Middle East

NBC News -   Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi rejected calls for a ceasefire in the Middle East, telling NBC News' "Meet the Press" that his country needs "to continue fighting for the sake of our people."  Pressed on whether Iran is receiving Russian support, Araghchi said that "cooperation between Iran and Russia is not something new, it's not a secret." He did not say whether Russian intelligence was helping Iran locate U.S. military assets. "They are helping us in many different directions, I don't have any detailed information," he said. 

NPR-    Within a week, the U.S. and Israel's war with Iran has quickly expanded globally. China said it would send a special envoy to the Middle East to mediate, and the U.K. said it wouldn’t allow the U.S. to use British military bases for any offensive attacks on Iran. These maps capture the fallout, highlighting where the fighting is happening and how the war has had ripple effects on economic markets.

The Guardian -   Since the second world war the US has set out to oust a government in the Middle East on average once a decade, and on almost every occasion it has left the country, and the US, worse off as unexpected consequences eventually emerge. As Donald Trump embarks on yet another regime change – this time in Iran, a country of 90 million people – the sense of foreboding is profound. Already the timelines are extending, and the sense is growing by the day that Trump is gambling with the fate of a country about which he knows next to nothing.

The Guardian -   The body in charge of selecting a new supreme leader for Iran says it has reached a decision – although the name was not immediately announced.  Israel has warned it would target any figure chosen to replace Ali Khamenei, who was killed in joint US-Israeli strikes on the first day of the war with Iran.

“The most suitable candidate, approved by the majority of the Assembly of Experts, has been determined,” Mohsen Heydari, a member of the selection body, said on Sunday, according to Iran’s ISNA news agency. Another member, Mohammad Mehdi Mirbagheri, confirmed in a video carried by Iran’s Fars news agency that “a firm opinion reflecting the majority view has been reached”. Ayatollah Mohsen Heidari Alekasir suggested the figure chosen to succeed the supreme leader would most probably be someone opposed by Washington.

New Yorker -   For Operation Epic Fury, the Trump Administration has so far deployed nearly half the United States’ air power and roughly a third of its naval assets. The cost is nearly nine hundred million dollars a day, the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated. Much like the initial “shock and awe” campaign during Operation Iraqi Freedom, in 2003, the first week of the war was militarily stunning. The Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and dozens of senior officials were killed. Iran’s arsenal of ballistic missiles was seriously depleted and its strategic installations left in rubble. Its navy was devastated; a U.S. submarine torpedoed an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean, the first such strike since the Second World War. Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense, boasted, “More and larger waves are coming. We are just getting started.” Iran’s capabilities, he added, are “evaporating.”