Senior Iranian MP warns France over ‘constant betrayals’ after Tehran expels diplomats
Press TV – August 19, 2026
Senior Iranian lawmaker Ebrahim Azizi has condemned France’s “constant betrayals” against the Islamic Republic, warning that Paris’s continued anti-Iranian measures will only further complicate its ties with Tehran.
“The Iranian people will never forget France’s constant betrayals over issues such as contaminated blood, INSTEX and snapback,” Azizi, chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, wrote on X on Wednesday.
“Continuing this course and anti-Iranian actions will only make conditions more difficult for it,” he added.
Azizi’s reference to the INSTEX (Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges) and snapback comes against the backdrop of longstanding disagreements between Iran and the E3 — France, Germany and the UK- over Tehran’s peaceful nuclear program.
The three countries shut down the INSTEX mechanism in 2023. Established in 2019, the INSTEX was designed to facilitate trade between European companies and Iran, bypassing the US sanctions.
The E3 also moved to trigger the UN Security Council’s “snapback” mechanism under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal last year, despite Tehran’s commitment to diplomacy and transparency regarding its nuclear program.
Azizi’s remarks came after Iran’s Foreign Ministry declared two French diplomats working at the French Embassy in Tehran persona non grata over activities that violated international law and the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
In a statement on Tuesday, the ministry said the two French officials had engaged in activities contrary to international law, particularly provisions of the Vienna Convention.
The ministry said that, despite several weeks having passed since the misconduct was uncovered, France had taken no steps to address the diplomats’ actions or provide assurances against similar incidents, prompting Tehran to bar the two from entering the country.
The move follows a diplomatic dispute between Tehran and Paris that escalated in July, when the diplomats were briefly detained in Tehran after Iranian forces discovered them at a secret meeting site while carrying out a judicial order to arrest two suspects in a major case involving foreign infiltration and interference.
Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence said the two diplomats had “extensive records of violations and conduct contrary to domestic laws and diplomatic obligations.”
Azizi also referred to the issue of HIV-contaminated blood products supplied by France in the 1980s, another longstanding grievance in Tehran’s relations with Paris.
In 1985, French pharmaceutical company Institut Mérieux supplied blood-clotting products contaminated with HIV to several countries, including Iran. The products were administered to hemophilia and thalassemia patients, many of whom contracted the virus and later died.
Iran recorded its first HIV infections among patients who had received the contaminated French blood products.
Israel bombs Syrian military base as US praises Damascus’s ‘de-escalatory’ policy toward Tel Aviv

The Cradle | August 18, 2026
Israel launched a new wave of strikes on Syria on 18 August, despite no threat being posed to it by the extremist-led authorities in Damascus, which fought against Tel Aviv’s adversaries for years.
The new Israeli strikes hit the Abu al-Duhur Military Base in the countryside of the northern city of Idlib on Tuesday.
Syria’s Foreign Ministry released a statement condemning the attack.
It described Israel’s strikes as “an unjustified act of aggression and a dangerous escalation threatening regional security and stability.”
“Continued Israeli attacks since 8 December 2024, while Syria exercises restraint and works to consolidate stability and avoid escalation, reveal attempts by the Israeli occupation to undermine those efforts and push the region toward further tension and instability,” the ministry added, according to Syrian state media.
Washington also expressed “concern,” with US envoy to Syria and former Epstein associate Tom Barrack condemning “the unnecessary escalation that does not advance regional stability.”
Barrack also praised Damascus and its forces for posing no threat to Israel, as Damascus itself has repeatedly confirmed.
He posted on X that the government of self-appointed Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa “has neither adopted a predatory posture nor maintained proxy forces. It has, in fact, repeatedly indicated a preference for de-escalation with Israel.”
According to Syrian media, eight Israeli airstrikes hit the base.
“Israeli occupation aircraft early this morning targeted the runway of the Abu Duhur military airport … with eight strikes,” sources told state television.
The attack comes not long after Damascus’s forces were said to have been given access to Washington’s “final” base in Syria, after a several-month process of US withdrawal from the country following years of occupation.
It remains unclear to what extent Washington has withdrawn. Iran recently announced operations targeting what it said were US forces and assets in Syria.
The US for years trained extremist forces at its Al-Tanf Base in Syria. It also armed and financed several other factions in Syria throughout the war, including the Noureddine al-Zinki movement, responsible for the beheading of a 12-year-old boy as well as other war crimes.
Many of these Al-Qaeda- and ISIS-linked groups, including the Noureddine al-Zinki movement, are now brigades in the new Syrian army established after the fall of former president Bashar al-Assad’s government.
This army has killed thousands of Alawites, Druze, and Kurdish civilians since the formation of the new Syrian state – but have not targeted Israeli troops which illegally occupied the country after Assad’s departure.
Damascus has openly declared that it holds no hostility toward Israel and is not looking for confrontation with it. Despite this, Israel continues to attack the country and expand its occupation of Syrian territory.
Since Assad left Syria, Israeli occupation forces have practically encircled Damascus.
Major Syrian military capabilities belonging to the former army were destroyed by Israeli attacks in the first days after Sharaa’s government took power.
Sharaa, the new president, was formerly an Al-Qaeda chief who served as deputy to late ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The Syrian president is directly responsible for brutal suicide bombings against civilians and holy sites in Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq.
Iraqi Kata’ib Hezbollah sets conditions to place weapons under state control
Press TV – August 18, 2026
The Iraqi Kata’ib Hezbollah resistance group has set conditions for any understanding with the Baghdad government to place all its weapons under state control, including a full withdrawal of US military forces from the country.
The group’s security chief, Abu Mujahid al-Assaf, announced in a statement on Monday that the first condition to integrate into the state’s armed forces is for US forces to completely withdraw from Iraqi soil and airspace, offer cast-iron guarantees that they would not come back, and ensure that Iraqi political and economic apparatuses will make decisions free from American sway.
The second condition, he added, is the withdrawal of Turkish forces from areas in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq, while the third one is the dissolution of the Peshmerga, which serves as the official armed forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Assaf went on to criticize Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, saying that Iraqi anti-terror resistance groups had waited “more than a hundred days” for him to address the internal, regional, and international pressures over the issue of restricting weapons to the state, as a September 30 deadline approaches.
He asserted that Zaidi is disregarding advice from allied political factions, and is instead taking heed of demands being made by certain parties and the US Ambassador to Turkey and Special Presidential Envoy for Syria and Iraq, Tom Barrack.
The remarks came on the same day that Iraq’s four top state authorities renewed calls for the implementation of the Iraqi government’s plan to disarm the armed groups and bring weapons under state control.
In a statement following a Monday meeting in Baghdad between President Nizar Amedi, the prime minister, Parliament Speaker Haibat al-Halbousi and President of the Supreme Judicial Council Faiq Zaidan, the officials stressed the importance of strengthening and developing the capabilities of Iraq’s armed forces “across all spectra” and protecting the country and its citizens.
Successive administrations in Iraq have vowed to bolster state power and to bring all weaponry under the jurisdiction of recognized institutions.
On June 3, Sabah al-Numan, the spokesperson for the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, declared the establishment of a committee aimed at restricting weapons to state control, affirming that the committee had commenced its operations.
While several Iraqi resistance groups, such as Saraya al-Salam, Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq and Kata’ib al-Imam Ali, have agreed to integrate into the state’s armed forces, Kata’ib Hezbollah has pledged to retain “resistance weapons” and further develop its arsenal.
Burning America’s Cards One by One: What is Iran’s Strategy?
By Robert Inlakesh – The Palestine Chronicle – August 16, 2026
While the US Trump administration insists that the very much closed Strait of Hormuz is in fact open and grapples with domestic pushback against his war losses, Iran has been busy pursuing a military strategy that is placing a chokehold on their opposition.
Although the ongoing regional war has been experiencing a lull in direct confrontations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the US-Israeli alliance, a series of other fronts have become the focus of Tehran’s recent efforts.
Contrary to what you would be led to believe by the corporate media, Iran’s ballistic missile and drone fire has not ceased. Instead, officials belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have made it clear that there is no ceasefire in effect and that their operations are therefore being carried out in a coordinated fashion.
One of the fronts Iran has chosen to keep open is northern Iraq, where it has consistently launched short-range ballistic missiles and drone waves, targeting headquarters, hideouts, bases and weapons depots belonging to Kurdish-Iranian opposition factions backed by the United States. Powerful blasts are being reported on a near-daily basis in Suleimaniyeh and Erbil, with footage often confirming direct impacts on strategic targets.
US President Donald Trump has been vocal since the first weeks of the war on Iran, which began on February 28 of this year, that he was expecting action from his Kurdish allies that he armed during the riots in Iran a month prior. Leaked reports in the American press suggested that a plan was being drawn up that would see the use of these Kurdish militant groups to invade the Iranian mainland, triggering a process that would – in their minds – lead to the disintegration of the Islamic Republic.
A Kurdish breakaway State project was one major card that the US and Israel – which was revealed to have established bases in Iraqi Kurdistan – were hoping to play against Tehran. The IRGC and Iranian Regular Army have not let that go, choosing to launch persistent strikes and even deploy special forces units to carry out operations on the ground against these groups.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Yemeni allies have mobilized their forces and are committing major offensive operations against their Saudi-backed opposition. They have also imposed an unprecedented equation on Saudi Arabia, where they are now implementing a counter-blockade that places a further chokehold on global oil supplies, while striking Saudi oil facilities in retaliation to violations of Yemeni airspace alone.
The threats of Iraqi factions to intervene in Syria, if the leadership in Damascus follows Trump’s orders to attack Lebanon, combined with reports that Iran will launch strikes on targets belonging to the Syrian regime, also appear to be an effort to prevent this step from taking place.
In the Strait of Hormuz, the IRGC Navy continues to take out tankers with drones and missiles if they choose to attempt to break the blockade with US coordination. When this occurs, US Central Command refrains from even making regular comments, a far cry from its previous threats to bomb Iranian civilian infrastructure in retaliation for every tanker struck.
As this has all been happening, the US is scrambling to replace its USS Abraham Lincoln Aircraft Carrier, after reports emerge that chaos is erupting on board. The vessel has been deployed for over 9 months and is now facing a food shortage that has impacted around 5,000 sailors. The situation is so bad that some reports even indicated that the first fights broke out on the ship, deaths have occurred, and that some service members either attempted or were considering suicide.
Recent reports also indicate that Iran has destroyed at least 45 US MQ-9 Reaper Drones, costing roughly $1.3 billion in total; this is on top of the US military expending most of its long-range precision missiles and depleting 80% of its THAAD interceptor stockpile.
The Israelis are currently refusing to budge when it comes to Lebanon, Gaza and Syria, while escalating their attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, fronts that could all escalate very quickly and drain more resources.
Iran has demonstrated that it is far from depleting its weapons stockpiles and even Israeli intelligence estimates assess that it has rapidly recovered from the 40-day war period. What has become clear is that the US President has to make a choice sooner or later: either he signs what will effectively be a surrender agreement and pushes back against the Israel Lobby, or he decides to try an all-out war one last time.
Pentagon weighs leaving Persian Gulf after Iran ‘exposed vulnerabilities’: Report

The Cradle | August 18, 2026
The Pentagon is reassessing its military footprint in Persian Gulf countries after months of losses inflicted by Iran, the Washington Post reported on 18 August.
Two people familiar with the ongoing analysis told The Post that one of the central questions before the Pentagon is whether to pull troops back from the Persian Gulf, where the largest US bases overseas have absorbed much of the Iranian retaliatory strikes.
The scale of damage suffered by those installations has compelled Washington to rethink where its forces should be located.
The Gulf holds the biggest and most entrenched US bases in the region, with Bahrain hosting the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet, while Kuwait and other states house Army and Air Force assets.
Six US soldiers were killed in a March strike on Port Shuaiba in Kuwait, and more than 200 US facilities have been damaged or destroyed since the war began in February.
Washington has also lost at least 45 MQ-9 Reaper drones, accounting for a quarter of the entire fleet, at a replacement cost of up to $2.25 billion, and has burned through more than 1,000 advanced air-defense interceptors, draining nearly its entire stockpile of Patriot and THAAD missiles.
The Pentagon has already indicated it may not rebuild the damaged bases as they stood, and is instead weighing a shift of troops westward.
Michael Ratney, a former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, named Jordan, Israel, and Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast as possible destinations, though he acknowledged the added distance was no perfect fix, as Iranian missiles have already reached all three throughout the US war on Iran.
A regional intelligence source told Press TV that the Pentagon has concluded that no military plan currently exists that would guarantee open shipping through the Strait of Hormuz or secure energy stability in the Persian Gulf, an admission that acknowledges Iran’s advantage in the waterway that carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil.
CNN reported in early August that the US Central Command’s (CENTCOM) intelligence branch had emailed military analysts asking for “creative and unconventional” ideas for pressuring Iran, after commanders concluded that continued US strikes were failing to achieve Washington’s goals.
DoD Missile Shopping Spree Designed to Spread Superprofits, ‘Not Win Wars’: Karen Kwiatkowski
Sputnik – 18.08.2026
The MIC intends to “milk” “older and sometimes antiquated systems for as much profit as possible before a real paradigm shift towards actual 21st century defense strategy evolves – and will fight this evolution as long as they can,” former DoD analyst and Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski told Sputnik.
That was her response to the US military’s massive new $84.5B shopping spree for Patriot, THAAD and Tomahawk missiles.
“The MIC is in reaction mode, as is the Trump administration, trying to rapidly deal with an unexpected loss to Iran which has wiped out CENTCOM’s basing infrastructure, alongside an unexpected massive shortfall of [munition] consumables for scalable, combat and defense operations.”
“Slow by design” in fielding “weapons of any kind,” especially munitions which are “much less profitable” than contracts for the nuclear triad and carrier power projection, the munitions sector has become “kind of an economic backwater,” hence the sluggish production and limited scalability.
The new seven-year contracts for Patriots and THAADs are designed “to capture revenue, not win wars,” Kwiatkowski argues, as the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine have shown that “these defense systems have proven overly expensive and incapable of defending against mass launches of cheap drones, or modern hypersonic missiles.”
Kwiatkowski predicts that the Pentagon and MIC will continue to spend money the US doesn’t have on “20th century tech, with the minor exception of off-the-shelf and modified drones and the AI to operate them,” until a “reckoning” forces a “complete paradigm change,” associated “with a new national defense strategy and abandonment of imperial aspirations.”
Unfortunately, the “dramatic” loss in Iran won’t be enough for that to happen, she believes. “It is a wake-up call. But our political system and military lobbies, as well as the Israel lobby which sees the US as a vassal industrial state for its own defense, are not oriented for strategy shifts or even modification.”
For now, the reality is that the MIC controls strategies and encourages “imperial war for short-term profit, and expensive never-ending contracts.”
Europe’s Looming Winter Preparations Just Got 1.5X Costlier
Sputnik – 18.08.2026
European gas prices during preparations for the heating season in 2026 were 52% higher than the average over the past three years, Sputnik found on Tuesday after analyzing trading data.
Calculations show that from April 1 to August 14, the average settlement price of gas futures based on the TTF index, Europe’s largest hub located in the Netherlands, amounted to $585.3 per thousand cubic meters. This is 41.2% higher than during the same period last year and 52% higher than the average for 2023-2025.
However, in 2022, amid the gas crisis, prices averaged $1,373.7 per thousand cubic meters.
The conflict in the Middle East led to a significant increase in gas prices in Europe. Average exchange prices in March ultimately rose by almost 60% compared with February, exceeding $600 per thousand cubic meters. Prices have remained volatile throughout these months. In July, settlement prices jumped by almost 20% month-on-month, averaging $637.5 per thousand cubic meters.
To prepare for the heating season, Europe is injecting gas into underground storage facilities (UGS). According to the European Commission, UGS facilities play a key role in ensuring the reliability of gas supplies in Europe, allowing the region to cover up to one-third of its needs during winter. However, storage facilities are currently only slightly above 60% full, their lowest level on record.
Against the backdrop of the crisis surrounding the Strait of Hormuz and concerns about disruptions to fuel supplies, the EU decided to lower the required level of gas storage in member states by the beginning of the winter season from 90% to 80%, European Commission representative Anna-Kaisa Itkonen told Sputnik in June. However, Russia’s Gazprom had previously forecast that UGS levels would be below 75% by October 1 if injections continued at the current pace.
‘Do what Israel tells you’: US troops revolt over Iran war decision

Al Mayadeen | August 17, 2026
The Executive Vice President and co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Dr. Trita Parsi, said messages reportedly written by US servicemen on an aircraft flap in the Gulf reflect growing discontent among troops deployed to the region, including frustration over the indefinite nature of their assignments.
Parsi, who said the image had been sent to him from the field, shared photographs showing messages written in the dust on an aircraft flap. The messages included: “Be a good guy and do what Israel tells you to,” “Operation Epstein Fury,” and “Peace deal #64 incoming… ALL THIS FOR THE HOLY LAND.”
Parsi said he had no basis for comparing the sentiments expressed in the messages with those of US service members in previous wars, but suggested they could represent either new attitudes or a greater willingness to express such views openly.
He also cited what he said was a comment from a serviceman about the morale of troops involved in the operation.
“What people in the media don’t understand when they compare past conflicts to this one, is this operation has no morale behind it. That makes a world of difference to service members deployed to undesirable locations indefinitely,” as one serviceman told Parsi.
Furthermore, he highlighted the serviceman’s reference to a lack of morale and indefinite deployments, arguing that these conditions could shape how troops view the war.
“My own conclusion: When a war has no morale behind it, winning means that you simply end it. There is no other “winning” in such an unjust war,” Parsi concluded.
The developments come amid growing scrutiny of poor conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln and calls from lawmakers for answers from the War Department.
Iran spokesman slams Canada’s participation in war on Iran despite Trump’s hostility
Press TV – August 16, 2026
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman has issued a critique of Canada’s participation in the US-led war against Iran, highlighting the contradiction between Ottawa’s military cooperation with Washington and the Trump administration’s ongoing economic and diplomatic assault on Canadian sovereignty.
In a pointed social media post on Monday, Esmaeil Baqaei, spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, mocked Canada’s submissive stance toward the United States despite repeated humiliations from President Donald Trump.
“Washington calls Canada its 51st state; Washington imposes tariffs on Canadian goods; Washington insults Canada and threatens to punish it over wildfire smoke,” Baqaei wrote, accompanying his statement with an image of a hockey match. “Ottawa’s response: Understood, Sir!”
The Iranian spokesman’s remarks come amid escalating US economic aggression against its northern neighbor. President Trump has repeatedly suggested that Canada should become the “51st U.S. state,” proposing to erase the 5,525-mile-long border that separates the two nations.
Most recently, on July 20, 2026, Trump invoked Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 to impose devastating 50% additional tariffs on certain Canadian imports, further straining ties with America’s second-largest trade partner.
The administration has also threatened to impose 100% tariffs on all Canadian imports should Ottawa finalize certain trade agreements.
Trump has even blamed Canada for wildfire smoke affecting the United States, accusing Ottawa of “wilful negligence” over forest management and threatening additional punitive measures.
Ottawa’s military complicity
Despite this relentless hostility, Canada has positioned itself as a willing participant in the US-led military campaign against Iran.
On March 19, 2026, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney stated that Canada is willing “to contribute to efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz,” signaling Ottawa’s readiness to support US military objectives in the region.
While Canadian officials have publicly claimed that the country was “not consulted, did not participate, and has no plans to participate in the offensive actions against Iran,” experts have pointed out that Canada’s military is deeply integrated into American command structures.
A Canadian military base, Camp Canada, located within the Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, was struck by Iranian missiles on March 2, 2026, revealing the extent of Canada’s involvement in the conflict zone.
Additionally, a Canadian colonel’s receipt of a military medal raised questions about Canada’s actual role in supporting US operations against Iran.
Baqaei’s critique drew a sharp analogy to Canada’s beloved national pastime, stating: “THIS IS NOT HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA; IT IS WASHINGTON’S FARM TEAM.”
The irony has not been lost on Canadian observers. Despite Trump’s economic warfare against Canada, which has contributed to the country slipping into technical recession, Ottawa continues to align itself with Washington’s [actually Israel’s] military agenda.
Domestically, the Iran war has raised energy prices and inflation in Canada, leading to elevated transportation costs and food prices for Canadian consumers.
Public opinion remains strongly opposed to military involvement, with nearly six in ten Canadians (58%) opposing US and Israeli bombing of Iran.
Seyed M. Marandi: Iran & Yemen Unleash a New Offensive Strategy
Glenn Diesen | August 16, 2026
Prof. Seyed Mohammad Marandi is a professor at Tehran University and a former advisor to Iran’s nuclear negotiation team.
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