southern and eastern Lebanon,” while the “announcement of renewed Israeli ground operations came shortly after” his arrival. Following his meeting with President Aoun, Barrack nonetheless declared himself “unbelievably satisfied” with Lebanon’s response to the disarmament plan.

Fast forward to September 18 and the Reuters (9/18/25) nod to the South Lebanon air strikes, which includes this detail:

The Lebanese army warned on Thursday that Israeli attacks and violations risked hampering its deployment in the south, and could block the implementation of its plan to end Hezbollah’s armed presence south of the Litani River.

Which makes one wonder if perhaps an end to the war on Lebanon isn’t what Israel wants at all.

September 27, 2025 Posted by | media, MIDDLE EAST | Leave a comment

Spain and Italy, not US, protecting 22 Americans on Global Sumud Flotilla targeted for destruction by Israel.

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL 25 Sept 25

The Global Sumud Flotilla consists of 52 boats seeking to bring food and medicine to over 2,000,000 beleaguered Palestinians starving in Gaza from the Israeli genocide there. It contains over 500 incredibly courageous unarmed volunteers facing endless attack by Israel. Twenty-two Americans including 6 ex-service members are aboard.

The Flotilla is under constant Israeli attack using unmanned drones, deployment of incendiary devices, and dispersal of chemical substances to stop the Flotilla from reaching starving Palestinians.  

Yesterday Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced Spain will join Italy in sending a military warship to help the Flotilla. While attending the UN Summit in New York Sanchez did not hold back from condemning Israel’s grotesque attacks on the innocent humanitarians:

“The government of Spain insists that international law be respected and that the right of our citizens should be respected to sail through the Mediterranean in safe conditions. Tomorrow we will dispatch a naval vessel from Cartagena with all necessary resources in case it was necessary to assist the flotilla and carry out a rescue operation.”

The US response to endless Israeli attacks on humanitarian boats, some containing Americans risking their lives to bring aid to starving Palestinians? Nada, nothing, zilch. Why would the US do anything that might interfere with their enabling of Israel’s genocide in Gaza? Despicable US refusal to end the genocide in Gaza, even if it means Americans might die, is further evidence American foreign policy is dictated by the practitioners of genocide in Israel.  

There are 296 battle force ships in the US Navy, the world’s largest. But when it comes to endangered Americans seeking to aid the starving Palestinians their government is complicit in starving, the US is essentially saying, ‘Sorry boys, we don’t have a ship to spare’.  

September 27, 2025 Posted by | MIDDLE EAST, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Russia, Iran sign nuclear power plants deal as sanctions loom

Agreement between Rosatom and Iran targets energy expansion with eight new nuclear plants planned by 2040.

By Usaid Siddiqui and Reuters, 24 Sep 2025, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/24/russia-iran-sign-nuclear-power-plants-deal-as-sanctions-loom

Russia and Iran have signed a memorandum of understanding on the construction of small nuclear power plants in Iran, according the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, as Tehran has been engaged in a diplomatic push to avert new sanctions over its nuclear programme.

The agreement was signed by Rosatom chief Alexei Likhachev and Iran’s top nuclear official, Mohammad Eslami, on Wednesday at a meeting in Moscow. Rosatom described it as a “strategic project”.

Eslami, who is also Iran’s vice president, told Iranian state media earlier this week that the plan was to construct eight nuclear power plants as Tehran seeks to reach 20GW of nuclear energy capacity by 2040.

Iran, which suffers from electricity shortages during high-demand months, has only one operating nuclear power plant, in the southern city of Bushehr. It was built by Russia and has a capacity of approximately 1GW.

The development comes amid looming sanctions on Iran, after the United Nations Security Council voted on Friday not to permanently lift economic sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme, meaning sanctions will return by September 28 if no significant deal is reached beforehand.

Russia was among four nations that voted to stop the sanctions from being reintroduced.

Iran pushed back against the UNSC vote, saying the resumption of sanctions would “effectively suspend” the country’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN watchdog.

The vote followed a 30-day process launched in late August by the United Kingdom, France and Germany – known as the E3 – to reinstate sanctions unless Tehran meets their demands.

The E3 have accused Tehran of breaching its nuclear commitments, including by building up a uranium stockpile of more than 40 times the level permitted under a 2015 nuclear deal, from which Trump unilaterally withdrew in 2018, during his first term. The deal allowed Iran to enrich uranium up to 3.67 percent purity.

In its defence, Iran says it boosted its nuclear enrichment only after Trump withdrew from the deal and reimposed sanctions on the country. Tehran deems the US action a violation of the 2015 deal.

Iranian officials have accused the European trio of abusing the dispute mechanism contained in the 2015 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which allows for the application of sanctions under a “snapback mechanism”.

New sanctions would result in freezing of Iranian assets abroad, a halt in arms deals with Tehran, and penalise the development of ballistic missile programme, among other measures.

Iran has repeatedly denied pursuing nuclear weapons but affirmed its right to peacefully pursue nuclear energy. Addressing the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran would never seek a nuclear bomb.

On Tuesday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tehran will not directly negotiate with the United States over Iran’s nuclear programme, calling talks with the US “a sheer dead end”.

Tensions escalated this June, when Israel launched a 12-day war on Iran, with Israeli and US forces striking several nuclear facilities.

September 27, 2025 Posted by | Iran, politics international, Russia | Leave a comment

In move that could Bring in NATO, Spain joins Italy in Sending Rescue Ship for Sumud Gaza Aid Flotilla

INFORMED COMMENT, Juan Cole, 09/25/2025, https://www.juancole.com/2025/09/spain-rescue-flotilla.html

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Wednesday, the socialist government of Pedro Sánchez in Spain announced that it would dispatch a rescue ship to be in the vicinity of the 50 ships that make up the Sumud (steadfastness) flotilla aiming to provide humanitarian relief to the Gaza Strip. It joins Italy in this endeavor. This according to Carlos E. Cué and Miguel González at El Pais.

The Sumud has come under repeated Israeli drone fire. On Wednesday, Israeli drones dropped explosives in the vicinity of the ships moored off the island of Crete, but caused no damage or injuries.

Prime Minister Sánchez said from the UN General Assembly meeting in New York, “The government of Spain requires that international law be observed and that the right of our citizens to navigate the Mediterranean in conditions of security be respected. For this reason, tomorrow a Maritime Action vessel will depart [the base in Cartagena] with all the means of assisting the flotilla or of carrying out any rescue, if necessary.”

Israel has routinely violated the law of the seas by attacking ships in international waters. Spanish citizens are taking part in the Sumud flotilla, and Spain is saying they have the right to do so.

Some 82% of Spaniards categorize what Israel is doing in Gaza as a genocide, a massive proportion that demonstrates that Israel’s actions are condemned by large numbers of people on both the left and the right. But note that 85% of centrists and 97% of Spaniards on the left view the Gaza campaign as genocidal.

The Maritime Action ship is not intended to shoot down attacking Israeli drones or to defend the Sumud ships from being boarded by the Israeli military. It will, however, rescue any passengers that end up in the sea because of Israeli actions.

It should be underlined, however, that it is entirely possible that the Maritime Action vessel will come under Israeli fire, which would spark an enormous diplomatic and military crisis.

Spain and Italy are both NATO members, and Article 5 says that “an attack on one is an attack on all.” NATO invoked this principle after the September 11, 2001, al-Qaida attacks on New York City and Washington, D. C., which is why there were NATO troops in Afghanistan but not in Iraq, which the rest of NATO did not view as a belligerent.

Thus, if Israel attacks the Spanish escort ship, it could stir up a strong European reaction, and would put the Trump administration on the spot, since Trump will side with Israel against NATO.

Spain’s maritime action vessels can accommodate 80 passengers. They are also armed with a 76-millimeter gun, two machine guns, and a surveillance drone of their own. This one will have a crew of 50 and 8 medical staff.

Sanchez’s government reached out to Italy for coordination, and sought to add another country to the escort, such as Ireland.

For her part, Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, from a far right party, faced a national strike involving 500,000 people on Monday over her refusal to recognize a Palestinian state alongside France and Britain. She said Tuesday that she’d recognize Palestine if Hamas releases Israeli hostages and if the organization is excluded from any Palestinian government going forward. This position was the one taken by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer until Sunday, when he folded before the weight of sentiment among his back-benchers.

September 27, 2025 Posted by | MIDDLE EAST, Spain, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Britain recognises Palestine. Now what?

Declassified, UK 25 Sept 25
This week, UK prime minister Keir Starmer announced that Britain has officially recognised the state of Palestine.

The Labour government had previously said it would only use the threat of recognition to pressure Israel to agree to a ceasefire and allow aid into Gaza .This clearly didn’t work and, amid mounting public pressue, the UK joined the Canadian, Australian, and Portuguese governments in recognising Palestine based on 1967 borders.

Foreign Office maps have now been updated to include Gaza and the West Bank as “Palestine” rather than the “Occupied Palestinian Territories”.

Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the move with fury, vowing that a Palestinian state “will not happen” and claiming the move “endangers our existence and constitutes an absurd reward for terrorism”.

The Israeli prime minister found sympathy in British circles, with Nigel Farage sending his condolences and Tory party leader Kemi Badenoch calling the move “absolutely disastrous”.

But what does recognition actually mean?

For starters, it will not mean that Palestinians have the right to defend themselves from Israel – a right that is apparently exclusively available to the Israelis.

“Our position is clear”, wrote Starmer in Israeli media outlet Ynet. “The Palestinian state must be demilitarised. It will have no army or air force”.


Israel will thus continue to control the land, sea, and air borders around Palestine, signifiying no meaningful change in the current status quo.

The Palestinians will also be deprived of their right to self-determination, with Starmer stressing that “Hamas can have no future” in Palestine, including “no role in government” or security.

So what is Britain actually recognising?

As Ilan Pappé recently wrote in Declassified, “geographically recognising [Palestine in its current state] is tantamount to recognising a disempowered political entity stretching over less than 20 percent of the West Bank”.

There are currently more than 800,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank, with more settlements being approved by the Israeli government and extremist ministers pushing for annexation of the area.

Gaza, meanwhile, has been razed to the ground.

In these circumstances, Britain’s recognition of Palestine looks more like empty gesture politics than a statement of intent to change the material reality on the ground.

Indeed, it is difficult to take Starmer seriously when the UK continues to arm Israel and send spy flights over Gaza, while refusing to impose a trade ban on products from illegal settlements.

Rather than helping to bring a new Palestinian reality into being, then, Starmer appears to be recognising a cadaver that the UK government had a hand in killing.

September 27, 2025 Posted by | Gaza, politics international, UK | Leave a comment

Iran’s president vows to never build a nuclear bomb in his UNGA speech

Masoud Pezeshkian accused the UK, France and Germany of acting ‘at the behest of the United States of America’.

By Caolán Magee, 24 Sep 2025, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/24/irans-president-vows-to-never-build-a-nuclear-bomb-in-his-unga-speech

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has told the United Nations General Assembly that Tehran will “never seek to build a nuclear bomb”, as diplomatic efforts are under way to avert the so-called “snapback” sanctions on Tehran over the country’s nuclear programme.

The remarks on Wednesday came as a 30-day process launched by the United Kingdom, France and Germany to restore UN sanctions against Iran approaches its September 27 deadline.

The three European powers, known as the E3, accuse Tehran of failing to comply with a 2015 deal with world powers aimed at preventing it from developing nuclear arms.

The E3 have said they would delay reinstating sanctions for up to six months if Iran restores access for UN nuclear inspectors, addresses concerns about its enriched uranium stockpile and engages in talks with the United States.

“An agreement remains possible. Only a few hours are left. It’s up to Iran to respond to the legitimate issues we have raised,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X after meeting Pezeshkian at the United Nations.

Iran has previously pointed to US President Donald Trump’s 2018 withdrawal from the nuclear deal and the air strikes on Iran in June as reasons for scaling back its previous commitments.

Pezeshkian accused the Europeans of bad faith, saying that Iran’s lack of cooperation was in response to Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“They falsely presented themselves as parties of good standing to the agreement, and they disparaged Iran’s sincere efforts as insufficient,” Pezeshkian said.

In his speech at the UN, Pezeshkian went on to accuse the E3 of acting “at the behest of the United States of America”.

“In doing so, they set aside good faith,” he told the assembly. “They circumvented legal obligations. They sought to portray Iran’s lawful remedial measures taken in response to the United States’ withdrawal from the JCPOA and to Europe’s breach and other incapacity as a gross violation.”

In a recorded speech on Tuesday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reiterated that Tehran is not seeking to build nuclear weapons, but ruled out talks with the US, saying, “This is not a negotiation. It is a diktat, an imposition.”

New sanctions would result in freezing of Iranian assets abroad, a halt in arms deals with Tehran, and penalise the development of ballistic missile programme, among other measures.

12-day war

In his address, Pezeshkian went on to condemn the Israeli and the US surprise attacks that sparked the 12-day war.

Several senior Iranian military figures were killed in the war, which also weakened the country’s defences.

More than 1,000 Iranians were killed when Israel launched air strikes and violated Tehran’s sovereignty, which it claimed was a preemptive act of “self-defence” to target Iran’s nuclear programme.

Israel has been accused of disregarding the sovereignty of neighbouring Arab countries, as it has attacked multiple countries, including Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Qatar. The Israeli strikes on Iran were its biggest military offensive in recent years, drawing retaliation from Tehran.

“The Iranian nation has time and again demonstrated that it shall never bow before aggressors,” Pezeshkian said.

He added that during the war, “the patriotic and valiant people of Iran laid bare before the aggressors the fallacy and self-delusion of their arrogant calculations.”

‘Greater Israel’ ambitions

The second day of the UN General Assembly’s annual debate featured speeches by leaders including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Argentina’s Javier Milei, and Syria’s interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Israel’s war on Gaza has dominated both days, with Pezeshkian using his address to denounce Israeli rhetoric about establishing a “greater Israel,” which he said refers to expanding control over Palestinian land and creating “buffer” zones in neighbouring countries.

“After nearly two years of genocide, mass starvation, the perpetuation of apartheid within the occupied territories and aggression against its neighbours, the ludicrous and delusional scheme of a ‘greater Israel’ is being proclaimed with brazenness by the highest echelons of that regime,” he said.

He added that Israel’s recent attacks on neighbouring countries showed it was no longer seeking security through normalisation.

“Israel and its sponsors no longer even content themselves with normalisation through political means. Rather, they impose their presence through naked force, and have styled it peace through strength,” the Iranian president said.

He closed his address by pledging that Iran is ready to cooperate with international partners and emerge from isolation.

“Iran is a steadfast partner and a trustworthy companion for all peace-seeking countries of friendship and a partnership grounded not in fleeting expediency but in dignity, trust and a shared future,” he said.

“Let us, together with you, turn threads into opportunities.”

September 26, 2025 Posted by | Iran, politics international | Leave a comment

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