A Frank Discussion Between Two Good Friends — And What That Signals for the West

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Mark Rutte isn’t hedging. The NATO Secretary General offered a full-throated endorsement of President Trump’s global security record this week, telling CNN the world is “absolutely” safer under his leadership — a direct verdict, delivered without diplomatic softening, in the middle of one of the alliance’s most consequential moments. “Absolutely, because this is thanks to President Trump’s leadership,” Rutte said, pointing to American military action that has degraded Iran’s military capabilities. He made the stakes plain: “Degrading these capabilities is really, really very important for your and my safety here in the U.S., in Europe, in the Middle East.” That

The Fragile Cease-fire: How Trump Is Trying to Hold the Middle East Together

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Something unusual is happening in the Middle East — a superpower is asking its closest ally to hold back, and the ally is listening. President Trump has privately urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to scale down strikes in Lebanon. The request is delicate, pointed, and timed: negotiations with Iran are imminent, and Washington doesn’t want the cease-fire framework — already fragile, already contested — shaken loose before talks can begin. Both leaders have maintained, for public consumption, that Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah falls outside the scope of any Iran deal. But Trump, according to reports, went further in private,

Trump: Peace Talks With Iran Coming ‘Very Soon’ — But Vance May Sit It Out

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The guns have gone quiet. Now comes the harder part. President Trump told The New York Post that peace talks with Iran are expected to take place in Pakistan “very soon” — a consequence of Tuesday’s cease-fire agreement that ended 39 days of fighting. Pakistan has proposed hosting a summit in Islamabad as early as Friday, following intensive negotiations led by Trump’s team, including Vice President JD Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff. But there is already a complication. Trump indicated that Vance may not make the trip. “There’s a question of safety, security,” the president said in a phone

Ghost Leader: Is Iran Being Run by a Man in a Coma?

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(Photo by Reza B / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images)

A new intelligence assessment is raising a question that cuts to the heart of the Iran crisis: Is anyone actually in charge? The report, first cited by The Times of London, claims that Mojtaba Khamenei — the 56-year-old son elevated as successor following reports of his father’s death during initial strikes — is receiving medical treatment in the holy city of Qom. According to the memo, he has been effectively sidelined from governing due to his injuries. If accurate, the implications are not merely significant. They are destabilizing. His absence from public view has produced a fog of competing claims.

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