Rubio: Iran has always said it does not want a nuclear weapon. They just do not mean it.
They keep doing the things countries do when they want one: building long-range missiles, hiding enrichment in mountains and caves, and keeping parts of the program secret. 1/
Rubio: Iran kept highly enriched uranium at 60%, and that has no civilian use.
If all it wanted was a civilian nuclear program, it could do what many other countries do: import enriched material instead of hiding domestic enrichment underground. 2/
Rubio: A real diplomatic path now means Iran must prove at the front end what it is actually willing to negotiate and what concessions it will make.
No one needs a full agreement tomorrow, but talks are worthless if Tehran still acts like it wants a military nuclear program. 3X
Kellogg: The [Hormuz] blockade is working, but I think we need to go further.
There are three things we should do: take strategic targets by land, keep hitting the Revolutionary Guards, and stop talking about negotiations. We should keep going until we finish this. 1/
Kellogg: I’m talking about taking Kharg Island and the islands in the Strait of Hormuz. We do not need to go into downtown Tehran.
We take what they cannot get back. We become the arbiter, the global oil power. Don’t just blockade them. Add to the blockade. 2/
Kellogg: The Revolutionary Guards use what they call a mosaic defense, split across 31 districts. That is why you keep attacking them.
They control the regime and keep the population under control. Their command and control is already fractured. Fracture it even more. 3/
Graham: I love the idea of a Second Amendment solution [arming Iranians to rise up] for the Iranian people.
We do not need American boots on the ground. We have millions of boots on the ground in Iran. They just do not have weapons. 1/
Graham: Give them weapons so they can rise up and destroy this regime. Arm the Iranian people and make the Revolutionary Guard’s life hell.
It is one thing to be bombed by America. It is another to have your own people shoot back. 2/
Graham: The Strait of Hormuz is the only thing left. Iran’s nuclear program has been destroyed, its economy is in tatters, and its military has been decimated.
If we can control the Strait, it is checkmate. Blockade plus. Arm the people. Victory is near. 3/
Kasparov: I cannot give a precise assessment of Iran, because this time the information is badly distorted from both sides.
Dictators always create fog, but here it is mirrored: Trump is no reliable narrator either. What we are seeing is a mutual deadlock. 1/
Kasparov: Trump has two options on Iran: finish it off or stop. Finishing it is politically almost impossible.
He would not get support even from loyal Republicans, and America likely is not ready for an operation of that scale. That still doesn't rule out some mad adventure. 2/
Kasparov: Pulling troops from Germany would be catastrophic for US. Those bases are not there to defend Germany.
They are the infrastructure that lets the US operate across the world. This is another step toward America’s geopolitical bankruptcy and a direct gift to Putin. 3/
For 177 days, a Ukrainian soldier lay trapped in a factory ruin, surrounded by Russians, with no way out.
Roman Mongold, 38, survived on drone-dropped food — and weekly voice messages from his wife that kept him alive, WP. 1/
He entered Vovchansk on Mar 24, 2025.
4 bottles of water, canned food, grenades, cigarettes, a rifle — and a handwritten prayer from his wife tucked into his vest. Russians were already surrounding the city. 2/
The front collapsed into buildings.
No trenches — just apartments and factories. Fighting room to room. Drones hunted anything that moved. Roads mined, bridges destroyed, escape routes gone. 3/