Despite American military superiority, US military action is not actually achieving America's strategic objectives.
July 17, 2026
See translation in Arabic section
Sydney – Middle East Times Int’l: Earlier this week, President Trump claimed he was going to bomb Iran to the negotiating table. Yeah, only last week, he claimed that Iran was begging for a deal. You know, they want to make you feel so bad.
I just don't know if they're worthy of making any. What is evident is that John ceasefire between America and Iran is over. President Trump's frustration is bubbling over that despite America's military might, they'd not been able to defeat Iran and the straight off Hormuz remains closed.
Well, now, Iran defeated soon, they'll be defeated very soon. Now President Trump is threatening to expand the military operation to include bridges, and also power plants. All of that sounds like civilian infrastructure, that has implications for the law of armed conflict and international law.
Now, although Iran is no match for U.S. military might, by contrast, the U.S. has found no answer to Iran's control of the Straitor Mormuz.
Despite U.S. military dominance, U.S. military action is not actually delivered America's strategic objectives. And quite frankly, unless America is prepared to put boots on the ground, it's very difficult to see how military action will actually defeat Iran. A return to military action, or delay negotiations, delay the opening of the Strait of Ormuz.
And, of course, all of that before the really pithy conversation about how to curtail Tehran's nuclear ambition, which, you must remember, was the core raison d'etre of President Trump declaring war against Iran.
Trump marked for death? Israel tells Washington that Iran is again targeting the president
Story by Yohann Thiou
Wednesday, July 15 - Israeli intelligence services have passed on to the United States material indicating that Iran is preparing a new plot to assassinate Donald Trump.
The information was published Thursday by the Wall Street Journal and CNN, both of which rely on anonymous sources.
Another source cited by CNN says the Israeli contribution served as confirmation: American agencies had reportedly already picked up part of the outline of this new Iranian plan before being alerted by their ally.
The White House declines to deny
Asked by AFP, the American presidency did not contradict this reporting. It pointed to remarks made Wednesday, July 8 by Donald Trump himself, who maintained that the Iranians were seeking to eliminate the American leader, meaning him.
"I'm on whatever list. I saw this morning I'm on every single one of their lists", the president said.
These revelations come as relations between Israel and the United States have cooled, as have those between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump, against the backdrop of the war in Iran.
Washington remains Israel's main ally, but the American president has repeatedly criticized Mr. Netanyahu in public in recent weeks, the Israeli military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon having weakened the talks under way with Tehran. American sources cited by CNN put forward a hypothesis:
the sharing of this intelligence by the Netanyahu government could be aimed at persuading Donald Trump to keep up the bombing of Iran, resumed this week.
Legacy of the killing of Qassem Soleimani
Iranian threats against Donald Trump are not new. The United States killed General Qassem Soleimani in Iraq in 2020, during the Republican's first term. Tehran then publicly promised retaliation, naming the former and current president among its targets.
The Iranian context also weighs. The Islamic Republic has just buried its supreme leader Ali Khamenei, killed in an American-Israeli strike at the end of February, at the start of the war. The funeral stretched over several days and was punctuated by calls for revenge.
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