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Gitmo and Torture Revisited

By Andrew P. Napolitano | Ron Paul Institute | June 4, 2026

America’s longest current criminal prosecution is in its 15th year, on its fifth judge, and still has no trial date.

The defendants are Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four alleged mass murder co-conspirators. Mohammed is the second person that the government has characterized as the ringleader of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Originally, the feds had labeled Osama bin Laden as the ringleader. Yet, rather than charging and arresting bin Laden, in order to keep him quiet it sent a team of Navy Seals to his home in Pakistan to murder him and his wife and their children.

After that, the feds labeled Mohammed as the orchestrator of 9/11 even though that, by the time of bin Laden’s death, Mohammed had been in US custody for eight years. During that time, he was brutally tortured by CIA officers and other US civilian agents.

His torture was truly repellant. He was waterboarded 183 times. He was hanged by his wrists while naked and in well-lit walk-in refrigerators such that he was freezing and denied sleep for days. His head was smashed repeatedly against wooden walls. His rectum, through which he was fed, was so brutalized that he bled for months, often ingesting into his intestines his own blood and fecal material.

At the end of three years of these criminal attacks at foreign sites operated by cooperating intelligence agencies with the torture administered by Americans, he told his torturers what he thought they wanted to hear. Then he was transferred to the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he has remained since 2007.

Upon his arrival at Gitmo, a different set of interrogators took over. The video tapes of his hundreds of torture sessions were destroyed but not the transcripts of his confession. The purpose of the second round of interrogations was to elicit another confession by agents who could testify to a judge that they did not torture him, and that his confession to them was not coerced.

Though some of these interrogators at Gitmo were FBI agents, no one read him his Miranda warnings, advising him of his right to silence, to counsel and to the legal implications of anything he told his new interrogators. Mohammed made admissions to this second group of interrogators substantially similar to those he made to his torturers.

The government, which once denied but now admits to the torture, nevertheless was prepared to argue that his second confession was voluntary. Then, the feds had a change of heart. And, two years ago, his lawyers entered into plea negotiations, at the request of the government because the military lawyers and their Department of Justice legal colleagues concluded that they could not ethically defend torture in an American courtroom.

Federal law, the federal rules of criminal procedure, the canons of legal ethics and state bar licensing authorities all prohibit lawyers from using coerced testimony in a courtroom.

The government and all defense lawyers entered into a plea agreement that provided for full public confessions, a public confrontation by family members of 9/11 victims during which the defendants agreed to reply truthfully to their questions, and, of course, life in prison at Gitmo.

The Army general in the Pentagon in charge of all Gitmo prosecutions — herself a former military judge — approved the plea agreement, as did the military trial judge, and all five defendants.

Then, the Biden administration Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin fired the general who approved the plea agreement and revoked the Pentagon’s approval. A federal appeals court upheld his revocation. At that point, Mohammed was on his fourth military judge and his fifth team of prosecutors.

After the court affirmed the Pentagon’s change of heart, the military judge who had approved the plea agreement retired. The current and fifth judge has presumably read the 44,000 pages of documents and transcripts that 15 years of litigation has generated as he announced last week that he will rule on the admissibility of the second round of confessions this summer.

The present judge, who did not preside over any of the hundreds of hours of proceedings in the case, including those during which the horrific tortures described above were related in an American courtroom, must now decide if the second confession was voluntary. Though the government now admits that the first confession was not voluntary, its relevance here is not the words Mohammed told his torturers but the degradation of his mental faculties due to the egregious tortures such that the second confession was also not voluntary.

Was Mohammed so conditioned to the power of his interrogators that his will was attenuated?

The standard of proof that the government must meet to get the second confession admitted is voluntariness beyond a reasonable doubt and to a moral certainty. That’s the same high standard for proving guilt in all American courts. If the feds fail to meet this standard to the satisfaction of the judge, the case will proceed to trial without the jury hearing the confession.

This is a two-edged sword for the government. If the confession is read to the jury, then the defendants and their experts can relate to the jury all the horrific things the government did in order to produce the confessions. But if the confession does not come into evidence, then the jury will not hear of the tortures unless there is a conviction and the torture testimony is presented in mitigation of punishment.

What we have here is a lawless system of brutality. Torture and all it produces is a profound violation of natural rights, the Constitution’s guarantee of due process, as well as federal law. Even practitioners of this medieval behavior have acknowledged it produces unreliable statements. It is the tool of monsters.

On the eve of America’s 250th anniversary, we are asked to accept government at its worst; one that the Framers thought they had prohibited and one to which the governed never consented.

To learn more about Judge Andrew Napolitano, visit https://JudgeNap.com.
COPYRIGHT 2026 ANDREW P. NAPOLITANO
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM

June 5, 2026 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Deception, False Flag Terrorism, Full Spectrum Dominance | , | Comments Off on Gitmo and Torture Revisited

The Quiet Coup That Put Israel Inside Americas Intelligence Core

By Freddie Ponton | 21st Century Wire | June 5, 2026

While Washington’s media class was loudly hyperventilating over Section 224 of the defense bill, the brazen attempt to weld the U.S. and Israeli militaries into a single high-tech fighting force, a far more consequential power shift was quietly advancing through the Senate with almost no resistance.

Section 622 of S. 4615, the Intelligence Authorisation Act for Fiscal Year 2027, is not some routine bureaucratic tweak. It is a calculated, multi-year project to permanently embed Israeli strategic priorities into the bloodstream of American intelligence.

Where Section 224 focuses on tanks, jets, and joint weapons production and AI, Section 622 targets the invisible nervous system that often matters more: raw intelligence flows, surveillance capabilities, cyber operations, data streams, and regional early-warning networks. And it has moved forward with almost zero public debate.

The bill doesn’t politely encourage closer ties. It mandates them. It orders the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to aggressively expand intelligence sharing with Israel across cyber threats, sanctions evasion, missile and drone attacks, non-state actors, and air-and-space domains. It then extends this integration to the Arab states that signed the Abraham Accords, effectively building a U.S.-backed, Israel-centred intelligence bloc across the region.

This is a five-year strategic lockdown, with Congress demanding annual reports tracking “seamless integration” of Israel into regional air and missile defense architectures, full interoperability of technology networks between the U.S., Israel, and Abraham Accords partners, and detailed catalogs of every remaining legal, technical, policy, counterintelligence, and security barrier still in the way. At this stage, one could assume that lawmakers aren’t overseeing the relationship; they’re issuing marching orders to keep deepening it.

To block any future president tempted to pull back, the bill installs heavy procedural padlocks. Section 622 prohibits any suspension, reduction, or material limitation of intelligence cooperation with Israel except in the narrow case of a “specific and identifiable national security concern,” with mandatory 15-day advance notice to Congress. Another section in the same bill adds a second tripwire, naming Israel (alongside Ukraine and Taiwan) as one of the privileged few countries that trigger immediate congressional alarm bells if support is ever curtailed.

The double standard is glaring. In Section 620, Congress carefully wrote an explicit off-ramp for Ukraine, allowing intelligence support to be limited in cases of human rights violations, atrocities, or breaches of the laws of armed conflict. For Israel, they wrote nothing of the sort. No human-rights conditions. No equivalent brake. Only extra layers of statutory armor. This was not haste or oversight but a deliberate hierarchy in which Israel First is now codified in law.

The bill doubles down on the fusion elsewhere. It expands private-sector intelligence pipelines, shields those exchanges from FOIA and public scrutiny, rolls back reporting requirements on privacy, civil liberties, and oversight risks, and accelerates artificial intelligence tools for targeting and surveillance. All of this while Israel’s notorious private surveillance industry stands ready at the receiving end.

Chief among them is NSO Group and its infamous Pegasus spyware — military-grade malware repeatedly deployed against journalists, human rights defenders, dissidents, and political opponents. The Pegasus Project, Amnesty International, Citizen Lab, and others have documented its use on targets ranging from associates of Jamal Khashoggi to reporters and activists worldwide. In 2025, a U.S. court ordered NSO Group to pay more than $167 million in damages to WhatsApp for unlawfully hacking over 1,400 devices. Congress is widening the pipes that feed into this ecosystem while simultaneously weakening transparency and accountability.

The timing sharpens the cynicism. These binding commitments are being locked in just as Bill Pulte, a Trump loyalist pulled from housing finance with zero intelligence experience, has been installed as acting Director of National Intelligence. The architecture is being built, the guardrails are being removed, and the keys are handed to someone chosen for loyalty rather than expertise.

Section 224 and Section 622 together reveal the full picture. One noisy fight over military fusion, one stealth operation over intelligence fusion. Both push the same way, tightening integration, raising barriers to reversal, and triggering a tilt that puts Israeli security and regional dominance ahead of independent American judgment.

This is not standard alliance maintenance. It is legislative entrenchment of a one-sided special relationship at a moment when the costs, risks, and moral hazards have never been more urgent. Critics like Lara Friedman of the Foundation for Middle East Peace have sounded the alarm for good reason.

If this is what “America First” looks like in practice, the fine print exposes something much closer to Israel First, hard-coded into U.S. statute, insulated from democratic accountability, and engineered to survive any future attempt at course correction.

June 5, 2026 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , , | Comments Off on The Quiet Coup That Put Israel Inside Americas Intelligence Core

China Will Absorb Taiwan

Tales of the American Empire | June 4, 2026
Americans have been told that China will soon invade Taiwan their entire lives. This is one justification to maintain huge military expenditures and numerous American military bases in that region. However, a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be a political and economic disaster for China. Relations have vastly improved with Taiwan as China modernized and most people in Taiwan accept that reunification will eventually occur.
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Related Tale: “China Will Not Invade Taiwan”;    • China Will Not Invade Taiwan  
Related Tale: “US Navy Insanity in Japan”;    • US Navy Insanity in Japan  
Related Tale: “The Mythical Chinese Military Threat”;    • The Mythical Chinese Military Threat  
“CIA Has Been Working to Overthrow the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Since Its Inception in 1949”; Jeremy Kuzmarov; CovertAction Magazine ; July 24, 2023; https://covertactionmagazine.com/2023…
“We Were Almost Entirely Wrong About China”; BZ Travel ; June 3, 2026;    • We Were Almost Entirely Wrong About China  
Related Tales: “The American War on China”:    • The American War on China  

June 5, 2026 Posted by | Timeless or most popular, Video | , | Comments Off on China Will Absorb Taiwan

US Military: Who’s Pulling the Strings? /Lt Col Daniel Davis

Daniel Davis / Deep Dive – June 4, 2026

June 4, 2026 Posted by | Video, Wars for Israel | , , , , , , | Comments Off on US Military: Who’s Pulling the Strings? /Lt Col Daniel Davis

University of Vienna Student Assembly votes for academic boycott of Israeli universities

MEMO | June 4, 2026

At the University of Vienna, an independently organized student assembly voted by a large majority in favor of an academic boycott of Israeli educational institutions, according to the activist group, University of Vienna for Palestine, which announced the result on Instagram, Anadolu reports.

Previously, over 1,000 students at the university had signed a petition to convene a student assembly “from below,” which organizers described as the first of its kind in Austria.

The students’ resolution is explicitly directed against the strategic partnership between the University of Vienna and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which has been in place since 2015.

The first core motion adopted by the assembly was titled “Academic Boycott Instead of Complicity in Genocide.”

The initiators accuse the partner university in Jerusalem of direct cooperation with the Israeli military.

Other demands made by the participants include the introduction of a university “civil clause” prohibiting military research, as well as the withdrawal of security forces and the Austrian domestic intelligence service from the campus grounds.

READ: ‘We are not part of Trump’s chaotic policy,’ including with US overflights: Austria’s vice chancellor

According to “University of Vienna for Palestine,” approximately 400 eligible students attended the meeting.

One of the university’s largest lecture halls, Lecture Hall I in the New Institute Building, was reportedly filled beyond capacity.

At the start of the gathering, South African author Andrew Feinstein, who worked for the African National Congress (ANC) under Nelson Mandela, gave a speech in which he emphasized the historical significance of the gathering.

In his address, Feinstein also highlighted the historical necessity of the international “Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions” (BDS) campaign.

However, from a legal standpoint, the assembly’s vote is non-binding and symbolic, as it is an independent activist assembly and not an official body of the university administration or the legally established student council.

June 4, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism, War Crimes | , , , | Comments Off on University of Vienna Student Assembly votes for academic boycott of Israeli universities

Pro-Israel voices win out, kill bill to stop US-Israel military integration

By Kelley Beaucar Vlahos | Responsible Statecraft | June 4, 2026

A House committee summarily struck down an amendment to strip a measure from the massive annual defense policy bill that would provide Israel “a higher level of military-industrial integration” with the U.S. than Washington has “with any other country in the world.”

Pro-Israel voices on the House Armed Services Committee argued that reports about Section 224 — that Congress was trying to integrate U.S. and Israeli military systems as a way to entrench aid without proper oversight — were disingenuous and wrong.

In fact, members claimed that these were “existing initiatives” and that Section 224 “actually improves oversight and accountability of these programs by designating a single official responsible for them,” according to Chairman Mike Rogers, (R-Ala.)

Not quite true, said the Quincy Institute’s Ben Freeman, who broke the initial story of Section 224 for RS last week. “Members of Congress supporting the proposal laid out caricatures of critiques against Section 224. And when they did actually talk about the provision itself they spread half-truths and outright inaccuracies about how far this provision will go to integrate the U.S. and Israeli defense sectors.”

According to Freeman, as reported in these pages, Section 224 would lay the groundwork for:

… bilateral research and development, co-production of weapons, joint ventures, licensing agreements, and seemingly every manner of U.S.-Israeli military-industrial complex cooperation. The U.S. and Israel already work together heavily on missile defense, but this provision would greatly expand coordination to seemingly every area of defense tech, including AI, quantum, autonomous systems, directed energy, cyber, biotech, and many more. It also proposes “network integration” and “data fusion.” In other words, the U.S. military’s data could soon be the Israeli military’s data.

Critically, it would shift the annual $3.8 billion the U.S. now gives Israel (a 10-year memorandum of understanding soon up for renewal) to these programs and partnerships, i.e. “co-production” and other “fusion” deep inside Pentagon procurement and acquisitions process, where sunlight is rare and often fleeting. A perfect solution — which is, by the way, endorsed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — to the dwindling American support for Israel’s wars and U.S. military assistance for them.

In his remarks on Section 224, Khanna spoke vociferously against what he saw as a blank check at a time when a majority of Americans say they do not want to send more military aid to Israel.

“The American people are tired of the arrogance and insolence of Prime Minister Netanyahu telling America what we should do. The entire country of Israel has a GDP that is less than a single town in my district, yet somehow Netanyahu thinks he could tell the American people what we should do,” he charged.

“I am for Team America. I am for the interests of this country, and I believe that’s what Donald Trump ran on. That includes American interests against any foreign country,” Khanna said. “We should have American sovereignty and make it clear that we strike 224. If we want to give aid to Israel, if we want to sell them weapons, that should be a vote for the entire Congress.”

Unfortunately for Khanna, the majority on the committee did not agree. According to several members, not only is Israel the only friend we have in the region, it helped us create new technologies and capabilities, and we would only benefit from a deeper relationship.

“This is a win-win relationship. We have Silicon Valley, Israel has Tel Aviv, and it’s like Silicon Valley number two. We have gained so much technology advantages from our partnership with Israel, and vice versa,” declared Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb). “They gain as well, and this is what we’re trying to do, is create that synergy. They support our foreign policy, they’ve been the most supportive of us in the U.N. They’re the only democracy in Middle East, and so I’ll oppose the amendment.”

Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) warned that American national security would be at risk if such synergy didn’t occur. After “the bad actors” of the world go after Israel they will then “exercise their free will against us,” he charged.

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) took the line that the reports about Section 224 were overblown. “It’s not a new framework at all. We have three existing programs right now where we do military cooperation with Israel to develop technologies. Those programs already exist,” he said.

“This amendment … suggests some other areas where maybe we should look at opportunities, and as the chairman noted, we had somebody now appointed to coordinate those programs.”

He said he, too, was “frustrated with Netanyahu’s leadership” and Israel’s support for a “war with Iran that has strengthened Iran and weakened our position,” but he disagrees that Section 224 “is Congress just bowing to what Netanyahu wants — this is to our benefit.” In fact, such sharing should occur with Ukraine, too, he added.

Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) was the only other member who spoke out in favor of Khanna’s amendment, pointing out that current laws prohibit transfers of weapons to countries committing war crimes and violating international law, but Section 224 makes no such provisions, and takes oversight away, despite what some of her colleagues were arguing on Thursday.

She raised the issue of Israeli-owned Pegasus spyware, which was blacklisted for its use against Americans. “Two administrations from both parties left it on that list, and that same company is right now trying to buy its way into the American market, fusing our defense and technology sectors together permanently,” she said.

A proposal “with no conditions in the exact area where we have already been burned (Section 224) is reckless on its own terms, and it would do it through a must-pass bill with almost no oversight and with none of the human rights conditions that govern the rest of security assistance.”

Next steps: Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) says he will work with Khanna to strip the language from the final House NDAA. If the parade of voices that insist Israel must have this relationship with the U.S. military is any indication, it will be a hard road ahead.

Kelley Beaucar Vlahos is the Editor-in-Chief of Responsible Statecraft.

June 4, 2026 Posted by | Corruption, Deception, Militarism | , , | Comments Off on Pro-Israel voices win out, kill bill to stop US-Israel military integration

Khamenei: US-Israeli System of Domination Has Been Defeated

By Kyle Anzalone | The Libertarian Institute | June 4, 2026

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Mojtaba Khamenei said that the US and Israel had suffered a humiliating defeat.

In a statement published on Thursday, Khamenei said the US and Israel’s “system of domination” has suffered a historic defeat. He explained that Washington and Tehran had shifted to targeting Iranian society through psychological warfare.

“The vile enemy, having suffered defeat at the hands of your brave sons in the armed forces, and having experienced a profound and meaningful humiliation — both on the military battlefield and in the streets.” The statement continued, “Which has visibly caused countries to drift away from it, has now focused its hybrid war on two points: breaking the people’s endurance and creating errors in the calculations of the country’s officials.”

Khamenei’s remarks came after President Donald Trump expressed that he wanted to meet with the Iranian leader. In an interview with the New York Times released on Wednesday, Trump said that he is “getting along quite well” with Khamenei. The President added, “I’d like to meet him. I’d love to meet everybody.”

It’s unclear whether Trump’s remarks are rooted in reality, as the US and Iran have not engaged in direct meetings but have instead exchanged messages through Lebanon. Additionally, Khamenei’s father was assassinated on the first day of the war.

Notably, Trump suggested that Khamenei is running Iran. The President told the New York Post that Khamenei has “absolutely” been involved in talks and other Iranian leaders have a lot of respect for him.” Trump continued, “They say he is approving, because that’s the way it has been for a long, long time. His father and then him, I guess it’s a succession. But we seem to be getting along quite well.”

US officials previously suggested that Khamenei was incapacitated, and the government was fractured. Trump claimed the Iranian leader was “not doing well” and “missing a lot of parts.”

The rare statement from Khamenei comes as the ceasefire appears on the brink of collapse.

June 4, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , | Comments Off on Khamenei: US-Israeli System of Domination Has Been Defeated

Iran to deepen ties with ‘principal strategic partner’ China: Ghalibaf

Beijing and Tehran have significantly expanded their strategic cooperation since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran

The Cradle | June 3, 2026

Iranian Parliament Speaker and special representative for China affairs, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, held the first joint meeting with key economic officials on 3 June to align Tehran’s economic strategy toward Beijing.

The session in Tehran included the ministers of economy, oil, and industry, alongside the central bank governor and the head of the Plan and Budget Organization.

The assembly focused on establishing a unified government approach to elevate bilateral relations and coordinate the administration’s economic priorities. During the proceedings, officials evaluated China’s economic conduct amid the US-Israeli war on Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz to the US and Israel.

Participants agreed to submit formal proposals to Ghalibaf to resolve outstanding challenges and deepen cooperation.

This coordination effort supports a developing strategy to position China as Iran’s “principal strategic partner” while expanding collaboration on regional and international issues.

Roughly 30 China-linked vessels crossed the Strait of Hormuz in a single day in mid-May under the supervision of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy.

These transits follow a “management protocol” established after Iran restricted the waterway to US and Israeli-linked vessels in February.

While the strait remains largely closed, passage is permitted for commercial ships that comply with Iranian naval procedures and utilize designated corridors

In parallel, since the illegal US blockade on Iranian ports was implemented in April, Iran has tripled its rail exports of oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to China in an effort to bypass the economic stranglehold.

Freight trains on the 10,400-kilometer corridor now depart every three to four days, a significant increase from the previous weekly schedule, and halve traditional sea transit times to roughly 15 days.

Despite this, rail capacity remains a modest alternative to maritime shipping; one train carries 60,000 to 70,000 barrels of oil, while large tankers can transport upwards of 2 million barrels.

June 4, 2026 Posted by | Economics, Solidarity and Activism | , | Comments Off on Iran to deepen ties with ‘principal strategic partner’ China: Ghalibaf

House Votes to Terminate Iran War, While Preparing to Vote to Ramp Up the Ukraine War

By Adam Dick | Ron Paul Institute | June 4, 2026

On May 25, I wrote about how the Republican leadership of the United States House of Representatives had put off until the House would return from recess in June a vote on ending the Iran War. It had appeared that the war termination resolution would win a majority vote on the House floor

Here is an update. On Wednesday, with the House having come back into session this first week of June, the vote on the Iran War resolution took place. The resolution passed by a vote of 215 to 208. Breaking down the vote in a Reuters article, Patricia Zengerle wrote:

The four House Republicans who voted for the war powers resolution were Representatives Tom Barrett of Michigan, Warren Davidson of Ohio, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Thomas Massie of Kentucky.

No Democrats voted against it. Seven House members did not vote.

House members were able to use the War Powers Resolution to force consideration of the Iran War termination resolution contrary to the wishes of House leadership.

But, before supporters of a noninterventionist US foreign policy celebrate too much, they should read on in Zengerle’s article to where she reports that also on Wednesday House members moved toward escalating US involvement in the Ukraine War, using another procedural mechanism to bypass leadership. She wrote:

Separately on Wednesday, the House approved a procedural motion that clears the way for a vote on the Ukraine Support Act, ​which would provide security aid to Ukraine as it fights a Russian invasion. The act reached the floor only after a petition reached a 218-signature threshold last month to move ahead.

Six Republicans and one independent ‌who normally ⁠votes with Republicans voted in favor of the Ukraine measure.

With House Democrats appearing uniformly against one war and for another, it is hard not to see their views on the respective wars as political — vote against the Iran War because it is “President Trump’s war” and for the Ukraine War because it is “President Biden’s war.” (In truth, well over a year into Trump’s presidency, the Ukraine War that he had promised to end quickly has become clearly Trump’s war as well.) The same reasoning would seem to apply in reverse to the Republican leadership’s efforts to prevent votes on both matters. The “People’s House” is a disgrace.

June 4, 2026 Posted by | Militarism, Progressive Hypocrite, Russophobia | , | Comments Off on House Votes to Terminate Iran War, While Preparing to Vote to Ramp Up the Ukraine War

IRGC: No peace without Israel’s withdrawal from occupied Lebanese territories

Press TV – June 4, 2026

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps has stated that no peace will be established in the region without the withdrawal of Israel from occupied territories in Lebanon, as it condemns ongoing Israeli attacks on Lebanese civilians.

In a statement issued on the recent events in Lebanon on Thursday, the IRGC declared that international condemnations and expressions of disgust from countries and nations around the world have had no effect on the behavior of Tel Aviv’s “bloodthirsty rulers.”

“The arrogant American regime, under the pretext of establishing peace, has only increased crime and genocide through its interventions,” the statement read.

The IRGC described the Israeli army as “cowardly and incapable,” stating that it tries to compensate for its battlefield defeats by killing civilians and destroying homes, hospitals, and schools.

“This racist regime, despite unlimited support from America and European countries, has not even been able to win the hearts of the people of a single occupied village during its shameful existence,” the statement said.

“Its skill is merely ruling over burned lands, and every day we witness the destruction of the homes of the oppressed people of Palestine and Lebanon at the hands of this aggressor regime,” it further said.

The IRGC asserted that the Lebanese nation will not allow the occupying regime to achieve through a forced agreement what it could not achieve through war, even with the support of the “child-killing American regime.”

“Our primary condition for accepting a ceasefire in the regional war has been a ceasefire on all fronts, including Lebanon,” the statement said.

The IRGC stated that the enemy must urgently halt its attacks on the Lebanese people, immediately withdraw from occupied Lebanese territories back behind international borders, and recognize Lebanon’s territorial integrity.

“The Lebanese nation is the pride of the Ummah and a symbol of the honor of the region’s peoples. We will support them with all our being. No peace will be established in the region without withdrawal from the occupied territories of Lebanon,” it said.

On Monday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered strikes on the Dahiyeh area, a predominantly Shia district in Beirut’s southern suburbs, and issued evacuation orders covering the entire area.

In response, Iran’s central military command warned that if Israel carried out its threat to bomb southern Beirut, Iranian forces would retaliate against the northern occupied territories.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry also said Tehran was ready to help Lebanon resist the “illegal aggression,” adding that a Lebanon ceasefire is “an integral part of any ceasefire and any final agreement” with the United States.

Shortly after Iran’s warning, US President Donald Trump said on social media that he had intervened, claiming he had held a “very productive conversation” with Netanyahu that prevented further escalation.

He also said he had reached an understanding with Hezbollah through senior representatives, stating that the resistance group had agreed to halt attacks in exchange for Israel refraining from strikes.

A Pakistan-brokered ceasefire between Tehran and Washington, which also covers Lebanon, has been in place since early April, though Israel has continued carrying out daily attacks on the Arab country in violation of the truce.

Iran has repeatedly said that any ceasefire must be comprehensive, covering all fronts, including Lebanon, and has warned it will not tolerate continued Israeli attacks on the country.

June 4, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, War Crimes | , , , , , , | Comments Off on IRGC: No peace without Israel’s withdrawal from occupied Lebanese territories

Israeli war chief vows continued strikes on Lebanon as part of ‘conditional’ truce

The Cradle | June 4, 2026

Israeli War Minister Israel Katz vowed on 4 June that Tel Aviv will continue attacking Lebanon and that any truce is conditional on Hezbollah’s withdrawal from the south Litani area, after Beirut announced its acceptance of a framework allowing continued attacks on its country.

The war chief’s comments coincided with continued airstrikes on south Lebanon.

“Any ceasefire in Lebanon remains conditional on the prior removal of Hezbollah elements from the area south of the Litani River,” Katz’s statement read.

He emphasized that Israel “will not” withdraw its troops from south Lebanon, including from the Beaufort Castle, and said residents of the south “will not return at this stage.”

Katz said the Israeli army will remain in what he described as a “security zone” in Lebanon up to the ‘Yellow Line’ area or so-called ‘Forward Defense Line.’

He also claimed that the reality “imposed” by Israel in Lebanon will lead to an agreement that achieves security for the residents of the north “for the first time in 50 years.”

The war minister also stated that, with US backing, Israel reserves the right to carry out strikes, including in Beirut, in response to any rocket fire toward Israeli settlements.

His comments coincided with continued Israeli strikes on south Lebanon.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported that the Israeli army is continuing its operations in Lebanon and has not received any new instructions despite the announced ceasefire understandings.

A series of drone strikes was reported across southern Lebanon on Thursday morning.

An Israeli drone strike targeted a vehicle between the towns of Kfarwa and Zefta. Additional strikes were reported at the Kfar Rumman roundabout near the Al-Aytam station and the Nejda Hospital Road.

Drone strikes also targeted a vehicle near the Nmairiyeh junction, as well as the towns of Shhour and Bastat.

Hezbollah resistance fighters remain present across the areas of south Lebanon that Israel has occupied. Hezbollah said on Thursday that its fighters targeted Israeli troops at the Beaufort Castle at around midnight, and later announced rocket attacks on forces in Qantara and Al-Bayyada.

While speaking to journalists on Thursday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said that Wednesday’s negotiations were extremely difficult and resumed only after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio intervened, following their suspension by delegation head Simon Karam.

He added that he is awaiting responses from all concerned parties and compliance guarantees, and that implementation could begin within 24 hours of final approval.

Aoun warned that the agreement that has been reached represents the “last” opportunity.

On Wednesday, a new round of US-hosted direct talks between Lebanon and Israel – a violation of Lebanese law – concluded.

After the talks, the US, Israel, and Lebanon announced that they reached an agreement on the implementation of a conditional ceasefire.

According to the joint statement, the arrangement is “contingent” on a complete halt to Hezbollah fire and the withdrawal of all Hezbollah operatives from the area south of the Litani River.

The agreement calls for the creation of “pilot zones” in southern Lebanon where the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) would exercise exclusive control, excluding all non-state actors. The parties said these measures are intended to pave the way toward a broader security and political agreement between Lebanon and Israel.

The statement also outlined plans for continued direct negotiations under US sponsorship, including discussions on a security framework focused on strengthening Lebanese state control, preventing the re-emergence of “armed groups,” and advancing a comprehensive “peace and security” agreement between Israel and Lebanon.

The next round of talks is scheduled for the week of 22 June.

The three governments also condemned Iran’s regional activities, while Israel reiterated that its security requires the disarmament of Hezbollah and the dismantlement of its infrastructure across Lebanon.

Lebanon, for its part, pledged to strengthen the LAF with US support and reaffirmed its commitment to state “sovereignty” and the implementation of the cessation of hostilities.

The statement contains no explicit Israeli commitment to halt attacks on Lebanon. Instead, the proposed ceasefire is conditioned on a complete cessation of Hezbollah fire and the withdrawal of Hezbollah operatives from south of the Litani River.

The arrangement effectively requires Hezbollah to withdraw under continued Israeli fire.

The Lebanese resistance has repeatedly vowed that it will not return to the November 2024 deal or any agreement allowing Israel to attack at will and maintain an occupation in Lebanon. It has yet to officially comment on the deal announced by the US, Lebanon, and Israel.

June 4, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , , | Comments Off on Israeli war chief vows continued strikes on Lebanon as part of ‘conditional’ truce

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