Delusions of Existential Grandeur

"It is better that we bring the war to an end now as we are in a position of power and dignity."

"The whole world acknowledges our victory and emphasize that America has attacked our schools, hospitals and infrastructure in violation of all regulations and is hated around the world."

"They cannot find even a single clause in this agreement that indicates capitulation. All the commitments concern the other side."

"Today, we believe that all our commanders and armed forces are fully prepared to defend the country with all their might and with their lives in their hands. They also believe that the government is wholeheartedly seeking to serve the people." 

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian

Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian waves during a campaign event in Tehran, Iran. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

 

"Sanctions and pressure will not help resolve the issue."

"China calls on all relevant parties to take responsible measures and resolve the problem through political and diplomatic means."

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian  

China's spokesman sounds as though wisdom and world peace is always uppermost in the minds of Beijing's Communist Party elites. This is the country, of course, that shot down pro-democracy students in Tiananmen Square, who wanted the end to one-party dictatorship of China. Any Chinese citizen who dares to publicly commemorate the event and mourn the death of thousands of protesters, under Chinese law is held guilty of "incitement to subversion" and faces a long prison sentence. In China, furthermore, Muslims such as the Uyghurs in Xinjiang face cultural obliteration, but as long as Islam is kept out of China, Beijing is front and centre in support of an Islamist regime even more brutal than its own. 

 

The U.S. war in Iran against the Islamic Republic that began in February with U.S. and Israeli coordinated aerial bombardments of the country, is at a standstill. The issue of the IRGC closing the Strait of Hormuz to normal marine traffic moving oil, LNG, fertilizers and other products valued by the global community threw a spanner into President Trump's plans to remove the Iranian regime to ensure that no further efforts would be made in pursuit of nuclear and long-range missile development to threaten the world community, as well as rescue Iranians from the persecution of the Ayatollahs and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps they have suffered under since 1979.

 

Oil residue lines the shore near fishing boats on Qeshm Island, Iran, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, amid ongoing wartime attacks on vessels and infrastructure in and around the Strait of Hormuz, though the spill’s source has not been independently determined.(Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)

 

The unpopularity of the war in the United States resulted in political vulnerability for the American president, with the understanding that if he ordered a ground invasion to complement and support the air and sea bombardments, he would face certain political repercussions in the future, and the Republican Party would be in a poor position with upcoming Congressional elections through voter resentment of having their country dragged into another 'forever' war in the Middle East. Issuing threats rather than taking firm action has resulted in a half-completed war, leaving the Iranian regime exultant that its ploy to provoke its neighbours through strikes that would leave them less enamoured of hosting U.S. military sites created a rift that in the end profited Iran's regime.

 

The hyperbole emanating from the Iranian government which has seen its geography relentlessly bombed, its political and theocratic leaders targeted and eliminated along with its military and scientific elite, its weapons stocks destroyed, its airfields and naval assets destroyed, creates an aura for interior consumption of a valiant nation courageously confronting an alien power set on its destruction. While countering the American offensive, the regime was also engaged in destroying its citizens' hopes of rescue from its theistic Islamist rule, through arrests, torture and the death penalty for those who had been detained among the hundreds of thousands who attended mass protests throughout the country in December. 

 

Now the Iranian president acts out a role of peacemaker, that his country is prepared to accept certain conditions demanded by U.S. negotiators in Tehran's projected belief that its position is in a better place  than that of its nemesis, Washington. The on-hold talks aside, Tehran is still blocking access to passage through the Strait of Hormuz, as its victory centrepiece. As though it is of no concern that Washington has instituted a naval counter-blockade of Iran.

 

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with technology leaders in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

 

The prospect of signing an agreement which Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei purportedly approved, despite 'differing views', toward the goal of ending the war, will allow the Iranian regime to proclaim victory. Even as Iran's parliamentary hard-line lawmakers criticize the government, accusing it of concessions to placate the US. including reopening of the strategic Strait, even as the U.S. Navy organizes and protects convoys of tankers through the Strait's southern sector, such an event would allow the regime to retain its power and exult over its having 'won the war'. 

 

Iran's Foreign Ministry accused the US. of "economic terrorism" and "crimes against humanity", in a sanctimonious reversal of the regime's modus operandi. "The perpetrators and instigators of these sanctions are deserving of trial and punishment for committing such heinous crimes", they stated, following U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's declaration that Washington would "collapse" the Iranian regime with an economics sanctions campaign.

 

U.S. politics, with the Republicans taking the  temperature of the U.S. public over the prolonged Middle East conflict has led the Trump administration to abandon its half-successful aerial bombardments and threatening naval presence in favour of an economic embargo. The plan, which Bessent elaborated on to a degree is to intensify economic sanctions, favouring that route over a continuation of heavy military operations.

 

Iranian Foreign Minister had his own interpretation of these events: "The so-called 'Economic D-Day' is a diversion from America's own crisis: unprecedented debt and surging interests costs", spat Abbas Araghchi in an X post. 

An Iranian missile is displayed during a rally marking the annual Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day, on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan in Tehran, Iran. (credit: MAJID ASGARIPOUR/WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY) VIA REUTERS)

 

Death To America -- One Ship At A Time

"The United States is imposing a heavy cost by continuing to degrade Iran's ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial ships freely transiting the strait."

"[A Cyprus-flagged container ship was hit by Iran and suffered] significant engine room damage [and a civilian crew member is missing]."

U.S. Central Command 

 

"[Multiple vessels] disregarded our warnings and instructions to correct their course and proceed along the approved route. [One of them] was struck by a warning shot and brought to a stop."

"[The strait will remain closed] until further notice. We will consider targeting] additional enemy bases in the region [should more attacks take place]."

Revolutionary Guards Corps 

 

 

The global community has considered the Hormuz Strait to be an international waterway for as long as most shippers could recall. The Islamic Republic, which with Oman sits closest to the strait now feels entitled to proclaim that the strait is under its control. That being the case it is their prerogative to charge ships moving through the strait. The United States, on the other hand, has urged mariners to transit a southern route through the territorial waters of Oman.

 

The IRGC has discussed the situation with Oman, a long-time supporter of the Islamic Republic, to convince its neighbour that they should both be exacting transit fees from ships transiting each 'their' side of the waterway, treating it as a legitimate commercial enterprise to benefit each country. Oman has stated that it and Iran have agreed to continue discussions on the Strait of Hormuz "at the technical and political levels".

 

A statement confirmed by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi who had himself stated prior to the new round of strikes -- with the United States and Iran once again blaming each other for stepping away from the Memorandum of Understanding that was to have led to a cessation of kinetic hostilities -- that he had met with his Oman counterpart to discuss "appropriate mechanisms for ensuring the safe passage of ships".

 

Vessels navigate the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, on Wednesday. (Reuters)

 

For the present, Iran has announced the closure once more of the Strait of Hormuz, following a warning shot fired by its military that struck a vessel that it claimed was making use of an 'unauthorized' route through the waterway, jeopardizing the fragile ceasefire agreement with the United States. It took little time for the United States to respond, when U.S. Central Command announced its forces had re-initiated a third round of strikes against Iran. 

 

Explosions took place in Bandar Abbas and Sirik, two towns along the shores of the strait. Negotiations to further cement last month's agreement to end the war will now have its progress halted without securing the strait, according to senior U.S. officials in Washington. With Iran's notification that it had closed the strait again to shipping, the U.S. announced its new strike rounds.

 

"Iran made a poor choice Now they pay", stated Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on social media. Iran and Oman's foreign ministers Saturday meeting to discuss the strait that intersects their shores after days of Iranian attacks on ships and U.S. retaliation dealing a blow to the interim deal to end the war precipitated the latest flurry of shots from both sides.

 

A man holds a poster of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a gathering commemorating him at a square in Tehran on Saturday.Vahid Salemi/AP

Still unseen in public since February's first aerial bombardment by the U.S. and Israel of Iran's targeted leaders, its nuclear installations and weapons depots, Iran's new supreme leader's first statement since his father's funeral was Iran's intention to avenge the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Supreme Leader Mujtaba Khamenei's statement carried on state television hours following U.S. President Donald Trump's threat of continued missile attacks was that such revenge "is the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out".  

"We pledge to avenge the blood of the martyred leader and all the martyrs of these two wars from the criminal and disgraced killers."

"This vengeance is the will of our nation and must inevitably be carried out. These criminals — of whom we have a complete list from top to bottom — will take with them to their graves the wish for a peaceful death in bed."

"This matter depends neither on my personal existence nor on that of other officials. Whether we are present or not, it will come to pass. Soon individuals among the freedom-seekers across the world will each carry out part of this divine mission."

Supreme Leader Mujtaba Khamenei  

A Hezbollah supporter flashes a victory sign while holding a poster of Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei during a gathering against the US-Israeli military operation with Iran and its allies in Dahiyeh, Lebanon, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

 

Canada's Liberal Government Ignoring Iranian Infiltration in Canada At our Peril

"[I was contacted by Ottawa police and] told if I don't delete my X posts where I say mosques in Occupied Iran are hubs of terrorism and should be bombed, I would be charged under the Criminal Code of Canada."

"So I deleted my posts." (April X post)

"We know that the Islamic Republic is incredibly vicious. They’ve been oppressing us for the last 47 years. And so we knew that the closer it gets to the end, the more vicious and more brutal the Islamic Republic is going to be. Despite all of this, Iranians are more determined than ever to overthrow the Islamic Republic. It’s literally now or never. It’s life or death. So we are right now in the middle of the Iranian revolution, and the fight is not over yet. We still have a long way to go, but Iranians are mobilized. They’re determined."

"We’re seeing millions of Iranians out in the streets chanting “Death to the dictator, Death to the Islamic Republic.” They’re also chanting, “this is the final battle. Pahlavi will return.” Pahlavi, of course, is his royal highness, the crown prince of Iran. And the reason that they’re calling for Pahlavi to return is because Pahlavi is the only person that Iranians trust to transition them from a totalitarian Islamic dictatorship into a functioning secular, democratic society."

"At the same time, we’re also seeing horrific footage of Islamic regime terrorists who are literally just opening fire, shooting into crowds of unarmed Iranians. But, we’re also seeing videos of Iranians who are fighting back. Some of them are using homemade Molotov cocktails. I don’t condone violence, but when you have a population that’s unarmed and being brutally murdered, this is how Iranians are fighting back. At this point, Iranians have nothing left to lose, and these are the true freedom fighters of the 21st century." (January 2026 interview)

"Mosques in occupied Iran are hubs of terrorism. Burn them down. Bomb them." (X)

Goldie Ghamarie, Iranian-Canadian activist, former Ontario MLA  

Goldie Ghamari, a prominent critic of the Iranian regime and former Ontario MPP, threatened with criminal charges over an X post that linked the IRGC to mosques in Iran. Ashley Fraser/Postmedia News

 

 Goldie Ghamari is credited for what she is, a passionate political activist who advocates for the downfall of the Islamic Republic of Iran's theocratic regime. A regime that has for far too long oppressed and persecuted Iranians, forcing them to submit to radical Islamist fundamentalism, completely altering the society pre-1979, when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Iran from exile in France, to engineer the downfall of the Shah of Iran at a time when Iran, under the Shah's rule was a friend and ally of the West.

 

Under the Islamic Republic, all that the West stood for in democratic values was demonized by the theocracy which also made no secret of its plan to destroy another nation in the Middle East, the State of Israel. The regime's hostility to the United States was immediately illustrated when the U.S. Embassy in Tehran was seized by radical Islamist students, and 66 U.S. diplomatic staff were taken hostage in retaliation for the U.S. welcoming Shah Pahlavi for medical treatment and haven.

 

Under the Ayatollah and his ruling mullahs, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the scheme was laid for minority Shiites to form a pincer-like geographic move to challenge the primacy of the Arab Sunni majority in the Middle East through violent insurrection. Aryan Iran under the regime, was determined to become the driving political/cultural/religious/social force, using its oil wealth and the manipulation of Shiite fundamentalism to gain its goal of conquest.

 

That led to its al-Quds division of the IRGC forming Shiite-led militias trained, armed and loyal to the regime to act as its enforcement arms locally and abroad. In Lebanon the Hezbollah militia was formed, separate and apart of and a challenge to, the official Lebanese military. As was Islamic Jihad. Hamas, the governing group in Gaza, came under Iranian aegis as well, as did tribal Shiite militias in Iraq, prepared to do the Iranian regime's bidding. In Lebanon in the 1980s, Hezbollah introduced itself through suicide bombers who blew up a U.S. military base in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. marines. 

 

BREAKING

I just received a death threat by Islamic Regime-linked hacker group "Handala Hack Team" from the e-mail address: Handala_Team@outlook.com

"Death to Elica le Bon and Goldie Ghamari

 

The X post that Goldie Ghamari was ordered to take down by the Ottawa Police Service was accompanied by a video illustrating an IRGC rally taking place within a Tehran mosque. She was warned she would be charged under Section  319 of the Criminal Code if she failed to comply with the order. This, at a time in Canada when for the last three years mobs of pro-Hamas supporters surged through the streets of Ottawa accusing Israel of 'genocide' for striking back against Palestinian terrorists who slaughtered Jewish children, women and other civilians, in a rampage of rape and dismemberment and hostage-taking.

 

Despite that the protesters wearing masks and keffiyehs chanted hate messages and threats against Jews in Canada, police forces across the country did little to warn them against offending Canada's hate laws in their invective of hate, harassment and threats. An omission of public duty that reflected the federal Liberal government's own lack of responsible reaction, followed by provincial and municipal governments in turn, alongside the nation's police forces, as the marches went on week after week, proclaiming 'globalize the intifada', 'Final Solution', and 'Palestine will be free from the river to the sea'...all understood as threats against the existence of Israel.

 

Iran, through its minions that have infiltrated Canadian society, politics and academia, along with the Muslim Brotherhood and operatives of the regime's terrorist groups, has a malign presence in Canada, threatening the safety and security not only of Canadian Jews, but Iranian-Canadians who detest the Iranian regime and want their country freed from its malevolent tyranny. Goldie Ghamari is one of the leaders of those campaigning for the end of the Islamic Republic. The presence of Iranian proxies in Canada, of members of the IRGC, of the regime itself represents a danger to Canada, their presence ignored by government despite that they are on Canada's terrorist list.

 

Goldie Ghamari has made herself a public figure of great respect, appearing on U.S. cable news and Piers Morgan Uncensored. She has a Iranian affairs YouTube channel with hundreds of thousands subscribers. And she has been threatened by terrorist groups operating out of the North America with assassination. Threats she has relayed to police and with local authorities. An American-Iranian was also threatened with assassination by the same group. A $250,000 beheading bounty was posted for their assassination.

 

FBI Director Kash Patel responded to those threats where Canadian officials failed to: "This FBI will hunt down every actor behind these cowardly death threats and cyberattacks and will bring the full force of American law enforcement down on them", he stated in March. In Canada, Masood Masjoody, an anti-regime Canadian math professor of Iranian birth was was found murdered a month ago. Two Iranians now face charges of first-degree murder in his death.

 

Laptop and source code on the screen composing flag of Iran.

(photo credit: max.ku/Shutterstock)

 

 

Associated Press, Propagandists for Iran

"Iran wanted to negotiate for peace with [U.S. President Donald] Trump, but Trump responded with war."

'He started the war, but we will definitely be the victorious side."

Jaafar Mohammadi, Zanjan, Iran, provincial director of cultural and Islamic guidance 

Pedestrians walk by a destroyed building within the Grand Hosseiniyeh, with the mosque visible in the background, which officials at the site say was hit by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes Tuesday, in Zanjan, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

 

In an obvious edification exercise for the great readership of the Associated Press, permission was given by whoever passes as an authority figure now in the Islamic Republic of Iran to set out on a day's journey through part of Iran, not far from the capital Tehran, for a group of Associated Press reporters. Clearly, 'authorities' in Iran recognize the non-hostile attitude taken by the Associated Press in its reportage, picked up by mainstream legacy media all over the English-speaking world. 

 

One can recall the Third Reich in WWII exercising a high degree of alertness to positive propaganda that belied the extent of Fascist Germany's master plan to conquer Europe, one country at a time, from the Nordic nations to Eastern and then Western Europe in its inexorable military push for territory and the advance of fascism with Berlin at the helm of a brave new world subservient to Nazi ideology.

 

This kind of devious white-washing of the gritty swamp of ideology and conquest allied with the duping of bystanding nations to the belief that the anti-human-rights, averse-to-freedom and constant lethal attacks on sovereign nations who reject totalitarianism and tyrannical rule of despots whose malign agendas are meant to disrupt world order and social  cohesion, is not uncommon, and Iran, the foremost supporter of terrorism globally is a past master of feigning innocence of any malignant purpose to its future plans.

A picture of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hangs on the side of the road in the outskirts of Tehran, Iran, early Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

 

A just-published piece meant for global uptake under the AP byline ostensibly written by a Bassem Mroue, Middle East correspondent to AP, logged the 12-hour impressions gathered by AP reporters as they drove toward Tehran to report the continuation of daily life "with only occasional signs of the continuing war, including a Shiite religious centre that officials say was  damaged by a recent airstrike". 

 

The writer mentioned that AP operates within Iran, aside from this more recent permission granted for an additional 'team' to enter to gain a "glimpse of the country at the centre of a regional war that has jolted the world economy and shows no sign of ending five weeks after Khamenei was killed in the opening U.S. and Israeli salvo". Foreign press would be permitted to report directly from within Iran only if their perspective vis-a-vis Iran is known to be 'friendly'. And AP does not disappoint.

 

Iran International

 

While hastening to assure the reader that AP 'retains full editorial control of its content'. Well, of course it does, since whatever it writes gilds the lily of the brazen nuclear-seeking regime with its  Shiite axis intention of dominating the majority Sunni states in the Middle East and above all its often-declared mission of exterminating Israel from the geography of a region that Jews were historically ancestral to. All of which sits nicely with the AP agenda.

 

Entering  the northwestern city of Zanjan, some six hours from the border of Turkey, where the team started out from, Iranian officials informed of an airstrike that hit a religious community centre causing the death of two people, and destroying a library and a clinic in a centuries-old compound whose golden dome was damaged by the strike. AP reports the Israeli military having stated "a military headquarters" was hit, and it is never their intention to harm civilian facilities. While AP quoted that Israeli explanation, it adds there was no further 'elaboration'. Why would there be? 

 

Iran, as well as its proxies, has a habit of installing military bases, weapons depots, nuclear installations, alongside civilian enclaves, hospitals included. Priceless for cover, and all the more so for propaganda purposes. 

A leaked internal directive from the IRGC’s missile command appears to show that the use of civilian locations to conceal, support and in some cases facilitate missile launch operations is not ad hoc, but structured, documented and built into operational planning.

The 33-page document shared with Iran International by the hacktivist group Edalat-e Ali (Ali’s Justice) has been marked “very confidential” and is titled Instruction for Identification, Maintenance, and Use of Positions.

The document is attributed to the Specialized Documents Center of the Intelligence and Operations Deputy of the IRGC's missile command.

Arash Sohrabi, Iran International 

People walk near Iranian missiles in a park in Tehran, March 26, 2026.  Iran International 

 

"It has hurt me a lot and distressed me a lot."

"With these airstrikes, [The U.S. and Israel] are showing their malicious intent to the whole world."

Somayeh Shojaei, local Zanjan resident 

Conveniently, AP finds Iranians eager to condemn not their repressive, human-rights-abusing regime that has kept the country prisoner to a fundamentalist theocratic regime for over 45 years, to be quoted as proof that Iran is innocent of all and any charges of malevolent intent, and is an innocent victim of a power-hungry duo, intent for no good reason on toppling the regime and destroying as much of the civilian infrastructure of an ancient country as it can manage before the UN makes good on its threats of charging both with war crimes.

 

Trump, the article intones has threatened to bomb Iran "back to the Stone Ages where they belong", after the IRGC closed the Strait of Hormuz once the U.S. and Israel carried out thousands of airstrikes countrywide. Most of Iran's leaders have been assassinated; those would be the leaders, needless to say, complicit in the slaughter of an estimated 40,000 Iranians who last came out on the streets of cities across Iran to demand the end of the regime and freedom for their country.

 

The AP article goes on to state that daily life in Iran carries on, in city after city where they witnessed normal traffic, businesses open and people walking the streets. Women, observed the article were seen without the mandatory head covering demanded by the ruling theocracy. They paid dearly for that. But AP made no mention of other women covered head to toe in black shrouds. With no little amount of inferred skepticism, mention is made of the U.S. and Israel aiming at military and internal security forces.

 

"The AP reporters saw several government buildings and police stations that had been destroyed. They passed a number of checkpoints operated by plain-clothes Basij, an internal security force, and uniformed members of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard." That would be, of course, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps considered a terrorist organization by a number of Western countries; they and their offshoot Basij slaughtered Iranians at will just several months earlier. But to read the AP account they're merely agents of the regime as any national guard would be in any Western nation of note.

 

Iranian missiles displayed in a park (March 26, 2026) Iran International 

 

Islamic Republic of Iran Strategy for Survival

"Tehran's bet appears to rest on a familiar asymmetry; its conviction that it can absorb more pain, for longer than the U.S. and its partners are willing to tolerate."

"The leadership likely calculates that sustained economic pressure, finite munitions stockpiles, and the political cost of mounting casualties will narrow Washington's and Israel's appetite for a protracted confrontation."

"Time, in this view, is not neutral -- it's a battleground."

"If Iran calibrates its retaliation carefully, and if it can maintain elite cohesion at home, it may be able to outlast the immediate storm."

"Survival, not victory, is the strategic objective." 

Ali Vaez, director, Iran Project, International Crisis Group, Washington 

 

"They thought Iran was weak and they're realizing that although Iran is weaker than two years ago, the country still has thousands of ballistic missiles and drones."

"Iran has no other option than to resist and sooner or later they will realize that they made a mistake."

Foad Izadi, professor of world studies, University of Tehran

 

"My sense is that the Islamic regime's bench is deeper than the White House or the Israelis may be assuming."

"If the regime has lost legitimacy in the eyes of the majority of its people, we haven't seen defections, we haven't seen signs there is a splintering inside the regime."

"There is sufficient cohesion in the clerical-judicial authorities that even with the taking out of the Supreme Leader and the armed-forces commander, it doesn't mean we are going to see a collapse of the regime."

Jeffrey Feltman, former UN undersecretary general for  political affairs

 

 

With the air attacks launched by the U.S. and Israel on 28 February leading to the death on that first day, of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, at minimum an estimated 1,100 people had perished in the space of the first four days of attacks. Large numbers of government and military buildings were destroyed both in Tehran and around the country. In a strategic bid for survival the Islamic Republic counts itself prepared to absorb and withstand great pain, more, it estimates, than the U.S., Israel and Gulf states combined could absorb.

 

With that in mind the strategy was developed to overwhelm the Persian Gulf with drones and missiles for the explicit purpose of exacting maximum chaos, exhaust the defensive capabilities of the region along with its political will, while disrupting global energy markets in the hope that this can all be achieved before Iran exhausts its massive store of projectiles. Weakened before the onslaught both by an earlier June 2025 wave of attacks, as well as a nation-wide series of massive protests against the regime, a depleted leadership is left to fight a war despite its polarized population.

 

"Iran, unlike the United States, has prepared itself for a long war", stated Ari Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, reflecting his crucial role in Iran's process of decision making. President Masoud Pezeshkian, judiciary chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, senior cleric Ayatollah Alireza Arafi and Ari Larijani represent the makeup of an interim council. After the decision was made to elevate the deceased Grand Ayatollah's son, Mojtaba Khamenei, and the revelation that he was seriously wounded at the time his father was killed, it is now believed that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has assumed the power of control in Iran.

 

 

Iranian leadership had determined to institute centralization plans for decision-making called the 'mosaic' defence strategy which includes giving military commanders the power to independently reach decisions reflective of any given situation they encounter. It was undoubtedly they who adopted the strategy of attacking Gulf Arab countries that are allies of the United States who also depend on the U.S. for their own defence, alongside trade and financial agreements.

 

Iran was estimated to have roughly 2,000 ballistic missiles left in its arsenal following last year's joint assault by the U.S. and Israel. A much larger number of Shahed drones formed an additional portion of their stock of weaponry, and a steady stream of additional drones is being handed over to Iran by its ally Russia, who is also producing them, modified and based on the Iranian design. Russia, according to an analysis through Bloomberg Economics produces the drones at a  rate of several hundred daily.

 

Smoke rising near the Dubai International Airport after a drone attack overnight on Sunday  Reuters

 

"Over recent days we're seeing operations against the launchers, on the one hand, and strikes to cork up the tunnels out of which those launders and missiles are meant to emerge", explained Israel's security cabinet minister Eli Cohen through Israel Army Radio. The U.S. strikes have hit thousands of targets across Iran, while Iran responded with hundreds of ballistic missiles and thousands of drones. 

 

No sign of anti-government protests have re-emerged internally in the country to date, with Iranian civilians likely hoping that foreign outside intervention may succeed where their January mass protests failed, at a steep cost in lives when the regime cracked down with deadly fire, killing tens of thousands of protesters.  

 

Conflict across the Middle East continues to rage after the US and Israel launched wide-ranging strikes on Iran, killing the country's supreme leader on 28 February.  Anadolu via Getty Images

"For the Islamic Republic as an entity, it's vital to project the uninterrupted functioning of the system."

"Decentralization is critical for Tehran. It ensures that in the absence of communication with the central government, the country can continue to function for security political and administrative purposes."

"After the June war, Iran made considerable efforts to expand its launcher capabilities. It's unclear how successful they have been. [The entrances and exits of these facilities -- underground] missile cities -- [are also vulnerable to attack]."

"Although Iranian teams have reportedly worked around the clock to reopen damaged gateways, such efforts require resources that may eventually be depleted. If I had to offer an estimate, I would say Iran may be capable of sustaining the current tempo of attacks for at least another three to four weeks."
Arman Mahmoudian, research fellow, Global and National Security Institute, University of South Florida 

The Civilizational Abomination of Al Quds Day

"Seeing these people chanting what I was hearing from those who were beating me on the streets of Tehran is  traumatizing."

"The real people of Iran [are not among them because they know] government is manipulating their ideologies and their beliefs and their unity." 

Ghazal Shokri, Iranian Canadian 

 

"[These events in Canada are] essentially an IRGC rally to spread its violent ideology. [Canada can no longer] tolerate any further escalation of radicalization or risks to our national security." 

"Canadian leaders should denounce Al Quds Day as a terrorist threat."

"We urge law enforcement and governments to make use of every tool available to uphold public safety and take decisive measures to confront this growing danger: arrest and prosecute extremists inciting violence, remove Iranian regime-linked individuals from the country and prevent further infiltration and criminalize the wilful promotion of terrorism." 

Noah Shack, CEO, president, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

The Al Quds Day protest outside the courthouse at 361 University Avenue in downtown Toronto in March 2019. This year's event is set for Saturday, March 14. Photo by Jack Boland /Toronto Sun/Postmedia

 

A horrified world was witness in January to Iranian citizens gathering by the tens of thousands in cities all across Iran to condemn and demand the end of the Islamic Republic which has, since 1979, dominated and persecuted its own population, while forming, training, arming and commanding proxy terrorist groups throughout the Middle East with a focus on Shiite domination in a Sunni-Muslim majority region. Its often-stated designs to obliterate Israel 'from the map of the Middle East' and its fear-mongering threats of nuclear designs and ballistic missiles have led to escalating international attacks.

 

The regime's response was swift and deadly, tasking its Basij police linked to the Islamic Republican Guard Corps to use all means and methods to strike down the protesters. Tens of thousands of Iranian civilians were wounded, more were imprisoned and subjected to torture, while an estimated 30,000 Iranian protesters were killed, before the protests were put to a halt. This mass atrocity was addressed by the United Nations Human Rights Council which urged "full respect for the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran".  

"This is promotion of terrorism in our streets."

"We are  calling on all of those who are speaking out today and beyond, to actually make sure that sort of thing and Al Quds Day specifically, is shut down, and is not allowed to take place in Toronto, or anywhere in this country, because hateful words, hateful demonstrations turn into this kind of violent attack, and we need to end it now."

Sara Lefton, CJA Federation of Greater Toronto  

CJA

 

And while the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is recognized for what it is, a listed terrorist group banned in Canada, an event established by the Iranian regime that takes place annually at the end of the Islamic holiday of Ramadan, Al-Quds Day (Arabic name for Jerusalem opposing Israel's 'occupation' of its own hereditary city of ancient Judean origins) is celebrated on the streets of Toronto and elsewhere in Canada, as it is wherever Muslim extremists are, led by the infiltration of the Muslim Brotherhood and the IRGC in Western countries.

 

These are events taking place globally which call for the destruction of Israel and the death of Israelis in support of the Iranian regime and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps agenda. The U.K. government this week approved the London Metropolitan Police request to ban the event, citing a risk of "severe public disorder". In place of the march, organizers will now resort to a static protest in Britain. A change of tactics, while the message and the threats that accompany the event remain. 

 

Earlier in the week a statement was issued for the city's legal department "to seek an injunction to stop this hate gathering" scheduled to take place in front of the U.S. consulate on Saturday, on the part of Toronto Coun. James Pasternak who urged governments and law enforcement agencies to act on infractions of the Canadian Criminal Code, Toronto's own hate rallies policy and bylaws: "I know hate when I see it and the Al Quds day march is NOT Charter protected", wrote Mr. Pasternak. 

"[The annual event is not "a neutral protest", but a "foreign interference in Canadian affairs."

"I think I, and a lot of other Iranian Canadians, view it as a show of force by the Islamic regime in Canada."

"And I think it's intended to send a message to the Canadian community as a whole, but particularly Iranian Canadians, about the power that Iran's regime can exercise even outside the country."

"I think, as you can see on your television, as you have seen in the past couple of months, Iranians, both in that country and outside of it, want democracy, they want human rights, they want equality and they denounce violence of every kind."

Iranian Canadian Kaveh Shahrooz, lawyer, human rights activist, fellow, McDonald Laurier Institute 

As The U.S.-Israel Strikes in the Islamic Republic Progress...

"The war in Iran has been well underway for a week. Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and much of the regime’s leadership are dead, more than two thousand targets have been struck across the country, and per U.S. Central Command, the U.S. military has “struck or sunk” more than thirty Iranian ships. Iran has retaliated in full force, unlike its token attack against U.S. forces in Qatar after Operation Midnight Hammer, striking military, civilian, and infrastructure targets in eleven countries so far."

"With the exception of China, Russia, and maybe North Korea, very few countries are going to cry tears for the loss of Khamenei, whatever their public posture on the U.S. and Israeli attacks at the moment. His regime wreaked havoc across the region, sponsored terrorism, and had challenged U.S. interests and the interests of Western and Gulf countries for some time. Nevertheless, there is still clearly some discomfort with the operation, from Capitol Hill to our European allies and throughout the Middle East. At the risk of stating the obvious, my sense is that this operation will ultimately be judged on its long-term outcome. If we end up with a more stable and peaceful region and a less hostile Iranian regime, it will be heralded as a resounding success. If, on the other hand, we find ourselves in a quagmire with ongoing chaos and conflict, there will be a lot of second-guessing."

Michael Froman, president, Council on Foreign Relations

Men watch from a hillside as a plume of smoke rises after an explosion on March 2, 2026 in Tehran, Iran. Majid Saeedi/Getty Images

 

"It could be six, it could be eight, it could be three [weeks before operations are concluded]."

"[The U.S. has an] unlimited supply of weapons."

"Iran is hoping we cannot sustain this."

"Our capabilities are overwhelming and gathering still, as are those of our Israeli partners."

"Our munitions are full up."

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth  

If he isn't assassinated before being chosen, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's second-oldest son, himself a hard-line cleric, without being the Islamic Shi'ite elite scholar -- the 'pope' of Islam's Shia minority's faithful -- his father was, may yet be named as his successor, as the next leader of Iran. Mojtaba Khamenei, in that role is without doubt, a marked man. One whom President Trump considers a 'lightweight' with whom the regime's policies would remain sacrosanct. 

 

Some Middle East and Iran experts hypothesize that Iran's Islamic Republican Guard Corps who answered to no authority but that of the Supreme Leader, and now continue to follow through on his final instructions, are counting on the U.S. and Israel running out of munitions. For while the IRGC sets off inexpensive drones, its challengers are making use of expensive missiles to intercept them. Reckoning that if they can hold out against the U.S. and Israel long enough, victory will be theirs.

 

In the meanwhile, they continue to lob missiles and drones at their near neighbours, friends and foes alike. That part of their wartime schematic posits that if the IRGC places their Gulf neighbours under enough strain and stress, they will demand a cessation of hostilities; for the U.S. and Israel to pull back and leave off hammering the Islamic Republic. It was revealed that Russia not only has given Iran intelligence on U.S. installations in the Gulf, but is also supplying them with drones; a reversal of Iran supplying Shahed drones to Russia for its conflict with Ukraine. 

 

"Action to reduce pressure on oil is imminent", Mr. Trump said Thursday even as pump prices advanced to their highest level since 2024 in the U.S. ahead of November midterm elections. Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz is at a near total halt, leaving exporters to scramble for routes away from the region. A protracted war could "bring down the economies of the world", warned Qatar. Gulf energy exporters could shut production within weeks, it was predicted. 

 

A barrage of missiles and drones targeting Gulf countries overnight and into Friday sent powerful blasts into Kuwait and Bahrain. Dubai sent out missile alerts for the second day, on Friday. While maintaining airstrikes on the Islamic Republic, Israel "significantly expanded" its presence on the ground in Lebanon where Tehran-linked Hezbollah sent missiles into Israel and for their trouble saw a wave of airstrikes by Israel hit the southern suburbs of Beirut, the Shia Hezbollah's stronghold. 

 

Smoke rises after an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday, following an escalation between Hezbollah and Israel in Lebanon amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran. As the conflict in the Middle East widens, Iran may find many of its traditional allies are reluctant to get directly involved. (Khalil Ashawi/Reuters)

 

The Islamic Republic, stated Iran's sidelined (by the IRGC) president Masoud Pezeshkian, is "committed to lasting peace", and to that end will continue to defend itself. For his part, Mr. Trump vowed to "totally demolish" Iranian forces, planning to "clean out" the Iranian leadership structure. So far in the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes, 1,332 people are estimated to have been killed, dozens others elsewhere in the region by Iran's retaliatory strikes, among them six U.S. troops. 

 

Overnight into Friday Arab states intercepted Iranian projectiles, with Bahrain revealing that the region's oldest refinery, a unit at its Sitra site, had caught fire, struck by a missile. An attack targeting the U.S. military facility at Al Udeid Air Base  was thwarted by Qatar, while multiple missiles and drones were intercepted overnight by Saudi Arabia where strikes were directed at a U.S. facility at Al Kharj near Riyadh, and the Aramco headquarters in the east.

 

Iran has launched 500 ballistic and cruise missiles plus 2,000 drones since the war's start; 60 percent at American targets located in Gulf states. South Korea is in talks with the U.S. in potential redeployment of weapons, Patriot air-defence systems among them, while France authorized U.S. military support aircraft to use Istres Air Base as long as they are not used in Iran operations. 

 

"UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!" wrote Trump Friday on Truth Social, demanding that Iran surrender, on the seventh day of the conflict. There will be no negotiations for the conflict's end. 

 

Strikes continue to hit Iran’s capital, Tehran, late Saturday night. CNN

 

The Long Reach of the Islamic Republic of Iran

"After October 7, my wife and I attended the March for Israel in Washington, D.C."

"When we flew back to Montreal, security asked us not to leave the airport."

"Security personnel spoke to me and informed me of what has been characterized as imminent and lethal threats, without going into further details."

Irwin Cotler, Human rights campaigner 

CBC News has confirmed that the RCMP has foiled a plot backed by Iran to kill former justice minister Irwin Cotler. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)

 

The Iranian assassination plot targeting the Jewish former politician and internationally respected human rights advocate was prevented from being borne out by those assigned to assassinate a former federal justice minister and attorney general of Canada, by Canadian security forces' alert protective reaction. He had been advised that he was the target of an "imminent threat of assassination from Iranian agents within 48 hours."

The RCMP had given clear warning to Irwin Cotler, known as a defender of Israel and of human rights everywhere in the world. He serves at the present time as international chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights based in Canada, which he had founded in 2015. As a human rights lawyer of great renown, he had declared, as an international legal scholar, that "the community of democracies including Canada does not understand the threat of Iran".

 

The 84-year-old Cotler was placed  under 24 hour, seven-days-a-week RCMP protection following the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led cross-border massacre in Israel. That protection included the use of bulletproof vehicles, armed bodyguards and other security measures reflecting the level of the threat involved. Finally, last week Mr. Cotler was informed that the threat level had been significantly reduced.

Authorities had identified two suspects in the assassination plot. Whether they were arrested or had left the country once their scheme had been identified and they were placed under surveillance, has not been divulged publicly.

His political activism brought him to the attention of the Islamic Republic of Iran for his work representing Iranian political prisoners. He continues to call out the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran as a terrorist entity. That he is a strong advocate for Israel, and that he had been appointed Canada's special envoy on Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism did not escape the   Iranian Republic's notice, as well.

Irwin Cotler, former special envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, speaks at the Antisemitism: Face It, Fight It conference in Ottawa Oct. 17, 2023. Photo by Justin Tang /The Canadian Press

The Long Retributive Arm of Iranian Reprisal

"The [Iranian] campaign incorporates the full spectrum of transnational repression tactics, including assassinations, renditions, detentions, unlawful deportations, Interpol abuse, digital intimidation, spyware, coercion by proxy, and mobility controls."

"These tools have been deployed against Iranians in at least nine countries in Europe, the Middle East, and North America."

"The Iranian campaign is distinguished by the total commitment it receives from the state, the level of violence that it employs, and the sophisticated application of diverse methods against a similarly diverse set of targets."

"The result is intense intimidation of the Iranian diaspora, from which even those who avoid physical consequences ultimately suffer."

"As an Iranian activist told Freedom House, 'They drain you emotionally financially, in every way'." 

"Another recent tactic is renditions, in which Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC], leads operations to kidnap exiles from other countries and forcibly repatriate them."

Report, Freedom House

 

"I am grateful to [the] FBI for foiling the Islamic Republic of Iran's Intelligence Ministry's plot to kidnap me."

"Initially, I naturally felt shocked. Then I got worried -- then I thought about it; we have been scared of the Islamic regime for a lifetime. But now the Islamic regime is scared of me."

"I was in three safe houses, and they were following me. I think I’m living in a movie. I’ve cooperated with the FBI for the last eight months."

"I have 5 million followers on my Instagram... I’m giving a platform to people inside, challenging the compulsory hijab, and challenging the religious dictatorship. All the years and years they called America the great Satan, the biggest enemy. But they’re scared of their own people. That’s why they sent officers from the intelligence service to Brooklyn to kidnap me."

"My heart was broken following the news of his execution [Ruhollah Zam, a dissident journalist living in France], and I was like, ‘Wow, they’re trying to exactly do the same to me.’ It’s scary but it gives me hope. I give voice to the voiceless people inside Iran."

Masih Alinejad, U.S.-Iranian journalist, activist and author

Masih Alinejad (Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News)

"[The incident sounds like] some far-fetched movie plot."

"We allege a group backed by the Iranian government conspired to kidnap a U.S.based journalist here on our soil and forcibly return her to Iran."

"Not on our watch."

William Sweeney, head, New York FBI office

Four Iranian intelligence officials between 2020 and 2021 used the services of private investigators in surveillance, including the photographing and video recording of journalist Masih Alinejad along with her household members, accumulating several days' worth of surveillance and a live high-definition video feed installed at Alinejad's home, according to an indictment filed in New York, after a plan to abduct expatriate Iranians and return them to Iran was interrupted by an FBI investigation.

That investigation served to highlight a covert program organized by the Islamic Republic of Iran to deal with Iranians living outside the country who are critical of the regime, subjecting them to harassment meant to intimidate dissidents living in countries abroad. Freedom House, an organization advocating for human and political rights, published a report detailing the Iranian methodology and its reach.

In the wake of U.S. authorities revealing a kidnapping plot, three Canadians have been revealed as targets of the Iranian regime. The investigation resulted in the charging by U.S. prosecutors of four Iranian intelligence officials for plotting to lure the Canadians to Iran, as well as a New York journalist and an individual living in the United Kingdom. The four intelligence officers have been accused by the FBI of surveillance on the targets for the purpose of kidnapping them to smuggle them out of the country.

"Thanks to the FBI's exposure of their alleged scheme, these defendants have failed to silence criticism by forcible abduction", stated U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss, Southern District of New York. One of the Iranians has been arrested and is in custody, the other Iranian intelligence officers are back in Iran, being sought as fugitives from justice. 

Part of the plot was a scenario involving evacuating the kidnapped Iranians from New York city to Venezuela via a military-style speedboat. It is highly likely that the three Iranian-Canadians knew full well the danger they were in, targeted by the Iranian government for reprisal for their outspoken criticism of the Islamic Republic. One, in fact is himself a former Iranian head of intelligence who stands accused by the regime of having embezzled state funds. The man accuses the regime of sending a team of hit-men to silence him.

Some previous attacks saw a refugee living in the Netherlands assassinated outside his home in 2015, after living outside Iran for decades. A bomb plot against a gathering of the National Council of Resistance of Iran in France was disrupted by Belgian authorities in 2018. That same year Danish intelligence officials disrupted an assassination attempt organized by the Republic of Iran against the head of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz.

"As alleged, four of the defendants monitored and planned to kidnap a U.S. citizen of Iranian origin who has been critical of the regime’s autocracy, and to forcibly take their intended victim to Iran, where the victim’s fate would have been uncertain at best.  Among this country’s most cherished freedoms is the right to speak one’s mind without fear of government reprisal.  A U.S. citizen living in the United States must be able to advocate for human rights without being targeted by foreign intelligence operatives.  Thanks to the FBI’s exposure of their alleged scheme, these defendants have failed to silence criticism by forcible abduction."

U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss

Four Iranians, one an intelligence officer, have been charged by the US justice department of conspiring to kidnap a New York journalist. Photograph: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images