Propaganda & co

I’m convinced most officials & specialists are too immersed in the moment to realize a certain basic fact about why Iran is striking the Gulf. When Iran was fighting in Syria & Iraq, its field commanders & their proxies (and their ecosystems in countries of Iranian influence) always promised that the next battle would be in the Gulf. This was conveyed, explicitly or otherwise, by Qassem Soleimani and allies like Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, Hassan Nasrallah and the Assad regime. It was part of a doctrine guiding Iran’s regional strategy, not mere passing comments. (The same language that Israel began using against regional countries only recently. “Qatar is next” or “Turkey is the new Iran” etc. Iran has used that language for many years.) Now, Gulf countries look at Iran and wonder: Why is Iran hitting us when we tried to talk Trump out of striking it? Iran knows we tried our best. Iran’s action is understandable if it targeted the UAE and Saudi Arabia, but why mediators like Qatar? Yes we have US bases, yes we can scream at the US, but it still makes little sense, even from a basic divide-and-conquer strategy. But Iran sees this war as having begun at least a decade or so ago, and the Gulf states played a vital role in getting Iran to where it is today. The Gulf is the problem, not just Israel or the US. Strategically reckless, but that is the plain IRGC logic. This is clear if those officials had followed the rhetoric over the last 1-2 decades and the nitty-gritty behavior of Iran on a ground level outside Iran.

IRGC aerospace fighter: "For the victims of Epstein Island, we target Baal's idol."

It looks like Steve and his crew were targetted with an M982 Excalibur, US GPS-guided, 155mm extended-range artillery shell. They strike with precision within 4 meters at ranges over 40 km.

Revising the footage of the attack on our dear colleagues and friends Steve and Ali: The strike was carried out by an american made GBU-38, carrying a MK-82 500 pounds warhead with 200 pounds of explosives and a 300 pounds of forged steel warhead that was made in purpose to be transformed to thousands of shrapnels upon impact. What save both of them was a combination of good luck, fast reaction from Steve as an experienced war reporter wearing body armor (should have been wearing his helmet), and the fact that the bomb missed the concrete by some 50 cm and went inside the previous hole and exploded under the bridge, which saved the journalists from the shrapnels and the direct shock wave.

If American bases on your soil are used to bomb Muslims, and you still call Iran the problem, then your qibla is no longer Mecca. It is Washington.

After weeks of Iranian attacks, countries in the Gulf say their patience is wearing thin. Saudi Arabia's FM warned that if strikes on GCC neighbours continue, military action is an option. Al Jazeera’s Victoria Gatenby reports.

An Iranian woman calls upon Fatimah al-Zahra in her final moments after a US-Israeli airstrike on Iran.