| DAILY ALERT |
Thursday, April 9, 2026 |
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Iran has now agreed to a ceasefire and reopening the Strait of Hormuz as the Trump Administration negotiates a broader peace agreement. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said, "Iran begged for this ceasefire - and we all know it." Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine said there were "three distinct military objectives: destroy Iran's ballistic missile and drone capabilities, destroy the Iranian navy, and destroy their defense industrial base to ensure that Iran cannot reconstitute the ability to project power outside their borders. Over the course of 38 days of major combat operation, the joint force achieved the military objectives." Iran's ballistic missile arsenal and production capacity has been razed. The regime can no longer manufacture ballistic missiles and long-range drones. More than 85% of the regime's defense industrial base has been destroyed. Iran's air forces have been functionally neutered. Iran's navy has been obliterated. Iran's space program has been devastated. (White House) Vice President JD Vance accused Iran of jeopardizing peace negotiations over Israel's continued bombardment of Hizbullah, insisting that the current ceasefire agreement with the U.S. had never included Lebanon. "I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn't. We never made that promise. We never indicated that was going to be the case. What we said is that the ceasefire would be focused on Iran and the ceasefire would be focused on America's allies." "If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart, in a conflict where they were getting hammered, over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them, and which the U.S. never once said was part of the ceasefire, that's ultimately their choice. We think that would be dumb." (New York Times) Persian Gulf countries reported dozens of Iranian missile and drone attacks on Wednesday, after a ceasefire was declared between the U.S. and Iran. Kuwait said Wednesday that the country had faced 28 Iranian drone attacks, some of which targeted "vital oil and power facilities" and caused extensive damage. The UAE reported 17 ballistic missiles and 35 drone attacks launched by Iran since the beginning of the ceasefire. The Saudi defense ministry said Wednesday it had intercepted nine drones. (New York Times) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
The IDF on Wednesday targeted more than 100 Hizbullah sites in Lebanon within 10 minutes, including headquarters, intelligence command centers, and infrastructure tied to its missile and naval forces, its Radwan Force and aerial unit. (Ynet News) See also How the IDF Pierced Hizbullah's Hidden Command Core - Yossi Yehoshua Wednesday's massive surprise strike on Hizbullah was planned before the current war. When Hizbullah changed its deployment, the IDF succeeded in locating the new headquarters and struck commanders inside them. Nearly all of Hizbullah's clandestine headquarters were hit in the opening strike and some 300-350 Hizbullah operatives, including senior commanders, were killed. The operation was described as more significant than the 2024 exploding-pager attack, which primarily eliminated field operatives. (Ynet News) After Wednesday's heavy IDF strikes against Hizbullah, the number of its operatives killed since the start of the current war has surpassed 1,500, a senior security official said. IDF forces are now encircling the Shiite Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, located 4 km. from the Israeli border. Israeli troops caught dozens of Hizbullah terrorists by surprise who had taken refuge in the town. Some were killed while escaping, while IDF units move slowly and cautiously to locate others and clear the town of Hizbullah presence. While President Trump has clarified that Israel remains free to continue fighting in Lebanon despite the ceasefire, Iran continues to insist that Lebanon is part of the agreement. The IDF assesses that Iran seeks to preserve the ceasefire and will likely limit its response to extending the closure of the Strait of Hormuz rather than launching direct attacks on Israel. (Ynet News) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
Iran I suggest that anyone swept up in the euphoria of claims that Israel's war in Iran was a failure should look at the information and analysis coming from American sources. It is hard to believe that such a large-scale operation, in which, according to the Israel Air Force, target destruction rates were 10 to 20 times greater than in the 12-day war in June 2025, is being portrayed by talking heads as a failure. By any measure, this was the most successful military operation since the IDF and the Israel Air Force began conducting such operations. Israel and the U.S. achieved the objective of destroying every production cycle, every component, and every plant and laboratory connected to Iran's nuclear project. Security needs mean neutralizing the nuclear threat and reducing missile-launch capabilities. The Iranians could have raced ahead and built a missile wall that would deter Israel and the U.S. from taking military action against them, as North Korea did in its time. That parallel missile and nuclear race was cut short. This is an enormous success. Trump and Netanyahu acted against the trend that had prevailed in the U.S. and Israel over the past 35 years. They chose military action, and they succeeded. The precedent set by this dual alliance, combined with demonstrated military superiority, carries enormous significance. (Israel Hayom) Iran's response to the war launched by the U.S. and Israel provides a reason beyond pure American self-interest to end the rule of the ayatollahs. Tehran broadened the conflict by attacking civilians in neighboring countries uninvolved in the war. A regime that launches systematic warfare against civilians violates the core rules of civilized warfare. The U.S. and Israel would do the world enormous good by ending a regime that flouts our common moral norms in such a flagrant and destructive manner. Iran has launched missiles and drones at Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Jordan - nations that had committed no aggression against Iran and posed no threat of attack against Iran. It also attacked neutral vessels in the Persian Gulf and prevented them from passing through the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. and Israel have sought to conduct the war with the highest regard for minimizing civilian casualties. Compared to this, Iran has struck major civilian targets in neighboring countries, including residential buildings, airports, utilities, and ports. Iran hit the Aramco complex at Ras Tanura in Saudi Arabia, the Ras Laffan LNG facility in Qatar, oil and gas facilities in the UAE, and a water desalination plant in Bahrain, none of which are American military assets. It fired missiles at the Old City of Jerusalem, landing fragments 1,200 meters from the Temple Mount and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. It struck residential areas in Dimona and Arad, wounding over a hundred civilians, including children. It has fired more than 350 ballistic missiles at Israel, half carrying cluster munitions designed to scatter explosive bomblets in civilian neighborhoods. The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world's most important shipping lanes and a waterway governed by the international law of the sea, which guarantees free passage to all neutral nations. Tehran's disruption of the Strait is pure economic blackmail against the rest of the world. Iran effectively attacks the rest of the world by targeting purely civilian ships. The rules of war are not complicated. Militaries may strike military targets. Militaries may not deliberately target civilians or threaten the commerce of neutral nations. Iran has crossed those lines repeatedly. Tehran's flouting of all the rules of morality in war explains why the U.S. and Israel were right to confront the Islamic Republic now, rather than wait for its threat to gain in strength in the future, potentially wielding nuclear weapons. The writer is a senior research fellow at the Civitas Institute, and a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin. (Civitas Outlook) The announcement of a two-week ceasefire in the war between the U.S., Israel and Iran resolves none of the issues which caused the conflict. From Israel's point of view, the Iranian regime has been significantly weakened in its capacities in a number of key areas. At the same time, its intentions remain unchanged. This means that the long war is set to continue. Israel wants to use the entrance of Hizbullah into the war on March 4 as an opportunity to establish a buffer zone north of the border, inside Lebanon, to put the residents of Israel's border communities out of range of Hizbullah's anti-tank missiles and free of the constant danger of an Oct. 7-style ground incursion. This process is not yet completed and five IDF divisions are currently in Lebanon engaged against Hizbullah south of the Litani River. For Israel, a lull in operations against Iran with Lebanon still an active front would enable air power to be deployed in greater force against Hizbullah. From Israel's point of view, the ceasefire with Iran does not extend to Lebanon. The essential components of the regional strategic picture remain in place. Iran remains an aggressive and dangerous power, with the ambition of expelling the U.S. from the region, dominating the Gulf states, and destroying Israel. The U.S., Israel, and the Gulf states remain determined to resist Iranian ambitions. The events of the last five weeks represent a round in this ongoing struggle. Israel and the U.S. have demonstrated their vast conventional military advantage over the Iranians. They have also not yet demonstrated the capacity to turn that advantage into a strategy able to bring the struggle to a successful strategic conclusion by toppling the Tehran regime - the only way that this will end. The writer is director of research at the Middle East Forum. (Spectator-UK) How would you describe a nation which has had almost all of its navy and air force destroyed, most of its leadership assassinated, its military commanders killed, its air defense and radar sites taken out, along with many of its leading scientists, its ballistic missile stockpiles destroyed, and over a thousand of its domestic and global terror commanders killed? Former UK national security adviser Lord Ricketts told the BBC that "Iran has come out stronger." The narrative that "Iran is now more powerful, the U.S. weakened" is now everywhere - and growing. It's a strange kind of victory for Iran, which has also had its proxy army Hamas reduced to rubble, seen the leadership of Hizbullah taken out, had its Syrian stooge Assad removed, had much of its economic infrastructure destroyed - and will more than likely now have to deal with an internal uprising that has been biding its time. Much of the commentary today has taken Iran's list of ten "demands" as some kind of blueprint of a deal, rather than as the crazed propaganda that they are. You need to be - let's be blunt - a Grade A idiot to think that these ten points are the basis for anything. The only "achievement" of the regime is that it remains in charge of Iran. But the idea that this is guaranteed to last, and that the possibility of its collapse is no longer real, is merely an assertion. The writer was the editor of the Jewish Chronicle from 2008-2021. (Jewish Chronicle-UK) Israel's campaign in Iran also hit the architecture of domestic repression: intelligence compounds, police stations, Basij bases, judicial buildings, and senior officials tied to crackdowns. At least 130 sites tied to internal repression were destroyed or hit, including 57 Basij buildings or bases, 43 police facilities, 10 Revolutionary Guards compounds, and 11 security complexes involved in repression. Other targets included judicial buildings and the state broadcaster. Iran International sources put the toll among security forces at nearly 5,000 dead and 21,000 wounded. (Iran International) Hossein Yekta, a member of the Ammar Headquarters, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's academic think tank, said on March 23, 2026, on Iran's Channel 3: "47 years have passed since the beginning of the Revolution. Have we retreated? No!...Now we are at the walls of Jerusalem." "We are heading toward a decisive resolution between the Israelites and the Ishmaelites. This is a conflict between the sons of Israel and the sons of Ishmael. The Infallible Imam said that the Iranians would enter Jerusalem and carry out a massacre there The Iranians say: 'Kill! Kill!' The Infallible Imam said: 'Kill! Kill!'" (MEMRI-TV) The U.S. and Israel succeeded in further degrading Iran's nuclear program beyond what they did in June 2025. The main nuclear sites were bombed again. The regime now knows the U.S. will monitor any new nuclear activity and can always strike again. This is a better check on its chances of getting a bomb than another piece of diplomatic paper. The nearly 40 days of bombing also did enormous damage to Iran's military and its industrial base. Its navy is destroyed, its air defenses gone, and its drone and missile stockpiles and production substantially degraded. This will take years to rebuild, even with the likely help of Russia and China. All of this was accomplished with minimal American losses. The demonstration effect of the U.S. military's combined arms operation against Russian and Chinese air defenses won't be lost on the world. (Wall Street Journal) The Trump administration and the Israelis have destroyed a long list of Iranian military assets that will take years and billions to replace. I doubt those years will include a reflowering of the Iranian economy, new domestic popularity for the regime, or neighbors letting bygones be bygones. And the mullahs will be more taxed than ever to fend off opposition both internal and external. To say Iran is sitting pretty would be a misreading. (Wall Street Journal) Observations: Netanyahu: "We Have Dramatically Changed the Face of the Middle East in Israel's Favor" (Prime Minister's Office) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday evening:
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