Iran War Update 2

Events from the last 24 hours

The US-Israeli attack on Iran is fast-moving and it’s not easy to stay on top of the volume of interconnected events. Here’s what happened in the last 24 hours…

• The CIA has been shipping arms to thousands of Kurdish volunteers in western Iran and encouraging them to rise up against the regime. Turkey is not happy at the Kurds getting arms and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is warning that any force linked to Kurdish groups entering Iran would trigger war with Iraq’s Kurdistan Region. Meanwhile, the Kurds feel they’re being forced into an attack by the US

  

• The ruler of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, made multiple private phone calls to Trump over the past month advocating a US attack, despite his public support for a diplomatic solution, the Washington Post reported.

• An Iranian military official has warned that if the US and Israel attempt regime change through armed unrest, Iran will strike Israel’s Dimona nuclear reactor.

• The UN refugee agency says about 100,000 people fled Tehran in the first 2 days of the war. Around 2000 vehicles per day have been leaving the city, mostly heading north. So far, no increase in people crossing international borders has been reported.

• US House Speaker Mike Johnson continues to perpetuate the myth that the US is not at war, for a whole host of legal reasons: “We’re not at war right now. We’re four days into a very specific, clear mission, an operation, Operation Epic Fury.” A Special Military Operation, say, just like Russia.

• Secretary of Defense/War Pete Hegseth held another bizarre press conference that played fast and loose with the truth. Among his nuggets: “This was never meant to be a fair fight and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they are down.” Which is not the flex he imagines. And he once again stressed this war will go on for a while: “The only limits we have in this is Trump’s desire to achieve specific effects on behalf of the American people. You can say four weeks, but it could be six, it could be eight, it could be three.”

• General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff outlined US strategy: “We will now begin to expand inland, striking progressively deeper into Iranian territory.”

• A US submarine has sunk the Iranian IRIS Dena warship off Sri Lanka. 101 people missing, 78 injured.

• Revolutionary Guard Corps headquarters in Qom and Tabriz have been destroyed.

• Senator Richard Blumenthal was one of many lawmakers distressed after the Iran briefing: “I just want to say I am more fearful than ever after this briefing that we may be putting boots on the ground.”