Al-Sharaa: Syria Seeking Security Deal With Israel
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said in an interview aired Sunday that Damascus is actively working toward a security agreement with Israel that involves several other countries, expressing hope it could serve as a gateway to comprehensive peace, according to Al Jazeera. He said any such agreement would not compromise Syria's claim to the occupied Golan Heights, and that Syria has no interest in confronting Israel. The talks are focused on securing an Israeli withdrawal from the buffer zone it seized in southern Syria after Bashar al-Assad's ouster in December 2024, building on a January agreement between the two countries to establish an intelligence-sharing mechanism. On Lebanon, al-Sharaa said Syria would not intervene militarily to help dismantle Hezbollah's arsenal, but supports keeping weapons and decisions on war and peace exclusively under Lebanese state authority. He also acknowledged delays in implementing a separate January agreement with the Syrian Democratic Forces.The interview came…
Gulf Oil Faces a Two-Strait Trap
The thesis works with two qualifications: the Gulf is not completely sealed because the UAE retains its Fujairah outlet, and American energy companies may benefit while the United States as a whole absorbs higher prices and military costs.The Houthi missile and drone attack claimed against Saudi Aramco facilities in Jizan and Yanbu on July 25 did more than reopen the Saudi-Yemeni front. It placed Saudi Arabia’s principal escape route from the Strait of Hormuz under threat as Iran again restricts the Gulf’s only maritime exit.Reuters verified smoke near the Jizan refinery, although its cause and any damage remain unclear. Greek officials said a Patriot battery intercepted two missiles near Yanbu. The attack did not close Saudi exports. It showed how one regional war has joined two previously separate chokepoint crises.The bypass becomes a targetUnder normal conditions, around 20 million barrels a day of crude and petroleum products – roughly one-fifth…
U.S. Starts Rationing Air Defenses Against Iranian Strikes
U.S. commanders are deliberately allowing some Iranian missiles and attack drones through their air defenses, accepting damage to military installations rather than expend interceptors that are growing harder to replace, according to NBC News.Two senior U.S. officials told NBC News that commanders have been choosing which incoming weapons to intercept since the early days of the Iran war. They may withhold defensive missiles when a projectile is assessed as unlikely to hit American forces, significantly damage critical U.S. facilities or threaten regional allies. The result is a tiered defense: personnel and critical infrastructure are protected first, while secondary facilities may be allowed to absorb some damage.The officials said some Iranian weapons have consequently struck parts of U.S. bases where personnel were not present. They were not aware of any American troops or civilians being harmed by projectiles commanders deliberately chose not to intercept.Selective engagement is a normal part of missile…
Ukraine Says Russia Plans 30,000 More North Korean Troops
Russia is preparing to receive another 30,000 North Korean troops for its war against Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday. The addition would potentially more than double Pyongyang's current troop commitment to Moscow's war effort.Zelenskyy said preparations have been underway in Russia's Voronezh region since June, and that North Korea is also preparing to transfer additional ballistic-missile launchers. He did not specify a timeline for the deployment, and there has been no independent confirmation that Pyongyang has approved a deployment of that scale.North Korea has already sent an estimated 15,000 personnel to Russia, according to an assessment by the Institute for the Study of War and Critical Threats Project. Those forces have fought alongside Russian troops in the Kursk region and have taken on rear-area roles that free Russian personnel for frontline duty – a substitution effect that lets Moscow reinforce its war without a politically costly new domestic mobilization.A…
SAF De Facto Rejects US Peace Plan
Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), has dampened prospects for a US-led peace plan, vowing on July 24 in Khartoum North to eliminate the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and declaring no place for the group "after today," according to Sudan Tribune.Burhan's remarks did not formally reject the plan. But combined with the SAF-led government's demand for full RSF withdrawal from occupied cities, they leave the initiative facing what amounts to a conditional refusal.The US proposal, seen by Reuters, calls for a 90-day truce, talks on a permanent ceasefire, and a civilian-led transition, without preconditions. Sudan's government accepted most of it but demanded full RSF withdrawal; the RSF accepted the truce but rejected that clause, continuing operations in Kordofan.Saudi Arabia, a US mediation partner, is aligned with SAF, according to UK Home Office guidance citing ACLED. Yet that alignment has not visibly translated into…
Ukraine Strikes Russian Targets 1,200 Kilometers From Border
Ukrainian forces struck the sanctioned Avitek defense plant in Kirov with an FP-5 Flamingo cruise missile early Friday, killing six workers and injuring 26. The strike, according to Kyiv Independent, hit a facility that is part of the Almaz-Antey conglomerate and produces surface-to-air missile components and parts for Kh-101 cruise missiles, and which is sanctioned by the US, EU, UK, Canada, Switzerland, and New Zealand.President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the strike soon after, calling it, as quoted by Ukrainska Pravda, "an absolutely just response" against a plant supplying "the occupier's aviation and missile equipment."In parallel, Ukrainian drones struck Wildberries logistics hubs in St. Petersburg, the Leningrad region, and annexed Crimea overnight, marking, as Meduza reported, the sixth such attack on the retailer this month as of July 24.The financial toll from the campaign has been significant, according to Kyiv Post, which cited analyst Sergei Semko of Data Insight estimating losses from…
