June 18, 1918 - Don Martin down with sore throat in Meaux

‘New war with Israel at any moment’, ‘still digging through rubble’

The news about Iran has taken an ominous tone in the last couple days. Here is some reporting and commentary. Newsweek on August 18, 2025, reported that Yahya Rahim Safavi, senior military adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said ‘ We are not in a ceasefire; we are in a stage of war. No protocol, regulation, or agreement has been written between us and the U.S. or Israel. A new war with Israel could break out at any moment .’ Yonah Jeremy Bob commented in The Jerusalem Post on August 19, 2025, that ‘ Khamenei can either “drink from the poisoned chalice” of diplomatic concessions … or face more airstrikes, possibly next time some targeting him directly ’. Bob also noted that ‘ right now Iran is still digging through rubbl e’. The U.S. attacked Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan on June 22. Two months of digging. No surprise that there has been no public news about that.

U.S. Sanctions, Middle East views

Trump’s special envoy Witkoff has hit the capitals again; in Tel Aviv Netanyahu probably told him to tell Trump that he will take over all of Gaza; in Moscow Putin probably told him to tell Trump that Ukraine will be destroyed and forget the sanctions. Witkoff didn’t get to number 3 on his list, Iran. But Trump played another ‘ getting to a deal ’ with Iran card, adding sanctions he can later get credit for removing. And the Middle East commentators are worriedly reacting to the Iran situation. Here are some highlights. From Newsweek: The U.S. announced on July 30 the largest Iran-related sanctions since 2018 , targeting entities and vessels linked to the country's petroleum sector: 20 oil firms, 5 vessel management companies, 1 wholesaler, and over 115 individuals in 17 countries and regions, including the U.K., Italy, Switzerland, India, the UAE and Hong Kong. U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said: "Today's Depar...

“Quit the nuclear deal”

The E3 (Britan, France, Germany) upped their ante with a letter to the UN Security Council on August 12, 2025, that included: ‘ if Iran is not willing to reach a diplomatic solution before the end of August 2025, or does not seize the opportunity of an extension, E3 are prepared to trigger the snapback mechanism ’. (AP, Aug 13, 2025) So far, we have an Iranian response from Parliament member Manouchehr Mottaki — who was Iran’s top diplomat for five years in the 2000s — saying the Iranian parliament has a “ finger on the trigger ” for quitting the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. “ We only need 24 hours to approve quitting the nuclear deal, ” if the E3 raises the issue at the U.N. Security Council, Mottaki said. (AP, Aug 13, 2025) On ‘extension’, following July’s meeting in Istanbul [between E3 and Iran], an E3 diplomat said Iran could delay [snapback] by doing two things [1] renewing cooperation with the Vienna-based IAEA and [2] addressing concerns about its highly enriche...

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