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۱۴۰۴ اسفند ۲۰, چهارشنبه
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[2026-03-11 9:27 AM] Sputnik Iran Media: بقایی: اقدام اتحادیه اروپا برای تحریم ایران، غیر قانونی و غیر اخلاقی است
🛰اسماعیل بقائی سخنگوی وزارت امور خارجه ایران در پیامی در شبکه ایکس در واکنش به اقدام اتحادیه اروپایی در اعمال تحریم جدید علیه ایران نوشت:
🛰این اقدام، هم غیرمنطقی است و هم غیراخلاقی و غیرقانونی: شما در پی آن هستید که ایران را به دلیل اعمال حق ذاتی خود برای دفاع مشروع طبق مادهٔ ۵۱ منشور سازمان ملل متحد و نیز به خاطر مقاومت در برابر تجاوز بیرحمانه و غیرقانونی ایالات متحده و رژیم اسرائیل مجازات کنید، در حالی که همزمان همان متجاوزان نسلکش را مسلح میکنید، از آنها حمایت میکنید و زمینهٔ اقداماتشان را فراهم میسازید.
🛰چنین موضعی چیزی کمتر از همدستی فعال در قانونشکنی بینالمللی و جنایتهای هولناک و فجیع نیست.
📱 ما را در سایت و تلگرام اسپوتنیک دنبال کنید
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۱۴۰۴ اسفند ۱۹, سهشنبه
10 Mar, 2026 19:56
The Iranian knot: Why Trump turned to Putin
By Dmitry Evstafiev, Professor at the Institute of Media, HSE University, PhD in Political Science

US President Donald Trump’s Monday night phone call to Russian President Vladimir Putin was clearly an attempt to find a way out of the strategic impasse that has already begun to emerge in the war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran.
Washington continues to make bold statements. Trump insists on his right to dictate Iran’s political future and even speculates about appointing the country’s spiritual leader. At the same time, he is urging tanker captains to demonstrate courage and break through what he calls the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
Yet the momentum of a major war, initiated by Washington and Tel Aviv, is already building. The political environment around the conflict is shifting in ways that are increasingly uncomfortable for the US.
Even some of Washington’s closest partners are distancing themselves. Kuwait, perhaps the most loyal American ally in the Gulf after Jordan, has stated that it did not provide its territory for attacks on Iran, despite evidence suggesting otherwise. Meanwhile, Syrian Kurdish groups are urging Iraqis and Iranians not to trust the US.
At the same time, reports of behind-the-scenes contacts between Riyadh and Tehran, and between other Arab capitals and Iran, are appearing almost daily. The prospect of relative diplomatic isolation is beginning to loom for Washington.
Of course, Trump’s relationship with Israel remains a strategic alliance. But the current trajectory of the conflict is clearly not what he had in mind when he authorized strikes on Iran.
At this point, the logic becomes obvious: it is time to call Moscow.
Trump hoped to cut through what might be called the “Iranian knot” by force. The narrative that he could end a forty-year confrontation with Iran through decisive military action was politically attractive in Washington. Instead, the knot has only tightened.
Several of its key strands cannot be untangled without Russia’s participation. This was clear from the outset, although for Trump and his team it remained largely theoretical knowledge. Now they are gaining practical experience.
The first factor is the decline of American authority in the Middle East, particularly in the Persian Gulf.
Not only has the US military infrastructure in the region suffered serious damage, but elements of the broader security architecture that underpin Israel’s defense strategy, including parts of its early warning system, have also been weakened.
More importantly, the conflict has demonstrated to regional states that American military and political guarantees are far less reliable than previously assumed. Once such doubts take root, they cannot easily be reversed. The “minced meat,” so to speak, of Washington’s security guarantees to the Gulf monarchies cannot simply be turned back into a whole.
Does Trump fully understand this? It is difficult to say.
His attempt to involve Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggests that he may not yet grasp the scale of the strategic shift. Yet the very fact that he called Moscow indicates that he realizes relations with the Arab states cannot be stabilized by Washington alone.
The US needs partners. Western Europe, however, is clearly not among them. Whether Trump is ready to pursue collective political action to stabilize the region, and whether he is willing to make serious compromises, remains an open question.
The second factor concerns the global hydrocarbon market.
What Trump initially described as a temporary “spasm” in energy markets, one that might accelerate a redistribution of supply in favor of the US, now risks developing into a prolonged disruption of global supply chains.
Such an outcome would hardly benefit Washington.
If the crisis deepens, both the global public and American voters will know exactly who bears responsibility. It will also highlight the vulnerability of maritime energy transport, an area where Washington hoped to strengthen its strategic position.
In effect, another attempt to restructure the global hydrocarbon market at Russia’s expense, without Russia and against Russia, has failed.
Of course, it would be naïve to assume this will be the last such attempt. But unlike Washington and several other major players, Moscow has spent years preparing for precisely this kind of market turbulence.
In this context, Putin’s proposal to the European Union regarding the possible resumption of hydrocarbon supplies, primarily via pipelines, deserves attention.
At first glance, this initiative may seem unrelated to the war in the Persian Gulf. In reality, it reflects a deeper understanding of the strategic consequences that conflict in the Gulf could have for the global energy system.
If maritime deliveries of oil and gas, which the US has pledged to secure, become increasingly risky, pipeline routes regain strategic importance.
Putin’s proposal therefore also serves as a test for Western Europe. At the very least, it offers these states an opportunity to demonstrate a degree of political sovereignty at a time when the risk of a global energy crisis is steadily increasing.
The third factor is the changing nature of the conflict itself.
Ten days into the war, the confrontation with the US has already begun to evolve. Alongside conventional military operations, sabotage and terrorism are becoming increasingly prominent.
This shift is a direct consequence of the White House administration’s attempt to frame the confrontation as a broader religious war against Iran.
Unlike previous conflicts in the Middle East, however, the primary targets of sabotage are unlikely to be Israeli facilities. Instead, they will increasingly be American infrastructure and American citizens around the world.
From the perspective of both Iran and many radical Islamist groups, the US is the principal adversary in this confrontation. Not Israel.
In such circumstances, Moscow’s restraining influence on Tehran could prove valuable, provided Trump is willing to take the first steps toward de-escalation.
Finally, there is the domestic political dimension.
The war that some in Washington initially expected to last around five days is now widely predicted to continue for months. Such a prolonged conflict creates fertile ground for a political crisis inside the US.
Trump’s support in Washington was already weakening even before the war began. As the conflict drags on, the political consequences will become increasingly visible.
Sooner or later, American politicians will have to confront the post-war reality, including the humanitarian consequences of the conflict for Iran and the destabilization of Washington’s regional allies.
On this front, however, Moscow can hardly help Donald Trump. Russia may assist in loosening parts of the Iranian knot. But the political problems the war is creating inside the US remain Washington’s own responsibility.
10 Mar, 2026 07:09
Iran reveals civilian death toll and warns Trump of ‘elimination’ (VIDEOS)
Iran’s top security official has dismissed US President Donald Trump’s threats after he vowed to strike Iran “twenty times harder” if it continues to threaten the strategic Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for the US-Israeli attacks.
The strikes have killed at least 1,332 civilians across Iran since Washington and West Jerusalem began their attack more than a week ago, the Iranian Red Crescent has reported.
Iranian National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani branded Trump’s threats “empty,” writing on Telegram: “Even those greater than you could not eliminate the Iranian nation. Be careful not to be eliminated!”
A new wave of US-Israeli strikes has killed at least 40 people in Tehran, bringing the number of Iranian civilians killed by the US-Israeli war to over 1,300.
Trump has also strongly criticized Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who was elected as Iran’s supreme leader following the killing of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has threatened to assassinate anyone who takes the post.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who held a phone call with Trump on Monday, said the escalating conflict risks entirely choking off the region’s oil exports through the now “de-facto closed” Strait of Hormuz. RT has assessed the impact of $100 oil, and the subsequent rise in Urals oil, for Russia.
• The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has reportedly promised full freedom of passage to ships from any Arab or European country that expels US and Israeli ambassadors.
• The price of Russian Urals oil has surged to a premium over Brent, which which peaked at over $120 on Monday. Trump has dismissed the spike as “a very small price to pay” for the war against Iran.
• As of Tuesday, the US-Israeli attacks have killed over 1,300 Iranian civilians, according to official data from Iran.
• The deadliest attack yet was a strike on a girls’ school in Minab in southern Iran that killed 168 children. Multiple media outlets have concluded from available footage that the school was hit by a US Tomahawk missile. Trump has dismissed the reports, insisting that Tehran is to blame.
• The US-Israeli strikes on oil facilities near Tehran have produced a “black rain” of toxic oil and soot, with residents reporting breathing difficulties. Online images and footage show thick smog over the capital, as Iran’s Red Crescent Society warns that the rain could be “highly dangerous and acidic.”
• At least 13 Israelis have been killed in the crossfire so far. Iran’s retaliatory strikes on US bases in the region have killed at least four in the UAE, one in Bahrain, six in Kuwait, and two in Saudi Arabia.Follow our live coverage below for continuous updates.
10 March 2026
17:36 GMTIsrael has taken out most of the central assets of Iran’s internal security forces and the IRGC’s Basij paramilitary militia in Ilam Province, the IDF has claimed.
The targets included the regional headquarters of the Islamic Republic’s internal security forces and its central intelligence unit, as well as several senior military officials, the IDF said in a statement.
- 17:24 GMT
No vessels associated with the US or Israel have “the right to pass through the Strait of Hormuz,” the commander of the IRGC Navy, Alireza Tangsiri, has warned.
“If you have any doubt, come closer and test it,” he posted on X.
- 17:17 GMT
Iran’s Press TV broadcaster has published footage of an unexploded 2,000 pound bomb being removed from a residential building in Koohdasht, Iran.
- 17:13 GMT
No power in history has succeeded in destroying the 6,000-year-old civilization that Iran is heir to, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said.
“Anyone who entertains the illusion of destroying Iran knows nothing of history,” he wrote on X.
“Aggressors have come and gone; Iran has endured.”
- 17:04 GMT
Trump does not have an exit strategy for the Iran conflict, Democratic Senator Mark Kelly told reporters at the US Capitol, according to AP.
“Clearly they do not have a strategic goal,” he reportedly said. “They didn’t have a plan. They have no timeline. And because of that they have no exit strategy.”
- 16:56 GMT
Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Ghalibaf has warned the US and Israel against attacking civilian infrastructure, threatening retaliation.
“No evil goes unanswered, we today decree the rule of ‘an eye for an eye’, without exception,” he wrote on X.
“If they start a war on infrastructure, we will undoubtedly target infrastructure.”
- 16:30 GMT
The US had spent $5.6 billion in munitions in the first two days of its attacks on Iran, the Pentagon has estimated in a report to Congress, according to CNN.
However, the enormous figure does not include other war-related expenses, AP has reported, citing an anonymous source familiar with the assessment.
- 16:22 GMT
The IRGC has claimed to have struck US and Israeli facilities across the Middle East in its latest drone and missile salvo.
The US naval base in Bahrain and an air base in the UAE were struck by a combined drone and missile attack, the corps said in a statement cited by the Fars news agency.
Israel’s Ramat David air base and “hidden missile launchers” east of Tel Aviv were also hit by missiles, the statement added.
- 16:19 GMT
Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian about the US-Israeli attack on the Islamic Republic in the second phone call this week, the Kremlin has announced.
“The Russian President reaffirmed his principled position in favor of a swift de-escalation of the conflict and its resolution through political means,” the Kremlin said. Pezeshkian thanked Moscow for its support, especially regarding deliveries of humanitarian aid to Iran, the statement said.
© Kremlin - 15:44 GMT
Medical personnel have been dispatched to Beit Shemesh following reports of an Iranian ballistic missile strike, Israel’s emergency service Magen David Adom has said.





