Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman speaks with Donald Trump at the Royal Court in Riyadh (Brendan Smialowski/AFP)
EA on Talk TV: Will Trump Camp Invade Cuba to Cover Up Failure of War on Iran?
I joined Times Radio’s Maddie Hale on Wednesday for a 26-minute dissection of Donald Trump’s failing war on Iran, including the “brutal silence” of Gulf States over his latest thought bubble.
I set out Iran’s advantage in talks over a framework deal, using its leverage over the Strait of Hormuz and relegating consideration of Tehran’s nuclear program to a second stage.
I examine how an incoherent Trump and his Administration are struggling to avoid compromise but facing a lack of options.
And I detail how Trump’s attempted face-saver, with Arab and Muslim states “normalizing” relations with Israel, fell flat with the Gulf States, Pakistan, Turkey, and Egypt.
6,476 Israeli homes lost during 2026 Iran war: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-897675
“6,473 Israeli residences were damaged sufficiently during the Iran war that those who had been living inside lost their homes, the IDF Home Front Command said on Thursday. These numbers include only the worst property damage incidents, given that at the time of the April 7 ceasefire, Israelis had already filed over 28,000 property damage claims with the government (these could also include damage to cars and other property.)”
[Editor’s Note: There is no corroboration of this claim from “Capital and Empire”.]
Israel Privately Pressing U.S. to Kill Iran’s Lead Negotiator and Launch New Strikes: https://capitalandempire.com/p/exclusive-israel-privately-pressing-assassination-resume-war
“Israel is privately lobbying the Department of War to assassinate Iran’s lead negotiator, parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and restart the war with a new round of strikes targeting the country’s oil infrastructure, according to a classified report circulating within the U.S. intelligence community this week. Israeli officials are aggressively trying to pull the U.S. away from negotiations and back into war, arguing to senior Trump administration officials that another round of strikes against Iran’s oil infrastructure will generate enough economic devastation and unrest to trigger regime change in Tehran, U.S. sources directly familiar with the assessment told Capital & Empire. Even while making that argument, Israeli officials have simultaneously downplayed the likely impact renewed war would have on global energy markets, insisting internally that Iranian retaliation against Gulf states and regional infrastructure would remain economically manageable.”