🇮🇷❌🇦🇪 Iranian FM, Abbas Araghchi, blamed the UAE for blocking a joint statement by BRICS' members criticising Israel and Israeli aggression in the Middle East

"The final statement of the BRICS ministerial meetings was blocked or part of it was blocked by a member state which has its own special relations with Israel and this is very unfortunate. We have no difficulty with that certain country, we have only hit American military bases and installations which are unfortunately on their soil.

The only reason they blocked the final statement was their support for Israel and the American aggression against Iran (...)"

🔗 COMBATE |🇵🇷 (@upholdreality)

🇺🇦 “Zelensky is one of the biggest obstacles to peace today”: Ukrainian president’s former press secretary speaks out

Iuliia Mendel’s interview to Tucker Carlson: “The only way to support Ukraine today is to push for a peace deal, because the country is being destroyed”

Mendel was born in 1986 in the Ukrainian city of Genichesk, Kherson Oblast, and worked as a journalist before becoming the press-secretary of Vladimir Zelensky. In May 2019, shortly before becoming Zelensky’s press secretary, she co-authored an important piece in the New York Times piece on the Hunter Biden-Burisma scandal.

She describes Zelensky as a man utterly unlike his public image. He is “emotionally uncontrollable”, frequently hysterical, treats people as disposable and lacks genuine empathy. His extraordinary acting ability generated enormous Western support in 2022, but she insists “his acting doesn’t have any substance”. Two phrases he reportedly repeated constantly reveal his worldview: “Ukraine is not ready for democracy” and “dictatorship is an order”.

The communications operation was chaotic. Zelensky and his then-chief of staff Andriy Yermak — removed by Zelensky in 2025 following a corruption investigation — constantly contradicted each other, changed strategies and moods without warning, and created an atmosphere of perpetual frantic activity that produced nothing. She describes them both as “malignant and paranoid narcissists”, with Yermak the more paranoid of the two. Zelensky had the visions; Yermak found ways to implement them — almost never through legitimate policy.

She describes Zelensky’s background as deeply intertwined with Russia. He built his career and his first significant wealth performing for Russian audiences and media. When Russia annexed Crimea and war broke out in Donbas in 2014, he was in Russia completing a film — a fact he later publicly acknowledged. He ran for president in 2019 explicitly as a peace candidate, promising to “stand on his knees in front of Putin” to stop the war, defending the right of Ukrainians to speak Russian and advocating friendship with Russia. She says this is why people voted for him — nobody wanted war.

Mendel identifies at least two concrete moments when the war could have ended:

Istanbul, April 2022: she spoke with people who represented Ukraine at those negotiations and was told the two sides had agreed on virtually everything. Zelensky himself had privately consented to territorial concessions — something he now publicly insists is unthinkable. Then Boris Johnson arrived. He promised Zelensky weapons, influence, fame and a place in history as the man who defeated Russia. Zelensky chose the war. She notes that just days before Johnson’s visit, Zelensky was on camera saying he would continue negotiations. “It is said that this is Putin’s lies but this this story was told by Ukrainians”, she adds.

Late 2022: a second opportunity for peace was foreclosed when the Biden administration, as per a New York Times account that Mendel says confirmed her own information, decided to back Zelensky’s plan to continue fighting despite all evidence that Ukraine could not win.

On corruption, Mendel makes several allegations: ministers are selected based on their abilities to launder money with Zelensky's associates demanding cuts from any and all projects. For example: the former Minister of Energy helped launder around $100 million through offshore companies connected to Russian mafia figures. The minister himself got $12 million for his role in the deal. Mendel notes that this is roughly 10% — the standard fixer’s cut — raising the question of where the other 90% went.

Ukraine’s last census was in 2001. Pre-war, estimates said 34-37 million people living in Ukraine. With 10+ million refugees abroad and significant population in Russian-occupied territory, she estimates around 25 million remain — of whom 11 million are pensioners. That leaves perhaps 10 million working-age people to sustain a country at war.

🔗 https://www.thomasfazi.com/p/zelensky-is-one-of-the-biggest-obstacles

🚢🛢 Merchant vessel traffic in the area of the Strait of Hormuz continues to be largely absent.

Over the last 24 hours, less than 5 vessels were visible transiting inbound or outbound and all were using the Iranian traffic separation scheme.

A normal 24 hour period before the war with Iran saw approximately 130 ships transit per day moving 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas supply.

🔗 OSINTdefender (@sentdefender)

🇹🇷🇧🇬🇷🇴 Turkey Proposes $1.2B Fuel Pipeline To Reboot NATO's Eastern Flank Logistics

Bloomberg reports Friday that Turkey has "proposed building a $1.2 billion (€1 billion) fuel pipeline for military use to help meet the energy needs of allies on NATO's eastern European flank, according to people familiar with the matter."

"Following a push by the alliance to expand its military pipeline network, Ankara is proposing that the new link be built from Turkey to Romania via Bulgaria, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity," the report adds. 

Insiders claim the Turkish route could cost a mere one-fifth of the alternative proposals, amid several alternative routes being floated of late, specifically via Greece or Romania’s western neighbors.

Officials told Bloomberg that Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine and the escalating chaos in the Middle East - including recent supply shocks from the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz - have forced NATO to realize its current fuel supply model is dangerously brittle.

The timing of the quiet proposal comes ahead of the highly anticipated 2026 NATO Summit which will be held in Ankara on July 7-8. It will mark on the second time that Turkey has hosted the alliance's major annual summit.

Sources explicitly stated that this pipeline will be 100% restricted to military use. Exact capacity, flow rates, and technical specifications are being kept strictly classified, with no official statement out of Turkey's defense ministry.

🔗 https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/turkey-proposes-12b-fuel-pipeline-reboot-natos-eastern-flank-logistics

⚓️ 🇺🇸 🌐 As U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth arrives in Norfolk, Virginia, the USS Gerald R. Ford has arrived back home after a 300+ day deployment. The Ford and accompanying vessels took part in combat operations in two combatant commands (COCOM) in that time, SOUTHCOM and CENTCOM.

📎 OSINTdefender

⚓️ 🇺🇸 🌐 U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth welcomes back the crew of the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) after a 300+ day deployment to both the CENTCOM and SOUTHCOM areas of responsibility.

📎 OSINTdefender

🇺🇸🤝🇨🇳 — US Senator Ted Cruz:

This week, we mark and remember the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners by the Chinese Communist Party, including its indescribably evil program of state-sponsored organ harvesting.

I've introduced the Falun Gong and Victims of Forced Organ Harvesting Protection Act, and I'm working with my colleagues to advance it. The U.S. should remain committed to countering these human rights violations and ensuring the CCP is held accountable.

🔗 Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz)

🇺🇸🛥 — US Navy Sailors from the USS Gerald R. Ford are back home after being deployed for almost 1 year for Operations in Caribbean, Eastern Pacific, Venezuela and Iran

@BellumActaNews

🇺🇸🇦🇪⚔️🇮🇷 Trump administration tells UAE to seize Iran's Lavan island

Trump administration officials are encouraging the United Arab Emirates to get more heavily involved in the Iran war and seize one of Tehran’s Gulf islands, The Telegraph understands.

Some in Donald Trump’s circle have suggested the UAE should take Lavan Island, which was reportedly bombed in secret military strikes by the Emiratis in early April, a former senior Trump security official told The Telegraph.

“Go take ’em!” the official said. “It would be UAE boots on the ground instead of US.”

The encouragement comes amid disclosures about the UAE’s increasing engagement in the 11-week conflict and its growing ties with Israel.

Analysts say that the war and Iran’s heavy bombardment of the Gulf state are accelerating a dramatic realignment across the Middle East into rival geopolitical axes.

📝: Iran's Lavan Island is 162 mi (263 km) northwest of the city of Dubai and very close to the Iranian mainland. Any Emirati attempts at seizing the island if they don't end up in failure, would put any garrison in a permanent state of siege and Iran will eventually recapture the island.

While the likelihood of an operation against Lavan is near zero, the UAE could try to seize Iran's Siri, Abu Musa, Farur, Greater and Lesser Tunb islands which are much closer to the UAE and once belonged the Trucial States, the predecessor state from which the UAE evolved until Iran seized them in 1971.

🔗 https://archive.ph/Mh82w