The Israeli army attempted to land a paratrooper unit in the mountainous region on the border of Lebanon and Syria.

Source: RIA Novosti

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Scenes of Hezbollah fighters spraying the night sky with tracers in an attempt to repulse a nighttime air incursion by IDF SOF in the Bekaa Valley.

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"There is an emergency situation that requires the immediate sale of ammunition to Israel."

Rubio decided that selling ammunition to Israel is in the interest of national security and disregarded the requirements of congressional review.

On March 6, 2026, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio invoked emergency authority to bypass congressional review for a major munitions sale to Israel valued at $151.8 million. This marks the second time in early 2026—and the third time since 2025—that the administration has used these powers to fast-track weapons for Israel amid the ongoing war with Iran.

This waived the standard 15-day congressional review period required under Section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act.

🌒@EastCalling

There's another barrage of Iranian missiles assaulting Israel while Hezbollah launches drones from Lebanon.

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Military Chronicle:

It's interesting that the very fact of the operation Epic Fury effectively nullified the old concept of "security under the US umbrella".

Previously, the American base was considered a deterrent factor. Now the situation is exactly the opposite.
As soon as the US began massive bombings of Iran on February 28, American facilities in the region instantly became priority targets.

As it turned out, it was very easy for Iran to strike at the base Al Dhafra (UAE) or Al Udeid (Qatar), the coordinates of which are known down to the meter. And apparently, Iran was not afraid of any retaliation. As a result, it turned out that all Middle Eastern countries that hosted bases found themselves on the front line of a war for which they were not prepared to the extent they hoped for technological leadership and US protection.

The events of recent days (March 4–6), and before that a small war between Israel and Iran in 2025, showed that even the most modern systems Patriot and THAAD have a saturation limit. Overloading them with ballistics and drones turned out to be easier than everyone thought. And then there will be no protection at all.

As a result, countries like Bahrain or Jordan found themselves in a trap: on the one hand, they are bound by military treaties with the US. On the other hand, Iran's strikes on their territory in response to the flights of American (and Israeli) aircraft provoke the anger of the local population and cause huge economic damage, as for example in the UAE, where tourism may have come to an end.

In the end, it turns out that the bases, which were supposed to guarantee peace, have become a guarantee of being drawn into a conflict.

🌒@EastCalling

"I personally stand in the way of Zelensky, and he wants to get rid of me" - Orban commented on Zelenksy's threats.

'What is the problem of the Ukrainian president? The fact is that Ukraine has demands towards Hungary. And I don't fulfill these demands. And the government I lead also doesn't fulfill them. Moreover, we won't fulfill them in the future. We stand in their way. The Hungarian government stands in their way, and I personally also stand in their way, so they want to get rid of us. If they can, by threats, because if they can't do it peacefully, then they try to threaten and blackmail."

🌒@EastCalling

The United States intends to implement their plan to escort commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz.

Challenges:

The primary hurdle to a successful escort mission is the extreme geographic vulnerability of the Strait.

At its narrowest point, the shipping lanes are only two miles wide, placing massive, slow-moving tankers within easy range of Iran’s coastal "A2/AD" (anti-access/area denial) umbrella. Unlike the open ocean, the Strait is a confined "weapons engagement zone" where the U.S. Navy must defend against a simultaneous mix of land-based cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and swarms of explosive "kamikaze" motorboats that can overwhelm traditional ship defenses.

Logistically, the sheer volume of traffic creates a massive resource gap. Under normal conditions, dozens of ships pass through the Strait daily, carrying roughly 20% of the world's petroleum. Providing a dedicated naval escort for every vessel would require a fleet size that the U.S. Navy—currently stretched across multiple global theaters—simply cannot sustain indefinitely. This leads to "convoy fatigue," where crews and machinery are pushed to the brink by constant high-alert status in a high-heat, high-threat environment.

Finally, there is the unpredictable risk of escalation. In the 1980s "Tanker War," the goal was deterrence, but today, any direct engagement between U.S. and Iranian forces risks triggering a full-scale regional conflict. Modern threats like naval mines are particularly difficult to counter; even a single "cheap" mine strike on a billion-dollar destroyer or a massive oil tanker would not only cause environmental disaster but could also drive global insurance rates so high that commercial shipping companies would refuse to sail, regardless of how many Navy ships are present.

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Sabereen News,

The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps: We are waiting for the American forces that will escort ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

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❗️Today at 19:00 MSK/ 17:00 CET / 11:00 EST we'll be streaming live with our subscriber Vedgineer - real life engineer with experience in oil&gas, energy, chemicals and mining.

Topic: Rare Earth Minerals - basics that we need to know part II.


Livestream will be broadcasted to:

Our Rumble
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Language: English

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АДЕКВАТ Z on Iranian conflict part I:

🈁The Iranian Foreign Minister gave an absolutely scathing interview to the Americans (Democrats, of course) in the evening, which was unfortunately barely noticed by our media. He stated that Iran does not seek a ceasefire and sees no reason or subject for negotiations. That if the aggressor loses his mind and resorts to a ground operation, it will be met with great enthusiasm - and will plunge the aggressor into a new catastrophe.

That Iran has never hidden or been shy about its military cooperation with Russia, which supports the Persians both politically and in other ways, but it would be inappropriate to delve into the details of this support in the current situation. There are many other interesting points, but the general direction is clear from what has been mentioned: a representative of a country with strong resilience and support from reliable partners has spoken out, and is ready to fight as long as the situation requires.

Meanwhile, in the "city on the hill", they are howling like wolves: if before the aggression, Russia was selling oil to India at a decent discount, now it is doing so at a significant premium to the benchmark grade. They hope that this is only temporary. On the same basis, one can continue to be optimistic that the Iranian war itself will not last long: Agent Donald can certainly admit failure and cease fire at any moment, but only at the cost of political suicide, as all the already committed blunders will come back to haunt him. Therefore, he will continue to multiply his mistakes and hit his head against the wall until the last possible moment - and in an inertial scenario, this will not be measured in weeks, but in months. With a quite understandable effect on our oil and gas revenues - even if the entire oil and gas industry in the region does not suffer a single new blow, which is far from certain. And a separate amendment should be made here to the terms of the post-war recovery of this industry, during which the effect will continue to be felt.

And not just oil and gas, of course. The complete or near-complete withdrawal of the Gulf region, both as a producer and largely as a territory, from the global economy for several months will have a very beneficial effect on a number of other items of our exports, because there will be almost no one else to satisfy a significant portion of the replacement demand. Coal. Fertilizers. Food. Gold. A number of non-ferrous metals. A range of petrochemicals. These are just the ones that come to mind off the top of my head, and they do not even claim to be exhaustive.

Very cautiously, at the very lowest level, I estimate that each month of the Iranian war will bring our budget an additional profit of hundreds of billions of rubles, and exporters even more. Our interest in the Americans and Israelis making as much of a mess of themselves as possible, of course, is far from limited to this profit. But this motivation to continue helping Iran stand firm also exists, and we are not at all ashamed of it.

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🌒@EastCalling

АДЕКВАТ Z on Iranian conflict par II - summary of the week:

🈁The fundamental outcomes of the Middle East war week can be summed up very briefly: the trap has snapped shut, and it has snapped shut securely and firmly.

It's probably still possible, in theory, to try to escape from it by taking a loss, that is, by sacrificing not just the wool but also a few fingers of the clawed paw: declaring the results of one's strikes as a great victory, ceasing fire, and hoping (or privately demanding, as the counter-demands will be humiliating) that Iran will also cease fire. There are simply no other ways to save the global economy from an unprecedentedly large-scale catastrophe, the contours of which are just beginning to emerge.

❗️However, the question is not whether the aggressors prioritize preventing such a catastrophe. It's not even whether they fully realize the consequences of the war dragging on for weeks or months. The question is that Trump would commit political suicide on the spot by acknowledging the losses incurred: the human and material losses would come out all at once, and the fact of losing the war itself, especially in contrast to the boasts about Iran's unconditional surrender, would become obvious to everyone.

And here, precisely on this basis, we observe a curiously striking parallel between the Washington alpha-chimp and the Kiev omega-monkey. For both, the current results of the bloody mess they unleashed are a full-fledged personal (not just personal, of course, but this aspect is what matters to us now) catastrophe. The scale of this catastrophe will continue to grow indefinitely in both cases over time. But since both the chimp and the monkey decide to stop multiplying the losses or acknowledge them practically on their own, there's no rational reason to stop; "if I don't marry her, she'll take me to the prosecutor, but the switch between these two positions is only in my hands". In the extreme, there's no reason to stop until the moment when existence itself ousts the incumbent from office, including in the form of a collapse of the controlled system.

Therefore, even (or especially) in the conditions of the observed lack of a more or less coherent and feasible strategy after the bet on a decapitating strike didn't pay off, the losses of the Middle Eastern mega-adventure will almost certainly continue to multiply indefinitely - until their quantity, in one way or another, unpredictable, turns into quality.

For Iran, this means the same indefinite period during which it will have to endure and tolerate the very unpleasant consequences of strikes on numerous civilian targets, the circle of which could expand at any moment. But Iran is waging nothing less than its own Patriotic War, that is, a war for national survival, and the price of the struggle for survival is always the same, that is, always any price. And therefore, there should be enough strength to endure and tolerate for any period of time: if this is achieved, there will be no lovers of repeating aggression against Iran for generations to come. Because this one will end for the aggressors with the most concentrated humiliation.

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🌒@EastCalling

Nikol Pashinyan's stance on the Russian military base in Gyumri has given our columnist, political scientist Artak Sargsyan (Armenia) some food for thought.

The Jungle Book: Is Security an Obstacle?

Nikol Pashinyan has recently said:

🗣️Fortunately or not, we haven't come to regard the Russian military base as an obstacle blocking our view. Once we recognize it as such, we will think about where to move...

The above statement was made at a time when the situation around Armenia was becoming highly unstable. The events in Iran have demonstrated how quickly the balance of power can change and how fragile the old rules of international politics have become. The world seems to be guided by the law of the jungle rather than by international regulations.

Under the circumstances, any statement about any country's security should be perceived through the prism of potential risks.

The 102nd Russian military base in Gyumri remains one of the key elements to ensure security on the Armenian-Turkish border. That’s a fact. It has been long that Armenia's border with Turkey has been guarded with the assistance of Russian forces. Importantly, this mechanism has become part of the existing regional security system.

At the same time, the situation in the region continues to be getting from bad to worse. Azerbaijan claims Iran has launched drone attacks on Nakhichevan. Following his consultations with Turkey within the framework of the Shusha Declaration, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced possible retaliatory measures awaiting to be implemented. To this end, extra forces and equipment are reported to have been deployed to the Iranian border.

Even if some of these statements are political in nature, the very fact of the growing tension around Iran creates a number of risks for the entire South Caucasus. Any escalation in the region will inevitably affect Armenia's security.

That said, statements suggesting that the military base is not yet "seen as an obstacle" but if it is, the issue will be addressed accordingly sound strategically wrong. Considering the growing turbulence, the state authorities had better focus on the task of making the most of the existing security tools, including the capabilities of the 102nd military base.

Special attention should be paid to Armenia's border with Iran. The instability around Iran may cause certain risks to arise, ranging from possible military incidents to refugee flows and other unpredictable consequences. Such risks should be foreseen and addressed before they become a reality.

The history of international relations suggests that smaller states tend to survive in the times of global turbulence, provided they act as pragmatically as possible. Their resilience is based on a combination of their own internal strength, carefully planned diplomatic efforts, and efficient security tools.

To sum up, instead of questioning whether or not the existing military base is an obstacle, the authorities should consider ways of enhancing the security of the country's borders and mitigating the risks facing the region,  governed by the law of force rather than international regulations.

#VneshVrag

Artak Sargsyan, @vneshvrag