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[Zmeselo]

News | War on Iran
US considering nuclear weapons against Iran as war falters, claims Marjorie Taylor Greene

Former congresswoman and Trump ally says Washington is weighing nuclear escalation as its conventional weapons stocks run low


Former Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks during a hearing with the House Committee on Homeland Security in the Cannon House Office Building on 11 December 2025 in Washington, DC (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images via AFP)

Elis Gjevori

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-c ... lor-greene

17 August 2026

Former US Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has claimed that President Donald Trump's administration is discussing using nuclear weapons against Iran, https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/iran as Washington struggles to sustain its months-long war.

They are discussing using nuclear weapons on Iran in strategy meetings,

Greene wrote on social media late on Sunday.

I'm not speculating, I know. And it's pure evil,

she added.

Greene, once one of President Donald Trump’s closest congressional allies, urged Americans to resist any attempt to escalate the war.

People need to speak out and boldly stop this insanity.

Greene's relationship with Trump collapsed after she pressed for the release of files connected to Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted [deleted] and financier whose social circle included Trump and other powerful figures.

Greene accused Washington of launching the war on the back of warnings repeatedly promoted by Israel about Iran’s nuclear programme.

Trump and his admin were told by our own intelligence that Iran was nowhere near creating a nuclear weapon, then Israel said the same line it’s repeated for decades, ‘Iran is only weeks away,’

said Greene.

And now our government is the one actually discussing lowering the nuclear threshold in order to use nuclear weapons against Iran even though Trump claims he’s won the war like 40 times and says the U.S. controls the SoH,

she added, referring to the Strait of Hormuz.

The US and Israel launched their war on Iran on 28 February. Months of attacks have killed thousands of Iranian civilians, disrupted global energy supplies and failed to break Tehran’s grip over the vital waterway.

Greene warned that further escalation could unleash a global “nuclear holocaust”, economic depression and casualties on a scale unseen in generations.

America is not untouchable,

Greene warned.

Her intervention comes as the US military struggles with depleted weapons stocks. Reuters news agency reported that American forces had used

virtually all https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-d ... war-report

of their long-range precision missiles during the war, while heavy expenditure of Patriot and THAAD interceptors has weakened US readiness elsewhere.

NBC News reported https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/nation ... rcna587370 this month that the Pentagon was drafting a strategy that would give shorter-range tactical nuclear weapons a greater role in regional conflicts.

Our view is that we need credible nuclear options,

a senior US defence official told NBC.

The US remains the only country to have used nuclear weapons in war, destroying Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.




______________




Opinion | International law
Germany has chosen Israel over international law


Jurgen Mackert

https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/g ... tional-law

16 August 2026

The state's commitment to the murderous Netanyahu regime outstrips its dedication to preserving democracy at home


Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz are pictured in Jerusalem on 7 December 2025 (Ariel Schalit/AFP)

Two events in Germany https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/germany last month shed light on the country’s stance on international law https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/international-law and its own democracy.

On 20 July, the anniversary https://www.dw.com/en/germany-news-resi ... e-78031915 of a failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler, new German recruits were sworn in at the Bendlerblock, https://www.bmvg.de/en/history/the-bendlerblock which housed army headquarters during the Nazi period and was simultaneously the centre of a resistance group led by Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, whose members were executed at the site after their failed coup.

In recent years, during speeches at the ceremonies for new recruits, top German government officials have praised democracy and emphasised the importance of the rule of law for world peace and freedom. Yet praising the rule of law and taking it seriously are not the same thing.

This year, recruits heard from German intellectual Navid Kermani, one of the few public figures permitted to appeal to the conscience of the country’s political elite at public events.

Far from taking a radical position, he said:

None other than the German chancellor has made a habit of downplaying international law and glossing over violations of it whenever it seems politically expedient… But the threat to wipe out an entire civilisation, or the declared attack on a country’s civilian infrastructure, are such blatant injustices that one need not be a lawyer or consult one’s own conscience to recognise them.

That is undoubtedly true: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz does not appear to care one bit about international law, which the country has committed to upholding as a lesson learned from its Nazi past.

Even before taking office, he declared that he would find ways to invite Israeli https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/merz-e ... 00.%20html Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was then already facing an International Criminal Court arrest warrant, https://www.icc-cpi.int/defendant/netanyahu to Germany - regardless of the obligation under international law to execute that warrant, should Netanyahu set foot on German soil.

This did not merely display a flagrant disregard for international law and its institutions. It revealed the chancellor’s readiness to dismantle the very foundations of democracy - the separation of powers - in order to welcome the butcher of the Palestinian https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/palestine people.

'Disastrous signal'

Kermani also hinted at the nexus of external and internal developments with regard to the Iran war: https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/war-on-iran

When, of all people, a German chancellor - the only western leader to do so - defends the American president’s threat to wipe out https://www.ynetnews.com/article/2z50q33kj an entire civilisation, it is devastating not only for our reputation… The trivialisation of international law from the highest levels also sends a disastrous signal for our democracy.

For if the rule of law erodes in our foreign relations, it won’t be long before it is also discredited at home.

On 24 July, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul joined this unworthy spectacle when asked in an interview https://www.youtube.com/shorts/c00vHWCfDD0 on a local satirical show:

Does international law, as admirable as it is, also come up against the limits of realpolitik?

The minister answered:

Yes, if you’re honest, yes. That’s true. But to be honest: that’s how legal systems work. Think about yourself when you’re driving - have you always followed the rules 100 percent of the time?... The law says that when you’re driving in a built-up area, you’re only allowed to go 50. Still, some people drive faster.

He continued:

And it’s the same with international law. It’s basically the same thing. You have to deal with it. Legal systems are there to provide guidance. But they’re never followed 100 percent to the letter.

The minister was serious, without the slightest hint of satire.

Equating international law with everyday traffic rules is, of course, a shocking trivialisation and denigration of it - though, given Germany’s silence on the annihilation of more than 70,000 https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog ... ches-73293 Palestinians by Germany’s Israeli ally in Gaza, https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/is ... ocide-gaza this comes as no surprise.

What once was a significant achievement in the wake of Nazism is now, for the German chancellor and his foreign minister, nothing more than a commodity to be exploited for their own self-interest. International law has become a pawn in the hands of neoliberal western hubris.

In contrast, Kermani can see the situation clearly, and is firm in his stance against the US threat https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/05/us/p ... bled=false to send Iran https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/iran

back to the Stone Ages where they belong.

As he spoke this truth in the face of a US https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/us president who has openly mulled destroying a civilisation dating back millennia, and a German chancellor who has failed to take a stand against such horrors, observers noted the pained expression on the face of German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, who was sitting behind Kermani and had presumably expected a somewhat different speech.

Shameful complicity

But despite Kermani’s bold move to hold up a mirror to the German government at this highly symbolic event, his analysis was wrong in two respects: Iran is not the litmus test for Germany’s international standing, nor do we need to fear a future de-democratisation at home. It is already well underway.

The litmus test for Germany’s international reputation was, and still is, its shameful complicity in several ongoing crises: the genocide https://www.middleeasteye.net/explainer ... srael-gaza in Palestine, the spate of settler terrorism in the occupied https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/occupation West Bank, and the Zionist garrison state’s “total war” on Lebanon. https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/lebanon

Berlin’s backing for Israel in the current context has irrevocably ruined Germany’s international standing.

At the same time, as a result of Germany’s neoliberal restructuring, processes of de-democratisation have been ongoing for years.

The deliberate erosion of democracy has paved the way not only for the selective application of international law, but also for the restriction of fundamental rights within Germany itself.

The German population is firmly against their country’s participation in the extermination of the Palestinian people. In a recent poll, 73 percent https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads ... netanyahu/) said they had a negative view of Israel, while 80 percent https://www.plan.de/presse/pressemittei ... c=IDQ27100 have rejected further weapons exports to Israel. Despite this, German arms export https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/2 ... ub-project licenses to Israel have surged, enabling the state to continue committing war crimes.

While the German government’s blatant disregard for the will of its own people already points to a process of de-democratisation, this is exacerbated by domestic restrictions on fundamental rights, including freedom of assembly, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases ... ce-against freedom of opinion https://www.dw.com/en/germany-may-make- ... a-77980283 and speech, https://theintercept.com/2026/07/30/bob ... Newsletter and academic freedom, https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/german- ... rn/3466734 alongside violations of due process https://www.grundrechtekomitee.de/detai ... ragwuerdig - all in the service of the Zionist slaughterers.

Silence is supposed to reign in Germany. People are not supposed to know what the state is enabling the Zionists to do in Palestine, nor that Israel’s ideology of white supremacy draws a deeper commitment from Berlin than international law.

Had he mentioned Palestine, even Kermani would likely have fallen victim to the guillotine of silencing.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

Jurgen Mackert is Professor of Sociology at the University of Potsdam, Germany. He was a temporary Professor for the Structure of modern societies at the University of Erfurt, Germany and a visiting professor for Political Sociology at Humboldt University Berlin. His latest books include On Social Closure. Theorizing Exclusion, Exploitation, and Elimination (Oxford University Press 2024). Siedlerkolonialismus. Grundlagentexte und aktuelle Analysen (edited with Ilan Pappe; Nomos 2024).

[Dark Energy]

No no no.
That is unthinkable. Once a nuclear warhead is deployed, that would cause reactionary responses from all nuclear owned countries . It meants, reactionary responses that would end the very end of human kind if not the transformation of animal like creatures on this earth.

[Zmeselo]

Opinion | Israel's genocide in Gaza
Why the Mecca Agreement has given the UAE-Israel alliance the jitters


David Hearst

https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/w ... he-jitters

17 August 2026

With their destructive wars, Netanyahu and Trump have brought the Gulf to the brink of destruction - the Mecca pact represents rightful pushback for their recklessness


Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan is received by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, ahead of the expected signing of a defence deal between Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey, in Mecca on 7 August, 2026 (Reuters)

Intelligence services don’t like surprises, especially those who pride themselves on being able to listen in on any conversation anywhere in the world.

The Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/t ... w-of-force signed on 7 August, came as a surprise to the Emirati https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/uae and Israeli https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/israel intelligence services. The Emiratis only found out about it two weeks before it was declared and by then it was too late.

Turkey’s https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/turkey Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan had made little secret of his wish to create a Muslim alliance https://www.trtafrika.com/english/article/18039990 in reaction to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/is ... ocide-gaza

He had his setbacks, but never lost hope in the project.

But Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, played his cards closer to his chest, making moves that each side in the Iran war could interpret as collegiate.

After Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman signed a peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/trum ... tion-risks in Washington last month, the US https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/us President Donald Trump appeared to scupper it by demanding https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/w ... ic-mistake retrospectively that Saudi normalise ties with Israel.

Saudi and US air strikes targeted those Popular Mobilisation Force militias who were commanded https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/2 ... overeignty by "advisers” from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in southern Iraq. https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/iraq

Saudi intelligence, according to Saudi and other sources in the region, had got word https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/06/middleea ... latam-intl that they were about to mount cross border raids into Kuwait. https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/kuwait

Saudi jets had also attacked Sanaa in Yemen, https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/yemen as the ceasefire with Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis, unravelled as rockets and drones fell on Saudi oil installations. https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saud ... one-attack

Fundamental changes

To the coalition of states who had joined in the US and Israeli attack on Iran, it looked as if an initially sceptical MBS was - at last- coming on their side.

Like all Gulf leaders, MBS may have had conflicting advice. But joining the US military campaign on Iran was very far from his thinking.

For the simple truth is that while the two core military campaigns against Iran and Gaza have become frozen conflicts, and are set to stay that way for some time to come, fundamental changes are taking place in the region around them.

Launching three wars against Iran, Gaza and Lebanon, https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/lebanon and failing to win any of them, but being equally unwilling to retreat, has its consequences on the allies which host US bases.

Particularly on the Saudi mindset.

For that group of Saudi foreign policy analysts, who were educated in the west, to witness two US presidents arming Israel’s genocide, was a rite of passage. They could no longer count themselves in the western camp.

And to then see how the US was unable to defend its own airbases in the region, let alone their host country’s strategic assets, was to heap disdain on contempt.

Dr Ahmed Altuwaijri, https://www.middleeasteye.net/users/dr-ahmed-altuwaijri a former member of the Saudi Shura Council, is at pains to say he does not speak for the Saudi foreign ministry. However, he is a good example of the Saudi intelligentsia to which I am referring.

The Mecca Defence Agreement is coming into life at a crucial time. Everyone has lost faith in Trump. This agreement serves the interests of the whole region, not just those three countries.

It is reshaping the region and will continue to do so, with more countries joining in the future from the Arab world and Islamic world, joining such agreements,

he told me.

For his former regional allies, Trump has been exposed in this conflict by his inability to turn his war aims into reality.

Not winning, or being locked into a stalemate, rather than the stupidity of launching a war of regime change, turns out to be Trump’s original sin.

Iran's negotiators have understood this and want to prolong the current impasse over the Strait of Hormuz https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Jm5MAHO3zfo until Trump’s midterm elections, after which they calculate there is a good chance he could lose control https://edition.cnn.com/2026/08/15/poli ... n-strategy of Congress and return to the negotiating table in a weaker position.

All three founding members of the agreement have something to gain.

Dr Altuwaijri said:

It serves Pakistan in its feud against India. It serves Turkey, who has found its membership of Nato insufficient deterrence against Israel’s overt threats against it. They openly said that after Iran had been dealt with Turkey was next.

And it serves Saudi Arabia, which will benefit not just from the military power of Turkey and Pakistan, but their intelligence and planning.

Out of the shadows

Israeli diplomatic and military strategists have been saying for some time that they want to build an alliance against a "Sunni" Muslim pact, and their military cooperation with the United Arab Emirates was the core of this.

The joint US-Israeli attack on Iran brought that alliance out of the shadows.

It moved from being covert - with visits by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and accompanying military delegation to Abu Dhabi being denied by the hosts https://www.mofa.gov.ae/en/mediahub/new ... uae-isreal - to overt.

For them, the Abraham Accords, to which Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ), UAE president, was an enthusiastic signatory, had been tested by fire. https://www.gisreportsonline.com/r/isra ... ense-ties/

Israel deployed its most sensitive and high-tech kit to Abu Dhabi, which at the time was taking a big hit from Iranian missiles and drones.

Israel also deployed https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/repo ... g-war-iran an Iron Dome battery and troops as well as Iron Beam, a battlefield laser, and Spectro, an electro optical system to detect drones.

The deployment of Israel's most advanced defence systems under direct Israeli command to an Arab country was seen at the time as groundbreaking.

But it was only just the start of a much bigger regional ambition.

Once Israel’s foes had all been crushed, an alliance, extending from India to the Eastern Mediterranean, would place Israel at the crossroads of a highway of oil, gas, finance and high tech trade.

America and the west could retreat at last, leaving the military keys to the region in Tel Aviv’s hands.

The traditional Arab centres of power like Egypt https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/egypt and Syria https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/syria were destined under this plan to wane, either hopelessly bankrupt or split into confessional and ethnic cantons of power, which is what Israel still plans for Ahmed Sharaa’s Syria.

Both the UAE and Israel had similar interests in stoking civil wars in Yemen, Sudan, https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/sudan Libya, https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/libya and using breakaway states like Somaliland https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/isra ... n-official to set up a spider’s web of forward operating military bases to police their new seaborne empire.

The Mecca Defence Agreement is a counterweight to this project, if not its nemesis.

Competing alliances

Its first effect will be to deepen and accelerate the strategic rivalry between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, its small but highly active neighbour.

This can be measured by monitoring the social media posts of influencers each country deploys.

As social media is strictly controlled in each Gulf state and influencers can only post under licence, their posts are an accurate reflection of current official thinking.

After the Emiratis were expelled from Yemen https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/y ... -abu-dhabi in December 2025, Dr Abdulkhaleq Abdullah, associate professor in the department of political science at United Arab Emirates University posted

We do have differences over Yemen 100%, and the difference has gone to a higher level with current escalation. Allies clash… But they mend their differences and build on what they have in common.

But by January, his mood had darkened.

The rift between Saudi Arabia and the UAE is deeper than what is at play in Yemen.

The Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud said

Please wait, video is loading...

at the time the future of relations between the two depended on

mutual respect for sovereignty and national security.

This period ended with the UAE banning Al Arabiya X accounts and leaving Opec. https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog ... aving-opec

Last month, there was a brief rapprochement. Turki Al Sheikh, Saudi Royal Court Adviser, posted https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saud ... -relations a photo of Saudi Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman Al Saud and the UAE Vice President Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan in each other’s arms.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE: a story of brotherly relations and a deeply rooted partnership.

While Anwar Gargash, former UAE foreign minister, heartedly agreed

The biggest story in the Gulf is captured in a single photograph.

Abdulla bin Mohammed bin [deleted] Al Hamed, https://www.nmo.gov.ae/en/about/chairman chairman of the UAE National Media Authority, concluded:

Emirati-Saudi relations are an extension of a shared history and deep-rooted fraternal ties between two brotherly peoples, united by a single destiny.

But this destiny was not to stay shared for long.

Abdulkhaleq Abdullah was incandescent at the Mecca Agreement:

If this agreement is not an alliance, then what is the name that befits it? Was it done with the knowledge of the GCC states? Does it strengthen the Gulf Joint Defence Agreement of 2000 which collapsed because of Iranian aggression?

Then he posted in Trump-like capitals:

Gulf cooperation is NOT in its best state - it suffers from neglect by its major states who search for security OUTSIDE the Gulf house. The rush to establish regional political axes and military alliances comes at the expense of Gulf cooperation and weakens it.

To which Prince Abdulrahman bin Musaed replied

What’s the problem, Doctor? Isn’t it the right of any state to make agreements with any country as it sees fit? Isn’t this a sovereign matter for every state? Or does this principle not seem logical to you when it concerns Saudi Arabia?!

Dr Ahmed Al-Sanie, also from Saudi Arabia, posted

Five years ago, the idea that an Emirati account would attack 'Saudi strategic depth' was like science fiction. The Mecca agreement exposed the bitter truth: we disagreed because Riyadh decided to be the ‘beating heart’ of Gulf decision-making, not merely the 'funding heart' for others’ ambitions.

The Saudis now fully expect MBZ to make life as difficult as possible for them in Yemen and Sudan. https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/sudan

One analyst, speaking on condition of anonymity said:

The situation will get worse between Saudi and UAE, the UAE will purposefully complicate and sabotage things in Yemen and Sudan, and they will push Egypt to take more serious and public stances against the Saudis.

If it got to this level, I am told, the kingdom might be tempted to look at regime change in Abu Dhabi, as this would be the easiest way to stop the local feud.

The kingdom has many allies in the Emirates who are keeping their head down and staying silent, but who are just as critical of the path MBZ is taking them all on, not least his alliance with Netanyahu.

The Saudis are serious about reclaiming power over their own strategic decisions, which is one reason why they opposed https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saud ... ources-say the inclusion of Egypt in the Mecca Agreement.

Firstly, both Saudi Arabia and Pakistan had doubts about the security of their military alliance. They thought Egypt would leak information to the Israelis or the Americans. Secondly, they doubted what practical military benefits the Egyptian army would bring to their alliance.

Last week, Hakan Fidan stated during a brief visit to Egypt that he hoped Egypt will join Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in the Mecca Agreement. Fidan assured that he hopes

Egypt will be an official partner and that the quartet will continue its work.

Protection and answers

The two competing military alliances are being framed in Washington as an alliance of strategic depth, versus an alliance which is nimble and transactional.

At first glance, the UAE-Israel bloc delivers more tangible gains for both parties, but the Mecca pact may ultimately resonate more broadly and less transactionally,

Theodore Singer, a former US intelligence officer, told Middle East Eye.

But the Mecca Agreement wins hands down when you look at it through the lens of legitimacy, a concept which admittedly is not often summoned in a landscape of absolute rulers and dictators.

Many view Saudi Arabia as the beating heart of the Muslim world. Israel and its followers are, in comparison, recent and wholly western arrivals on the security scene of the region.

Thanks to America, Israel may have the cutting military edge but it lacks the regional legitimacy to wield it. Furthermore, these wars are not achieving their military aims.

Netanyahu and Trump have brought the Gulf to the brink of destruction, and the war has brought traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to a stop.

Trump is trapped. If he does a deal with Iran, it will be on Iran’s terms. If he fights on, the domestic opposition before an election will spiral,

Dr Altuwaijri said.

In both Gaza and southern Lebanon Israel is building major infrastructure https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/ceas ... -and-syria works to cement their presence.

Withdrawal is not on the cards on either front. Frustrated in its military aims to dismantle Hamas and Hezbollah, but told by Trump to stop, Israel’s response is to dig in.

In these circumstances, the Arab world will increasingly look to the Mecca Alliance for protection and for answers.

Whether or not they find them, it is the only mechanism powerful enough to create the very thing that has been absent from three years of war - a region that pushes back and which extracts a cost for this sort of wild, madcap adventurism.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

David Hearst is co-founder and editor-in-chief of Middle East Eye. He is a commentator and speaker on the region and analyst on Saudi Arabia. He was the Guardian's foreign leader writer, and was correspondent in Russia, Europe, and Belfast. He joined the Guardian from The Scotsman, where he was education correspondent.
Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond.

[Halafi Mengedi]

It's pure bluffing, just propaganda consumption to scare Iran.

1. US generals will not allow him to use it, the vice president is in charge and gets briefing events around the world not Trump, he is a dead man walking.

2. US cannot use Nuclear due to on going Ukraine war, that is if US use Nuke on Iran, Russia automatically use Nuke on Ukraine and get away free with US.

3. The world economy will be in depression overnight and America cannot afford it specially the Republican party and their follower who owned the world wealth.