Angelos Athanasopoulos

Η ελληνογαλλική σχέση με το βλέμμα στο μέλλον | Αγγελος Αθανασόπουλος protagon.gr/?p=44343353920

Reading this interview by @HenryJFoy and @BMoens it's easy to realize why @donaldtusk is one of the very few serious leaders today in Europe ft.com/content/1a5a25… via @ft

Exclusive: Pentagon email floats suspending Spain from NATO, other steps over Iran rift, source says - reuters.com/world/pentagon…

Trump has extended the ceasefire. Iran has seized two ships in the Strait of Hormuz. So are we looking at more diplomacy – or more war? 1. Probably some of both. The fight has moved from the air and land to the sea. It’s no longer a matter of drones versus interceptors but rather blockade versus blockade. An economic war, focused on the Strait of Hormuz. 2. Blockading Iranian ports and denying oil revenue to the IRGC is, for the U.S., far better than the President’s oft-invoked threats to bomb power plants and bridges. It’s hard to parse who is in charge of what in Tehran, but IRGC hardliners clearly have significant sway right now. And it’s a decent bet that they care more about their own access to resources than the suffering of their people. It’s telling that Tehran’s chief demand right now is an end to the blockade. 3. The problem is that Iran has leverage too, and knows it. Its grip on the world’s economic jugular produces pain everywhere, especially in Asia. Tehran bets that it can endure the pain of a blockade longer than the world can. That may or may not be right. 4. As it turns out, Iranian control over the Strait is more useful for Tehran than its nuclear program. It generates immediate leverage, can be dialed up and down, and takes little military resources to effectuate. Where the nuclear program generated potential threats, controlling the strait produces actual ones, and with economic results in hours. 5. That lesson won’t go unnoticed elsewhere. Does Beijing conclude that it can best generate leverage in a Taiwan crisis by blockading its exports of semiconductors? At a minimum, the old notion of key geographic choke points – the Strait of Hormuz, the Bab-el-Mandeb, the Strait of Malacca – will get a new look by military planners everywhere. 6. Lesser noticed right now are the UK and French efforts to assemble a coalition that keeps the Strait open after an enduring ceasefire. This is a key element in the ultimate solution here. The U.S. – and the world – cannot simply leave an Iranian sword of Damocles hanging over the waterway. For all the President’s complaints about U.S. allies, they are mobilizing to play a vital role. 7. Beyond reopening the Strait, the U.S. will necessarily focus on Iranian enrichment and the uranium stockpile. The VP had it right in shifting the discussion from Iran’s purported right to enrich to whether Tehran is actually enriching. The latter matters most. 8. Getting a permanent deal with Iran that addresses all U.S. concerns is impossible. Critics of the JCPOA long said that a better deal was always possible, if the U.S. had only pressured more, or negotiated harder, or been smarter and tougher. Now’s the time to show it. Yet count on Iran to remain intransigent on key issues, even after its leadership has been killed, its defense industrial base destroyed, and its country ravaged. 9. The U.S. must weigh the war’s global consequences, beyond the economic. Running down missile and interceptor stocks, for instance, and focusing military resources on the Middle East, means less for Asia and Europe. Russia and China will have an enduring interest in keeping it that way, including by helping Iran recover. 10. Completely lost at this point is how it all started: the Iranian regime, just months ago, killing thousands of protestors who wished nothing more than a better, freer life for themselves and their families. Help, it turns out, wasn’t exactly on the way. And, at least in the near term, the Iranian people will be the biggest losers in this fight.

@CharlesMichel Turkiye is also a country threatening with war an EU member-state. You could also try to include this point in your list to present a more accurate picture.

.@vonderleyen: Türkiye is: - a core #NATO ally, - a key migration partner, - an energy corridor, - a major defence actor on Europe’s flank, - and a serious regional power. Europe doesn’t get stronger by applying double standards or simplifying reality.

New: The US military has significantly depleted its stockpile of key missiles during war with Iran & created “near-term risk” of running out of ammunition in a future conflict should one arise in next few years, per experts & 3 people familiar w/ recent internal Pentagon assessments. cnn.com/2026/04/21/pol…

Υπόθεση #Λαζαρίδη : 18 ημέρες λάθη | Πάνος Παπαδόπουλος protagon.gr/?p=44343351524 #Λαζαρίδης #κυβερνηση #παραιτηση

Erdoğan tightens grip on Turkey in latest moves against rivals ft.com/content/2cb1ba… via @ft

Η στεγαστική κρίση είναι κυβερνητική επιλογή | Αγγελος Κωβαίος protagon.gr/?p=44343349334

A bombshell if it happens... Some Gulf Arab and European leaders believe that a US-Iran peace deal will take about six months to be agreed and that the warring sides should extend their ceasefire to cover that timeframe... bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

An example of outmost irresponsibility... theguardian.com/politics/2026/…

☢️🇺🇸🇮🇷The U.S. asked Iran to accept a 20-year moratorium on uranium enrichment during negotiations in Islamabad over the weekend, according the a U.S. official and a source with knowledge. My story on @axios axios.com/2026/04/13/ira…

καθώς και τον κ. Σπύρο Μπλαβούκο, Καθηγητή στο Οικονομικό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών & τον κ. Άγγελο Αθανασόπουλο @AAthanasopoulos δημοσιογράφο και αναλυτή σε θέματα Γεωπολιτικής και Ασφάλειας, για την πολύτιμη συμβολή τους, κατά την προετοιμασία της επίσκεψης.

A great piece of journalism here 👇@nytimes @maggieNYT

Pakistan PM says ceasefire will also include Lebanon 👇🏼. Iran had been asking for this all along, but it always looked like an outlandish maximal ask. That is on the table now is quite an unexpected outcome

Diplomatic efforts for peaceful settlement of the ongoing war in the Middle East are progressing steadily, strongly and powerfully with the potential to lead to substantive results in near future. To allow diplomacy to run its course, I earnestly request President Trump to extend the deadline for two weeks. Pakistan, in all sincerity, requests the Iranian brothers to open Strait of Hormuz for a corresponding period of two weeks as a goodwill gesture. We also urge all warring parties to observe a ceasefire everywhere for two weeks to allow diplomacy to achieve conclusive termination of war, in the interest of long-term peace and stability in the region. @realDonaldTrump @JDVance @SecRubio @SteveWitkoff @SEPeaceMissions @drpezeshkian @mb_ghalibaf @araghchi

This is a brazen pre-admission of genocide against the Iranian people, which would obviously be a war crime. Madness.

🚨🇮🇱🇺🇸Israeli prime minister Netanyahu urged Trump in a call on Sunday not to go for a ceasefire at the moment and expressed concern about the riskes of such a move, an Israeli official said 🚨🇮🇱🇺🇸Trump told Netanyahu that if Iran agrees to the U.S. demands a ceasefire could happen, but stressed he won't give up on his demand that Iran hand over all of its enriched Uranium and agree not to resume enrichment, according to the Israeli official

1 The defining deliberations of this war aren't between the US and Iran, but Trump and himself. He’s vacillated between walking away and promising to bomb Iran to the Stone Age. Iran has been consistent: Its ideology is resistance, its strategy is chaos, its endgame is survival.