Contrary to the hopes of America and Israel, the Islamic Republic still stands. It may be battered and many of its leaders dead, including the supreme leader himself, but those who survive can claim the failure of “regime change” as victory.
Nevertheless, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the late leader’s son and designated successor, and his inner circle will have to make tough choices about the nature of their regime in the next two weeks and beyond.
Imagine calling for the destruction of a civilisation. Imagine dreaming about violently scrubbing an ancient nation from the face of the Earth. Imagine flirting with the idea of obliterating a land with thousands of years of rich history. I am referring, of course, to the activist class and its annihilationist hatred for the Jewish State. For nearly three years, these people have beat the streets and swarmed the digital networks to agitate for the erasure of Israel, all the way ‘from the river to the sea’. President Trump’s juvenile bluster on Iran has nothing on their existential loathing for the Jewish homeland.
The fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran appears to have broken down after Tehran shut the Strait of Hormuz and attacked a Saudi oil pipeline.
Iran stopped oil tankers heading through the critical sea passage in protest at continued Israeli air strikes on Lebanon. The US insisted Lebanon was not covered by the ceasefire agreement.
On Wednesday afternoon, Israel hit 100 targets in 10 minutes during a surprise attack on central Beirut, in what it said was a campaign to root out Iranian-backed Hezbollah forces. Some 112 people died, according to local authorities. Iran also claimed that “enemy” air strikes hit Tehran.
Russia, China and the Middle East are theaters where Western strategic illusions tend to erode too slowly — almost politely — until reality forces its way through.
The rulers of the Middle East learned long ago — from the United States falling for their Charlie Brown football routine every time — how to outwit the West or outlast it.
With the Gaza Strip, US President Donald J. Trump sets up a “Board of Peace” ostensibly to oversee the permanent disarmament of Hamas, only to pack it with Islamists dedicated to waging war, who have no interest in seeing any kind of peace, and then turns his attention elsewhere while Hamas comfortably builds up its power base again.
The conventional wisdom is that the Canadian economy should be a big winner from the surge in oil prices following the escalation of conflict in the Middle East. Canada is the fourth-largest exporter of crude oil in the world: when prices rise, Canadian oil generates more revenue, corporate income, higher wages, and government royalties.
The OECD’s latest outlook points to a more complicated reality. Canada is no longer a petrostate; while the oil and gas sector is still large enough to cushion Canada from the worst macroeconomic consequences of the Iran war, the structure and geography of Canadian economic growth have added many more trade-offs to managing resource profits.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday bashed leaks and media reports about the terms of a U.S.-Iran ceasefire, as confusion over the agreement threatened to undermine the fragile pause in fighting.
In a post on Truth Social, the president said that “Numerous Agreements, Lists, and Letters” being circulated online are being “sent out by people that have absolutely nothing to do with the U.S.A. / Iran Negotiation, in many cases, they are total Fraudsters, Charlatans, and WORSE.”
The US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire on Tuesday barely an hour before Donald Trump’s deadline to obliterate Iran was set to expire, with Tehran agreeing to temporarily reopen the strait of Hormuz.
Israel also agreed to the ceasefire, the White House said. As Trump announced he was suspending his plans to escalate attacks across Iran, the US president said he had received a 10-point proposal from Iran which was a “workable basis on which to negotiate”.
But what is in this plan from Iran, and will Trump accept it?
Whether the Strait of Hormuz is open or not is anybody’s guess reports are all over the map.
In a series of Situation Room meetings, President Trump weighed his instincts against the deep concerns of his vice president and a pessimistic intelligence assessment. Here’s the inside story of how he made the fateful decision.
The black S.U.V. carrying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived at the White House just before 11 a.m. on Feb. 11. The Israeli leader, who had been pressing for months for the United States to agree to a major assault on Iran, was whisked inside with little ceremony, out of view of reporters, primed for one of the most high-stakes moments in his long career.
U.S. and Israeli officials gathered first in the Cabinet Room, adjacent to the Oval Office. Then Mr. Netanyahu headed downstairs for the main event: a highly classified presentation on Iran for President Trump and his team in the White House Situation Room, which was rarely used for in-person meetings with foreign leaders.
Mr. Trump sat down, but not in his usual position at the head of the room’s mahogany conference table. Instead, the president took a seat on one side, facing the large screens mounted along the wall. Mr. Netanyahu sat on the other side, directly opposite the president.
Iran and the US have agreed to a conditional two-week ceasefire, during which shipping traffic will be allowed through the Strait of Hormuz.
This comes more than a month after the US and Israel launched co-ordinated attacks on Iran, and hours after US President Donald Trump threatened “a whole civilisation will die tonight” if Iran did not reopen the Strait.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who has been mediating negotiations, said early on Wednesday that the ceasefire was effective immediately.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that President Trump had the power to “cripple Iran’s entire economy in minutes” but Trump "chose mercy" and decided not to strike additional targets after Iran agreed to a ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/VzlHIOLZuD
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 8, 2026
The well-deserved accolades have already been given, although there will be yet another round when the medal citations have been written, and the heroes summoned for their ceremonial presentations. There will be many such, all well-earned, because the rescue of the two downed F-15 crew represents a remarkable achievement, both heroic on-the-ground performance and masterful leadership up and down the chain of command.
Donald Trump said Tuesday he has agreed to a two-week ceasefire in Iran.
“I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks,” the US president wrote on social media. “This will be a double sided CEASEFIRE!”
On Tuesday’s CNN This Morning, host Audie Cornish turned to retired Brigadier General Steven M. Anderson to assess President Trump’s potential expansion of military strikes on Iran.
Anderson repeatedly warned that targeting infrastructure such as bridges, power plants, and water facilities could amount to “war crimes,” even suggesting U.S. troops could be put in the position of refusing “illegal” orders.
OTTAWA—Hours after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to end “a whole civilization” in Iran with a deadly bombing planned today, Prime Minister Mark Carney urged “all parties” in the Middle East crisis to respect international law on war and humanitarian protections.
Responding to media questions about Trump’s threat against Iran that warned “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” Carney said he has privately called for restraint as the threat of more devastating strikes loomed large.
An American journalist will reportedly be released by an Iranian-backed militia a week after she was kidnapped in Baghdad — on the condition that she leaves Iraq immediately.
The release of Shelly Kittleson, 49, from Monticello, Wisconsin, was seemingly confirmed in a post on the encrypted social messaging app Telegram by Abu Mujahid Aasaf, the security chief of Hezbollah Brigades.
The United States bombed dozens of weapons depots and air defense facilities on Kharg Island overnight in a “message” to Tehran about what will happen if the Islamic Republic does not accept the terms of President Donald Trump’s ceasefire deal by 8 p.m. Tuesday.
