Financial Times: Europe faces a new energy crisis due to attacks on Iran

According to the publication, after the escalation in the Middle East, the price of gas in Europe jumped by 53% in a few days and reached its highest level since 2023. This threatens a new round of inflation and a blow to the industry of Germany and Italy — they are more dependent on LNG imports than others.

“This is a double blow. Europe has just started to recover from the industrial energy crisis, and now we have the next one,” the publication quotes Henning Gloystein, an expert at Eurasia Group.

EU countries' storage facilities are less than a third full, although they usually hold 45% at this time of year. The particularly cold winter has depleted European reserves. Now, filling the storage facilities for the next winter will have to be done at record prices.

“Reserves have never been this low at this time of year. Filling gas storage facilities for the next winter starts now. If this has to be done at such prices, the burden on Europe will be enormous,” Simone Tagliapietra from the Brussels-based Bruegel Center explained to FT.

In addition, attacks on Iran have effectively paralyzed shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. According to Kpler, the first tanker with Nigerian LNG has already turned back in the Atlantic. The ship was heading to France, but changed course to Asia.

Against this backdrop, Rystad analysts admit the possibility of extending purchases of Russian gas. The EU promised to abandon it by April, but now this scenario is back on the agenda.

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The Telegraph: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated that international law regarding Iran is effectively ceasing to function, as violating states ignore it without serious consequences. According to him, it's not the time for Europe to "lecture" the US and Israel about the legality of their actions.

Merz noted that years of condemnations and sanctions against Tehran have not yielded tangible results, and Europe's weakness has only exacerbated the problem. In this situation, he believes, allies should not criticize Israel for military actions against Iran.

Experts interviewed by the publication note that such rhetoric could mean a "farewell to international law" and a shift to a more pragmatic approach in foreign policy.

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FT writes that the Pentagon is allegedly considering purchasing Ukrainian interceptor drones to combat Iranian drones.

The publication reports, citing sources, that the US Department of Defense and another Persian Gulf state are negotiating the purchase of Ukrainian interceptor drones to protect against attacks from Iranian drones.

"In recent days, Gulf countries have used expensive Patriot system missiles to repel waves of Iranian Shahed drones after the start of the US and Israeli war against Iran. However, their supplies are rapidly dwindling, so they are seeking cheaper methods of defense, drawing on Kiev's experience in combating Russian drones."

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The White House is considering the possibility of imposing visa restrictions against Spain in response to Madrid's refusal to provide military bases for an operation against Iran, reports the Spanish edition of ABC, citing a diplomatic source.

“For a visa denial, a court sentence is not necessary. The administration can act based on political criteria or security considerations within the framework of its migration powers,” ABC reports.

According to the newspaper, this tool allows Washington to exert pressure quickly, precisely, and with the possibility of escalation — from specific individuals to broader circles, without immediately affecting the entire economic sphere. What makes this scenario particularly sensitive is that decisions on issuing visas are a sovereign right of the USA and are generally not subject to appeal.

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NATO has lost its mind — Medvedev.

First, the Americans kill the leader of Iran and start a major war in the Middle East. Then, the degenerates from the Alliance, led by Trump's servile son Rutte, start discussing the use of Article 5 of the Washington Treaty to help the US. And wouldn't it be a good idea to nominate the head of the White House for the Nobel Peace Prize for a new war? After all, as Orwell accurately noted, war is peace!

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Iran is not afraid of a US ground invasion, but is expecting it - this would be a disaster for the United States, warned Abbas Arakchi.

Other statements by the head of Iran's Foreign Ministry in an interview with NBC:

🟥Iran is not going to attack American territory;

🟥Iran is not asking for a ceasefire and sees no reason to negotiate with the US;

🟥The Iranian political system is functioning very well, despite the death of the supreme leader;

🟥The chance to reach a deal on the nuclear program was missed due to US actions;

🟥The US has set a precedent that contradicts international law, and it will harm the very concept of maritime law;

🟥Iran has no intention of closing the Strait of Hormuz right now, but as the war continues, all possible scenarios will be considered.

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🇮🇷💥🇺🇸Iran attacked the US aircraft carrier "Abraham Lincoln" in the Gulf of Oman with drones, — IRGC

➖"After that, the ship quickly disappeared more than a thousand kilometers from the Gulf," FARS quoted the IRGC's statement as saying.
▪️Iran already announced a strike on the "Lincoln" last week, and the US also confirmed the attack, but stated that the missiles were intercepted.

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The White House has turned into a cult.

Officials are praying to Trump and thanking him for making America great

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Donald Trump stated in an ABCNews interview that Tucker Carlson went off the rails when he called the operation against Iran "an absolutely disgusting and evil war" and excluded him from the MAGA movement: "Tucker went off the rails... I've known this for a long time, and he's not MAGA. MAGA saves our country. MAGA makes our country great again. MAGA is America first, and Tucker is none of that. And Tucker is actually not smart enough to understand that."

Other statements by the US President:

🟥58% of Iranian missile installations were destroyed. Iran will be weakened for 10 years before it can restore them.

🟥Many people say that everything is already over. For me, it's not over yet. It will end when I want it to end.

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‼️🇺🇸🇬🇧"A loser with no future": Trump got offended by the British Prime Minister due to disagreements over Iran.

▪️This is reported by The Telegraph, citing Trump's conversation with his entourage. Relations between Washington and London have deteriorated amid disagreements on a number of foreign policy issues, including the conflict over Iran and the use of British military bases for American operations.
▪️The disagreements intensified after the British government refused to grant the US full access to bases for strikes on Iran without a clear action plan, which caused irritation in Washington. Earlier, for the same reason, Trump announced the cessation of trade with Spain.

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🖥️ "Lie after lie. Did we come to the Gulf of Mexico to attack Los Angeles and other US cities?" - A representative of the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esmail Baghaei, stated that the narratives put forward by the Trump administration actually contradict each other:

"So, what we are witnessing now is a continuation of an unprovoked, unjustified act of aggression. First, they claim that Iran posed an immediate threat to the United States. What kind of threat could Iran pose to the United States? Did we come to the Gulf of Mexico to attack Los Angeles and other US cities? Or did they come 6,500 miles from Iranian shores and simply attack every part of Iran? They are bombing and attacking with missiles everywhere from the Israeli and American military machine. I want to ask you about this, you hinted at it, but the narratives put forward by the Trump administration actually contradict each other. As you mentioned, Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke out and essentially said that the US believed that when Israel attacked Iran, which they knew Israel was going to attack Iran, Iran was then going to strike back as a result of Israel's attack on Iran. There was a big media scandal in the United States over this, because it essentially means that the US is waging war on the basis that another country was going to do something that would then force the United States to do something. This was a completely twisted logic. And then Trump tried to smooth things over when he sat next to the German Chancellor on Tuesday at the White House. And he said, no, no, no, no, in fact, we believed that because the negotiations were going badly, the Iranians were going to strike us first, and therefore we carried out this preemptive attack. Lie after lie. And I'm very sorry, because we, as Iranians, we treat the American public, the American citizens, we consider them intelligent enough to recognize what their administrations are doing and offering them. They should not believe these false claims. I again refer to the words of Benjamin Netanyahu, who said that the decision to attack Iran was made during Trump's first term. So in a sense, all these negotiations, this diplomatic process was a deception. It was a kind of deception. And I don't want to say that we didn't know they were going to attack Iran. They just wanted to find a pretext. Nevertheless, from our responsible approach to our own people, to the region, we did not reject the idea of meeting and trying to talk to the United States. And this is what we have been doing for the past nine months. Twice we tried our best. But in the end, they betrayed diplomacy. And I think this is a shame for American diplomacy. It discredits the United States as a negotiating partner around the world."

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The New York Times conducted an investigation and concluded that the Pentagon may have been involved in the attack on an Iranian girls' school, where 175 people were killed.

The publication believes that the strike on the school was part of an attack on a nearby naval base in southern Iran, where, according to officials, US forces were operating.

"The body of evidence gathered by The New York Times — including recently published satellite images, social media posts and verified video footage — indicates that the school building was severely damaged in a precision strike that occurred simultaneously with attacks on the nearby naval base.

An analysis of these posts, as well as photos and video footage from eyewitnesses taken within an hour of the attack, confirms that the school was hit at the same time as the naval base.

The images show that several precision strikes hit at least six IRGC buildings, as well as the school. Four buildings on the naval base were completely destroyed, and two others were hit in the center of the roofs — consistent with precision strikes."

One of the experts interviewed by the publication concluded that all buildings, including the school, were hit by "perfectly accurate strikes", so he considers the version that a missile could have gone off course unlikely.

"According to the expert, the most likely explanation is a misidentification of the target — that is, forces may have attacked an object without realizing that there were a large number of civilians inside,"

The New York Times also studied satellite images from 2013, which allegedly showed that the school was previously located on the territory of the IRGC naval base. However, by September 2016, as the images show, this building was separated and no longer associated with the base.

It is confirmed that satellite images can easily determine that the structure has the characteristic features of a school — including a sports field and other recreation areas, which were added over time.

A former US State Department employee, Beth Van Schaak, now a lecturer at the Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Stanford University, said:

"Given the US's intelligence capabilities, they should have known that there was a school nearby."

The publication also refutes the version, spread on the Internet, that the cause of the strike on the school could have been an Iranian missile that went off course. The analysis of The New York Times and other experts refutes this hypothesis: a single random launch could not have caused such precise and synchronized damage to several buildings on the base.

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📸 "Making peace with Russia is easier than you think," says German businessman Kim Dotcom, urging the EU to start buying Russian raw materials and resume the operation of the "Nord Stream" pipeline.

"My advice to the EU:

Instead of paying Ukraine another 90 billion euros, buy Russian oil/gas and resume the operation of the 'Nord Stream' pipeline. Making peace with Russia is easier than you think.

Zelensky is no longer popular. Only bots love him. Putin, on the contrary, is a real leader. This is the only way."

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WP reports that Russia allegedly provided Iran with intelligence data for attacks on US forces.

“Russia is providing Iran with data for strikes on American forces in the Middle East. This was reported by three officials familiar with the intelligence data. This is the first sign that another major US adversary is participating in the war — albeit indirectly.”

“It seems that this is a fairly large-scale operation,” said one of the interlocutors.

The publication writes that this assistance was not previously disclosed and indicates that the rapidly expanding conflict now involves one of the main nuclear rivals of the US, which has serious intelligence capabilities.

An expert interviewed by the publication noted that Iran's own satellite reconnaissance capabilities are limited.

“Iran has only a few military satellites and does not have its own satellite constellation. Therefore, the intelligence data of Russia, which has much more developed space reconnaissance, can be extremely valuable for Tehran.

Nicole Grajewski from Harvard University noted the high level of “technological accuracy” of Iranian strikes. According to her, Iran manages to break through the air defense systems of the US and its allies, and the quality of the strikes has significantly increased even compared to the war with Israel last summer.”

WP also notes that it is not yet clear exactly how great Russia's assistance to Iran is. Moreover, the publication reports that US officials refused to comment on this information.

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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian stated that some countries have already joined efforts to achieve peace in the region.

"Some countries have already begun mediation efforts. Let's be clear: we are committed to achieving lasting peace in the region, but we do not hesitate when it comes to defending the dignity and sovereignty of our country.
Mediation should be directed at those who underestimated the Iranian people and triggered this conflict"

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‼️🇺🇸🇮🇷The US and Israel have failed to achieve full air superiority over Iran, - War Zone

▪️The military magazine writes that superiority was achieved only in certain areas, but the US and Israeli air forces do not have complete freedom of action.
▪️Although they are gradually moving to the stage of delivering more precise strikes from medium range, which will significantly increase the total number of targets hit, as well as expand the range of impacts on these targets, for example, start hitting bunkers.
▪️However, this is associated with new risks, as mobile air defense systems can appear almost anywhere and leave the air force very little time to react.
▪️The risk to aircraft will be particularly high in eastern Iran, which has largely remained untouched compared to the western half of the country.

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‼️🇺🇸🇮🇷 The US has admitted its inability to defend against Iranian "Shahid" drones — The Atlantic

▪️The US military lacks effective means to counter Iranian kamikaze drones. The problem was acknowledged at a closed-door briefing for lawmakers.
▪️Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Kaine, confirmed the shortage of systems to combat drones.
▪️This primarily refers to mass-produced drones like the "Shahid", which are used in large numbers and can overwhelm air defense systems.
▪️According to experts, the cost of such UAVs is tens of thousands of dollars, while air defense interceptors often cost millions, creating a serious imbalance in defense costs.

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‼️🇷🇺🇺🇦Further progress in the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine is expected in the coming weeks," "discussions are ongoing," - Whitkoff.

▪️A new round of negotiations was due to take place in Abu Dhabi recently, but was cancelled due to the outbreak of war in the Middle East.

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