“US Israel Iran War”

President Trump said Wednesday the U.S. might finish off the Iranian regime and let countries that rely on the Strait of Hormuz as an oil-shipping channel deal with its security.

Mr. Trump mused about the possibility while he urged other nations to help clear Iran’s blockade of the waterway, which carries 20% of the world’s oil supply.

“I wonder what would happen if we ‘finished off’ what’s left of the Iranian Terror State, and let the Countries that use it, we don’t, be responsible for the so called ‘Straight?’ That would get some of our non-responsive ‘Allies’ in gear, and fast!!!” he posted on Truth Social.

That’ll get their attention.

Four years and 24 days. Nineteen days. There’s a huge difference between those two numbers. The first numbers — 1,485 days altogether — is the length of time since Russian troops crossed the Ukraine border on Feb. 22, 2022, and headed for Kyiv. The second number — just 19 days — is the number of days since U.S. and Israeli forces on Feb. 28 began bombing strategic targets in Iran.

The two attacks have this in common: their initial responses were far different from what many experts, in the United States and beyond, expected and predicted.

U.S. drops 5,000-pound bunker busters on underground Iranian missile sites along the Hormuz coastline

CENTCOM confirms GBU-72 Advanced Penetrator bombs were used to destroy hardened Iranian anti-ship cruise missile sites threatening commercial shipping in the Strait.

Five… pic.twitter.com/b5Z5hMp4Ar

— Imtiaz Mahmood (@ImtiazMadmood) March 18, 2026

An Israeli official confirmed Wednesday morning that the Israeli Air Force carried out an attempted targeted assassination against Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmaeil Khatib on Tuesday night.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed Khatib’s death, saying that Khatib had been “in charge of the Iranian regime’s mechanisms for murder and internal repression, and of advancing external threats.”

“Israel’s policy is clear and unambiguous: No one in Iran is immune, and they are all targets.”

The spectacular American military operation that removed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power earlier this year has inevitably inspired comparisons among strategists searching for solutions to the Iran crisis.

When Maduro was captured during a dramatic U.S. raid on January 3, 2026, it was widely seen as a striking demonstration of American resolve under President Donald J. Trump. Maduro’s removal loosened the Venezuelan dictatorship’s grip on power and triggered a rapid political recalibration in Caracas. Washington quickly secured commitments on oil production, financial transparency, and the partial restructuring of Venezuela’s state energy giant PDVSA. Oil production, which had collapsed from roughly 3.2 million barrels per day in 1998 to around 800,000 by late 2025 after decades of corruption and mismanagement, began a gradual recovery as U.S. energy companies moved to revive extraction in the Orinoco Belt, home to some of the world’s largest heavy-crude reserves.

European Union foreign ministers met in Brussels on Monday, trying to decide on a course of action going forward to maintain their well-earned reputations for cowardice without angering the Orange Man in Washington.

🚨 BREAKING: President Trump just ENDED UK PM Keir Starmer's whole career in the Oval Office

*Turns around*: "I'm DISAPPOINTED. You see that man right there? Know who that is? The late, great WINSTON CHURCHILL."

"Unfortunately, Keir Starmer is NOT Winston Churchill." 🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/NZYqiWRMiz

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 17, 2026

Israel says it has killed a linchpin of Iranian politics, the national security chief, Ali Larijani, in overnight strikes, a claim that if confirmed would make him the most senior Iranian figure to die in the war since the supreme leader Ali Khamenei was killed on its first day.

Iran has yet to comment on either claim. If confirmed, Larijani’s death would remove a pivotal figure at the heart of the regime’s political and security establishment at a moment of acute crisis and represent devastating blow.

Or he could have emigrated to Canada which is the more likely possibility.

This monster may have been Offed too.

h/t patthedog

Iran’s new supreme leader survived the Israeli strike that killed his father because he stepped outside the compound for a walk in the garden minutes before the blast, according to a new report.

Leaked audio from a meeting about the Feb. 28 strike on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s compound revealed that his son, the new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, was with his father in Tehran when he stepped out “to do something,” The Telegraph reported.

JUST IN – Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei survived strikes that killed his father, because he had gone outside "to do something" moments before missiles struck his residence, newly disclosed audio reveals — Telegraph pic.twitter.com/KK2xElphuc

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) March 16, 2026

⚠️ ⚠️

| Trump and Mojtaba Khamenei go hiking — trip ends badly… pic.twitter.com/TGO5VoCc7y

— Iran Spectator (@IranSpec) March 11, 2026

President Trump defended the Iranian people for not yet rising up against their government as Operation Epic Fury enters its third week.

While another mass protest could help ensure the current regime is ultimately prevented from retaining power, Trump acknowledged the brutal reality facing ordinary Iranians. The regime has openly threatened to shoot and kill anyone who attempts to rise up, a threat made all the more credible after security forces slaughtered more than 30,000 protesters earlier this year.

The United States is allowing Iranian oil tankers to transit the Strait of Hormuz, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on Monday.

“The Iranian ships have been getting out already, and we’ve let that happen to supply the rest of the world,” Bessent told CNBC’s Brian Sullivan in a “Squawk Box” interview in Paris. The Treasury secretary is in France for trade talks with China.

h/t Mauser

Hundreds of American soldiers have been captured across the Gulf. US military bases throughout the region lie in ruins. Benjamin Netanyahu is dead or gravely wounded.

Washington officials are begging for a ceasefire while the US loses control of a war that will not end until Iran says so.

Relentless Iranian missile strikes are smashing Israel while enemies plead for mercy, and the US strike groups are rendered non-functional and forced to retreat after being hit with missiles.

Donald Trump has ratcheted up the pressure on European allies to help protect the strait of Hormuz, warning that Nato faces a “very bad” future if its members fail to come to Washington’s aid.

The de facto closure of the vital waterway by Tehran in retaliation for airstrikes by the US and Israel has proved catastrophic for global energy and trade flows, causing the largest oil supply disruption in history and soaring global oil prices.

The US president’s call for allies to enter the war by sending ships to the strait to protect commercial shipping vessels and unblock global oil supplies has met a muted response. Australia, France, Japan and the UK are among the countries to have said they have no plans to send ships.

Iranian combat power declines, as U.S. dominance builds over vast swaths of Iran. pic.twitter.com/LrYe5PVMj1

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 15, 2026

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