Saturday 22 / August / 2026
On 13th June 2025, Netanyahu took a reckless gamble by igniting aggression against Iran. Just two days later, Donald Trump joined him, and the American air umbrella launched intensive airstrikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities and vital infrastructure.
However, Tehran did not stand idly by. Its response was swift and devastating, striking deep inside Israel and inflicting heavy damage. This forced Trump himself to halt his operations and request a ceasefire on 24th June, thus ending what became known as the “Twelve-Day War”.
Eight months later, the recklessness of war resumed on 28th February, 2026. This time, the war criminal Netanyahu succeeded in dragging Trump into it once again, deluding him into believing that assassinating the revolutionary leadership would be enough to topple the regime, which he claimed the people were “fed up” with. The plan openly aimed to break Tehran’s power and remove the major obstacle to what is called “Greater Israel”. But Iranian resilience shattered the dual aggression, forcing both aggressors to retreat and seek a ceasefire on 8th April, 2026, after forty days of fierce fighting that became known as the “Forty Day War”.
The calm lasted only a week, as Trump reneged on his commitments and waged a losing war of attrition, ultimately compelling him to request Pakistani mediation. After rounds of indirect negotiations in Switzerland and Islamabad , the process culminated on 7th June, 2026, with the signing of a “Memorandum of Understanding” consisting of 14 articles and valid for 60 days, renewable.
True to his history of breaking promises, Trump withdrew after only one day, resuming the bombing, while Netanyahu chose to withdraw from the scene, unable to bear further destruction.
The tit-for-tat exchange of bombings continued for twenty days until Washington yielded to pressure, and a ceasefire, brokered jointly by Islamabad and Doha, came into effect, bringing relative calm for approximately twenty days which still prevails.
Trump’s abrupt withdrawal from the 7th June memorandum was nothing more than an attempt to salvage his pride, after the memorandum was described by both the US and Israel as a “complete surrender” and a “free gift to Tehran”. He reopened the war of attrition, hoping to impose new conditions, but his miscalculations were met with Iranian resolve and attacks targeting US bases in the region.
Faced with the Gulf states suffering and the growing outcry from Japan, China, and South Korea over the oil supply crisis and their blaming of Washington, Trump called for a ceasefire for the fourth time. The Iranian response was decisive: “We did not start the war, and when Trump stops, we will stop.” Thus the military operations on both sides ceased.
On 16th August, 2026, the 60-day deadline expired. While Trump demonstrated his compliance with the memorandum by opening the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran insisted on imposing six additional conditions on top of the fourteen, declaring unequivocally that the strait would not be opened except with complete submission to Iranian demands.
The question remains: Is not Trump the solely responsible for this manipulation of oil prices and the chaos threatening financial markets? The next few days will reveal the truth.
