TOP STORIES
How Trump’s Ruse to Evade an Iranian Threat Unfolded on the Tarmac in Turkey | Wall Street Journal
“As President Trump’s motorcade rushed through Turkey’s capital to the airport, his security team had an urgent decision to make. U.S. and Israeli intelligence in July had uncovered a threat by Iranian proxies to launch a lightweight, shoulder-fired missile at Trump’s plane as he departed Ankara, according to U.S. and Middle East officials. In a worst-case scenario, a militant would evade tight security at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit, stand about a half-mile away from the airport, and use a man-portable air-defense system, or Manpad, to strike the jet, said officials who have seen or been briefed on the intelligence. While the plane would later be accompanied by jet fighters in the air, according to White House aides, the aircraft would have been vulnerable as it took off under such a scenario. Some U.S. officials thought the alleged plot was impractical, implausible, even impossible. Turkish officials would later tell regional counterparts that they found no evidence Trump was ever in danger of a Manpad attack, Middle East officials said. But with little time to confirm incoming details and the U.S. in the middle of a war with Iran, the Secret Service took no risks and devised a plan that seemed ripped from the pages of a political thriller.”
Iran Could Prolong War to Outlast Trump, IRGC Adviser Says | Iran International
“A senior adviser to the commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Tehran could deliberately prolong the war until US President Donald Trump leaves office to wear down its adversaries and deter future attacks.”
GOP Senators Not Happy with Trump Administration’s Handling of Iran Funding Request | The Hill
“Republican senators are criticizing the Trump administration’s handling of an emergency request for $70 billion in defense spending to cover the costs of the Iran conflict and warning that the Pentagon will need to do a better job explaining its war plan to get the money. GOP senators emerged from a briefing with Vice President Vance last week, underwhelmed by the insights they got into the conflict and complaining that the status of U.S. missile reserves remains murky at best.”
UANI IN THE NEWS
Interview with UANI CEO Amb. Mark D. Wallace | C-SPAN
“We believe that no deal was better than a bad deal, and I think that Iran has never, historically, been willing to enter into a deal that is aligned with peace and [the] status quo with the United States and Israel. They’ve always been hostile. They are almost like a mafia-like thugocracy, if you will. The IRGC, which controls the country, is very much a mafia-like organization, and the moment they strike a deal with the United States and try to rejoin the community of nations, that mafia infrastructure is less relevant and can become weakened. So I don’t think it will be at all possible to strike a deal with the leaders of that country, that oligarchy, that mafia, if you will, because I don’t think they’re capable of doing it, because it conflicts with their economic and their regional hegemonic interests.”
Interview with UANI Policy Director Jason M. Brodsky | i24 News
“'I think the Syrian model is a success story for the nuclear non-proliferation regime, but there’s a critical difference here: there’s been regime change in Syria but there has not been regime change in Iran.”
MILITARY MATTERS & SHIPPING
IRGC Threatens to Target Global Energy and Internet Infrastructure if Iran Attacked Again | IranWire
“Hossein Mohebbi, spokesperson for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has threatened that, in the event of a renewed attack on Iran, energy transmission lines, power plants, U.S. and non-U.S. systems, and internet-connected global infrastructure will be targeted.”
IRGC Official Claims Iran’s Missile Production Exceeds Usage | IranWire
“Mohammad Reza Naqdi, Senior Advisor to the IRGC Commander-in-Chief, emphasized the continuation of missile production in Iran, asserting that the production rate of ballistic missiles exceeds their operational launch rate and that Iran’s missile stockpiles will not be depleted.”
Gulf Oil Giants Are Spending Billions to Build Ways Around Strait of Hormuz | New York Times
“Gulf countries that have for decades produced much of the world’s oil are now intent on breaking their dependence on the narrow waterway. They are building or expanding pipelines and other infrastructure that can bypass it, and vastly expanding storage capacity in places like Asia. These endeavors show how the war is changing the oil business in the Persian Gulf. They will cost billions of dollars and take years to complete, but companies and governments consider them essential hedges in an increasingly volatile region. Even if a cease-fire between the United States and Iran materializes, Gulf exporters recognize that relying too heavily on a single transit route is a risk they can no longer afford to take. And the moves, over time, could diminish Iran’s clout in the region.”
Strait of Hormuz Ship Traffic near Three-Month Low as U.S.-Iran Deal in Doubt | CNBC
“Ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is near a three-month low as doubt grows that the U.S. and Iran will reach an agreement to fully open the key Middle East oil export corridor. . . . Traffic is about 90% lower than the daily average of 130 ships that transited Hormuz before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. However, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Tuesday that oil exports through Hormuz have reached a seven-day average of nearly 9 million barrels per day as tankers transit the strait with U.S. military assistance. . . . ‘Many private businesses undercount the number of ships leaving the Strait of Hormuz due to ships moving covertly through the waterway,’ the energy secretary said in a social media post.”
Trump Says Hormuz Is Under U.S. Control. Few Ships Are Listening | Wall Street Journal
“President Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. has total control of the Strait of Hormuz. The reality on the water tells a different story. Ship-tracking data shows that just 14 vessels on Tuesday crossed a waterway that routinely handled more than 130 a day before the war. Eleven of those ships took the route administered by Iran. Traffic was slow throughout July, with an average of 26 crossings a day, and in June, with 33 a day, as renewed Iranian attacks on ships cut short a deal to open the strait. The disconnect shows how Tehran has managed to squelch traffic through the crucial energy chokepoint with relatively little military force, only a handful of drone and missile attacks on ships. Iran doesn’t need to defeat the U.S. Navy. It just needs shipping companies, captains and insurers to fear that defying it could put their ships at risk.”
IRGC Quds Force Commander Urges Iraqi Factions to Keep Their Weapons—Al Hadath | Iran International
“IRGC Quds Force Commander Esmail Qaani urged Iran-backed Iraqi factions to keep their weapons during a visit to Baghdad, Al Hadath reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources. Qaani criticized groups that had agreed to surrender their arms, arguing that weapons already handed to the Iraqi government belonged to Iran, according to the report. He reportedly told Iraqi leaders to use the factions as leverage against Washington and argued that the Iraqi government would lose any confrontation with the Iran-backed armed groups.”
Land Routes Cannot Replace Iran’s Blocked Sea Trade, Chamber Official Warns | Iran International
“Replacing a single ship carrying essential goods to Iran would require about 2,500 trucks, a Chamber of Commerce official warned, saying land routes cannot offset the US maritime blockade and negotiations are the only realistic way to restore trade.”
Trump Hails ‘Wall of Steel’ Blockade, Says US Will Keep Control of Strait of Hormuz | Euronews
“‘The U.S.A. has total control over the Strait of Hormuz. I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT!’ Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform. ‘Our Naval Blockade is being called, by everyone, ‘A WALL OF STEEL,’ and there is nothing Iran can do about it.’”
Iran, US Make Competing Claims over Control of Strait of Hormuz | Reuters
“The Strait of Hormuz is ‘under Iran's control and management,’ the recently appointed head of Iran’s Basij paramilitary unit said on Thursday, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States had ‘total control’ of the strategic waterway.”
“A top adviser to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says Iranian officials have seen ‘how the American military is weaker than what we perceived’ since the United States and Israel first launched their attack on Iran in February of this year, as talks to end the fighting continue to stall. In a rare IRGC interview with Western media, Brig.-Gen. Mohammad Reza Naqdi told PBS News Hour in an interview aired Tuesday that Iran has not reached their ‘final objective’ when asked if they have won the war.”
US Ship Strike Tests Tehran’s Narrative of Victory in Hormuz | Iran International
“US strike on a container ship approaching an Iranian port has complicated Tehran’s narrative of a strategic victory against Washington over the Strait of Hormuz. . . . Iranian officials remained relatively quiet on the incident through Wednesday afternoon. Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei, speaking to Press TV, instead denounced the wider US blockade as ‘dishonorable and illegal.’”
ASSASSINATION THREATS & PLOTS
Trump Confirms He Left NATO Summit on Decoy Flight over Iran Threat | Global News
“U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed Tuesday that he was instructed to switch planes after it was reported that he secretly moved to a decoy aircraft during his departure from a NATO summit in Turkey. Speaking on the subterfuge involving his flight from Ankara in early July, during which the president stowed away in an airport catering container to sneak onto another plane due to an Iranian threat while Air Force One took off still loaded with journalists and staff, Trump said, ‘I guess there was a threat out there. I didn’t really ask too much about it. I get a lot of threats.’”
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
Iranian Photojournalist Faces 15 Years in Prison over Images, Reporting | Reuters
“Acclaimed Iranian photojournalist Yalda Moaiery has spent much of her career documenting moments of dissent and the lives of women in Iran. The work has repeatedly brought her into conflict with the authorities, and on Iran’s National Journalist Day on Saturday she learned she had been sentenced to 15 years in prison. The sentence was handed down under a law enacted after a 12-day war between Israel and Iran in 2025, legislation that Iranian authorities say is intended to combat espionage and cooperation with hostile states.”
EU, 26 Countries Condemn Iran’s Executions of Protesters | Reuters
“The EU and 26 countries condemned Iran’s executions of protesters in a joint statement, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Wednesday. The countries called on Iran to listen to its people, take meaningful steps toward ensuring respect for human rights, immediately end use of the death penalty and release those arbitrarily detained.”
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS
Iran Loses Ground in Oil Market as Neighbors Rebound | Dalga Khatinoglu for Iran International
“OPEC oil production continued its sharp post-war recovery in July, but Iran remained a notable exception, with output still around a quarter below pre-war levels and its oil revenues taking an even steeper hit.”
Iranians Opt to ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ as Cost of Living Spirals | Financial Times
“Iranian businesses are increasingly resorting to ‘buy now, pay later’ schemes and other tactics to attract customers as the cost of living spirals out of control following months of war with the US. In recent weeks, billboards from companies such as Iran’s SnappPay have popped up along the streets of Tehran offering consumers deferred payments on everything from clothing and mobile phones to gold and holiday travel, as growing numbers of Iranians find they have less and less money to spend.”
Iranian Middle Class in Decline: Housing Crisis Is Eroding Living Standards | IranWire
“The concept of a ‘middle class in decline and facing extinction’ has increasingly become a subject of discussion among economists and sociologists in recent years. This report examines some of the manifestations of the chronic and debilitating poverty affecting Iran’s middle class, particularly the growing burden of housing costs.”
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
Over 150,000 Disabled Iranians Await Nursing Allowances | Iran International
“More than 152,000 people with severe disabilities remain on a waiting list for nursing care payments because of insufficient funding, the rehabilitation deputy of Iran’s State Welfare Organization said on Wednesday.”