The EU could reduce the refugee status protections it grants to military age Ukrainian men because "the war needs to be fought and won".
The post ‘It is Essential That More Men Stay in Ukraine and Fight’: EU Could Limit Protections for Young Ukrainian Men appeared first on Breitbart.
In an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed meeting to reach a resolution to the years-long war between their two nations.
"We see that the United States is fully focused on the issue of Iran, and it would be wrong to simply wait until the war in Europe returns to the center of its attention. Ukraine proposes ending this war through direct engagement between us — and you. I am proposing a meeting," Zelenskyy said in the letter.
"There are countries that have traditionally hosted leaders to resolve issues of war and peace. Switzerland, Türkiye, the countries of the Arab world — many are able and willing to host such a meeting. It is leaders who resolve the key issues. That has always been the case, and it always will be," he asserted.
18 HOUSE REPUBLICANS DEFY TRUMP TO PASS UKRAINE AID PACKAGE HEADED FOR VETO FIGHT
Zelenskyy suggested that Europe and the U.S. should also be involved in the peace process.
"Since the war is taking place in Europe, and since Ukraine needs security guarantees, while you also seek security guarantees for yourself, it would be logical to involve those who can genuinely serve as guarantors. We believe Europe should be part of this process — those who truly have the capacity to influence the situation. We also believe that the United States must be part of the process. This is what could help shape a new security architecture for our part of the world," he said.
HOUSE REPUBLICAN DON BACON SAYS HE WANTS 'PARIAH STATE' RUSSIA BOOTED FROM UN SECURITY COUNCIL
He indicated that Ukraine would agree to a ceasefire during the proposed negotiations.
"Ukraine is ready for a full ceasefire for the duration of the negotiations. This is standard practice, and current developments around Iran only reinforce that point. An attempt to establish real silence is the best way to begin talking to one another. We believe it would not simply be an attempt, but a real ceasefire — if that is what you want," he noted.
He also suggested a prisoner swap between the two nations, noting, "Ukraine is ready for an all-for-all exchange of prisoners of war, and this could become a good prologue to ending the war. Serious steps must be taken to return civilians and children who were taken away during the war."
PENTAGON SLASHES NATO COMBAT COMMITMENTS AS TRUMP PUSHES EUROPE TO DEFEND ITSELF
"If you do not personally come to the conclusion that it is time to end this war, Ukraine will continue fighting for its existence. We will have those who support us. But you, too, will have to fight much harder for your own existence — not Russia’s, but your own. And this is not a threat from me or from Ukraine. It is a fact of Russian history that you know well: when Russia grows tired, change comes," Zelenskyy warned Putin.
Tucked away inside the far-left Deadline’s free ad (“Supergirl Advance Tickets Go On Sale Before DC Pic’s June 26 Opening”) for the upcoming Supergirl is the real news: this sucker cost $175 million to produce.
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Two days after another ceasefire was announced between Israel and U.S. terrorist designated group Hezbollah, Yulia Bar-Dan was standing outside her temporary home in Kibbutz Manara in northern Israel when the familiar sound of an interceptor echoed overhead.
"There will probably be another siren soon," she told Fox News Digital.
Minutes later, an alert appeared on her phone warning residents in northern Israel to take shelter.
For Bar-Dan, the scene captured the reality of life on Israel's northern border nearly two years after Hezbollah joined the war against Israel on Oct. 8, 2023.
After Hezbollah entered the recent war in support of Iran, Washington launched a diplomatic effort aimed at turning the ceasefire into a broader arrangement for Lebanon.
Multiple rounds of talks between Israeli and Lebanese officials have taken place in Washington, and President Donald Trum repeatedly has announced ceasefire understandings aimed at restoring calm along the border. Residents of communities like Manara, Israel, say the rockets, drones and uncertainty never really stopped.
"A ceasefire is supposed to be on both sides," she said. "Not that Hezbollah keeps shooting at us and we just keep absorbing it."
When Fox News Digital first spoke to Bar-Dan in December 2024 during the war, she and her husband had fled Manara, Israel, with their three children and were living out of a single hotel room, unsure whether they would ever return home.
Today, roughly 200 of the kibbutz's 280 residents have returned, Bar-Dan said. But many, including Bar-Dan's family, still cannot live in their original homes because of war damage.
Despite repeated ceasefire announcements, residents say normal life remains elusive.
"There hasn't really been a routine or a quiet day since February," she said.
Schools officially reopened in early June, but Bar-Dan decided not to send her children.
"They take the bus to school," she said. "What if there's a siren on the way? I can't take that chance."
Her frustration is not directed at Hezbollah alone.
Like many residents interviewed by Fox News Digital, Bar-Dan says there is a growing disconnect between the reality experienced on the border and the reality described by politicians.
"It doesn't really matter where the decisions are being made," she said. "The decisions just need to match reality. Right now there is a decision, but the reality is completely different."
A year and a half after most of Manara's residents were evacuated amid fears of a Hezbollah invasion, community leader Yochai Wolfin says residents have developed their own name for the current situation.
"We call it 'the ceasefire war,'" he said.
The phrase has become common in the community.
First came a year and a half of evacuation. Then came the return home. Then came what Wolfin describes as three months of "fire within a ceasefire."
The uncertainty has become part of daily life.
Children study inside shelters. Parts of the kibbutz still lack protected rooms. Construction projects remain unfinished because contractors are reluctant to work so close to the border.
He said many residents increasingly feel that the decisions determining their future are being made far from the communities that bear the consequences.
ISRAEL WARNS IT WILL GO AFTER LEBANON DIRECTLY IF CEASE-FIRE WITH HEZBOLLAH COLLAPSES
"Who knows what tomorrow will bring?" Wolfin said. "We know who is calling the shots. We saw it a few days ago when Trump announced another ceasefire. But for us, the reality on the ground hasn't changed."
The comments come as Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem warned Thursday that northern Israel would remain unsafe as long as Israeli strikes continue in Lebanon, according to Reuters.
In a written statement broadcast on June 4, 2026, Qassem condemned the Washington-mediated framework as "absurd, humiliating, and insulting," calling it a roadmap for surrender.
For residents of Israel's northern border communities, the statements reinforced what many say they have been experiencing for months: a ceasefire that exists on paper but not in daily life.
Naor Shamia, who heads Manara's emergency response team, says residents increasingly worry that temporary emergency measures are becoming permanent.
"The fear isn't today," he said. "The fear is that this becomes years. We are in a deadlock."
Across the border region, similar concerns are heard.
In the community of Adamit, resident Yael Cohen-Arazi described the contrast between the beauty surrounding her and the reality of living under constant threat.
"Every morning I wake up and think I'm living in paradise," she said in footage provided to Fox News Digital by the Israeli news agency TPS-IL. "Then there are the explosions that shake my soul."
Her children, she said, have spent so much of their lives under fire that they no longer know what normal looks like.
"I tell them there are children who don't live like this," she said.
Back in Manara, Israel, another alert interrupted the afternoon.
Bar-Dan says she is not angry anymore. Mostly, she is tired and sad.
"I feel bad for the soldiers," she said. "Every day there is another casualty, and there is still no solution."
Yet she insists she is staying.
"This is our home," she said. "Someone has to live on the borders of this country."
Then another explosion sounded in the distance.
Actor Ted Danson apologized for his 1993 blackface performance during the roast of Whoopi Goldberg, whom he was dating at the time.
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The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Tuesday announced sanctions against four Iranian digital asset exchanges, including Nobitex, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Iran.
The post U.S. Sanctions Iran’s Biggest Crypto Exchange for Ties to Terrorist IRGC appeared first on Breitbart.
Police in Santa Clara, California, have issued a warrant for the arrest of San Francisco 49ers wideout Brandon Aiyuk, a report says.
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Makan Delrahim, the chief legal counsel for Paramount Skydance, has suggested that "antisemitic views" may be fueling opposition.
The post Paramount Chief Legal Counsel: ‘Antisemitic Views’ Fueling Opposition to Warner Bros. Merger Due appeared first on Breitbart.
Kuwait decried Iranian attacks in a statement issued by its foreign affairs ministry, saying that the Kuwait International Airport had been targeted.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses the State of Kuwait's condemnation and denunciation, in the strongest terms, of the brutal and ongoing Iranian attacks using ballistic missiles and drones, the latest of which occurred at dawn today, targeting once again civilian and vital facilities, including Kuwait International Airport, resulting in the death of one individual, injuries to others, and damage to vital facilities, including diplomatic missions," part of the statement declared, according to a translation of the Arabic-language post on X.
Kuwait's Ministry of Defense spokesperson had indicated that a building at Kuwait International Airport was damaged and people were injured, according to a post on X by the official account of Kuwait Army general staff headquarters.
IRANIANS SPEAK OUT OVER POSSIBLE TRUMP-REGIME DEAL
"The Official Spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, Brigadier General Saud Abdulaziz Al-Otaibi, stated that a number of hostile drones targeted today the passenger building (T1) at Kuwait International Airport as a result of the criminal Iranian aggression, which resulted in significant material damage to the building and injuries to a number of individuals, who received the necessary medical care," according to a translation of the Arabic-language post.
"He affirmed that the armed forces are monitoring the situation in coordination with the relevant authorities, and they are in a state of complete readiness to deal with any developments, and to take all necessary measures to preserve the security of the country and its stability," the post added.
The Iranian hostilities come more than three months since the start of the U.S. war against the Islamic Republic.
In a Tuesday statement, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) indicated that America had engaged in "self-defense strikes" against Iran.
US MILITARY ATTACKS IRAN IN 'SELF-DEFENSE STRIKES' OVER WEEKEND
"U.S. forces successfully defeated multiple Iranian ballistic missiles and drones, and conducted self-defense strikes on Qeshm Island in response to attempted attacks by Iran across the Middle East, June 2. Iran launched several ballistic missiles toward regional neighbors; however, all failed to hit their intended targets. Two Iranian missiles fired at Kuwait fell short or broke apart enroute, and three missiles launched at Bahrain were immediately intercepted by U.S. and Bahrain air defense forces," the release noted.
"Moments earlier, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces shot down three one-way attack drones launched by Iran toward civilian mariners that were rightfully transiting regional waters. American forces also conducted self-defense strikes on an Iranian military ground control station on Qeshm Island. No U.S. personnel were harmed. CENTCOM forces remain vigilant and ready to defend against unwarranted Iranian aggression during the ongoing ceasefire," the statement added.
TRUMP INSISTS IRAN TALKS ARE ON, SAYING DEAL IS 'NOT A SIMPLE THING'
CENTCOM noted in a post on X that, "An additional wave of Iranian drones attempting to attack U.S. forces in Kuwait failed to impact intended targets tonight. U.S. Central Command air defenses successfully downed multiple drones and ensured no American personnel or assets were harmed."
Amid President Donald Trump’s Monday announcement that a deal with Iran’s clerical regime is imminent to re-open the Strait of Hormuz and negotiate an end to Tehran’s illicit nuclear weapons program, Iranians who hoped U.S. pressure would force a decisive outcome now fear it may survive while ordinary people absorb the costs.
"Inside Iran, the mood has shifted from early-war optimism to a kind of exhausted resignation, but there is still some hope that this is the moment President Trump will use his leverage to do the right thing. The Iranian people understand this unusually narrow but strategic window," Lisa Daftari, editor-in-chief of The Foreign Desk who keeps in contact with Iranians on the ground, told Fox News Digital.
She continued that ,"The regime is fiscally strained and politically brittle, while the broader population has been disillusioned by years of repression and economic collapse. Iranians do see this as a one‑time opportunity for Washington — and President Trump in particular — to translate military and economic leverage into the potential collapse of an irrefromable regime. If the outcome is a shallow agreement that props up the system without changing its trajectory, that window will likely close for years."
She continued, "If instead, the U.S. holds firm on sanctions and nuclear red lines, it can weaken the regime’s hand without punishing the Iranian people, who have already paid the highest price."
Daftari, the Iran expert, shared recent correspondence from two Iranians from Tabriz and Tehran.
The resident from Tabriz said, "From my perspective, decades of political tension between Iran and the United States have had their greatest impact on ordinary people rather than those in power. Many families feel their voices are not being heard in international discussions about Iran." Adding, "I respectfully ask whether you might consider sharing or highlighting the human side of this situation, so that the experiences of ordinary Iranian families are not overlooked in political discussions and media coverage."
The Tehran resident said, "Today, the people of Iran believe in the future. On days when economic pressure makes the faces of the Iranian people sad, the word ‘unity’ brings a smile to their lips. Our situation is not good, but we are motivated."
Fox News Digital surveyed a few Iranians and agreed to use only their first names because the clerical regime has declared the use of Starlink to bypass the censor a criminal act. A sophisticated clandestine network has managed to smuggle some satellite internet technology into Iran to allow people to communicate with the world outside the Islamist state.
Hassan, who lives in Tehran, pleaded with President Trump to keep strong in his dealings with the regime, saying that "Things have gotten so bad that even if you wanted to give up and leave Iran and just focus on your own life and work, it feels like there’s nowhere left to turn. Mr. Trump, through these deals and arrangements, has left people feeling trapped, with no road left open."
Mehdi, who resides in Tehran, expressed confusion about the existence of an agreement. He said, "So what exactly are they agreeing on? Are they saying they’re close to a deal or are there other discussions too? Every minute there is a new piece of news, everyone has a new analysis, everything changes every minute. It’s strange. This war achieved nothing. We’re the only ones left paying the price," he complained.
Hassan from Tehran said that "Mr. Trump, if until yesterday most Iranians thought they were on the same path as America, you caused them all to become disappointed. "Mr. Trump, if you wanted this government to remain in power, why did you blow up factories? Now workers are being laid off, and inflation is out of control. Even with a salary of 18 million tomans, you cannot feed yourself."
Mahsa, from the Caspian Sea city of Rasht, told Fox News Digital that the system [Islamic Republic of Iran] is still fully intact. They don’t care how many people died. If anything, they seem more emboldened now and even take pride in martyrdom. Yesterday I argued with a regime supporter [who] said: "Our leader didn’t give away a single meter of land, didn’t take a step backward, unlike previous kings who gave away Bahrain, Baku, Nakhchivan, and others."
The concerns among many Iranians revolve around the proposed memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran’s regime. The MOU does not address the overthrow of the clerical regime or human rights violations, according to media reports. Large numbers of Iranians within Iran and among the Iranian diaspora want the Trump administration to topple the Islamist dictatorship in Tehran.
The MOU reportedly involves a 60-day ceasefire extension. Israel and the U.S. launched a joint attack on Iran on February 28. The MOU would also see the reopening the Strait of Hormuz and new talks over Iran's illicit nuclear weapons program.
The leaked elements of the MOU have not been confirmed by the Trump administration.
When asked about the concern among Iranians about a deal with the Islamic Republic, Anna Kelly, a spokeswoman for the White House, told Fox News Digital that "For 47 years, American Presidents and countless other world leaders talked about the threat posed by Iran, but no one had the courage to address it. President Trump took decisive action to ensure that Iran could never harm our homeland, our troops, or our allies again. Once Iran’s nuclear threat is removed for good, the entire region and its people will be safer and more stable."
IRAN REGIME ESCALATES REPRESSION TOWARD 'NORTH KOREA-STYLE MODEL OF ISOLATION AND CONTROL'
However, Trump said last week during his cabinet meeting, "We didn’t set out for regime change," adding, "But by the fact that we’re dealing with a totally different group of people than we were at the beginning … This is regime change."
Reza Farnood, an Iranian American who supports the Trump administration and is a researcher, writer and activist, urged that President Trump continue with his maximum pressure campaign against Tehran.
Farnood told Fox News Digital, "We welcome the bombing and attacking the regime because we are aiming to overthrow the regime." He urged that Trump continue the blockade of Iran’s vessels and deny money to the regime. He said sanctions relief will be used by Iran "against the U.S. and Israel and their allies and innocent Iranians."
Farnood stressed that the clerical regime is holding the Iranian people "hostage."
Kianoosh, who lives in the northern city of Karaj, the capital of Alborz province, said about Trump’s proposed deal: "You threw six months of our lives into hell. What answer are "you going to give to the mothers of all those children who were killed? Why did you give people false hope? Why did you hand down a death sentence to everything so many people believed in?"
Leading U.S. Senators well-versed in foreign policy have praised Trump’s approach to the Islamic Republic. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC., recently told Fox News’ Sean Hannity "On Trump’s watch, they’re [Iran’s regime] becoming poorer and weaker. That’s the difference."
TRUMP’S 'ECONOMIC FURY' SQUEEZES IRAN — BUT CAN TEHRAN OUTLAST THE PRESSURE?
Graham juxtaposed Trump’s Iran policy with his predecessors. "Obama and Biden screwed Iran up, and Donald Trump is fixing it. On Obama and Biden’s watch, Iran became rich and lethal," he said. "On Trump’s watch, they’re becoming poorer and weaker. That’s the difference."
Iran is running dangerously low on oil storage capacity and could face a severe economic breaking point if forced to halt production, former U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette recently told Fox News.
Trump has said that Iran’s regime murdered as many as 45,000 Iranian demonstrators in January 2026. He urged just days after the mass murder that protesters keep going and promised them that "help is on its way."
Lawdan Bazargan, a prominent Iranian-American activist who the regime imprisoned in its infamous Evin Prison in Tehran in the 1980s for political dissent, told Fox News Digital that the Iranians she’s spoken with are discouraged by Trump’s dealings. "He was one of the few world leaders who repeatedly spoke about the thousands of Iranians killed in January 2026 and expressed disgust at the sheer brutality of the Islamic Republic. He had promised support for the Iranian people and raised expectations that meaningful change might finally come."
She continued: "Now, 88 days later, many people feel they are left facing the same regime, one that appears more emboldened, more ideological, and still willing to repress, execute, and arrest people. The economy has been devastated, and many feel trapped between a government with no mercy and a future with no clear path forward.
For years, 90 million Iranians have lived as hostages of the Islamic Republic. Now, many fear that the consequences no longer stop at Iran’s borders, through threats to global energy routes, regional stability, and even digital infrastructure."
According to Bazargan, "The question many ordinary Iranians are asking is simple: How are people expected to fight a system that feels victorious, controls the weapons, controls the narrative through a massive propaganda machine, and possesses countless tools of repression?"
Ali, who is also from the sprawling capital city of Tehran, complained about the spiraling prices and inflation and disappointment that the regime is still in place.
"For a government with state-provided housing and billions in patronage and privileges, what difference did any of this make for its supporters?"
Ali added: "We’re the ones who are paying the price and getting crushed. How are our children ever supposed to afford these housing and car prices, and how are they supposed to get married?"
The U.S. State Department referred Fox News Digital to the White House for a comment.
UNITED NATIONS: Romania’s foreign minister told Fox News Digital that Bucharest answered the Trump administration’s call for allied support in the Middle East by allowing the use of Romanian military bases for "defensive activities" related to tensions with Iran and efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
"We have allowed for access to defensive activities, such as air refueling, for example, because we do believe allies need to rely on each other," Romania’s interim Foreign Affairs Minister Oana-Silvia Ţoiu said in an exclusive interview at the United Nations.
"We’re not part of the war, nor do we intend to become part of war, but we are part of an effort to ensure common defense, and we are a part of a diplomatic effort to ensure the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz," she said.
Ţoiu’s comments come as President Donald Trump has repeatedly pressed European allies to increase defense spending and take a larger role in global security efforts, including maritime security in the Middle East.
Ţoiu acknowledged growing tensions between Washington and some European allies over support related to the conflict with Iran, but said both sides recognize the need for closer coordination.
"I’m pretty sure that both on the U.S. side and the European side, we do understand that we need to enhance our dialog in order to prevent moments when we create tension in the transatlantic partnership," she told Fox News Digital. "And I do believe a better dialog ahead of time on all sides leads to better results, specifically on the request of help in terms of the conflict in the Middle East."
The Romanian foreign minister said Bucharest approved the use of its military bases and infrastructure for defensive operations linked to regional security efforts.
"Romania has approved through Parliament the proposal of the President, the ministry of foreign affairs and the ministry for defense and the prime minister, the use of our military bases and infrastructure for defensive activities, for activities such as air-fuelling, for example, because we are aware of the fact that it is needed that we trust each other," she said.
"I think we share clear objectives here in Europe, between the U.S. and countries around the world, such as lowering energy prices, such as allowing for fertilizers not to be blocked anymore there."
MIKE WALTZ PUSHES UN RESOLUTION TO STOP IRAN MINING KEY GLOBAL SHIPPING ROUTE
Romania, a NATO member bordering Ukraine, has emerged as one of the alliance’s key eastern flank states amid growing concerns over both Russia’s war in Ukraine and instability in the Middle East.
"We do agree with President Trump on the need to increase budgets," Ţoiu said.
She noted that Romania raised defense spending to 2% of GDP during Trump’s previous term and plans to allocate an average of 3.4% next year through a combination of military procurement and strategic infrastructure investments.
Her remarks came just hours after Romania requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday following a Russian drone strike that hit a residential building in the Romanian city of Galați on May 29.
The emergency briefing marked the first time in Romania’s roughly 70-year history at the United Nations that it requested a Security Council session over a direct threat to its national security, according to Romanian officials.
MULTIPLE ALLIES DECLINE US CALLS FOR STRAIT OF HORMUZ SUPPORT AMID RISING MIDDLE EAST TENSIONS
Speaking at the Security Council, Ţoiu said a drone carrying explosives violated Romanian airspace for approximately four minutes before crashing into the 10th floor of a residential building, injuring a mother and child.
"We do have the military analysis that shows clearly that it is a Russian-made drone in type of design, type of pieces of equipment, and also the chemical analysis that they have done," she told Fox News Digital.
Ţoiu said the drone was believed to be part of a larger Russian attack targeting Ukrainian civilian infrastructure near the Danube River.
"We wanted to call on the international community to make sure we collectively state that this is a blatant violation of international law," she said.
"And irrespective of whether that was the intention or not, the responsibility is very clear. And these reckless escalations need to stop."
BALTIC LEADERS RIP UN SECURITY COUNCIL AS POWERLESS WHILE RUSSIA HOLDS VETO SEAT
Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya rejected the accusations during the session, calling them "unfounded and biased."
Nebenzya argued that if a Geran-2 drone had directly hit the building, the damage would have been far more severe, claiming Romanian media footage showed only fire damage rather than complete destruction.
He also called for a "thorough, objective, and depoliticized investigation" involving Russia and suggested the incident could have been a Ukrainian provocation intended to drag NATO deeper into the war.
Ţoiu pushed back against Moscow’s position and questioned how a permanent member of the Security Council can simultaneously act as an aggressor state.
"We do now have a question that's not just a question on Romania's side, but the question of the international community of how can a member of the Security Council contribute to its mission there, which is peace and security, while also being an aggressor state," she said.
"And of course, its veto [ is not currently] used towards peace and security."
The United States joined more than 50 countries backing Romania in a joint statement condemning the strike.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz later wrote on X that he met with Ţoiu following "the reckless Russian drone strike on a Romanian apartment building.
"The violence must end before more innocent people suffer," Waltz wrote.
Ţoiu told Fox News Digital she also held meetings with the U.S. delegation at the United Nations following the emergency session.
"The United States has joined our common statement alongside more than 50 countries in making a clear public message on the attack," she said.
"We are working with the United States not just through our partnership in NATO, but also strategic partners."
The Israel Defense Forces announced Tuesday that it eliminated a Hamas terrorist who helped abduct American-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who ultimately was murdered in the Gaza Strip.
The IDF said Yousef Ayesh Awad Ramadan, a deputy commander of a Hamas Nukhba terrorist cell, was killed in the central Gaza Strip on Monday. Nukhba, which is Arabic for elite, is the special forces for the Al-Qassam Brigades, which is Hamas' military wing.
"Ramadan infiltrated Israeli territory during the October 7th massacre and took part in the abduction of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eliya Cohen, Alon Ohel, and Or Levy from the bomb shelter at the Re’im Junction," the IDF said Tuesday.
"In addition, throughout the war, and in recent weeks, the terrorist advanced attack plans against IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians. As such, he posed an immediate threat to IDF troops operating in the Gaza Strip," it continued.
HAMAS STRUGGLES TO FILL LEADERSHIP RANKS AS ISRAEL HUNTS OCTOBER 7 TERRORISTS
Goldberg-Polin survived almost 11 months in underground tunnels following his capture but was killed alongside other hostages in August 2024, while still in captivity. He was 23 at the time of his death.
"According to our initial assessment, they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them," then- IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.
Goldberg-Polin was abducted at a music festival in southern Israel during Hamas' Oct. 7 attack against the Jewish State.
He lost part of his left arm to a grenade in the attack.
PENTAGON HOSTS FIRST-EVER ISRAELI-LEBANESE MILITARY TALKS AIMED AT CURBING HEZBOLLAH
Eliya Cohen survived 505 days in captivity. He faced extreme starvation, was kept chained in tunnels, and had surgery for a gunshot wound without anesthesia. He was released in February 2025 as part of a negotiated deal.
Or Levy survived 491 days in captivity. He endured harsh conditions and only learned after his release that his wife, Einav, had been killed in the Oct. 7 attack. He has since reunited with his young son.
Alon Ohel spent more than two years as a hostage in Gaza until his release in October last year.
A talented pianist, he endured starvation, torture and serious eye injuries from a grenade. He was freed on Oct. 13, 2025, through a U.S.-brokered deal and returned home to recover. He now performs with Israeli artists.
Fox News’ Yonat Friling, Robert McGreevy and Landon Mion contributed to this report.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that it carried out "self-defense strikes" against Iran over the weekend.
"U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) conducted self-defense strikes on Iranian radar and command and control sites for drones in Goruk, Iran and Qeshm Island this weekend," a press release noted.
"The measured and deliberate strikes occurred on Saturday and Sunday in response to aggressive Iranian actions that included the shootdown of a U.S. MQ-1 drone that was operating over international waters. U.S. fighter aircraft swiftly responded by eliminating Iranian air defenses, a ground control station, and two one-way attack drones that posed clear threats to ships transiting regional waters," CENTCOM continued.
TRUMP WARNS IRAN US WILL 'FINISH THE JOB' IF DEAL COLLAPSES AS ISRAEL EXPANDS LEBANON OFFENSIVE
"No American service members were harmed. CENTCOM will continue to protect U.S. assets and interests in response to unwarranted Iranian aggression during the ongoing ceasefire," the release added.
The Associated Press reported that Kuwait noted its air defenses opened fire on Monday to intercept drone and missile attacks. Around the same time, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said it responded to an American attack without saying where, likely referring to the attack on Kuwait. The Guard, via a statement reported by the state-run IRNA news agency, indicated that America targeted a telecommunications tower, according to the AP.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a Monday post on X, "Last night at 11 p.m. ET, U.S. forces successfully intercepted two Iranian ballistic missiles targeting American forces based in Kuwait. These missiles were immediately defeated and no American personnel were harmed. U.S. Central Command remains vigilant and will continue to protect our forces from Iranian aggression while supporting the ongoing ceasefire."
Asserting that Iran "really wants" to strike an agreement, President Donald Trump declared in a Monday morning Truth Social post that chattering critics are making it more difficult for him to negotiate.
MOJTABA KHAMENEI TOUTS NEW ANTI-US ALLIANCE AS GULF BACKCHANNELS SEEP INTO TEHRAN: ANALYST
He urged people to "sit back and relax," claiming that the issue will ultimately turn out "well."
"Iran really wants to make a deal, and it will be a good one for the U.S.A. and those that are with us. But don’t the Dumocrats, and various seemingly unpatriotic Republicans, understand that it is MUCH tougher for me to properly do my job and negotiate, when political hacks keep negatively ‘chirping,’ at levels never seen before, over and over again, that I should move faster, or move slower, or go to war, or not go to war, or whatever," he declared in a Truth Social post early on Monday.
"Just sit back and relax, it will all work out well in the end - It always does!" he declared.
TRUMP REVEALS KEY IRAN CONCESSION, WARNS US WILL 'FINISH IT OFF MILITARILY' IF DEAL FAILS
The U.S. is continuing to conduct a blockade against Iran.
"U.S. forces operating in the Gulf of Oman enforced blockade measures by disabling a Gambia-flagged maritime vessel attempting to sail toward an Iranian port, May 29," CENTCOM announced in a Saturday press release.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
Israeli and Lebanese military delegations opened Pentagon-mediated talks Friday morning in Washington, launching a new U.S.-brokered security coordination track aimed at preventing renewed escalation along the Israel–Lebanon border and shoring up a fragile ceasefire reached in mid-April.
A State Department official told Fox News Digital, "As we have continuously stated, the only path to lasting peace is through direct negotiations between the two sovereign governments."
The discussions mark a shift from diplomatic negotiations into direct military coordination, with talks expected to focus on ceasefire enforcement, border stability, Israeli withdrawal from parts of southern Lebanon and the role of the Lebanese Armed Forces in containing Hezbollah.
ISRAEL MOVES TOWARD CEASEFIRE DEAL WITH HEZBOLLAH: REPORTS
The talks come weeks after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire first reached during the broader regional conflict tied to the U.S.–Iran war. While large-scale fighting has eased, Israeli forces continue operating inside parts of southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah maintains drone and rocket capabilities, keeping tensions high along the border.
The ceasefire was extended on May 15 for another 45 days, creating pressure on both sides to show progress before the current arrangement expires.
But analysts say the central question overshadowing the talks is whether Lebanon can realistically curb Hezbollah’s military power without risking internal collapse.
"This will be the first meeting between representatives of the militaries since the start of the negotiation process between Lebanon and Israel," Ahmad Sharawi, a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, told Fox News Digital.
Representing Lebanon in the talks is Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) commander Gen. Rodolphe Haykal, who previously served as commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces in southern Lebanon, an area where Hezbollah maintains a strong presence. Hezbollah is the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist organization designated by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization.
"What we should expect is talks regarding de-confliction and what the expectations are for the LAF in terms of the broader disarmament plan against Hezbollah’s weapons," he said.
Sharawi said the chances of a broader breakthrough remain limited so long as Hezbollah remains heavily armed and politically entrenched inside Lebanon.
"The biggest obstacle here is that the Lebanese state is yet to present a feasible plan to disarm Hezbollah," he said.
LAWMAKERS QUESTION WHETHER US MOVING FAST ENOUGH TO CAPITALIZE ON HEZBOLLAH'S WEAKENED STATE
He pointed to the terms of the November 2024 ceasefire agreements, which placed responsibility for disarming Hezbollah on the Lebanese state.
"We are yet to see the confiscation of one single bullet from Hezbollah," Sharawi said.
He also warned that Hezbollah’s deep support among Lebanon’s Shiite population complicates any attempt to move toward normalization with Israel.
"There’s a fear of a civil war," he said. "That also accounts for the Lebanese state’s unwillingness to disarm Hezbollah."
The talks opened as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled Israel intends to maintain military pressure on Hezbollah despite the negotiations.
Sharawi argued the Trump administration nevertheless appears determined to push the process forward as part of a broader effort to weaken Iranian influence in the region.
"The reason behind these meetings is that President Trump is really trying to push for a peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon," he said. "Peace between these two countries could really undermine Hezbollah and its influence in Lebanon."
WALTZ SAYS TRUMP HAS CREATED 'BEST CHANCE IN OUR LIFETIME' TO BREAK HEZBOLLAH’S GRIP ON LEBANON
Israeli analysts similarly described the talks less as a breakthrough and more as a strategic signal aimed at Hezbollah.
"The war between us and Hezbollah is continuing," Yossi Kuperwasser, head of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security and former head of the Research Division of Israeli Military Intelligence, told Fox News Digital.
"There is no doubt the Lebanese government does not have a monopoly on the use of force in Lebanon."
Kuperwasser said expectations for an immediate diplomatic breakthrough should remain low but argued the talks themselves send an important political message.
"The purpose of these talks is first and foremost to send a message to Hezbollah and also to the Americans," he said. "Both sides are prepared to sit together against Hezbollah and signal that they are moving, even if slowly, toward normalization between Israel and Lebanon."
He argued Hezbollah has been weakened politically and militarily by the ongoing conflict and by growing frustration among Lebanese civilians displaced by the fighting.
"For years, Hezbollah portrayed itself as the defender of Lebanon," Kuperwasser said. "Now many Lebanese see Hezbollah as responsible for the suffering Lebanon is experiencing."
Kuperwasser added that while Israel supports strengthening the Lebanese army, Beirut fears direct confrontation with Hezbollah could ignite another civil war.
"The Lebanese government fears military action against Hezbollah would lead to civil war," he said. "That fear shapes everything."
The talks also come amid mounting domestic pressure inside Israel, where critics of Netanyahu have accused the government of pursuing containment rather than decisive military victory against Hezbollah.
Speaking Friday during a visit to Israel’s northern front, Netanyahu said Israeli forces had crossed the Litani River and were operating across multiple parts of Lebanon.
"We are operating in Beirut, in the Bekaa Valley, across the entire front and striking Hezbollah hard," Netanyahu said.
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s leadership is attempting to balance growing American pressure with fears of internal instability and renewed sectarian conflict.
Following Friday's meeting, the Pentagon issued a statement, saying, "Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby hosted military delegations from the State of Israel and the Republic of Lebanon to launch the security track supporting the ongoing talks between the two nations.
"The delegations engaged in productive, military-to-military talks focused on building practical frameworks for regional security and stability. The progress and tangible outcomes from these discussions will directly inform the Department of State-led political track, which is scheduled to reconvene next week.
"The Department of War deeply values its strategic partnerships with both the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). The Department supports Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity, free of armed non-state actors, and welcomes the commitment of both militaries to these historic efforts. These are essential steps toward realizing President Trump's vision for a lasting peace in the Middle East.
"The United States anticipates reconvening soon to continue the security track."
Neither the Israeli Embassy in Washington nor the Lebanese Embassy in Washington immediately responded to requests for comment.
UNITED NATIONS — The Czech Republic is prepared to help protect freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz and is aligning closely with the Trump administration on security, NATO and Israel, Czech Foreign Minister Petr Macinka told Fox News Digital during an exclusive interview at the United Nations in New York.
Prague already had begun discussions about contributing specialized capabilities to help secure the strategically vital waterway amid growing tensions with Iran, Macinka said while speaking at Security Council-related meetings at the U.N.
"We are ready to contribute to freedom of passage and the Hormuz trade," Macinka said.
"We were among the first countries that were ready to contribute … We have no navy, as we are in the middle of Europe," he explained, "But we have some unique passive surveillance capabilities."
TRUMP SEEKS WARSHIPS FROM OTHER COUNTRIES TO HELP SECURE STRAIT OF HORMUZ
Macinka warned that Iran posed a global threat through what he described as four main "war tools": nuclear proliferation, drones and ballistic missiles, international terrorism and threats to the Strait of Hormuz.
"Their nuclear military program must be stopped," he said. "It’s a global risk and global threat."
The comments come as the Trump administration has increased pressure on European allies to take a larger role in protecting international shipping routes amid Iranian threats tied to the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical oil transit choke points. Roughly one-fifth of global oil consumption passes through the narrow waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea.
Speaking after a meeting with foreign ministers in Sweden Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio questioned the value of hosting U.S. military bases in allied countries that later restrict American military operations during wartime.
"One of the arguments I always made was that these bases in the region provided us with logistical options that we wouldn’t otherwise have," Rubio told reporters. "And when some of those bases are denied to you during a conflict that we’re involved in, then you question whether that value is still there."
President Donald Trump also has sharply criticized NATO allies over a reluctance to participate in military operations tied to the Iran conflict and securing the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump said he was "strongly considering" pulling the United States out of NATO after allies failed to join the U.S. campaign against Iran, according to an April 1 interview with Britain’s Daily Telegraph, calling the alliance a "paper tiger."
The Czech Republic, a NATO member since 1999, reached NATO’s benchmark of spending 2% of GDP on defense and has supported calls for Europe to increase military readiness amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Macinka strongly defended the administration’s calls for Europe to increase defense spending and reduce dependence on Washington for long-term security guarantees.
"We should do our homework and build our defense to become stronger," he said, arguing that Europe had delayed necessary military investments for too long.
He also tied Europe’s defense spending challenges to the European Union’s Green Deal policies, the bloc’s sweeping climate agenda aimed at reducing carbon emissions, calling them ideological and financially destructive.
"If we get rid of this green, crazy alarmism, then we have enough money to build our defense," he said.
The Czech foreign minister also voiced unusually direct support for Trump and his administration, praising what he described as a global "common sense" shift following Trump’s election victory.
"We are friends of Israel, and we are friends of America," Macinka said. "Especially me as a politician, I'm a friend of the ideology of the current American administration."
Macinka also referenced a clash earlier in 2026 with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Munich Security Conference, where he criticized Europe’s liberal political establishment and defended the populist wave reshaping parts of Europe and the United States.
Macinka linked Prague’s strong support for Ukraine to the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, when hundreds of thousands of Warsaw Pact troops occupied the country for more than two decades.
He said that historical experience continues to shape Czech public opinion and support for Kyiv.
"The Czech society feels a big solidarity with Ukraine," Macinka said, describing the war as a "symmetric war" between a powerful Russian military and a Ukrainian army backed by the West.
Macinka highlighted Prague’s leading role in a Czech-backed ammunition initiative supplying Ukraine with artillery rounds collected through international donor efforts.
Recalling a visit to Kyiv earlier in 2026, he said he received intelligence briefings on battlefield ammunition consumption from Ukrainian military officials.
TRUMP, ZELENSKYY TO MEET FOR KEY DEAL AS NATO ALLIES, RUSSIA WAIT, WATCH
The Czech initiative delivered more than half a million rounds of ammunition in 2026 alone, according to Macinka, helping stabilize the battlefield ahead of possible peace negotiations.
Macinka argued that maintaining a stable front is essential for meaningful negotiations, warning that shifting battle lines will only harden demands on both sides.
With Washington increasingly focused on the Middle East, Macinka also said Europe must begin taking a larger diplomatic role in future negotiations over Ukraine.
"America is quite busy with the Middle East," he said. "Europe should wake up and ask for a place at the table."
Iran is said to be ‘deeply threatened’ by the small African breakaway state, Somaliland, because of the potential for U.S., Israeli and Western powers to use its deep water port and airbase.
Such moves would severely disrupt Iran’s plan to use their proxy, Yemen’s Houthi terror group, to attack Red Sea shipping.
Iran has been accused of pressuring the Houthis to renew their strikes on shipping, particularly in the Red Sea’s Bab-el-Mandeb Strait. The waterway has become the main route for oil to ship out of the Middle East to Asia since the Strait of Hormuz was effectively closed.
COULD SOMALILAND BASE EMERGE AS US FOOTHOLD AGAINST IRAN, HOUTHIS IN KEY SEA LANES?
Lisa Daftari, a Middle East and foreign policy expert, told Fox News Digital, "Iran’s regime is deeply threatened by what Somaliland represents in an emerging pro‑Western, potentially pro‑Israel foothold overlooking the Bab el‑Mandeb, that could blunt Tehran’s leverage via the Houthis over Red Sea shipping and Israel."
Daftari, the editor‑in‑chief of The Foreign Desk, said, "that’s why Iran‑backed Houthis are already explicitly threatening to strike any Israeli or Western military presence in Somaliland and warning they could move to choke the Bab el‑Mandeb if the conflict with the U.S. and Israel escalates."
The White House has said that Iran’s proxies, such as the Houthis, have been weakened. "The United States Military achieved all of the goals laid out for Operation Epic Fury – including weakening Iran’s proxies. Now, Iran is being strangled economically – giving President Trump all the cards as negotiations continue," Anna Kelly, special assistant to the President and White House principal deputy press secretary told Fox News Digital when asked if the U.S. was considering a full-time-basing relationship with Somaliland.
Edmund Fitton-Brown, a senior fellow at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) told Fox News Digital that Somaliland’s recognition of Israel and Israel’s recognition of it last December has clearly irked Iran.
Fitton-Brown, who is a former U.K. ambassador to Yemen — the Houthis home country, said Iran "opposes any recognition of it (Somaliland) primarily because Israel is the first state to recognize it, and Iran will oppose anything that Israel does. Iran is also viscerally opposed to the U.S. and UAE, both of which have pragmatic engagement with Somaliland, short of recognition. Somaliland is a potential base for anti-Houthi enforcement, i.e. a threat to the Iranian Axis of Resistance."
IS TRUMP CONSIDERING BOLD AFRICA PLAY TO PUSH BACK ON CHINA, RUSSIA AND ISLAMIC TERRORISTS?
The U.S. already has a large base on the Red Sea in Djibouti, but Fitton-Brown says this is increasingly problematical "China is significantly expanding its military and commercial presence in Djibouti. There is a sense that Djibouti is not a reliable ally for the U.S. So Somaliland’s time has probably come."
And Somaliland hopes so. Its Foreign Minister, Abdirahman Dahir Adam, told Fox News Digital "At a time when the Strait of Hormuz is under pressure and threats to the Red Sea are escalating, Somaliland has reiterated its longstanding offer to provide the United States with access along our coast. We have been clear about this in times of peace, and we are equally clear today."
The Somaliland government is also offering storage space for tomahawk missiles, with a government source saying it’s "a unique way to advance security interests."
Adam added, "U.S. destroyers that expend their missile batteries in the Red Sea require (currently) up to two weeks of travel to be resupplied. Somaliland is ready to play a practical role in helping the U.S. to secure global trade routes."
But Somaliland’s offer of allowing use of its airbase and seaport is not all plain sailing. Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Kenneth P. Ekman, former AFRICOM/J5 and West Africa coordination element lead, told Fox News Digital "a policy dilemma presents when conducting diplomatic and military relations with Somaliland directly, rather than through the Federal Government of Somalia and the SNA (Somali National Army)."
IRAN'S AFRICA ACTIVITIES POSE 'SIGNIFICANT THREATS TO US NATIONAL SECURITY'
"This same dilemma presents," Ekman continued. "While we (the U.S.) enjoy good access in Djibouti, this access is singular and competes with the Chinese presence. Additional access to the port of Berbera, located in Somaliland, provides redundancy (backup) and a relationally different partner. Frankly, the U.S. military, along with some of our allies and partners, need port access in Berbera."
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas., chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, is strongly advocating for the U.S. to go all the diplomatic way and recognize Somaliland.
He told Fox News Digital in a statement that "Somaliland promises to be a critical counterterrorism ally for the United States, both because of its strong willingness to partner with us and because of its unique location. We should recognize the Republic of Somaliland as an independent state and, in the meantime, significantly boost our counterterrorism cooperation."
The U.S. though, appears to be making below-the-radar moves. The Commander of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), Gen. Dagvin Anderson, was recently in the country visiting port facilities, with a delegation, in November. This week, a Somaliland government source told Fox News Digital that U.S. military delegations come to the state every two months, with the last visit in the second half of April.
Fitton-Brown told Fox News Digital that, "The U.S. is already using it (Somaliland) for counterterrorism operations. My understanding is that the U.S. doesn’t have a permanent military presence in Somaliland, but actively cooperates with Somaliland's security forces on regional counterterrorism and maritime security issues."
A former senior U.S. defense official agreed that American military specialists have been co-ordinating with Somaliland forces since 2023, when they came together to kill Bilal al-Sudani, reportedly a key facilitator and financier of the ISIS global network.
However, the U.S. aligns publicly with Somalia, from which Somaliland broke away in 1991.
When asked this week about the U.S. military relationship with Somaliland when it comes to counter-terrorism operations in the country, a Pentagon official told Fox News Digital: "The United States maintains its strategic partnership with the Federal Government of Somalia.
"In northern Somalia, AFRICOM, alongside the Federal Government of Somalia and Somali Armed Forces, has conducted airstrikes to degrade ISIS—Somalia's ability to threaten the U.S. Homeland, our forces, and our citizens abroad. In southern Somalia, AFRICOM, also in close coordination with the Federal Government of Somalia, has conducted airstrikes to enable partner forces’ ability to degrade al Shabaab. Our strategic approach to countering terrorism in Africa relies on trusted partnerships and collaboration grounded in and through shared security interests."
Daftari added, "Somaliland is offering the United States what the mullahs fear most in this theater, namely an alternative, resilient platform on the African shore that includes an airfield, port, and over‑the‑horizon access that would dilute Houthi leverage and give Washington options that don’t depend on Djibouti or Persian Gulf partners alone."
Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, would have to approve any final deal with the U.S. through secret courier networks while remaining in hiding as a "designated target," counterterrorism experts said Tuesday.
The unprecedented arrangement, they claimed, means Washington is negotiating a high-stakes accord with an entirely invisible counterparty, with a potential memorandum signed by a regime leader and a marked target who can never publicly show his face.
"Khamenei is a designated target, and every confirmed sighting is a coordinate," Dr. Omar Mohammed told Fox News Digital.
"The courier system used for messaging is not transitional. It is the operating system of his rule.
IRAN'S SUPREME LEADER RUNS 'STATE WITHIN A STATE' THROUGH SECRET 4,000-PERSON NETWORK, REPORT SAYS
"Any deal the United States signs will have to be designed for a permanently invisible counterparty whose enforcement depends on his continued survival. That is not arms control as it has been conventionally understood. It is a memorandum signed under American military pressure, with a regime whose leader cannot show his face."
Mohammed’s remarks came after Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained to reporters in India why the deal was suffering delays.
"It’s just the response," Rubio said. "I mean, when you get down on some of these things, you’ve got to hear back, and it takes the Iranians — takes them a little while longer to get back," he explained.
"That is Secretary Rubio confirming the courier latency on the record," said Dr. Omar Mohammed, director of the Antisemitism Research Initiative Program on Extremism at George Washington University. "Rubio is describing a structural feature of negotiating with a supreme leader no one can locate.
"Mojtaba is in hiding, messages are moving by courier, and responses are arriving days late.
"Rubio just confirmed the symptom, and the administration is being honest about the problem. The question is whether the framework can be designed to survive it," Mohammed claimed.
Khamenei has spent nearly three months in hiding as tensions with the U.S. escalate.
He went underground as soon as a strike on Feb. 28 killed his father, amid reports that he was gravely injured.
He was struck in Operation Epic Fury — "wounded and likely disfigured," according to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. His wife and son were killed in the same strike.
"Officials at the highest levels of the Iranian government do not know where he is," Mohammed said, meaning every piece of information he receives is "dated, and his responses come with significant latency."
The remarks come as Iran and the United States continue talks aimed at reaching a deal to end the war that began Feb. 28.
IRAN'S SUPREME LEADER MOJTABA KHAMENEI 'MISFUNCTIONING,' NOT CONTROLLING REGIME: SOURCES
"If there’s going to be a deal, we’re going to have to work through that. But this is, you know, it’s either going to be a good deal or there isn’t going to be one," Rubio said Tuesday.
A senior administration official said the U.S. is prepared to ease sanctions if Iran makes major concessions on uranium enrichment. Frozen Iranian assets have also emerged as a key hurdle.
Iran said Monday that no agreement with the United States was imminent, despite progress toward a framework in talks.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the focus of talks remained ending the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, and that a possible memorandum of understanding did not include specific details on managing the Strait of Hormuz.
"The real question for Washington is not how fast the framework can be signed," Mohammed added.
"It is also what enforcement looks like when the counterparty’s signature comes through a courier."
LVIV, Ukraine — As Kyiv takes a massive hit from Russia, another city seeks to carry on amid war. Four years into Russia’s war, the western Ukrainian city of Lviv is trying to master something impossible: how to live normally while surrounded by death.
At 11:30 a.m., the city stops.
Cars freeze in the middle of the street. Pedestrians pause on sidewalks. In the center of town, underneath the tall clock tower that rises above city hall, people bow their heads in silence as another military funeral convoy passes through the streets.
"It happens one to five times a day," a local resident says quietly.
The war feels far from Lviv, until suddenly it doesn’t.
UKRAINE’S BATTLEFIELD IS TRANSFORMING THE FUTURE OF NATO
The city of roughly one million people sits near the Polish border, hundreds of miles from the brutal front lines in eastern Ukraine. But Russian drones and missiles still hit here. Air raid sirens interrupt coffee dates and children’s soccer games. Funeral processions cut through wedding traffic. Entire neighborhoods live between moments of beauty and grief.
"We lost approximately 2,000 citizens of Lviv," Mayor Andriy Sadovyi told Fox News Digital during an interview at city hall. "It is a very huge price which we pay to our independence, to our democracy."
Sadovyi has led the city for nearly two decades, except for a brief presidential run. Inside his office overlooking the historic center, he proudly points to the terrace where he has hosted world leaders and celebrities, including actor Tom Cruise. At one point, a large well-fed cat jumps onto his desk.
"This is my deputy," Sadovyi jokes. The cat, he explains proudly, has become something of a city mascot. "He’s tough like a Ukrainian."
But beneath the humor is exhaustion. Sadovyi says he realized at the beginning of the war that Lviv had a special responsibility. It was close enough to Europe to remain functioning, but close enough to war to understand what was at stake.
His answer was what he calls the "Unbroken" project: a sprawling rehabilitation and innovation effort aimed at helping Ukraine survive physically and psychologically.
The city built rehabilitation centers for wounded soldiers and civilians arriving from across the country, treating amputees, burn victims and trauma patients. Sadovyi says the municipality also dedicated 20% of its budget to supporting defense technology companies developing military solutions for the war effort.
"Every family in this city was affected by war," he says. "We need to be strong. We need to survive. I’m building what is needed for that."
'A NEW KIND OF WAR': INSIDE UKRAINE'S HIDDEN FACTORIES MASS-PRODUCING COMBAT DRONES
Yet survival in Lviv is not only about weapons or hospitals. It is also about convincing people not to give up on life itself.
"People are afraid to come here," Sadovyi says. "But we need them to come."
One of the city’s newest projects reflects that mentality. Part school, part shooting range, part patriotic training center, it was designed to prepare civilians for a country where war has become everyday reality.
Inside one classroom, dozens of teenage girls sit listening to instructors explain emergency survival skills. Upstairs, at the indoor shooting range, instructor Vitaliy proudly shows off rows of American-made weapons including AR-15 style rifles and pistols.
"It’s not as big as ranges in the United States," he says apologetically.
On the wall hangs a shredded image of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin, riddled with bullet holes from target practice.
Vitaliy laughs when asked about Russian President Vladimir Putin posters.
"We ran out," he jokes. "They’re too popular. We can’t keep them."
On the terrace outside, two wounded veterans practice archery.
One sits in a wheelchair after losing both legs in the war. Another leans on a cane. Both have become competitive athletes through rehabilitation programs.
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One proudly explains he won a silver medal during a national contest. The other recently took gold and is now preparing for an international championship. Neither wants to talk much about what happened to them during combat.
Their therapy now is sport.
Down the road, another funeral begins. A military convoy carrying the body of a 32-year-old soldier drives slowly through the city center until it arrives at the cemetery.
The city’s military cemetery filled so quickly that officials recently had to open a new burial ground just weeks ago. Already, rows of fresh graves stretch across the hillside, above them blue-and-yellow flags and photographs of young men and women smiling back from before the war.
The grieving brother at the funeral says the fallen soldier never had time to start his own family.
Around him, families kneel beside the earth.
And still, life continues.
Children go to school. Mothers rush to work. Cafés remain packed. Street musicians perform in the old town square.
That same evening, inside the Lviv Theater of Opera and Ballet, hundreds gather for the "Miss Lviv" beauty pageant.
Young women dressed in glittering gowns pose beneath bright stage lights while music echoes through the theater. The audience is overwhelmingly female. Many of the men still in the city work in defense industries or hold exemptions from military service.
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The contrast feels surreal only hours after attending a military burial.
But for many residents, events like these are an act of resistance.
"We are trying to keep life going," the reigning Miss Lviv says backstage before crowning the next winner. "I want the war to stop."
One of her friends explains why gatherings like this matter.
"These are difficult times," she says. "Doing normal things like this gives us a reason to dress up and enjoy ourselves."
Nobody here believes anymore that peace can come in 24 hours. But many still hope that President Trump and the U.S. can help bring the war to an end.
By the time evening arrives, air raid sirens once again cut through the city.
At outdoor cafés, people barely react at first.
Parents continue watching children play near fountains. Young couples finish drinks on restaurant terraces. Residents wait to hear whether the threat is "only" drones or actual missiles before deciding whether to move toward one of the hundreds of shelters spread throughout the city.
That frustration increasingly extends beyond the battlefield itself. Speaking to Fox News Digital while the latest wave of Russian strikes battered Ukrainian cities overnight, Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United Nations Andriy Melnyk warned that the war was becoming even more dangerous for civilians.
Melnyk, a native of Lviv, described the massive Russian assault between Saturday and Sunday as "the worst and the most devastating Russian attack on the capital since the beginning of the large-scale invasion."
Even members of his own family in Kyiv, he said, are now considering temporarily leaving the city because "it becomes unbearable to stay."
In Lviv, residents repeatedly ask to remind the world that the war is still intensifying, not fading into the background. Melnyk called on the United States and European allies to take "bold actions" to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin and urged Western countries to provide additional air defense systems capable of intercepting ballistic missiles and drones targeting civilians.
He also criticized the United Nations for failing to stop the war, arguing that Russia’s veto power had left the Security Council effectively paralyzed.
On the overnight train leaving Lviv, most passengers are women. Border guards spend long minutes questioning the few men onboard, making sure they are not trying to escape mandatory military service.
The exhaustion is visible everywhere. Still, Sadovyi is full of hope.
"This city will have a great future," he says confidently.
He believes the world will eventually come to Lviv not only to rebuild, but to learn.
"To learn how to be unbroken," he says.
Because, he warns, what happened to Ukraine could happen elsewhere too.
President Masoud Pezeshkian invoked one of Iran’s strongest wartime symbols on May 24, signaling Tehran’s resolve to hold its ground against the U.S. and Israel across the region, a counterterrorism expert said.
The Iranian leader's remarks came at a key moment in diplomacy, as President Donald Trump said a deal with Tehran to end the war is "largely negotiated" and warned the U.S. would either sign "a great and meaningful" agreement or walk away entirely.
While Iran signaled broad agreement with Washington on some points, it said a final deal is not imminent and that negotiations over the remaining details are still underway.
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In an X post marking the anniversary of the 1982 recapture of Khorramshahr from Iraqi forces during the Iran-Iraq War, Pezeshkian said, "Khorramshahr today is Iran, the Persian Gulf, and the Strait of Hormuz," adding that "resistance, self-sacrifice, and repelling aggression are rooted in the culture of this land."
Analysts claimed Pezeshkian was deliberately invoking one of the deepest ideological touchstones of the Islamic Republic — the battle that came to symbolize national resistance, civilian sacrifice and defiance against invasion.
"This is the Iran-Iraq War reference, and the timing is the point," said Dr. Omar Mohammed, director of the Antisemitism Research Initiative Program on Extremism at George Washington University.
May 24 marks the anniversary of the 1982 liberation of Khorramshahr, the southwestern city Saddam Hussein captured early in the war and Iranian forces retook after months of brutal urban combat.
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"This is one of the Islamic Republic’s foundational mythological moments — civilian resistance, mass sacrifice, repelling an ‘aggressor army.’ Roughly what the Great Patriotic War is to Russia. The rhetorical move is the extension," Mohammed told Fox News Digital.
"He’s mapping the 1980-82 defensive-war frame onto the current confrontation: Iran attacked by an aggressor, ordinary citizens (‘battle-untested but brave’) expected to stand and fight, with ‘resistance, sacrifice, repelling aggression’ cast as the cultural default mode."
Some of the phrasing, Mohammed said, also evokes volunteer and Basij fighters versus a professional invading army. The analyst noted that Pezeshkian’s "Hormuz line" comment reflects a standard Iranian escalation tactic.
IRAN TO HOLD LIVE-FIRE DRILLS IN STRAIT OF HORMUZ WITH US ARMADA IN MIDDLE EAST
"Invoking the strait inside a wartime-mobilization frame — even rhetorically — is a deliberate signal, not throat-clearing," he added.
"The Khorramshahr frame is the deepest register the regime has. It’s what they reach for to signal existential war, not a managed crisis."
Mohammed explained that Pezeshkian’s X post is framing the current confrontation from the presidential account to send a "high-stakes message."
"It’s also a tell on internal posture: Khorramshahr, in short, means ‘we are being invaded and we will not negotiate,’" he added.
Intensifying leaks and tense phone calls between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggesting a relationship breakdown over Iran were part of a calculated strategic effort to keep Tehran guessing, a leading defense analyst told Fox News Digital on Sunday.
The public display, which projected American diplomatic patience while shutting out Jerusalem, covertly laid the groundwork for a unified front, he said.
The strategy culminated in a weekend synchronization phase, with Trump and Netanyahu showcasing total alignment by Sunday, suggested Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) and the Misgav Institute.
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Axios had reported Thursday that a difficult call between the leaders focused on a revised U.S. proposal sent to Iran via Pakistan, which Netanyahu reportedly rejected in favor of renewed military action to degrade Tehran’s infrastructure.
One U.S. source told the outlet that "Netanyahu’s hair was on fire" after the exchange.
Separately, weekend reports suggested Israeli leaders were being marginalized from U.S.-Iran negotiations after Netanyahu’s prewar push for a joint campaign to topple the Iranian regime failed to materialize.
Netanyahu broke his silence Sunday, posting on X to declare absolute solidarity with the White House and project a unified stance.
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"The partnership between us and our two countries has been proven on the battlefield and has never been stronger," Netanyahu shared on X. "My policy, like President Trump’s, remains unchanged: Iran will not have nuclear weapons."
Michael viewed the public friction and targeted leaks as a calculated tactical feint designed to keep Tehran blindsided.
"Neither President Trump nor Prime Minister Netanyahu has any interest in any crisis, but by leaking the story of a crisis between Trump and Netanyahu, the Iranians might find themselves surprised by the timing of the next military attack," Michael said.
"The leak created a sense of disagreement between the two leaders and positions Trump as the leader who gives another chance to the diplomatic path despite the pressures of Prime Minister Netanyahu," he said.
"Trump understands who the Iranians are."
The final synchronization followed a weekend phone call in which Trump reassured Netanyahu that any final agreement with Iran would fully dismantle Tehran’s nuclear program.
UN'S NUCLEAR WATCHDOG WARNS ITS UNABLE TO CONFIRM IRAN'S PROGRAM IS 'ENTIRELY PEACEFUL'
Netanyahu also said Trump also "reaffirmed Israel’s right to defend itself against threats on every front, including Lebanon."
Washington has been keeping Jerusalem updated on the negotiations "over a memorandum of understanding to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and enter negotiations toward a final agreement on the points that remain in dispute," an official statement read.
Following the Sunday call, Netanyahu also thanked Trump for his "exceptional commitment to Israel’s security."
"Netanyahu’s last post about his last conversation with Trump can be understood as the ultimate closure to this deception and any accusations," Michael added.
"This is trying to prepare the Israeli public for the idea that everything was fully coordinated with the U.S., and the diplomatic developments will serve the Israeli interest."
Michael added, however, that skepticism remained in Jerusalem over whether the gaps between the U.S. and Iran will be bridged, or whether "Trump will accept the Iranian position."
Maritime tracking transmissions collapsed near the UAE’s main oil hub, rattling Persian Gulf shipping hours before President Donald Trump announced progress was made on a bilateral peace deal with Iran, according to an AI maritime firm.
Maritime intelligence firm Windward AI first detected the blackout in Automatic Identification System (AIS) transmissions near Fujairah, suggesting heightened electronic warfare, jamming, deliberate AIS shutdowns and intense cyber interference near the key UAE oil port.
"Fujairah goes dark: AIS transmissions collapse after Iran’s PGSA announcement," Windward warned in a post shared on X.
"Vessels are still in the area. They are loading less, and a meaningful number have gone dark," the firm said.
As Trump announced that an Iran deal was "largely negotiated" and would see a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, Fujairah went on to move 1.35 million barrels of crude Sunday aboard a single tanker bound for South Korea.
"Today, May 24, the port moved 1.35 million barrels, a single VLCC, destined for South Korea," Windward said before reporting a tense, ongoing "ceasefire posture" and blockade footprint quickly being set into place.
"One cargo doesn't mark a return to baseline, but it's the first signal of flow resuming out of Fujairah since the announcement," Windward said.
Ahead of the barrel transfer, Trump had stated that Washington and Tehran had "largely finalized" a memorandum of understanding for a peace agreement. He posted an AI-generated image depicting exploding IRGC fast boats in the strait.
TRUMP SAYS IRAN DEAL ‘LARGELY NEGOTIATED’ AS 84-DAY WAR NEARS POSSIBLE END
Iran responded directly by continuing to declare the strategic maritime choke point stays under Tehran’s absolute control.
"We reaffirm that the Strait of Hormuz will remain under full Iranian administration and sovereignty, even in the event of reaching any future agreement," Iran’s official military spokesperson, Ibrahim Al-Fiqar, said in a statement shared on X.
"The Islamic Republic emphasizes that the authorities to determine transit routes, timing, and issuance of maritime licenses are an absolute sovereign right exclusively in the hands of Tehran."
The tanker blackout, crude transfer activity and movement toward a U.S.-Iran deal accelerated following the launch of Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority on May 20.
Overseen by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy, the PGSA functions as a sovereign regulator by requiring ships to submit vessel, cargo, insurance and crew details — along with mandatory payments — for "safe passage" through the strait.
Regional analysts told Fox News Digital that, ahead of deal progression, Iran’s territorial claims had even been stretching beyond its own waters into areas tied to Oman and the UAE.
US EYES IRAN FAST BOATS WITH ‘KILL’ TACTICS TESTED IN VENEZUELA DRUG-BOAT STRIKES
Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute, told Fox News Digital that enforcement "relies on the IRGC Navy’s asymmetric playbook."
"This includes fast boats, drones, radar tracking, coastal missiles and selective intimidation rather than constant physical interdiction," Vatanka said.
"Tehran wants Gulf states and major importers to gradually accept Iranian oversight of Hormuz as a new geopolitical reality," he added.
While nuclear issues are dominating the current negotiations amid reports of a 60-day ceasefire, the PGSA has quickly emerged as an economic leverage tool threatening global oil and shipping markets.
"Now Hormuz is Iran’s main non-nuclear leverage tool," Vatanka said as the PGSA he claimed gives Tehran a "mechanism to pressure rivals, favor allies and normalize IRGC oversight of one of the world’s most critical energy routes."
According to Vatanka, the system was functioning as a wartime extortion mechanism.
"Ships submit cargo and crew data for approval, while reports point to quiet ‘facilitation payments,’ preferential treatment for friendly states and uncertainty for everyone else," Vatanka warned.
"Iran keeps the penalties deliberately vague. Noncompliant ships risk delays, harassment, drone surveillance, IRGC interception or denial of safe passage — enough pressure to encourage compliance without outright closing the strait."
The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv issued a security alert Saturday warning that a "potentially significant air attack" could hit the city in the next 24 hours.
The U.S. Mission Ukraine said in a statement, "The U.S. embassy in Kyiv has received information concerning a potentially significant air attack that may occur at any time over the next 24 hours.
"The embassy, as always, recommends U.S. citizens be prepared to immediately shelter in the event an air alert is announced."
‘A NEW KIND OF WAR’: INSIDE UKRAINE'S HIDDEN FACTORIES MASS PRODUCING COMBAT DRONES
The embassy urged Americans to "identify shelter locations before any air alert," keep reserves of food, water and medication nearby, follow the "directions of Ukrainian officials and first responders in the event of an emergency," to immediately take shelter if an alert is announced and to download an air raid app like Air Raid Siren or Alarm App.
By early Sunday morning, the capital was rocked by a massive missile and drone strike, Reuters reported.
At least three people were injured and some residential buildings were damaged, the mayor said on Telegram.
The message follows a warning from Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelenskyy that Russia was preparing to strike Ukraine with a hypersonic Oreshnik missile, citing Ukrainian as well as U.S. and European intelligence.
"We are seeing signs of preparation for a combined strike on Ukrainian territory, including Kyiv, involving various types of weaponry," Zelenskyy wrote in an X post Saturday morning.
"The specified intermediate-range weapons could be used in such a strike. It is important to act responsibly on air-raid alerts, starting this evening. Russian madness truly knows no bounds, so please protect your lives. Use shelters."
He added that the use of such weapons would set a precedent for future aggressors.
"If Russia is allowed to destroy lives on such a scale, then no agreement will restrain other similar hatred-based regimes from aggression and strikes," he said. "We count on a response from the world and on a response that is not post factum, but preventive. Pressure must be put on Moscow so that it does not expand the war."
Zelenskyy said Ukraine was preparing its air defenses as much as possible, and "we will respond fully justly to every Russian strike."
"We have given permission for a parade," he concluded his post, referring to the President Donald Trump-brokered three-day ceasefire earlier this month, "but Russia has no permission for madness. This war must be ended – we need peace, not some missiles satisfying the sick ambitions of one individual. I thank everyone helping to protect lives. Once again, please take care of yourselves and use shelters tonight."
At the start of the three-day ceasefire May 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters he thought the war could come "to an end" soon.
On Friday, however, Putin vowed retaliation for a deadly Ukrainian drone strike in Starobilsk, an occupied town in eastern Luhansk, claiming that the Ukrainians hit a college dormitory in a "terrorist" act.
Ukraine denied the claim, saying it struck a Russian drone command unit in the area.
LVIV, Ukraine: Exclusive — The same Iranian-designed Shahed drones that rain down in Lviv, Ukraine, nearly every night are now being hunted by weapons built just miles away inside hidden factories where former students and office workers assemble kamikaze drones and interceptor systems around the clock.
What began as an improvised wartime effort has evolved into one of the world's fastest-growing military drone industries. One Ukrainian official says Kyiv now leads NATO in battlefield innovation and can offer hard-won lessons for the U.S. and Israel as they confront the same Iranian drone technology across the Gulf.
"Drone technology completely changed the situation in the frontline," Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview. "Maybe in six months, maybe in one year, we will have technology to land 1,000 drones in one moment.
POLAND SEEKS ANSWERS AFTER PENTAGON SCRAPS PLANNED US ARMORED BRIGADE ROTATION
"If we will have more deep collaboration between Ukraine, the United States, Israel and Europe, we will prepare special equipment for our victory," he said.
Dmytro, CEO of a Ukrainian drone manufacturer producing roughly 1,000 drones a week, told Fox News Digital, "We are three or four steps ahead of other countries. … This is a new kind of war. It is a war of IT technology."
Cheap drones now allow small battlefield units to identify and destroy tanks, armored vehicles and even sophisticated air defense systems that once required expensive missiles or fighter aircraft.
That transformation is visible throughout western Ukraine, where defense technology hubs, secret workshops and testing sites now operate, while in the cities air raid sirens regularly interrupt daily life.
Inside a workshop Fox News Digital visited, workers moved rapidly between tables stacked with propellers, fiber optic cable and other classified drone components. The workers say they no longer see themselves as civilians temporarily helping the war effort. Many now view drone production as essential to Ukraine’s survival.
Vitaliy, one of the technicians assembling kamikaze drones destined for the front line, said he now builds hundreds of drone components a day.
"Targets will be vehicles, tanks, troopers, positions," he told Fox News Digital.
NATO ALLY POLAND WARNS RUSSIA, BELARUS PUSHING ILLEGAL MIGRANTS TOWARD ALLIANCE — AND THE US
Referring to President Donald Trump's statement that he will end the war, Vitaliy said, "I feel honored because I’m helping my country to get peace much faster," Vitaliy added. "Peace through strength — this is our motivation. But it is mostly on us, for sure."
Ukraine’s domestic drone production has expanded at a staggering pace. Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Serhiy Boyev said earlier this year the country aims to produce more than seven million drones in 2026, up from roughly four million in 2025.
From AI-assisted battlefield systems to drones resistant to Russian electronic warfare, Ukraine’s wartime innovations are exposing vulnerabilities in traditional Western military doctrine.
At another defense technology hub in Lviv, rows of interceptor drones, unmanned ground vehicles and remotely operated weapons systems fill a showroom demonstrating Ukraine’s rapidly evolving battlefield ecosystem.
"We have around 250 tech companies in the system," said Volodymyr Cherniuk, co-founder of Iron, a Ukrainian defense technology cluster.
Some drones are designed for reconnaissance, others for evacuation, logistics or direct strike missions. One heavy-lift drone used for nighttime attacks has earned the nickname "Baba Yaga" from Russian troops, which Cherniuk translated as "boogeyman."
Another interceptor drone is designed specifically to hunt Iranian-made Shahed drones that Russia uses in nightly attacks on Ukrainian cities.
"They can go 300 kilometers per hour," Cherniuk said. "One hundred grams is enough to shut down a Shahed."
"We have a lot of Americans, Canadians, Europeans who come here and want our data, feedback from the front line," Dmytro said.
As Fox News Digital reported from Lviv, air raid sirens repeatedly echoed across the city, a reminder that western Ukraine remains within reach of Russia’s expanding drone campaign.
Russia has dramatically escalated its aerial assaults in the recent week after the end of the short ceasefire, launching massive drone barrages targeting cities and logistical hubs across Ukraine, including areas near NATO territory close to the Polish border.
Ukraine has also increasingly demonstrated its ability to strike deep inside Russian territory with long-range drone attacks targeting areas around Moscow and Russian energy infrastructure.
But the evolving drone war has also increasingly spilled beyond Ukraine and Russia’s borders into NATO territory.
In recent weeks, drones linked to Ukrainian long-range strike operations entered the airspace of Baltic alliance members including Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, triggering political fallout and renewed concerns about regional air defenses. Latvian Defense Minister Andris Sprūds resigned after drones crashed near fuel storage facilities close to the Russian border.
Ukrainian and Baltic officials blamed Russian electronic warfare and GPS spoofing for redirecting the drones off course, arguing Moscow is increasingly using electronic warfare not only defensively, but also to create instability and political pressure inside NATO countries.
The incidents underscore how the same Iranian-designed Shahed drones Russia uses nightly against Ukrainian cities — and similar long-range drone technologies increasingly used by both sides — are reshaping modern warfare far beyond the battlefield itself.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has spent nearly three months in hiding as tensions with the U.S. escalate — a disappearance that counterterrorism analysts say mirrors the final years of al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden.
The comparison comes amid a critical standoff between Washington and Tehran that prompted President Donald Trump to pause a planned strike on May 19. On Wednesday, Trump told reporters he was in "no hurry."
Khamenei, meanwhile, appeared to share three posts on his official X account on May 18 but remains out of public view.
"For the first time in the history of the Islamic Republic, the United States has done to Tehran what it spent two decades doing to al-Qaeda and ISIS," counterterrorism expert Dr. Omar Mohammed told Fox News Digital.
"The U.S. has driven its leader into the same kind of operational invisibility that bin Laden lived in for 10 years in Abbottabad," he added.
"Both Mojtaba Khamenei and bin Laden inherited their status on the back of an American operation, and both responded the same way: by ceasing to exist publicly," Mohammed said before adding that bin Laden "stopped releasing dated videos around 2007 and confined himself to audio messages carried by hand."
Bin Laden founded al-Qaeda in the late 1980s and masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States.
After the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, bin Laden evaded capture for a decade by hiding inside a fortified compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
To avoid Western electronic surveillance, he severed his digital footprint and relied exclusively on a network of physical couriers, said Mohammed, an expert with the Antisemitism Research Initiative at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism.
U.S. intelligence eventually tracked one of those couriers to the compound, culminating in the 2011 Navy SEAL raid that killed the al Qaeda leader.
OPERATION EPIC FURY: HOW AMERICA'S AIR POWER IS CRUSHING IRAN’S TERROR REGIME
"Bin Laden survived with no cables out of the Abbottabad compound. Communications were carried by hand by two trusted couriers, the Kuwaiti brothers," Mohammed said.
"Bin Laden stayed hidden for the rest of his life because the moment he surfaced was the moment he died. Mojtaba’s incentives point the same way. Mojtaba Khamenei won’t emerge," he said.
"The Abbottabad lesson, which Tehran will have studied closely, is that the safest hiding place is not a cave in Tora Bora but a walled compound in a garrison town," Mohammed added, recalling how U.S. forces targeted bin Laden in the cave complex before he escaped.
Bin Laden also lived roughly a mile from Pakistan’s top military academy, hiding in plain sight behind high concrete walls and barbed wire, Mohammed noted.
"The logical Iranian equivalents are hardened sites under or alongside IRGC facilities," Mohammed added, referring to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and possible locations where Khamenei could be.
As previously reported by Fox News Digital, one of Khamenei’s few recent communications was an X post declaring a "holy war," framing the geopolitical clash as a mandatory religious obligation.
INSIDE IRAN’S RULING IDEOLOGY: HOW A ‘HOLY MISSION’ AND MESSIANIC DOCTRINE FUEL REGIME EXTREMISM
"This is a religious leader calling for sacred war against America and the Jews from an undisclosed location because his enemies have publicly vowed to kill him on sight," Mohammed said, describing the narrative as "the bin Laden template, almost line for line."
Mohammed also suggested Khamenei’s retreat into the shadows marks a watershed moment for Washington and the future of the Iranian regime.
His predecessor and father, Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed Feb. 28 in a targeted U.S.-Israeli airstrike in Tehran during Operation Epic Fury.
"This regime that for 47 years projected its power through a single visible Supreme Leader at the Friday prayer pulpit can no longer produce that figure on demand," he said, calling it a "strategic milestone."
"Predecessors killed by U.S. strikes and successors who cannot show their faces. Real power exercised by a security apparatus rather than by the nominal figurehead."
"Now one side is announcing operations on three continents through its president; the other is governed on paper by a man whose own population is uncertain where he is or what state he is in," Mohammed said.
"The contrast is also about the optics of leadership during this war," he added.
LONDON: The United Kingdom announced Tuesday it will be deploying military assets "as part of a future defensive mission to secure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz."
While the move can be seen as a positive step in repairing relations with the U.S., Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s reluctance to join the U.S. in "Operation Epic Fury" against Iran has still ruffled feathers in Washington — most notably those of President Donald Trump.
Trump has dismissed Starmer as "no Churchill." In a recent interview with Sky News, the president further complained about the lack of British alignment: "When we asked them for help, they were not there. When we needed them, they were not there... And they still aren't there."
TRUMP SLAMS STARMER AS ‘NOT WINSTON CHURCHILL’ FOR REFUSAL TO BACK IRAN STRIKES
Trump also took aim at the British Navy’s readiness in March, ridiculing the fleet during a White House meeting.
"We had the U.K. say that, 'We'll send'— this is three weeks ago — 'we'll send our aircraft carriers,' which aren't the best aircraft carriers, by the way," Trump said, according to Sky News. "They're toys compared to what we have."
Two recent reports by a leading military expert and a parliamentary committee may, in part, explain why the U.K. didn’t join the war in an offensive measure.
In a report titled, "Iran War Delivers a Tough Lesson in Hard Power to the U.K.," Matthew Savill, director of military sciences at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), wrote, "The outbreak of a new war in the Middle East has led to questions about the U.K.'s relevance in international affairs. Alongside debates about legality and politics, there are some hard truths about military power and the reality of the readiness of the U.K.'s armed forces."
While the report was written with the war still raging on, Savill stated, "Pressure is growing for the deployment of more U.K. forces to the region and direct involvement in strikes, but the government will need to answer difficult questions about prioritization and the effect that it might be trying to achieve. The consequence is that as much as intent and policy drive U.K. involvement, the practical realities will constrain what the U.K. can do."
Savill added, "On the defensive side, the U.K. has not been idle... [U.K. assets] which also appear to have included some counter-drone units – have been involved in downing Iranian drones while defending Jordan and Iraq."
UK DEPLOYING WARSHIP, HELICOPTERS TO CYPRUS AFTER DRONE STRIKE
Savill wrote that "The challenge for the U.K. is that in the past few years, the commitments and visible presence of U.K. Armed Forces in the region have been shrinking, as a result of the pressure on the military, and a conscious decision to prioritize elsewhere, most recently in the ‘NATO First’ approach of the Strategic Defense Review of 2025."
While the Starmer government has committed to increasing defense spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, experts warn that this investment may be too late to restore the U.K.’s ability to project power globally in the near term.
John Hemmings, director of the National Security Center at Henry Jackson, told Fox News, "The U.K.’s military capabilities have been systematically underfunded over the past 15 years, with the Spending Review and cuts starting in 2009 and 2010 under Prime Minister David Cameron. The Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR) at the time stated that the world was headed in a much more dangerous state, but the fiscal devastation of the 2008 Financial Crisis pushed the Government into a series of cuts that were intended to be short-term. Instead, the Cameron Government sent the U.K.’s armed services into a spiral of terminal decline that has lasted until this day," he said.
TRUMP PRAISED FOR GETTING NATO ALLIES TO BOLSTER DEFENSE SPENDING: 'REALLY STAGGERING'
Hemmings added, "Consider the Royal Navy, the U.K.’s premier service and source of great power reach; only 25 out of 63 commissioned vessels are actual fighting ships. This force size is impossible to service Britain’s overseas responsibilities and has seen cuts of 50% in only 30 years. In 1996, there were 22 frigates, 17 submarines, 15 destroyers, and 3 aircraft carriers. Today’s First Sea Lord must attempt to carry out the same duties with seven frigates, 10 submarines, six destroyers, two aircraft carriers. In addition, the U.K. underfunded new capabilities like domestic air and missile defenses and advanced command and control systems."
A second report released last month, by the House of Lords International Relations and Defense Committee titled: ‘Adjusting to new realities: rebalancing the U.K.-U.S. partnership,' presents several key recommendations where it warned of the over-dependence on the U.S. "Although the U.K. has benefited from closely collaborating with the U.S. on defense, this has fostered a dependency culture leading to a decline in U.K. capabilities and loss of U.K. credibility in Washington. The Government should provide a clear and costed pathway to achieving the commitment to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP."
While the Ministry of Defense did not respond to several requests for comment over the state of forces, Fox News Digital recently reported that the U.K. government said it is reversing an attrition rate in the military, stating that total armed forces strength stood at 182,050 personnel as of Jan. 1, 2026, including 136,960 regular troops, an increase from the previous year.
The government has also pledged what it calls the largest sustained rise in defense spending since the Cold War, with military spending set to reach 2.6% of GDP by 2027, backed by an additional £5 billion (approximately $6.6 billion) this financial year and £270 billion (nearly $360 billion) in defense investment over the course of the current parliament. Britain has also said it aims to raise defense spending to 3% of GDP by the end of the next parliament.
Analysts say while some in the Trump administration see the U.K.’s absence as a betrayal of the special relationship, others may say it is a tough lesson in the limitations of a mid-sized power that has tried to maintain a global footprint on a shrinking budget.
The Lebanese government filed a sharply worded complaint with the United Nations arguing that the Islamic Republic of Iran has abused diplomatic immunity by refusing to recall its ambassador after Beirut demanded his expulsion and to stop alleged terrorist activities on its soil, according to a recently surfaced letter from late April.
The disclosure of the letter, which is reportedly a precedent-setting move by Lebanon, comes amid a second day of talks in Washington between Israel and Lebanon to normalize relations (the countries are in a state of war) and dismantle the Iranian-regime-backed Hezbollah terrorist movement in Lebanon.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Friday that "The United States facilitated talks between Israel and Lebanon have resumed today and are ongoing. The atmosphere of talks has been very positive, even exceeding expectations."
FAMILY OF AMERICAN HOSTAGE TORTURED IN LEBANON WINS LANDMARK CASE AGAINST IRAN
State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott wrote on X on Friday that "On May 14 and 15, the United States hosted two days of highly-productive talks between Israel and Lebanon. The April 16 cessation of hostilities will be extended by 45 days to enable further progress. The State Department will reconvene the political track of negotiations on June 2 and June 3."
He added that, "In addition, a security track will be launched at the Pentagon on May 29 with military delegations from both countries. We hope these discussions will advance lasting peace between the two countries, full recognition of each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and establishing genuine security along their shared border."
As the sides report back to their capitals, the potentially game-changing letter in which Lebanese ambassador to the U.N. Ahmad Arafa, slammed Iran for inserting alleged terrorists from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) into Lebanon "under the guise of diplomatic activity," has given hope to critics of Iran and Hezbollah.
Arafa said, according to the letter, that Iran committed "unlawful acts in blatant defiance of the decisions of the Government of Lebanon." He continued, "This Iranian conduct constitutes direct and blatant interference in the internal affairs of Lebanon and drags the country into a war it did not choose to become involved in."
The U.S. and the European Union have classified the IRGC as a terrorist entity.
The letter took the Iranian Ambassador to Beirut, Mohammad Reza Sheibani, to task for "blatant interference" in Lebanon.
According to Lebanon’s U.N. letter, Beirut argued that Iran is violating the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and interfering in Lebanon’s state of affairs.
When asked about the details of the letter, a spokesperson for Lebanon’s ambassador to the U.S. declined to comment. The spokesperson also declined to weigh in on the current talks with Israel in Washington.
Walid Phares, a leading U.S. expert on Lebanon and the Mideast, told Fox News Digital that "Many have considered the Lebanese memo to the U.N. as the start of the Lebanese government change of attitude towards Iran and a sign of escalation by Beirut. While the tone of the letter and its narrative make people feel that there is a government resistance to Iran and Hezbollah reality is still lesser."
He added that "The subject of the last quarrel is a legal change of status regarding the presence of Iranians on Lebanese soil. The Lebanese government has decided not to grant Iranians, government, and private citizens an automatic visa waiver, which upset Iran and Hezbollah. Besides, Tehran is furious at the fact that the Lebanese government has not been helpful in dealing with the elimination of a number of IRGC members killed in Lebanon by Israel. Tehran blames the foreign ministry of Lebanon, particularly foreign minister Youssef Raggi, for the ‘lessening of solidarity with Iran."'
According to Phares, "Raggi represents a Lebanese Christian bloc in the parliament, who is not sympathetic to the regime. However, the actual talks in D.C. are designed by the Lebanese government to show the Trump administration that the ‘state wants to talk’ but not to reach an agreement that would trigger Hezbollah's wrath. The leaders of the Lebanese state are not yet where the U.S. and Israel expect them to be."
A regional official well-versed in the U.N. dispute told Fox News Digital that Lebanon "argued that Iran had not given the Lebanese foreign ministry the list of all Iranians and the details about their place of stay. And that’s why Israel targeted that hotel in Lebanon in which six were killed, which is true."
The official said that "Iran had not told the foreign ministry of Lebanon about those six people."
Iran says it has deployed small submarines to act as an "invisible guardian" of the Strait of Hormuz amid a series of rejected peace deals between Tehran and the U.S., according to reports.
The deployment claim came as analysts said that although the Iranian Ghadir-class mini-subs could threaten U.S. naval forces, the vessels’ limited range, firepower and endurance would blunt any real strategic impact.
The submarine deployment was highlighted by Bloomberg and first reported by the semi-official Tasnim News Agency.
Rear Admiral Shahram Irani, commander of Iran’s navy, said that his forces deployed its light submarine, referred to as the "dolphins of the Persian Gulf," according to the Iranian state media outlet.
IRAN TURNS TO PUTIN AS US TALKS COLLAPSE, HORMUZ STANDOFF THREATENS GLOBAL OIL FLOW
It also comes as Tehran seeks to reinforce its control over the strait, now defining it as a far larger zone, Reuters reported.
"Time would be limited, probably a couple of days at the most," defense analyst Tom Shugart told Fox News Digital about the Iranian vessel deployment.
The retired U.S. Navy submarine warfare officer also said the small diesel-electric submarines face fundamental operational constraints.
"If they run their diesel engines to snorkel and recharge batteries, that could generate sound that could be detected," Shugart said.
"Their snorkel mast projecting from the water could be detected by radars on patrol aircraft or helicopters," Shugart added.
The submarines are said to be designed for shallow waters like the Strait of Hormuz and can operate quietly for limited periods on battery power.
"While they may be able to sit on the bottom for a while and operate somewhat quietly on their batteries for a while, they have no air-independent propulsion system (AIP) like more modern diesel-electric submarines," Shugart said before adding that they’ll, "eventually have to come up and snorkel. This will make them more vulnerable to detection and destruction."
INSIDE IRAN’S MILITARY: MISSILES, MILITIAS AND A FORCE BUILT FOR SURVIVAL
The IRGC Navy is said to be the sole operator of this class of submarine, all of which serve in the Southern Fleet.
"Any remaining Ghadirs, if they exist and are actually deployed, may be able to lay mines and may be able to threaten merchant ships," Shugart warned.
"But I don’t see them as a serious threat to U.S. Navy warships — and certainly not to U.S. submarines," he said.
"But I can say for sure that I wouldn’t want to go out on one in the current environment."
HORMUZ CHOKE POINT PERSISTS AS IRAN HALTS OIL TRAFFIC DESPITE TRUMP CEASEFIRE
The U.S. Navy confirmed May 10 that a U.S. Navy Ohio-class nuclear-armed submarine had arrived in Gibraltar.
"The port visit demonstrates U.S. capability, flexibility and continuing commitment to its NATO allies," U.S. Sixth Fleet Public Affairs said in a statement.
"Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines are undetectable launch platforms for submarine-launched ballistic missiles, providing the U.S. with its most survivable leg of the nuclear triad," it added.
Meanwhile, Shugart’s remarks came as the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed, with commercial tanker traffic largely choked off amid ongoing military activity and the continued U.S. blockade of Iranian ports.
The United Arab Emirates and South Korea reported new strikes on stranded vessels Wednesday, while the IRGC increased its fast-attack craft activity, according to reports.
President Donald Trump has maintained Iran’s navy is "completely obliterated."
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
President Donald Trump said the ceasefire with Iran is on "massive life support," as retired U.S. commanders and national security experts are increasingly split whether Washington should resume military operations against Tehran or avoid what critics warn could become another prolonged Middle East conflict.
"I would say the ceasefire is on massive life support," Trump told reporters Monday. "Where the doctor walks in and says, ‘Sir, your loved one has approximately a 1% chance of living.’"
Trump also dismissed Iran’s latest response to a proposed agreement as "a piece of garbage," amid reports the White House is reviewing military options should negotiations collapse.
Retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, former national security adviser under Trump, said he believes Iran’s leadership is unlikely to make the concessions Trump considers necessary for a deal.
WHITE HOUSE WARNS IRAN AGAINST BALKING AT DEAL: TRUMP READY TO 'UNLEASH HELL'
"I think the Iranian leadership and IRGC are unwilling to make the kind of concessions that President Trump thinks are at the minimum," McMaster told Fox News Digital, referring to Iran's hardline Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
"President Trump always wants a deal," he added. "But he's not going to sign up for a bad deal."
The emerging debate now centers on a core question facing Washington: whether additional military pressure could force Iran to abandon its nuclear and missile ambitions, or whether renewed strikes would deepen a regional conflict without producing decisive results.
Retired Vice Adm. Mark Fox, former deputy commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), said he believes the current ceasefire and diplomatic track are unlikely to force Iran to back down.
"I really cannot envision anything other than a full return to combat operations," Fox told Fox News Digital. "The only thing that they will respond to, I think ultimately, is force."
Fox argued the U.S. military remains capable of reopening and securing commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz despite ongoing Iranian threats against vessels transiting the waterway.
HORMUZ CHOKE POINT PERSISTS AS IRAN HALTS OIL TRAFFIC DESPITE TRUMP CEASEFIRE
"This is a militarily obtainable objective," he said, outlining a strategy involving guided missile destroyers, attack helicopters, drones and expanded aerial surveillance to create a protected maritime corridor through the Strait.
Fox acknowledged the U.S. Navy is smaller than it was during the 1980s tanker wars, but argued American forces still possess the capability to secure the chokepoint if Washington commits enough naval assets and persistent monitoring operations.
"It’s not easy," Fox said. "But the geography is fixed."
He described a possible strategy that would rely on destroyers, drones and attack aircraft to create what he called an "unblinking eye" over the strait, allowing U.S. forces to identify and neutralize Iranian speedboats, drones and anti-shipping threats before they can strike commercial vessels.
Fox also warned against allowing Iran to preserve leverage over Hormuz while continuing to advance its missile and nuclear programs.
"If not now, when?" he said. "If they had a nuclear weapon, they would use it."
EXPERTS WARN IRAN’S NUCLEAR DOUBLE-TALK DESIGNED TO BUY TIME, UNDERMINE US PRESSURE
Fox, who also signed onto a recent policy paper by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, echoed the report’s argument that Iran is using negotiations to buy time while preserving its military capabilities.
The paper was authored by several retired senior U.S. military officials and national security experts, including retired Gen. Chuck Wald, former deputy commander of U.S. European Command and retired Vice Adm. Robert Harward, former deputy commander of CENTCOM, argued the current ceasefire and diplomatic track "cannot reliably compel Iran" to meet U.S. demands and warned Tehran was seeking to "drag out talks, erode U.S. resolve, and use the time to strengthen itself."
The report called for expanded military operations targeting Iran’s maritime capabilities, missile infrastructure and internal coercive apparatus while avoiding broad attacks on civilian infrastructure that could trigger wider regional escalation.
But not everyone agrees that renewed military action would produce a better outcome.
Retired Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, a senior fellow at Defense Priorities and longtime critic of expanded U.S. military interventions, warned that calls to "finish the job" ignore the realities exposed during the recent fighting.
"To ‘finish the job,’ as they say, is irrational," Davis told Fox News Digital. "It’s illogical, and it violates any kind of military principle."
KEITH KELLOGG URGES US TO 'FINISH THE JOB' AGAINST IRAN BY SEIZING ISLANDS, STRANGLING ECONOMY
Davis argued that despite thousands of strikes and weeks of fighting, Iran retained significant missile and maritime capabilities.
"We couldn't knock them out with 14,000 targets hit," he said. "Why does anybody think that going back another time is going to have a different result?"
He described Iran’s geography, dispersed missile infrastructure and asymmetric naval tactics as creating what he called "a militarily unsolvable problem."
"The only thing left is a diplomatic outcome," Davis said.
The disagreement reflects a broader divide emerging in Washington as officials weigh what comes next if negotiations fail.
Supporters of renewed military action argue Iran is weaker than it has been in decades and that stopping now risks allowing Tehran to regroup, rebuild its missile arsenal and preserve leverage over one of the world’s most important energy choke points.
Critics counter that even extensive U.S. and Israeli strikes failed to fundamentally break the regime’s control or eliminate its military capabilities, raising the risk that further escalation could drag the United States into another drawn-out regional conflict with uncertain results.
KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan: President Donald Trump’s meetings with communist China’s supreme leader Xi Jinping in Beijing will be keenly watched here in Taiwan, from the presidential office to military command centers and semiconductor company boardrooms. The key question many are asking is whether Trump negotiates with China from a position of strength, or leaves Taiwan exposed?
The de facto independent nation of 23 million people has spent decades living under threat from the Chinese Communist Party, which claims Taiwan as its territory despite never having ruled it for even a day.
Observers here warn that Xi may try to offer Trump a deal: cooperation on tariffs, fentanyl, U.S. business access, or global flashpoints like Iran and Ukraine in exchange for Trump accepting a larger Chinese role in Taiwan’s future.
CHINA ORDERS FIRMS TO IGNORE US IRAN SANCTIONS, DARING US TO ENFORCE CRACKDOWN
Taiwan’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu recently told Bloomberg News, "What we are the most afraid is to put Taiwan on the menu of the talk between Xi Jinping and President Trump."
Huang Kwei-bo, a professor in National Chengchi University’s Department of Diplomacy, told Fox News Digital that Taiwan shouldn't assume nothing will change. "Taiwan shouldn't rule out the possibility that the United States and mainland China could reach an understanding behind the scenes, agreeing to reduce arms sales to Taiwan, or become less active in helping us meaningfully participate in international space," he said.
In comments on Monday, President Trump acknowledged China’s dislike of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, and said the topic would be "one of the many things I'll be talking about."
Over the past week, more than 50 communist Chinese aircraft crossed the Taiwan Strait median line or entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone.
Those numbers are not a dramatic new escalation. In Taiwan, they are increasingly seen as part of a new normal: a sustained pressure campaign that falls short of war but keeps Taiwan’s military on alert. China also intentionally damages the undersea cables that connect Taiwan to the internet, hacks into Taiwan’s computer systems daily, and floods social media with content that praises the communist party.
Taiwan’s semiconductor industry is a major concern for Washington. The island is home to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., or TSMC, the dominant producer of the world’s most advanced semiconductors. Those chips are used in smartphones, cars, artificial intelligence systems and U.S. defense technology. Any conflict or blockade that cuts Taiwan off from global markets would ripple through American factories, consumers, technology companies and military planning.
However, as the leaders of the two nations most closely intertwined with Taiwan's future meet, there is no outward sense of panic here.
"Most people here are not obsessed with China every day," Audrey Chiang, who runs a tourist souvenir shop in Kaohsiung, told Fox News Digital. Chiang has a son who is just a few years away from serving one year as a military conscript, a 2024 response to China’s invasion threats. "We go to work. We worry about the next big test at our kids’ school. We complain about traffic. But everyone knows things can change very quickly."
Taiwan’s legislature on May 8 passed a near US$25 billion supplemental defense spending bill, meant in part to signal to Washington that Taipei isn’t simply depending on America to protect itself. But the package was smaller than the almost US$40 billion requested by Taiwan President Lai Ching-te’s administration.
Taipei-based American political analyst, Ross Darrell Feingold, told Fox News Digital that many in Taiwan assume that the U.S., and possibly Japan, will come to the island’s defense in the event of a war. "Going back to the Cold War when the U.S. had a treaty obligation to defend Taiwan, and even after the treaty was abrogated, the consistent assumption is that the U.S. president will send in the military to save Taiwan. More recently, there is a growing assumption Japan will do so as well. But Taiwan still must do what is necessary to prove to its partners that Taiwan’s own people will be on the front line," he said.
CHINA PROMISES 'COUNTERMEASURES' TO US ARMS SALE TO TAIWAN
Taiwan’s main political parties have major differences in their approaches to China, but broadly support U.S. arms purchases and agree that Beijing is a threat to democratic Taiwan.
Chinese officials insist Taiwan’s status is an "internal affair." Taiwan’s elected government rejects that, and so do most Taiwanese, who see Taiwan’s future as something only they should decide.
National Pingtung University Associate Professor Paul Lee is among those who think Xi Jinping is going to push the U.S. president hard on Taiwan. Speaking by phone, he told Fox News Digital that "Xi Jinping almost certainly wants one clear change from the U.S., he’ll want Trump to say the United States ‘opposes Taiwan independence’ rather than the language it uses now that is closer to ‘does not support Taiwan independence.’ To be frank, I don’t think President Trump sees Taiwan as that important – except as the producer of the world’s most advanced semiconductors, and as a source of some revenue from weapons sales." Lee notes that the difference between "doesn’t support" and "opposes" may not seem like much for Trump, but for Xi, it would be viewed as a major victory."
For Taiwan’s ruling party, and anyone in Taiwan who supports moves by Lai and his predecessor to establish at home and abroad that Taiwan is not part of China, such a change in language would come as a blow as it implies that the U.S. does not agree with the people of Taiwan having the right to self-determination on their future, Lee explained, and he said Xi Jinping wouldn’t be satisfied with Trump simply saying a few sentences.
"Trump has roughly three years left on his second term, and Xi will want to ensure the ‘oppose independence’ language translates into a new framework with new rules such as not letting Taiwan President Lai transit through the U.S., as one example. Xi knows U.S. presidents come and go, so the goal is to create a tacit agreement that Taiwan is in the Chinese sphere of influence, he said.
Lee said China has been patiently waiting for an opportune moment, and the war in Iran, tariffs and other issues facing President Trump is presenting exactly that.
Lee said Taiwan’s government and academic community will closely scrutinize the official translations of what the two sides "agree" on. "Put simply," Lee said, "if Xi Jinping agrees to help make things easier for Trump, Xi will not be satisfied with cryptically worded official press releases. He will want to see the beginning of a new U.S.-China framework for dealing with Taiwan."
