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Removing al‑Burhan: The Key to Stability and Countering Extremism by Robert Williams

By on July 1st, 2025

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21715/sudan-burhan-extremism

Iran sees al‑Burhan’s regime as a strategic opportunity to extend its influence along the Red Sea.

Al‑Burhan has opened the door for Iranian operatives, drones and advanced weaponry to flow into Sudan, transforming the country’s tragic internal conflict into yet another front in Tehran’s regional confrontation with the West and its allies.

Every day that al‑Burhan remains in power, Iran grows more entrenched in Sudan, using the country as a potential staging ground to threaten Israel and international shipping routes, particularly those critical lanes through the Red Sea.

The Trump administration, drawing on the president’s history of unconventional diplomacy and deal-making, could play a pivotal role in this process. The Abraham Accords demonstrated the ability to broker agreements that shift regional dynamics through pragmatic, incentive-based negotiations.

[N]one of these initiatives is possible while al‑Burhan remains in power. His regime has become a conduit for Iranian ambitions and a shield for Muslim Brotherhood-linked gunmen. So long as he rules, efforts to rebuild Sudan’s economy, restore its sovereignty, and protect regional security will fail.

Now is the moment for decisive action and Trump’s unparalleled negotiating skills.

Sudan’s General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s continued hold on power represents a serious threat not only to Sudan’s stability but to regional security and global interests. For years, al-Burhan has cultivated an image of pragmatism and order, while in practice he has forged deep ties with the Muslim Brotherhood — an Islamist movement whose ideological and logistical networks have directly supported violent groups like Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen. These groups have been responsible for a wave of bloodshed, terrorism, and instability across the Middle East, undermining regional security and threatening international trade corridors.

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Why Would Khamenei Claim Victory? Here’s Why A little knowledge of Islam makes his apparently odd actions completely clear. by Robert Spencer

By on June 30th, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm-plus/why-would-khamenei-claim-victory-heres-why/

It’s always hard to know if President Trump knows more than he is saying, as his recent feigning of a rift with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in order to lull the Islamic Republic of Iran illustrates. Whatever Trump really knows or does not know, however, his statement Friday about the behavior of the Ayatollah Khamenei since the U.S. decimation of Iran’s nuclear program demonstrates the crying need in the West for foreign policy analysts who understand the doctrine and practice of Islam. Through the prism of Islam, much of what Trump professes to be puzzled about becomes perfectly clear.

“Why,” the president asked, “would the so-called ‘Supreme Leader,’ Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, of the war torn Country of Iran, say so blatantly and foolishly that he won the War with Israel, when he knows his statement is a lie, it is not so. As a man of great faith, he is not supposed to lie.” Yet in fact, lying is a centerpiece of Khamenei’s religion.

The concept of taqiyya, or religiously sanctioned deception, originated among Shi’ite Muslims, developed during the time of the sixth Imam, Jafar al-Sadiq, in the middle of the eighth century, when the Shi’ites were being persecuted by the Sunni caliph al-Mansur. Taqiyya allowed Shi’ites to pretend to be Sunnis in order to protect themselves from Sunnis who were killing Shi’ites. Some Shi’ite thinkers turned the deception that had become a necessity into a virtue.

Jafar al-Sadiq, who died in 765, had a servant who was suspected of having revealed some of the secrets of the faith. The Imam declared: “Whoever propagates our tradition is like someone who denies it…. Conceal our doctrine and do not divulge it…. Taqiyya is our religion and the religion of our fathers; he who has no taqiyya has no religion.”

Some sayings of the Imams include, “He who has no taqiyya has no faith”; “he who forsakes taqiyya is like him who forsakes prayer”; “he who does not adhere to taqiyya and does not protect us from the ignoble common people is not part of us”; “nine tenths of faith falls within taqiyya”; “taqiyya is the believer’s shield (junna), but for taqiyya, God would not have been worshipped.” So why shouldn’t Khamenei, who reveres Jafar al-Sadiq and the other Imams, lie? It’s a central aspect of his identity as a “man of great faith.”

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Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Glastonbury—and the Purge of the Jews

By on June 30th, 2025

https://www.thefp.com/p/ayaan-hirsi-ali-glastonbury-and-the

The strategy is brilliant in its simplicity: Paint Israel as the nexus of evil. Then paint every Jew who doesn’t renounce it as complicit. Force them to choose: dignity or safety.

At first glance, and from the panoramic shot provided by a shaky iPhone, the scenes out of Glastonbury resemble an energetic protest. The red and green flags waving in the hot breeze; the keffiyehs; the chants. But turn up the volume and listen closely to what tens of thousands of people are shouting, led by the lead singer of the punk duo Bob Vylan: “Death, death to the IDF.”

This took place on one of the festival’s main stages. It was broadcast live on the BBC.

Lest there be any confusion about what the singer meant: Later that evening he posted a selfie eating ice cream: “While Zionists are crying on socials,” he wrote, “I’ve just had a late night (vegan) ice cream.”

Bob Vylan was followed on stage by Kneecap, an Irish rap trio named after the IRA punishment of shooting someone in the knee. They, too, are fond of sprinkling anti-Israel chants throughout their shows, and last month one member was charged with a terror offense after waving the flag of Hezbollah, a proscribed terror group, on stage. In video footage, members of the group can be heard shouting “up Hamas, up Hezbollah.”

The Bob Vylan incident was bad enough that papers across the world were forced to cover it. The New York Times, in framing that was typical, described their chants as “against Israel’s military.”

This is nonsense. Just as it is nonsense to hear chants of “Free Palestine” as being about Palestine any more than during the 1930s slogans about lebensraum were about a bigger backyard.

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‘Obliterating’ Iran’s Nuclear Sites Is Not Enough by Khaled Abu Toameh

By on June 30th, 2025

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21708/obliterating-iran-nuclear-sites-is-not-enough

“The conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerrilla wins if he does not lose.” — Henry Kissinger, Foreign Affairs, January 1969.

Iran’s regime may have lost its nuclear sites, but it has not lost its appetite to kill Jews and wipe Israel off the map.

Would the Allied forces have left the Nazi Party as the rulers of Germany after World War II?

Ideally, such a campaign should be spearheaded by the Iranian people themselves with the backing of Western countries, including the US, and Arabs and Muslims who oppose the Iranian regime and view it as a direct threat to their national security. These countries include Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states in addition to the recognized governments of countries home to Iran’s current and former proxies: Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. They will cooperate once they see that the US is serious about standing against, not appeasing, those who threaten the security and stability of the Arab countries.

With China, Russia, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran and its proxies, Trump may be underestimating the intensity of their desires.

With an enriched Iran, freely selling its oil to China, the temptation to rebuild a war machine might be hard to resist.

The weakening or removal of the Iranian regime can only facilitate the mission of obliterating Hamas and PIJ in Gaza, and freeing all the Israeli hostages they hold.

It is time for the Trump administration and its Western allies to understand that there can be no genuine deals or compromises with either Sunni or Shiite jihadists who consider America and Israel as the big and small “Satans.”

If the US and the West do not want to be directly involved in bringing about regime change in Iran, they should at least encourage and back any opposition individuals or groups working to topple Iran’s Islamist regime. Reinstating economic sanctions on Iran could help accelerate the downfall of the mullahs and their terror proxies. That is the only way to bring peace and stability to the Middle East and prevent further violence and bloodshed. When your enemies say they want to eliminate you, you have every right to eliminate them first.

Iran’s regime may have lost its nuclear sites, but it has not lost its appetite to kill Jews and wipe Israel off the map. Would the Allied forces have left the Nazi Party as the rulers of Germany after World War II? 

The United States and Israel have, according to reliable sources, “obliterated” or “severely damaged” Iran’s nuclear installations, but so long as the regime and its terror proxies continue to exist, the mission remains unaccomplished.

“The conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerrilla wins if he does not lose,” Henry Kissinger observed in 1969.

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Successors to Khamenei A tyranny’s move to survive. by Christine Williams

By on June 27th, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/successors-to-khamenei/

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei has declared that Iran “isn’t a nation that surrenders”:

Those very words from Khamenei are reflected in the regime’s move to survive, as it now seeks likely candidates to succeed Khamenei. “Iranian officials consider removing Ali Khamenei in plot to replace supreme leader – report,” Jerusalem Post, June 22, 2025:

Iranian officials are considering removing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the Supreme Leader of Iran after the country endured airstrikes by Israel and the United States, two sources involved in the discussions told The Atlantic in a report published on Sunday.

The plot to replace the supreme leader is being planned by a group of businessmen, military and political figures, and relatives and high-ranking clerics, the report said.

“Ours is just one idea,” a source told The Atlantic. “Tehran is now full of such plots. They are also talking to Europeans about the future of Iran. Everybody knows Khamenei’s days are numbered. Even if he stays in office, he won’t have actual power.”…

Discussion about Khamenei’s ill health, ability to rule and whom his successor would be were happening well before the recent escalation, pointing to a likely longstanding determination by the regime to install a successor. A few days ago, The Atlantic reported about an inside plot to remove Khamenei as the Supreme Leader after the debilitating airstrikes by Israel and the US. The plotters, comprised of businessmen, military and political figures, and high-ranking clerics “agreed that a leadership committee consisting of a few high-ranking officials would take over running the country and negotiate a deal with the United States to stop the Israeli attacks.” Of course Iran must never be trusted to make any lasting deal; it only manipulates to buy time.

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The toxic narcissism of Palestine Action This gang of bourgeois irritants sums up the religious mania of ‘Palestine solidarity’. Brendan O’Neill

By on June 26th, 2025

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/06/25/the-toxic-narcissism-of-palestine-action/

Last month, Jews in London awoke to the sight of shattered glass. A local business, a Jewish business, had been savagely attacked by masked men in the dead of night. The vandals coated the walls in blood-coloured paint to remind residents of the blood-thirstiness of their homeland: Israel. Even the mezuzah, the small parchment scroll some Jews affix to their doorposts to remind them of their faith, was stained red in the frenzied assault. Who carried out this vile act that will have triggered the darkest historical memories among local Jews? Some neo-Nazi outfit? It was Palestine Action, the anti-Israel ‘direct action’ group that has suddenly become a cause célèbre of all of the worst people.

It was in Stamford Hill, a part of London with a large, lively community of Orthodox Jews. It was on 28 May. Three Palestine Action pricks high on the fumes of self-righteousness laid waste to a landlord business. In the kangaroo court of their own Israelophobic delirium, they’d found the business guilty of renting out premises to Elbit, the Israeli arms manufacturer. And they passed their sentence: violent destruction of the sinning premises. But the business said it wasn’t true. We have ‘no connection with Elbit’, said a spokesman. We need to talk about this, no? The possibility that a protest group gushed over by Sally Rooney and praised by every faux-radical arsehole on the internet smashed up a Jewish business with no justification whatsoever?

To my mind, it doesn’t matter if the business had links with Elbit (though I am more inclined to believe the business itself than the turbo-smug vandals that gutted it in the vain and risible belief that they were ‘helping Gaza’). The point is that Palestine Action visited on Stamford Hill a night of broken glass. It inflicted on a Jewish community the historical memory and moral injury of another Jewish business targeted for destruction. There will be Jews in Stamford Hill whose families came to the UK to escape the shattered glass of centuries of Jew-hating mania in Europe. And yet here it was again – those glinting shards on their streets, whispering: ‘Do you belong here?’

Palestine Action’s vandalism struck terror into the heart of Stamford Hill’s Jews. ‘For Jewish people it is very, very scary now’, said a local business-owner. Shomrim, the Jewish neighbourhood security organisation, lamented the return of ‘criminal harassment of Jewish-owned properties’. Who could look at the photographs of Orthodox Jews surveying the red-stained ruins of a local business and not feel sickened? So, my question for all those activists, novelists, luvvies and even MPs who are swarming social media to say ‘We are all Palestine Action’ – are you this?

Palestine Action is all over the news following UK home secretary Yvette Cooper’s promise to proscribe it as a terrorist organisation. Its incursion into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where activists sprayed red paint on two planes, was the last straw for the government. The activist class, the Guardian and human-rights groups are up in arms: it’s ‘unhinged’, they say, to proscribe a protest group. I agree. Like Luke Gittos, I think the banning of Palestine Action would set a terrible and authoritarian precedent. They’re posh irritants, not ISIS. Here’s the thing, though: while I’ll defend these people’s right to organise, I also want to explain how awful they are. They’re even worse than you might think.

The media handwringing over Palestine Action tends to focus on its destruction of property. That’s understandable. Its infiltration of an RAF base was a very serious matter. Its ghoulish splashing of red paint on the walls of every business judged to have consorted with the devil – Israel – is pompous in the extreme and grossly anti-social. I regularly cycle through Portman Square in London where there is always the fresh red paint of their sanctimonious rage on the walls of the investment firm, Invesco. (I pray for the day I’ll catch them in the act.) And yet let’s not forget the other things they do, things that frequently cross the line from protest into sheer immorality and the most despicable theatre.

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Iran’s Last Chance at the Bomb: A Hidden Race Behind the Calls for Ceasefire As Iran calls for a ceasefire, it’s not peace it seeks—but time to finish the bomb it’s been building in the shadows. By Ahmad Batebi

By on June 26th, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/06/26/irans-last-chance-at-the-bomb-a-hidden-race-behind-the-calls-for-ceasefire/

As the world watches the escalating confrontation between Israel and Iran, Tehran seeks to project a posture of strength, insisting it will fire the final shot. Yet behind closed doors, the Islamic Republic is doing the opposite: quietly pushing for a ceasefire. Not for the sake of regional stability, and certainly not for the safety of its own people, but for one singular purpose: gaining the time it desperately needs to finalize its nuclear ambitions.

Recent U.S. strikes on three well-known nuclear sites—Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan—were widely interpreted as major blows to Iran’s atomic infrastructure. But intelligence sources suggest otherwise. These facilities, long exposed and monitored, had already been emptied of their most sensitive material. The regime, fully aware of its security vulnerabilities, had preemptively moved its enriched uranium stockpiles to undisclosed underground locations beyond the reach of satellites, IAEA inspectors, or international oversight.

Within these hidden fortresses, Iran is now operating with renewed secrecy and efficiency, drawing closer than ever to the nuclear threshold. The technical knowledge, financial means, and ideological justification are all in place. What Tehran lacks is time, and a ceasefire would offer precisely that.

Interpreting recent shifts in Iran’s rhetoric or diplomatic tone as a sign of moderation would be a grave mistake. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, like the regime’s founder Ayatollah Khomeini, adheres to the Shiite doctrine of taqiyya, a religiously sanctioned practice of deceit in service of ideological goals. Under this doctrine, false assurances and strategic lies are not only permitted but encouraged when advancing the interests of the Islamic Revolution.

To believe that the Islamic Republic has abandoned its nuclear ambitions is to fall victim to the same diplomatic delusions that have haunted Western policymakers for decades. If Tehran is granted even a temporary pause in hostilities, it will use that reprieve to complete what it has long pursued in secret: a functioning nuclear weapon.

The regime’s post-conflict playbook is consistent. First, it brutally reasserts domestic control by rounding up dissenters and executing alleged collaborators, fostering fear and obedience. Then it accelerates its nuclear program under the justification of defensive necessity. Finally, it announces a strategic shift in defense policy, citing foreign aggression as the rationale for legitimizing its nuclear breakout.

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In the End, Everyone Hated the Iranian Theocracy Trump and Israel dismantled Iran’s terror mystique in days—no nukes, no saviors, just a regime stewing in its own impotence as the world quietly moved on. By Victor Davis Hanson

By on June 26th, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/06/26/in-the-end-everyone-hated-the-iranian-theocracy/

It is hard even to digest the incredible train of events of the last few days in the Middle East.

Iran had been reduced to an anemic, performance-art missile attack on our base in Qatar—the last Parthian shot from a terrified regime, desperate for an out—and a ceasefire.

Iran would have been better off not launching such a ceremonial but ultimately humiliating proof of impotence.

Even worse for the theocracy, Iran’s temporary reprieve came from the now magnanimous but still hated Donald Trump.

So ends the creepy mystique of the supposedly indomitable terror state of Iran, the bane of the last seven American presidents over half a century.

For Supreme Leader Khamenei, it was hard to swallow that U.S. bombers got their permission to fly into Iranian airspace from the Israeli air force.

A good simile is that Trump put a pot of water on the stove, told Iran to jump in, put the lid over them, then smiled, turned up the heat—and will now let them stew.

As postbellum realities now simmer in Iran, the theocracy is left explaining the inexplicable to its humiliated military and shocked but soon-to-be-furious populace. All the regime’s blood-curdling rhetoric, apocalyptic threats against Israel, goose-stepping thugs, and shiny new missiles ended in less than nothing.

A trillion dollars and five decades’ worth of missiles and centrifuges are now up in smoke. That money might have otherwise saved Iranians from the impoverishment of the last fifty years.

How about the little Satan Israel, to which Iran for nearly 50 years promised extinction?

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Towards Jihadist Pogroms in Europe? by Drieu Godefridi

By on June 26th, 2025

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21704/towards-jihadist-pogroms-in-europe

Europol reports indicate that Europe is now home to tens of thousands of radicalized individuals. The attacks in Paris (2015) and Brussels (2016) demonstrate the feasibility of complex operations by small groups.

Will people who criticize Islam be dragged through the courts by a desperate regime, while those who outspokenly fantasize about murdering Jews are granted a blank check?

Is quoting Islamic law “inflammatory”? The answer is completely arbitrary. The European Court of Human Rights often upholds convictions if statements about Islam are deemed to disrupt “religious peace” or “target Muslims”. This subjective determination reflects a legal trend in Europe to prioritize “social cohesion” over freedom of speech, unlike the U.S. First Amendment.

“Whomsoever God has cursed, and with whom He is wroth, and made some of them apes and swine, and worshippers of idols — they are worse situated, and have gone further astray from the right way.” — Qur’an 5:65.

“And He brought down those of the People of the Book who supported them from their fortresses and cast terror in their hearts; some you slew, some you made captive. And He bequeathed upon you their lands, their habitations, and their possessions, and a land you never trod. God is powerful over everything.” — Qur’an 33:26.

In such a cultural context, in this atmosphere of hatred, can it not be considered legitimate or even desirable, from that perspective, to participate in collective action against Jews?

Let us never forget that the vast majority of Muslims in Europe are peaceful and take no part in terrorist activity. But even if only 0.01% of Europe’s Muslims were to take up the cause and seek revenge for the supposed “genocide” committed by “the Jews”, this would still represent thousands of potential “jihadists”.

Europe in 2025 has been facing rising tensions linked to Islamist radicalization, These have been fueled by conflicts in the Middle East, jihadist propaganda on social networks and gaps in security coordination among countries.

Imagine a handful of individuals, mostly radicalized European Muslims, between the ages of 18 and 35, operating in major European cities such as Brussels, Paris or Berlin, and determined to avenge “the Palestinians”. This network decides to strike Jewish Europeans, massacre as many as possible, spread terror among Jews and non-Muslims – all “kuffars”, unbelievers in Allah — and to pit one community against another. They gather in unmonitored mosques, on encrypted internet forums or through recruiters in the Middle East. Together, to maximize the psychological and media impact, they plan a coordinated attack, inspired by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Their target: a high-profile public event, such as a cultural festival, a march against antisemitism, a pro-Israel rally, or a so-called “republican march”, as it is known in France. Their attack could be paired with a secondary target, such as a Jewish community center or synagogue, to remind the international community who the villain is supposed to be.

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China’s Renaming Spree: Will the World Just Surrender to Silent, Obdurate Infiltration? by Rahul Mishra

By on June 25th, 2025

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21703/china-renaming-spree

Just as China has been attempting to redraw maritime boundaries in the South China Sea —renaming reefs, building artificial islands and militarizing waters in defiance of international rulings — it is now exporting a similar playbook to land borders. These moves are about more than maps. They are about creating a norm of impunity, where might makes right and ambiguity is weaponized.

Over the past two decades, China has transformed contested reefs, shoals and rocks into militarily fortified islands, backed by creative “historical” narratives, domestic law, and a selective reading of international norms. The region is now a textbook case of how intangible symbolic acts, when repeated enough to become normalized, can evolve into tangible material dominance.

In 2020 alone, China, in the same way it has renamed places in Arunachal Pradesh, renamed more than 80 features in the South China Sea. These were not acts of housekeeping, but of strategic myth-making, designed to weave a narrative of historical ownership and administrative control. Each new name is backed by maps, public pronouncements and military deployments. Over time, this creates “facts on the ground” — realities that others must deal with, regardless of legality.

Finally, China employs narrative warfare, by leveraging state media and diplomatic messaging to delegitimize counter-claims and cast China as the aggrieved party.

China’s renaming campaign is a test of whether the world will allow international borders to be changed — not by war, but by quiet, obdurate manipulation. The question is not about words. It is about the survival of an international rules-based order that is being eroded by passively doing nothing to confront unyielding infiltration.

If the international community does not push back against China’s provocations — which may seem minor — it risks enabling a model of complete surrender that bypasses diplomacy, multilateralism and international law.

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