Mohammad Marandi: Iran KILLS IAEA Deal — Cairo Agreement Wiped Out After SnapBack!
Dialogue Works | September 21, 2025
Maduro Sent Letter to Trump Offering Talks to Prevent Conflict
By Kyle Anzalone | The Libertarian Institute | September 22, 2025
A top Venezuelan official confirmed that President Nicolas Maduro sent a letter to President Donald Trump earlier this month offering talks to prevent a war.
The letter was published on Vice President Delcy Rodríguez’s Telegram account on Monday, and dated September 5. Maduro says in the letter that Trump has been led to believe “fake news” about Venezuela’s ties to drug trafficking and Caracas’ willingness to work with the Trump administration on returning Venezuelan migrants from the US.
The letter includes a map from a UN study that shows 87% of drugs from South America are trafficked to the Western US via the Pacific Ocean. Only seven percent of South American drugs make it into the US via the Caribbean.
The letter concludes with Maduro offering to engage in direct talks with Trump’s envoy Richard Grenell. In February, Grenell traveled to Venezuela and secured the release of six American prisoners after meeting with Maduro.
Following the meeting with Grenell, Secretary of State Marco Rubio began ramping up sanctions on Venezuela and seizing Maduro’s plane. In July, the State Department designated two Venezuelan cartels as narco-terrorist organizations. Trump has authorized military action against designated narco-terrorist organizations.
Trump and Rubio have claimed that Maduro is the leader of multiple narco-terrorist cartels and have offered a $50 million bounty on the Venezuelan President. The US intelligence community assessed that Maduro is not the leader of Tren de Aragua.
Washington also accuses Maduro of leading the Cartel de los Soles. However, a US-funded NGO has said there is little evidence that the Venezuelan government is the leader of the gang.
The letter from Maduro was sent to Trump in the days following a US strike on a ship in the Caribbean Sea that had left from Venezuela. The President claimed the attack killed 11 members of a narco-terrorist cartel that was attempting to bring drugs into the US. Trump has not offered evidence for the assertion.
The US has conducted two attacks on ships in the Caribbean after the letter was delivered to Trump.
In the post that included the letter, Rodríguez said, “The military threat against Venezuela, the Caribbean, and South America must cease, and the proclamation of a Zone of Peace must be respected.”
Israeli court issues mass eviction orders against Palestinians in Jerusalem’s Silwan neighborhood
Palestinian Information Center – September 22, 2025
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM – Israeli police forces have ordered dozens of Palestinian families in the Baten al-Hawa area of Silwan, south of the al-Aqsa Mosque, in Occupied Jerusalem to evacuate their homes, threatening the displacement of nearly 300 people in favor of settler groups.
Jerusalemite sources said on Monday that residents of 37 apartments now face forced eviction under a settlement scheme pushed by the “Ateret Cohanim” association, which claims ownership of five dunums and 200 square meters of land in Baten al-Hawa, based on allegations dating back to 1881.
The plan targets between 30 and 35 residential buildings housing 80 families, roughly 600 people, who have lived in the neighborhood for decades with official documentation proving residency.
Zuheir Rajabi, head of the Baten al-Hawa neighborhood committee in Silwan, said 250 residents living in 26 homes received new eviction orders on Sunday from the Israeli central court, aimed at seizing their properties in favor of settlers.
He noted that an additional 11 apartments in three adjacent buildings belonging to the Rajabi families, Yaqub, Nidal, and Fathi, are now under immediate threat, putting about 60 people at risk.
Rajabi condemned the measures as “forced displacement and ethnic cleansing of Jerusalemites to replace them with settlers,” vowing that residents “will remain steadfast in their homes until the very last moment.”
The Basbus family also received eviction notices for their homes, which shelter 30 people in Baten al-Hawa.
Family member Bilal Basbus said they have been engaged in a “battle for existence” for years against demolition and eviction orders targeting their homes overlooking the al-Aqsa Mosque.
He stressed that despite enormous challenges, the family refuses to abandon their homes or comply with occupation orders.
These latest eviction notices are part of a wider Judaization campaign aimed at driving Palestinians out of Jerusalem to make way for settlement groups.
Notably, the Basbus family’s grandparents were expelled from the village of al-Dawayima in 1948 by Zionist militias, and today, settler organizations are pursuing their descendants to displace them once again from their homes in Silwan.
Israeli army raids Birzeit University in occupied West Bank
Palestinian Information Center – September 22, 2025
RAMALLAH – In a pre-dawn raid on Monday, Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed Birzeit University in Ramallah, deploying dozens of soldiers, military vehicles, and a surveillance drone.
Local sources said troops broke through the university gates from multiple directions after detaining campus security guards. Soldiers ransacked university facilities, destroyed student movement displays, tore down banners supporting Gaza and honoring martyrs, and defaced national slogans.
The IOF also posted leaflets inside the campus, directly threatening the Islamic Bloc, the student arm of Hamas, and warning against its activities. Resistance-themed posters and flags were confiscated.
Ghassan Barghouthi, the Dean of Student Affairs at Birzeit University, reported that 11 IOF vehicles entered the campus. Soldiers assaulted five members of the university’s security staff, leaving them with bruises and injuries.
He said several faculties and facilities were raided, including the arts and literature buildings, as well as Naseeb Shaheen Theater.
Barghouthi added that murals inside the theater were vandalized, along with exhibits prepared for welcoming new students. The murals, he noted, depicted the destruction of academic institutions in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the IOF detained Birzeit student Youssef al-Haj Mohammed after raiding his home in the village of al-Mughayir, northeast of Ramallah.
Trump scrambles to contain fallout from Israeli crime spree with meeting in New York
MEMO | September 22, 2025
President Donald Trump is set to host a high-level meeting with a select group of Arab and Muslim leaders on Tuesday in New York to discuss the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza. The summit, to be held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, comes as Western governments declared their recognition of the State of Palestine and amid growing international condemnation of Israel’s war crimes.
Two Arab officials confirmed to Axios that leaders from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey have been invited to the closed-door meeting, which will take place at 2:30pm Eastern Time.
The summit is expected to precede Trump’s meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, scheduled for 29 September at the White House. Sources familiar with the preparations said Arab leaders will call on Trump to pressure Netanyahu to end the assault on Gaza and to abandon plans to annex the illegally occupied West Bank.
Washington’s agenda reportedly includes a proposal for Arab and Muslim countries to contribute to a post-war stabilisation plan in Gaza, including potential troop deployments to replace the Israeli occupation forces. However, such proposals are expected to meet resistance unless a political framework guaranteeing Palestinian sovereignty is agreed.
Trump is also expected to hold a second meeting on Tuesday with leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), including Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait, to address broader regional concerns including Israel’s escalation in the region.
The unprovoked attack on Doha two weeks ago by Israel was met was global condemnation. Qatar reportedly demanded an apology before the resumption of negotiations.
Israel’s strike triggered an emergency summit of Arab and Muslim countries in Doha, and was swiftly followed by a new Saudi-Pakistani security pact—widely interpreted as a response to growing doubts about Washington’s reliability as a security guarantor in the Gulf.
Israeli intransigence is also threatening to unravel the hallmark foreign policy initiative of Trump’s previous presidency: the so-called Abrahm Accords. The UAE has reportedly warned that any annexation of the West Bank could lead to the collapse of the agreement which saw a number of Arab states normalise ties with the occupation state. The White House has not issued an official statement in response to the reports.
Pakistan expands nuclear umbrella to cover Saudi Arabia
MEMO | September 22, 2025
A source close to the Saudi government said on Sunday that Pakistan’s nuclear umbrella will now extend to Saudi Arabia, just days after the two allies signed a surprise joint defence agreement.
The source revealed that the agreement had been in the works for several years, and added that Saudi Arabia expects India — Pakistan’s long-standing rival — to understand the Kingdom’s security needs.
When asked whether the agreement meant that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons could be used to defend Saudi Arabia, Saudi writer and analyst Ali Shihabi, who is close to the royal court, confirmed: “Yes, that is correct.”
Shihabi added that nuclear protection is an integral part of the agreement, noting that Pakistan understands Saudi Arabia had effectively financed and supported its nuclear programme during times of international sanctions.
He also said he believed India would understand Saudi Arabia’s security requirements, describing current relations between Riyadh and New Delhi as “excellent.”
According to media reports, Pakistan’s Defence Minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, told a local radio station that the country’s nuclear programme would be available to Saudi Arabia if needed, following the signing of the defence pact.
Iranian parliament pushes for ‘nuclear option’ as deterrence to western threat
The Cradle | September 22, 2025
Over 70 members of Iran’s parliament on 22 September called for a reassessment of the country’s defense doctrine, pressing authorities to consider nuclear weapons as a deterrent.
In a letter addressed to the Supreme National Security Council and the heads of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, the lawmakers demanded that the issue be raised urgently.
“We respectfully request that, since the decisions of that council acquire validity with the endorsement of the Leader of the Revolution, this matter be raised without delay and the expert findings communicated to the parliament,” the statement read.
The MPs argued that while the development and use of nuclear arms contradicts the 2010 ‘fatwa’ of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei banning them, circumstances have changed.
They wrote that “developing and maintaining such weapons as a deterrent is another matter,” stressing that “in Shia jurisprudence, a change in circumstances and conditions can alter the ruling.”
“Moreover, safeguarding Islam – which today is bound to the preservation of the Islamic Republic – is among the paramount obligations.”
The push was led by Hassan-Ali Akhlaghi Amiri, a representative from the holy city of Mashhad, according to Hamshahri Online.
Lawmakers noted that the nuclear doctrine was shaped at a time when the international community was still able to restrain Israeli aggression.
They pointed to the large-scale assault launched by Israel in June, backed by the US, which included direct strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities, among them Fordow.
Iran has long stated its nuclear program is peaceful, rejecting western claims it seeks weapons capability. Tehran continues to cite Khamenei’s fatwa as proof of its intentions.
At the same time, the Supreme National Security Council announced the suspension of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after the UN Security Council imposed sanctions.
State media quoted the body as saying the move was a response to the “ill-considered steps of three European countries.”
Lawmakers warned that pressure tactics by the E3 countries will draw a “harsher and more decisive” response than before.
Germany’s Machinery Industry Faces Catastrophic Collapse
By Thomas Kolbe | Zero Hedge | September 21, 2025
The collapse of the German economy continues unabated. The German Engineering Federation (VDMA) now expects a dramatic decline in production this year and lashes out at the federal government.
A rebound in the German economy this autumn has failed to materialize. Just a week ago, the Federal Statistical Office revised the country’s GDP decline for Q2 2025 from –0.1% to –0.3%. Now, the German machinery association follows suit with its forecast for the full year, confirming the ongoing downward trend in production: “We had previously expected a decline of 2 percent, now we anticipate minus 5 percent for 2025,”says VDMA President Bertram Kawlath, who expects production to grow by just 1 percent in 2026. Was 2025 really the trough?
Kawlath Goes Political
Kawlath warns that the industry is facing a critical moment – both economically and socially. He describes the situation as a “tipping point,” where the economy is faltering and the political center continues to erode. “If action is not taken now, voters will be pushed into the arms of the political extremes,” he cautions.
Without explicitly naming them, the VDMA chief pointed to the AfD, which recently climbed to 27 percent nationwide in Sunday polls. Remarkably, even at this stage of the crisis, where the structural damage caused by ideology-driven policies is obvious, Kawlath speaks out politically for the first time yet still refrains from naming the culprit: the Green Deal’s ecological transformation is left untouched by his critique.
Meanwhile, the “silent cartel” of business elites continues to call for cosmetic deregulation and subsidies, rather than tackling the root of the problem.
Problems Are Now Impossible to Ignore
The issues are glaring: weak orders, crushing bureaucracy, lengthy approval processes, excessive taxes and labor costs, as well as severe location disadvantages in Germany. Add to that the massive burden of U.S. tariffs: roughly 40 percent of EU machinery exports to the United States are currently hit with a 50 percent duty on the metal content. Unstable, unpredictable rules, Kawlath says, force many companies to halt exports entirely.
He calls for lower taxes and levies, reduced bureaucracy, faster approvals – and above all, a stronger defense of German industry against Chinese competition. China, he points out, has not only caught up but also heavily subsidizes its industry, distorting global competition.
Industry Collapse
The situation continues to worsen. The VDMA’s optimistic forecast for next year is likely to be revised downward as no structural improvements are in sight. Meanwhile, policymakers remain in summit mode, with reforms nowhere in evidence.
If the predicted 5 percent decline in production for 2025 materializes, it would mark the peak of a catastrophic trend. Since 2018, machinery production – and roughly speaking, the entire German industrial sector – has fallen by about 20 percent. This has consequences for employment: over 200,000 industrial jobs have been lost since 2020, 68,000 of them just last year. And this may only be the beginning of a devastating employment crisis.
These figures no longer describe an ordinary recession but the onset of an economic depression. The core of the German economy, industry, has been severely damaged by the self-inflicted energy crisis and grotesque regulatory excesses under the Green Deal. It should not be forgotten that countless service sectors, supply chains, and value chains depend directly on industry. German prosperity fundamentally derives from this sector – the very source that supports social programs and helps maintain social stability amid a worsening environment.
Machinery accounts for roughly 3 percent of Germany’s GDP. With a 27 percent share of the global market, it ranks among the heavyweights of European industry. About one million highly skilled workers earn their livelihoods here – jobs once considered secure now caught in the storm.
Production fell by 7 percent in 2024, and a further steep decline looms for 2025. Orders dropped 8 percent year-on-year, and revenue forecasts continue their downward slide.
Germany’s Industrial Base Systematically Devalued
Under these conditions, industrial production in Germany is effectively impossible. Industrial electricity prices are roughly three times higher than in the U.S., a country actively promoting its manufacturing base, cutting red tape, and selectively supporting industry.
When Lower Saxony’s SPD economy minister Olaf Lies calls for subsidized industrial electricity amid the steel crisis and complains about cheap Chinese steel, it is little more than whistling in the wind. The exodus from Germany is already underway – and it is irreversible: once companies leave, they rarely return.
The steel sector is suffering particularly badly. It ranks among the most energy-intensive branches of German industry, and its subsidized dream of “green steel” has been buried after multiple bankruptcies. From machinery to chemicals, construction to steel, the same picture emerges: Germany’s industrial decline is accelerating unchecked.
What we are witnessing is an ideology-driven, systemic failure. Even U.S. tariffs cannot fix it: the problems have accumulated over years and are homegrown. Yet Brussels and Berlin stubbornly cling to climate fanaticism, dreaming their way through the crisis.
Russia willing to extend New Start treaty – Putin
RT | September 22, 2025
Russia is prepared to continue abiding by the New START treaty on nuclear arms for one year even after it expires next February, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
Speaking at a meeting with the permanent members of Russia’s Security Council on Monday, Putin said that due to the hostile and destructive steps taken by the West in recent years, the foundations of constructive relations and cooperation between nuclear-armed states have been significantly undermined.
“Step by step, the system of Soviet-American and Russian-American agreements on nuclear missile and strategic defensive arms control was almost completely dismantled,” Putin said. He stressed that the systems of agreements between Russia and the US, who possess the two largest nuclear arsenals in the world, long served as a stabilizing factor and contributed to global stability and international security.
Putin noted that the New START treaty, signed in 2010 by Russia and the US, is the last remaining bilateral agreement limiting nuclear weapons. He warned that allowing it to expire and abandoning its legacy would be “a mistaken and short-sighted step, which, in our view, would also negatively impact the goals of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.”
The president announced that in order to avoid provoking a strategic arms race and ensuring an “acceptable level of predictability and restraint,” Russia is prepared to continue adhering to the central limitations of the New START Treaty for one year after February 5, 2026.
“Based on our analysis of the situation, we will subsequently make a decision on maintaining these voluntary self-restraints,” he added.
At the same time, Putin stressed that Moscow would implement this measure only if the US “follows suit and does not take steps that undermine or disrupt the existing balance of deterrence potential.”
The president ordered Russia’s relevant agencies to continue closely monitoring US activities in regard to strategic offensive arms arsenals and any plans to expand the strategic components of the US missile defense system. If it is deemed that Washington is taking actions that undermine Moscow’s efforts to maintain the status quo on strategic offensive arms, Russia will “respond accordingly,” Putin said.
Former Ukrainian president wants Ukrainian troops to ‘seize Moscow’
By Lucas Leiroz | September 22, 2025
The Kiev regime’s war plans are increasingly clear, explicit, and undisguised. The neo-Nazi dictatorship no longer hides its plan to take the conflict to its ultimate consequences, regardless of the impact of this decision on its own people and European regional security. Now, Ukrainian public figures admit they want their troops to fight until “seizing Moscow”.
Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said in a recent statement that Ukrainian troops should continue fighting until they capture the Russian capital, Moscow. He strongly condemned the current situation on the battlefield, where Ukrainian soldiers are retreating en masse after successive failed campaigns that resulted in thousands of casualties. Yushchenko believes the right thing to do is to further intensify the war effort, regardless of the difficulties faced by the Ukrainian army.
The former president stated that, at the age of 71, he has the right to “speak frankly.” He opposes Ukrainian current objectives in the war, declaring that it is sufficient for Kiev to fight to regain the 1991 map. Instead, he proposes that the Ukrainian regime not only recover its former territories but also annex recognized Russian regions, even reaching the capital of the neighboring country itself—which, in his opinion, should be besieged and then captured by Ukrainian forces.
Yushchenko said that simply recovering the territories reintegrated by Russia (Crimea, Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye, and Kherson) is not only insufficient, but would also mean postponing the conflict—leaving the responsibility of confronting the Russians to the “children and grandchildren” of modern Ukrainians. He believes that Ukraine should stop fighting only when the “Russian problem” has been completely eliminated—and until then, he believes, the entire war effort must be maintained, regardless of Ukrainian casualties and losses.
“I cannot leave it like that. It will never be my choice (…) If you think that returning to the 1991 borders is the formula for victory… you are actually leaving the biggest problem to your children and grandchildren. The problem is Moscow (…) Yes, [Ukrainian troops should advance] to Moscow (…) [Because] Not a single person in the world, not a single nationality, not a single state can live peacefully… as long as [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s regime exists,” he said.
It is important to emphasize that Yushchenko governed Ukraine from 2005 to 2010, following the infamous “Orange Revolution”—a Western-orchestrated operation to install a pro-NATO and pro-EU puppet government in Kiev. At the time, the Ukrainian Supreme Court violated the country’s constitution and ordered an illegal third round of elections, in which Yushchenko was ultimately elected. This was the first step toward the coup d’état that would take place in 2014. In practice, the Orange Revolution served as a “preparation,” with Ukrainian ultranationalist groups being strengthened and tested before finally coming into action in 2014. Yushchenko was, therefore, a precursor to the Kiev neo-Nazi junta.
Not even allies of the current illegitimate president, Vladimir Zelensky, agree with Yushchenko’s bellicose stance. Maksim Buzhansky, an MP from Vladimir Zelensky’s Servant of the People party, said harsh words in response to the former president. He stated that it was under Yushchenko that Ukraine took the wrong turn—which culminated in the current war. More than that, he called Yushchenko a “useless, blissful idiot.” Buzhansky emphasized that Yushchenko’s opinion is that of someone speaking “from a TV studio, not from the front lines.”
“[Yushchenko is a] useless blissful idiot (…) Fortunately, he does not forget to remind us about this fact from time to time, like now, with his statement that we need to march towards Moscow (…) [With Yushchenko, Ukraine] began to make an irreversible turn in the wrong direction,” he said.
In fact, the former president’s rhetoric is simply absurd. There is no possibility of Ukraine facing a long-term war with Russia under current conditions. The country’s military is on the verge of total collapse due to massive losses on the battlefield. Not even recovering Russian-reintegrated territories is a viable goal for Ukraine, which is why talk of “reaching Moscow” is absolutely meaningless from a military and strategic perspective.
However, what all this shows is that there is no willingness for peace in Kiev. The current Ukrainian elite is made up of Russophobic fanatics, ideologically driven by a Nazi-like mentality. They are people willing to sacrifice their entire country just to pursue the futile goal of “destroying Russia.” Moscow is facing not only a military adversary, but also a dangerous ideological enemy—which is why the denazification of Ukraine is a vital objective for Russia, to be achieved through military means.
Lucas Leiroz, member of the BRICS Journalists Association, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, military expert.
You can follow Lucas on X (formerly Twitter) and Telegram.
