#️⃣ 🇺🇸 Trump administration plans to ask Iran to release detained Americans during upcoming peace talks in Islamabad, Pakistan.

At least six U.S. citizens are believed to be held, possibly as leverage.

#️⃣ 🇮🇱🇫🇷 Israel has excluded France from upcoming talks with Lebanon in Washington, saying France is not a neutral mediator.

😭 🇮🇱🇮🇷 Israeli intel official to Fox News:

Iran is demanding fees from vessels it’s allowing to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

The Strait is effectively under full IRGC control.

They decide who gets to go through, but more importantly, who doesn’t.

💬 🇪🇸🇮🇱🇵🇸🇱🇧 Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez:

In the face of violations of international law, Europe must act consistently if it wants the rest of the world to support us.

Let us not allow a new Gaza in Lebanon.

For this reason, yesterday, the Spanish government proposed that out of coherence and also out of empathy, the European Union suspend its association agreement with Israel.

💬 🇺🇸 Trump:

We’re loading up the ships with the best ammunition, the best weapons ever made.

If we don’t have a deal, we will be using them — and we will be using them very effectively.

- NY Post

💬 🇺🇸 Trump:

You’re dealing with people that we don’t know whether or not they tell the truth.

To our face, they’re getting rid of all nuclear weapons… and then they go out to the press and say, ‘No, we’d like to enrich.’

- NY Post

💬 🇺🇸🇮🇷 IRAN’S FOREIGN MINISTER ARAGHCHI: “It’s very simple; America must fulfill its obligations, or we have nothing more to do here.”

#️⃣ 🇮🇱🇱🇧 After a call with Trump, Netanyahu changed Israel’s strike policy in Lebanon.

From now on, every strike in Beirut requires special approvals — including Netanyahu’s personal sign-off.

An Israeli official says there is no ceasefire, but attacks have been significantly reduced and are now under tighter political restrictions.

💬 🇺🇸🇮🇷 Professor John Mearsheimer:

Iran holds almost all the cards. They are in a very powerful position.

By closing Hormuz, they can tank the global economy. The leverage is enormous.

They can destroy GCC countries as functioning societies. They can wreck those countries.

Trump can’t climb the escalation ladder. On every rung, Iran can beat him.

💬 🇺🇸🇮🇷 Professor John Mearsheimer on Iran:

There is no attractive exit option for Trump.

The only way out is to admit defeat.

💬 🇹🇷 Turkish President Erdogan:

Isn’t introducing the death penalty only for Palestinian prisoners essentially apartheid? Isn’t it using the law as a tool of racist authoritarianism?

Is there, in essence, any real difference between Hitler’s monstrous policies against Jews and the decision taken by the Israeli parliament with such a sense of triumph?

Aren’t all these actions just another manifestation of denial, destruction, oppression, and political repression directed at the Palestinian people?

Undoubtedly, these actions amount to discrimination and racism. It would mean implementing a system even worse than the apartheid regime that was dismantled in South Africa in 1994.

#️⃣ 🇺🇸 Trump privately doubts the Strait of Hormuz will fully reopen soon, despite publicly saying oil will flow again quickly.

- Reuters

💬 🇺🇸 Reporter: You’re not going to let Iran toll the strait, are you?

Trump: We are not gonna let them do it. Nobody knows if they are doing that. If they are doing that, we will not let that happen.

💬 🇺🇸 Trump:

The Strait of Hormuz will open up automatically… Otherwise, they make no money. We will open the strait anyway.

💬 🇺🇸 Reporter: What is your backup plan if there is no deal?

Trump: You don’t need a backup plan.

💬 🇺🇸 Reporter: What does a good deal look like for you?

Trump: No nuclear weapon, number one. I think it has already been regime change—we never had that as a criteria.

No nuclear weapon—that is 99% of it.

💬 🇺🇸 Trump:

We have other countries coming up to help with the Strait of Hormuz.

We will have that open fairly soon.

💬 🇮🇷 Iran’s Ghalibaf:

Unfortunately, our experience with negotiations with the Americans has always been accompanied by failure and breach of commitments.

Twice within less than a year, in the middle of negotiations-despite the goodwill of the Iranian side-they attacked us and committed numerous war crimes.

We have goodwill, but we do not have trust.

💬 🇮🇷 Iran’s Ghalibaf:

In the upcoming negotiations, if the American side is ready for a real agreement and to grant the rights of the Iranian nation, they will see readiness for an agreement on our side as well.

However, in the current conflict, we have shown them that if they intend to use negotiations as a futile show or a deceptive operation, we are prepared to secure our rights through faith in God and reliance on the capabilities of our nation.

💬 🇺🇸 Senator Graham on Iran:

If they say no now, that tells you how crazy they are.

💬 🇺🇸 Senator Graham on Trump's rhetoric:

If you’re talking to stone-cold homicidal maniacs, you need to speak the language they can understand.