👇This remarkable Reuters investigation published today reveals the extraordinary damage inflicted by Iran's precision strikes on critical Persian Gulf infrastructure, how regional governments have concealed its true extent, and lends strong credence to longstanding reports that the UAE effectively paid Iran to ward off further attacks. On the last point, Reuters reports that Abu Dhabi agreed to unlock at least $10 billion in frozen Iranian funds, with $3 billion reportedly released, in exchange for Tehran halting attacks on Emirati infrastructure. The UAE denies any such deal, but notably, no further strikes on UAE infrastructure have been reported since May 17. Other major findings: • Scale and precision: Reuters documents at least 135 attacks on 84 infrastructure sites across seven Persian Gulf Arab countries, often striking indispensable components whose destruction crippled entire facilities for months or even years. • Concealing the damage: Persian Gulf Arab governments repeatedly attributed damage to falling debris from intercepted Iranian missiles and drones. Reuters identified at least 34 official statements making such claims. But 14 specialists who reviewed the evidence considered it “highly improbable” that debris accounted for the systematic destruction of critical equipment across so many facilities. • Restrictions on reporting: The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain have restricted the photographing and sharing of images from attack sites, making independent assessments difficult and obscuring the true extent of the damage. • Sophisticated Iranian targeting intelligence: Iran repeatedly struck critical equipment concealed inside buildings or otherwise difficult to identify from satellite imagery. Three officials told Reuters that Tehran relies on networks of informants with access to sensitive facilities, helping explain the extraordinary precision of some attacks. The broader strategic implications are enormous. Iran has demonstrated an ability to inflict substantial economic damage across the Persian Gulf despite overwhelming US conventional military superiority. And this is precisely why renewed all-out fighting, particularly an escalation into more extensive infrastructure warfare, carries such enormous risks. The destruction could trigger even greater economic shocks far beyond the Middle East. reuters.com/investigates/spe…

It cannot be overstated how much Trump essentially having to beg Putin for diesel illustrates just how dramatically he has accelerated the decline of US global hegemony. Through his own—and, really, Washington’s broader—strategic hubris and the outsized influence of Israel on U.S. foreign policy, Trump has found himself forced to ease pressure on Russia, an ostensible great-power competitor that Washington had spent years trying to isolate and weaken, to offset the immense costs of his strategically disastrous war against Iran. It’s honestly incredible no matter how you look at it. Iran, what was an ostensible middle power battered by years of US siege and economic warfare, has managed to impose strategically game-changing costs on the United States. The situation has become such that US overreach is simultaneously managing to empower Russia—at a critical moment in the Ukraine War and for the Trans-Atlantic alliance—AND propelling Iran toward a level of geopolitical power and influence it could scarcely have achieved otherwise. What’s unfolding before our eyes in real-time is a truly astonishing case of imperial overstretch and decline, one destined for the history books.