No way

I don't think this one is sarcastic

U.S. official to Axios:

The president is the most bloodthirsty, like a mad dog.

Hegseth and Rubio sound like the doves compared to the president.

—❗️🇮🇱/🇮🇷 NEW: Israel has struck several key railway bridges in Iran

@Middle_East_Spectator

U.S. official to Axios:

The U.S. military attacked military targets on Kharg Island.

NEW: IRGC Aerospace Commander announces a new phase of the war, deploying fresh twin-launcher for Fateh and Kheibar-Shekan missiles.

—❗️🇺🇸/🇮🇷 President Trump on Truth Social says he will wipe out Iranian civilization:

‘A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.

However, now that we have complete and total regime change, where different, smarter and less radicalized minds will prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?

We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the world. 47 years of distortion, corruption, and death will finally end. God bless the great People of Iran!’

@Middle_East_Spectator

—❗️🇺🇸/🇮🇷 BREAKING: Iran cancels all diplomatic and indirect channels of communication with the United States and announces the end of message exchanges, following Trump’s threat – Reuters

@Middle_East_Spectator

—❗️🇺🇸/🇮🇷 BREAKING: ‘There are increasing fears within Trump’s current and former advisory circle that the President may consider ordering a nuclear strike on Iran’ – The Guardian

@Middle_East_Spectator

The White House denies considering the use of nuclear weapons in Iran.

I don’t think even someone like Trump would be stupid enough to use nukes, personally. But you never know.

In my opinion, the most likely scenario is that Trump comes out at 8PM and says something like ‘negotiations have been positive’ and then pushes the deadline once again.

—❗️🇺🇸/🇮🇷 President Trump: ‘The fake news media says I don’t have a plan. I have the greatest plan, and you’ll see very shortly.’

@Middle_East_Spectator

BREAKING: Iran has stopped cease-fire negotiations with the U.S., telling Pakistan it will no longer participate in talks.

Source: NYT

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️- Two hours ago, Fox News cited an official U.S. source confirming indirect talks were still ongoing. An Iranian media, Tehran Times, has also indicated an hour ago that diplomacy between the American and Iranian officials was ongoing and indirect talks between the two parties were maintained.

Both these reports came after Trump's threats, which are said to be the cause of a diplomatic breakdown by other medias.

Trump is described by senior officials as emboldened and “in a mode of defiance,” proud of a recent rescue operation and open—but not expecting—a diplomatic deal with Iran.

The administration plans to keep “maximum pressure” on Iran, with no final decision yet on next steps if a deal isn’t reached.

Source: WSJ

—❗️🇺🇸/🇮🇷 NEW: The Iranian government is urging people NOT to approach power stations, saying they will likely die, but people continue to flow in, insisting to ‘defend their country or die with it’

@Middle_East_Spectator

U.S. officials say Pete Hegseth’s portrayal of the war with Iran is overly optimistic and risks misleading leadership.

One administration official warned, “Pete is not speaking truth to the president. As a result, the president is out there repeating misleading information.”

Officials also dispute Hegseth’s assertions about Iran’s weakened capabilities. Despite claims that missile and drone programs are “overwhelmingly destroyed,” intelligence assessments indicate that more than half of Iran’s launchers remain intact and thousands of drones are still available.

Internal reporting further contradicts his public statements, with one official saying, “Documents sent around internally contradict Hegseth’s claims.”

Source: WaPo

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️- At this moment, 24 members of Congress have issued statements in support of the impeachment of President Trump, or in favor of invoking the 25th Amendment, which temporarily transfers Presidential power to the Vice President, either by the President himself or through a majority vote of the cabinet, due to his conduct and rhetoric during the Iran War.

Notably, most of these statements were issued after Trump threatened to kill Iranian civilization by tonight.

BIG: Iran told mediators it still has a huge arsenal of weapons (≈15k missiles, 45k drones) and believes it’s winning, so it’s not backing down.

Mediators think those numbers are likely exaggerated, but Iran is staying hardline as U.S. and Israeli strikes continue.

Source: WSJ

The Video, the Promise, the War: How Trump Was Sold on Iran by Netanyahu

Netanyahu presented Trump with a “near-certain victory” plan:

Destroy Iran’s missile program in weeks, prevent retaliation (including closing the Strait of Hormuz), and trigger regime collapse.

The pitch included:
A video of potential replacement leaders (e.g. Reza Pahlavi).
Claims protests would restart and could be fueled by covert support.
Possibility of Kurdish fighters opening a second front.

Israeli intelligence suggested Iran would be too weakened to respond effectively, and U.S. interests would face minimal risk.

Trump was convinced:

“Sounds good to me.”

Source: NYT

BREAKING: Pakistan’s PM Shehbaz Sharif:

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.