Mehr Tarar

Sad to see countries keep complaining about the lawlessness Trump is bringing to the international arena, but when push comes to shove, they not only don't dare to push back; they acquiesce to US pressure. See, for instance, the annual resolution at the UNGA condemning the US's decades-long embargo on Cuba. This resolution gets huge support every year. But this year, the US's strong-arming tactics moved the needle significantly in Washington's direction. Support for the Cuban resolution fell from 165 countries in 2025 to 130 in 2026, while opposition rose from 7 to 17 and abstentions more than doubled, from 12 to 25. Colombia, Slovenia, Trinidad and Tobago and the UAE went from voting for it to voting against it. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Costa Rica, Czechia, Ecuador, Lithuania, and Morocco moved from abstention in 2025 to an outright NO vote in 2026. Then these countries went from supporting the resolution to abstaining: Bahrain, Chile, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Italy, Jamaica, Montenegro, Netherlands, Palau, Peru, Qatar, South Korea, Solomon Islands. The main common denominator for these states that have abandoned their longstanding opposition to an illegal embargo is their vulnerability to and dependence on the US. As US foreign policy grows more aggressive and unforgiving, the cost of defying it on this vote has become too high. For some of the smaller states, this is understandable given their near-total dependence on the US. But this does not apply to states such as Germany, Italy, South Korea, and the Netherlands. They don't have this excuse. Their failure is beyond embarrassing. Germany is particularly noteworthy. Germany, for the first time, lost a bid earlier this year for an elected seat at the UNSC. This is particularly embarrassing for Germany since it has long sought a permanent seat on the Council. The overarching reason for this failure is the common view that Germany has abandoned international law - it insisted on it in Ukraine, but abandoned it in Gaza, Venezuela, and Iran. Add Cuba to that list. Rather than restoring its standing, Germany dug a deeper hole for itself with this vote.

Wow! Canadian journalist asks Moshe Feiglin, a former Likud Member of Knesset, if he is concerned about Israel's plummeting global standing. Feiglin's response is chilling, as it reveals the fundamental supremacist view he and many in Israel hold. He says that the real moral supreme court is in Israel, ie with the people of Israel. The Bible says, he explains, that those who bless Israel will be blessed, and those who curse Israel will be cursed. As a result, it's we - Israelis - who get to judge you, rather than you judging us. And then he adds? "Are you with the children of God or not?"

Israel Breached Iranian Airspace this Weekend, but Iran Chose Not to Respond. Why? Much of the Middle East was on edge this past weekend, fearing that President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would restart the Iran war. Thankfully, hostilities didn’t resume, but it’s not because of a lack of effort. According to Iranian sources, Israeli fighter jets did breach Iranian airspace, but Tehran surprisingly chose not to respond. Today’s meeting in Tehran between Saudi, Turkish, Pakistani, and Iranian officials is partly why Iran showed restraint. Sources in Tehran tell me that a variety of factors prompted this Iranian decision, rooted in two key Iranian assessments: that time is still on Iran’s side and that Israel is trying to goad Iran into striking first to get the war started at a moment in which it is still not a foregone conclusion whether Trump has opted for war or not. Read full analysis here: tritaparsi.substack.com/p/is…

Very important meeting today between representatives of the Mecca Pact (KSA, Pakistan, and Turkey) and Iran in Tehran. But an invitation for Tehran to join the pact was not on the agenda. Rather, an emergency session in which the three are requesting Iran's help to end the conflict with Ansarollah, which is threatening to destabilize Saudi Arabia. From the Iranian perspective, KSA has committed the same mistake as Trump: Starting a war that it cannot control or end. Tehran is willing to help, a source in Iran tells me, but Ansarullah's condition for KSA to lift the air blockade on Yemen before any fighting ends is unchanging. (Ansarullah is focused on the air blockade, not the sea blockade) Still, this meeting reflects something even more important, and something we and other restrainers have pointed out for years: As the US pulls back militarily, contrary to Washington's conventional wisdom, regional states are showing greater agency and taking responsibility for the region's security themselves. This does not mean all problems will be resolved or that conflict and chaos will be avoided, but it will be their conflicts, their chaos, and their responsibility, not the US's.