Donald Trump is stuck between “a rock and a hard place” after three weeks of war in Iran and “sending a message of weakness” to the world, Leon Panetta, a former US defence secretary and Central Intelligence Agency director, has told the Guardian.
Panetta, who served in the Bill Clinton and Barack Obama administrations, recalled that national security officials were always keenly aware of Iran’s ability to create an energy crisis by blocking the strait of Hormuz. That very scenario is now unfolding, leaving Trump with no exit strategy beyond wishful thinking.
“He tends to be naive about how things can happen,” Panetta, 87, who supervised the operation to find and kill Osama bin Laden, said by phone. “If he says it and keeps saying it there’s always a hope that what he says will come true. But that’s what kids do. It’s not what presidents do.”
Trump’s war began on 28 February with what it hoped would be a knockout blow. A surprise strike by Israel killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The US and Israel soon gained air supremacy. But the longer the conflict has raged, the more that initiative appears to be slipping away.




FIFA has said it will not act against Israeli settlement clubs in the West Bank, but fined the Israeli FA (IFA) over discrimination.
Vadym Filashkin, governor of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, signed an order to forcibly evacuate children living on roughly 30 of the streets in the city of Sloviansk most vulnerable to Russian shelling on Friday.
Towering flash floods and an imminent dam failure in the northern part of Oahu triggered evacuation warnings in Hawaii on Friday, as the state continued contending with a powerful storm this week.
Former FBI Director James Comey has been subpoenaed by federal prosecutors in Miami as part of the U.S. Justice Department's investigation into former officials who have previously probed and prosecuted President Donald Trump, CBS News and Axios reported on Thursday, citing sources.
US President Donald Trump on Thursday America had 'no idea' of Israel's attack on facilities linked to Iran's oil industry in South Pars and Asaluyeh, warning of severe military consequences if Tehran launches more attacks on Qatar's energy infrastructure, as tensions across the Gulf escalated following strikes on major liquefied natural gas facilities.





























