I - On Defense Podcast

For review: 1. The United States tightened sanctions on Cuba on Thursday, blacklisting three officials ​tied to a state-run organization that promotes Cuba's ties ‌with foreign solidarity activists, along with nine state entities in the metals, mining and construction sectors. 2. Israel reportedly claimed to the US that Turkey was planning to set up an air defense system on the airbase in nor...

For review: 1. Israel confirmed late Tuesday that it was behind overnight strikes against a Sysrian military airport, where it claimed Turkey was planning to deploy forces. 2. Turkey’s Defense Ministry denied Thursday that a Turkish military delegation had visited Syria’s Abu al-Duhur airbase ahead of Israeli strikes on the site this week, a day after Syria’s foreign minister had said that such a...

For review: 1. South Korea on Monday expressed hopes for resumption of diplomacy between the U.S. and North Korea to ease animosities on the Korean Peninsula, as President Trump reduces exercises with South Korea. 2. The runway of a military airport in northwestern Syria was targeted by unidentified fighter jets overnight Monday, with Damascus blaming Israel for the airstrike and the United States...

For review: 1. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and top aide Jared Kushner met with Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya in the Egyptian coastal city of El-Alamein on Sunday, an Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel. 2. The White House established a secret backchannel with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to a Sunday report, which said that the United States has been informed that...

For review: 1. Russia believes the United States is deeply involved in Ukrainian attacks against it and has raised the issue with ​Washington, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in comments broadcast on Friday. He ‌said that the alleged U.S. support included the supply of intelligence. 2. US President Donald Trump said Friday that the United States will hit Iran hard economically, as Washington a...

For review: 1.Israel told the United States about the Iranian assassination threat that prompted the US Secret Service to take President Donald Trump off Air Force One and t ransfer to another military plane as he prepared to fly out of Turkey last month, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing an unnamed US official. Later Tuesday, Trump confirmed that he had indeed been smuggled off Air...

For review: 1. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the administration of President Donald Trump is escalating economic pressure on Cuba with an unprecedented sanctions campaign and warned that "there are no escape valves." 2. Yemen's Houthis said they attacked an oil facility Sunday in southwestern Saudi Arabia, the latest attack by the Iranian-backed rebels on the kingdom....

For review: 1. Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey signed a joint defense agreement in Mecca on Friday. The agreement is intended to strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression and stipulates that an armed attack against any of the three would be regarded as an attack on all, they said in a joint statement. 2. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan says that the defense pact his cou...

For review: 1. Report: Mossad chief removes 2 senior officials behind aborted Iran regime-change plan  2. Iran’s foreign ministry said Wednesday that Iran and Oman have agreed on a route for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz and are putting the final touches on arrangements for jointly managing the waterway. 3. Lebanon and Israel held a fresh round of US-sponsored talks in Rome on Tuesday. Thi...

For review: 1. US President Donald Trump held a phone call earlier today with Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani during which the pair discussed “efforts to deescalate tensions between the US and Iran,” the latter’s office says. 2. Iran and the Gulf Arab state of Oman have made progress toward a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a potential breakthrough that could help wind down the war in th...

For review: 1.  US President Donald Trump on Monday said that Washington and Tehran were currently engaged in talks, pushing back on Iranian claims to the contrary and accusing the Islamic Republic of being “unbelievably duplicitous.”   In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump lashed out at Iran and insisted that negotiations over reopening the Strait of Hormuz had already begun and that more...

For review: 1. US Sec of State Rubio raised concerns about Cuba’s ability to infiltrate and influence top-level U.S. institutions, detailing what he described as a dangerous Cuban spy network that is undermining American interests.  2. Secretary of State Rubio: Diplomatic Efforts in the Coming Weeks to Restart Moscow - Kiev Negotiations. 3.  The Pentagon is giving up leadership of a U.S.-led NATO...

For review: 1. Saudi Arabia is gearing up for a major offensive against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, by sea and possibly including a ground operation, The Guardian reported Thursday.  2.  The United States and Israel are planning what would be one of the harshest bombing campaigns to date against energy infrastructure in Iran, multiple sources told CBS News, with strikes possible throughout t...

For review: 1. Iran fired multiple ballistic missiles at a U.S. base in the Middle East on Tuesday evening, in what U.S. Central Command called an attempted surprise attack. 2. US Central Command announces that it has renewed airstrikes in Iran, in what it calls “a powerful response to yesterday’s attempted Iranian attacks on US forces based in the Middle East.” 3. A drone hit a US-owned gas stora...

For review: 1. Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Iraq reported drone attacks in their territory Monday amid a lull in US air strikes against Iran. 2. US President Donald Trump said Monday that he paused military strikes on Iran to give diplomacy another chance, amid a report of “significant” progress in talks to end the war.  But he added that he is prepared to authorize another major attack on th...

For review: 1. The United States refrained from striking Iran overnight Friday-Saturday for the first day in two weeks. After the quiet night in Iran, there were also no reports on Saturday of attacks by Iran on its Gulf neighbors, which have been taking place daily as well. 2. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet US President Donald Trump on Tuesday at the White House, the premier’s office...

For review: 1. Iran has reportedly rejected a ceasefire deal passed along from the United States by Iraqi mediators. According to The New York Times, citing Iranian and Iraqi officials, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi traveled to Iran today with a proposal formulated not long after he met with US President Donald Trump in the White House earlier this month. 2. The US military says it completed i...

For review: 1. US Central Command (CENTCOM) says it has completed its 11th consecutive evening of air strikes against Iran to further degrade the country’s “ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz”. 2. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Monday that his country was in a “full-scale war” with the United States and that Tehran should accept the repercussions of the confl...

For review: 1. US President Donald Trump says the latest military strikes on Iran are being carried out in honor of US servicemembers killed in recent days. The US military launched a new wave of strikes targeting Iran early on Monday, the ninth consecutive night of attacks. "The strikes will continue degrading Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial vessels and civilian marin...

For review: 1. China on Thursday voiced strong opposition to any potential US military action against Cuba after reports that the Pentagon was examining contingency plans for possible operations against the island. 2. The US military said it carried out the seventh night of strikes on Iran since President Donald Trump declared the temporary ceasefire agreement was "over". In a statement...

For review: 1. US Military planners have in recent weeks examined a range of options for possible action against the island, including an Army-led air assault involving thousands of U.S. soldiers to be carried out by the 101st Airborne Division, the only unit trained for such a task, according to multiple U.S. officials with knowledge of the discussions.  2. US President Trump is leaning toward fu...

For review: 1. United Nations Ambassador Mike Walz on Sunday said Cuba’s regime is “a national security threat,” as the Trump administration keeps its sights on the Caribbean island nation. 2. Yemen’s internationally recognized government said it struck Sanaa airport Monday, as the Houthis blamed the government’s Saudi backers for the attack, in the biggest escalation in years between authorities...

For review: 1. The US military is carrying out a new round of strikes on Iran, the third in recent days, in response to the Revolutionary Guards’ announcement that it has attacked a vessel there and closed the waterway until further notice, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announces. 2. US President Donald Trump said Saturday that he had ordered the military to be prepared to launch major strikes...

For review: 1.  Iran’s slain supreme leader ayatollah Ali Khamenei was buried in the country’s holiest shrine, state media said early on Friday.  The burial in Mashhad in northeast Iran follows a week of mass funeral processions, rallies and mourning. 2.  The United States is demanding that Iran publicly state it will stop attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz and that all lanes in the strait w...

For review: 1. The United States launched fresh strikes on Iran late Wednesday and into early Thursday morning after striking Iranian targets a day earlier in response to attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. 2. US President Donald Trump on Wednesday fumed at Iran following renewed military strikes overnight, saying he thought the US-Iran memorandum of understanding “is over,” ca...