“US Israel Iran War”

President Donald Trump has dismissed Iran’s response to US proposals to end the war as “totally unacceptable”.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said Tehran’s proposal, sent via Pakistan, which has served as a mediator, included an immediate end to the war on all fronts, a halt to the US naval blockade of Iranian ports and guarantees of no further attacks on Iran.

A ceasefire meant to facilitate talks to end the war launched by the US and Israel in February has been largely observed, despite occasional exchanges of fire.

President Donald Trump slammed Iran for “playing games with the United States” for 47 years, but soon, “they will be laughing no longer,” he said in a Truth Social post on Sunday afternoon.

Good answer

ABC: ‘Trump gave Iran 48 hours to open Strait of Hormuz 50 days ago. Nothing happened’

Trump’s UN envoy Waltz: ‘I think we should take a step back. 50 days to deal with a 50-year-old problem’ pic.twitter.com/NLgZSZwQ1e

— RT (@RT_com) May 10, 2026

Is the war between Iran and the US-Israel tandem over bar the shouting? Even a week ago, the question might have sounded fanciful, as President Donald Trump was still threatening to wipe Iran off the map. Now, however, he is talking of “progress” towards a deal confirming what he and his aides, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, present as the end of military engagement.

Several new developments may have contributed to this new optimistic vision.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that President Donald Trump told him he would want to “go in” to Iran to remove enriched uranium from the country.

“I’m not going to talk about military means, but the president, what President Trump has said to me, ‘I want to go in there.’ And I think it can be done physically; that’s not the problem. If you have an agreement and you go in and you take it out, why not? That’s the best way,” Netanyahu said.

Iran has sent its response to US proposals to end the war via mediators in Pakistan, Iranian state media report.

No details have been released. The US has not made details of its proposals public, either, but reports suggest they centre on a 14-point memorandum of understanding, which could lead to negotiations on Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

A ceasefire meant to facilitate talks to end the war launched by the US and Israel in February has been largely observed, despite occasional exchanges of fire.

However, Iran has continued to block the Strait of Hormuz – leading to a rise in world oil prices – and the US has been enforcing a blockade of Iranian ports to exert pressure on Tehran to agree to its terms.

In 1759, Samuel Johnson wrote: “No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.” Certainly being a sailor then was dangerous too, with privateering and piracy rife. But being a sailor in the Arabian Gulf in 2026 is, according to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), an unprecedented humanitarian crisis that even Johnson could not expect.

No one knows what mental toll will be exacted by the enforced imprisonment of 20,000 seafarers on board 2,000 vessels trapped either side of the Strait of Hormuz for the past ten weeks. “I have seen Iranian drones and missiles flying at low altitude,” one stuck seafarer told the Seafarers’ Happiness Index, a project led by the Mission to Seafarers, an industry welfare association. “I also hear the sound of fighter jets, but we can’t identify which country they belong to.

Iran has questioned the seriousness of American peace efforts after naval clashes in the Gulf.

Tehran is keeping Washington waiting for a response to its latest negotiating position, which had been expected on Friday evening.

On Saturday, Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, called into question the reliability of the US leadership, in a phone call with his Turkish counterpart.

According to the Iranian ISNA news agency, he said: “The recent escalation of tensions by American forces in the Persian Gulf and their numerous actions in violating the ceasefire have added to suspicions about the motivation and seriousness of the American side in the path of diplomacy.”

(more…)

And here’s the answer: Does it matter?

As of this morning, the White House continues to insist that the ceasefire with Iran remains in place and that negotiations will continue. At the same time, missile launches and drone attacks keep coming from Iran, including the skirmish yesterday in which the US Navy struck ports in the Strait of Hormuz and sank several fast-attack boats harassing shipping. 

WASHINGTON — The US military launched a new series of airstrikes Friday, targeting a group of empty tankers in the Strait of Hormuz that were trying to barrel through the blockade of Iranian ports, according to US Central Command.

A US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet struck two empty Iranian tankers that were attempting to break past the American blockade on Tehran’s ports, disabling them both “after firing precision munitions into their smokestacks,” CENTCOM said in a post to X.

Clashes are intensifying in the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. Central Command has released footage it says shows the moment two Iranian vessels were targeted, amid escalating maritime tensions in the region.

According to the American statement, U.S. forces are currently preventing… pic.twitter.com/BBbXsqp1j0

— China pulse 🇨🇳 (@Eng_china5) May 8, 2026

Well, well, well. For all the head-scratching that it initially occasioned, President Trump’s hasty abandonment of “Project Freedom” – his grandly titled plan to open the Strait of Hormuz – turns out not to be so mysterious after all. Trump’s reversal, NBC News revealed late yesterday, came at the behest of America’s Gulf allies, foremost among them Riyadh which told Washington that it would suspend the US military’s right to use its airspace. Now Trump, who has described his current exchanges with Iran as “very good,” is breathing optimism about a one-page peace memorandum that he claims will be completed by the end of the week. Iran, by contrast, merely says that Trump’s proposal is “under review.”

There is a lot more anti-Trump hostility in the UK press since the president’s remarks on GB’s viability as a partner.

The US and Iran were on Wednesday close to agreeing a deal that would end the war between the two countries and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

The White House was awaiting the regime’s response to a one-page proposal that would also require Tehran to suspend its nuclear enrichment, while the US would agree to release billions in frozen Iranian assets.

On Wednesday, administration sources said the two sides were the “closest” they had been to an agreement since the war started on Feb 28.

(more…)

President Donald Trump pledged Wednesday morning to open the Strait of Hormuz to all nations, including Iran, if the country agrees to the current proposed peace deal with the United States.

The president said that if Iran refuses the deal, the U.S. will start bombing the regime again.

As a kid, I remember the old saying, “Never let your mouth write a check your butt can’t cash.” Many a nose has been bloodied over a bounced check of this sort. That doesn’t stop the vast majority of people from continuing to write checks that, at a minimum, could bring their account balance unsettlingly close to the negative. One such person, I hate to say, is President Donald Trump on Iran.

President Trump announced a pause on “Project Freedom” on Tuesday evening based on a request from Pakistan and other countries but added that the U.S. Navy blockade of ships in the Strait of Hormuz will remain in place.

“Based on the request of Pakistan and other Countries, the tremendous Military Success that we have had during the Campaign against the Country of Iran and, additionally, the fact that Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement with Representatives of Iran, we have mutually agreed that, while the Blockade will remain in full force and effect, Project Freedom (The Movement of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz) will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed,” the president wrote in a post on Truth Social.

To many of us, it is a mystery why Trump is not pounding the crap out of Iran after its numerous violations of the ever-so-shaky “cease-fire,” in which the US is mostly ceasing, and Iran appears to be happy to fire.

Seen in isolation, it seems obvious that Trump should be unleashing hellfire on Iran for any number of good reasons, ranging from the ever-perilous “looking weak” to the dangers of prolonging an economic crisis that is hurting Americans, our allies, and the political prospects of Republicans in the midterms.