A declassified assessment says major U.S. war “unlikely” to topple government; Trump ludicrously says Iran has “surrendered” after Iranian president apologizes to Gulf states; and Trump makes sadistic threat to “groups of people” in Iran.
Tehran on Friday, March 6, 2026. (Avash/Wikimedia Commons)
SATURDAY
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
9:50 pm EST: Ali Larijani, Iran’s security chief and interim leader designated by Ayatollah Ali Khameini before his death, told Al Arabiya TV Israel and the U.S. want Iran broken up. He said:
“Their issue was … the fundamental disintegration of Iran … I think the most important problem the Americans have is that they do not understand the context of West Asia, especially Iran. Their perception was that it would be like Venezuela – they would strike, take control and it would be over – but now they are trapped.”
8:20 pm EST: Trump on Air Force One: “We decimated their [Iran’s] whole evil empire. It’ll continue, I’m sure, for a little while. We’ve done more in one week than anyone thought possible. We’ve hit them where it hurts. However long it takes.”
On the Kurds entering the war: “We’re very friendly with them but we don’t want the war more complex than it is. War is complicated enough without the Kurds getting involved.”
On U.S. ground troops: ” “Could there be, possible if there’s a very good reason. If we ever did that they’d be so decimated they wouldn’t be able to fight at the ground level.”
On Russia sharing intelligence with Iran: “If they are, they’re not doing a very good job.”
5:30 pm EST: Reuters reports that Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said if Iranian attacks continue on Saudi territory or energy infrastructure, Saudi Arabia would be forced to allow U.S. forces to use base on Saudi territory against Iran and that the Saudis would retaliate themselves. Saudi Arabia pushed the U.S. to attack Iran according to The Washington Post.
5 pm EST: A delusional Donald Trump has blamed Iran for the bombing of an Iranian school that killed more than 175 schoolgirls even after U.S. military investigators said American forces were likely responsible. Trump told reporters on Air Force One.
“In my opinion, based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran,” Trump said. “We think it was done by Iran because they’re very inaccurate as you know with their munitions. They have no accuracy whatsoever.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says, “We’re investigating.”
4:45 pm EST: Trump has blasted British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for not taking part in offensive actions in his illegal war on Iran after Starmer said he is giving “serious thought” about sending two aircraft carriers to the region. “That’s OK Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer – But we will remember. We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!” he said in a mad post on Truth Social.
11:15 am EST: The Washington Post has reported on a classified document that says a large-scale U.S. war against Iran would be “unlikely” to topple the government.
The report by the National Intelligence Council was completed about a week before the United States and Israel started the war on Feb. 28. It is a report that Trump and his people clearly ignored, a warning that may have spared the region — and increasingly the world — from cascading disaster. The report said:
“… that even a large-scale assault on Iran launched by the United States would be unlikely to oust the Islamic republic’s entrenched military and clerical establishment, a sobering assessment as the Trump administration raises the specter of an extended military campaign that officials say has “only just begun.”
The findings, confirmed to The Washington Post by three people familiar with the report’s contents, raise doubts about President Donald Trump’s declared plan to “clean out” Iran’s leadership structure and install a ruler of his choosing.”
“Today Iran will be hit very hard! Under serious consideration for complete destruction and certain death, because of Iran’s bad behavior, are areas and groups of people that were not considered for targeting up until this moment in time.”
This menacing, sadistic statement demonstrates Trump’s continuing slide into madness which has led to his war on Iran and is being accelerate by it. “Areas and groups of people” that he hadn’t thought about slaughtering “until this moment in time.”
This is tantamount to a statement of intent to commit a war crime. Even if he is referring to a military target, Trump is prima facie guilty of the crime of aggression for his unprovoked attack on the country. Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, threatened military targets on television Friday night.
“Tonight will be our biggest bombing campaign, and we’ll do the most damage to the Iranian missile launchers, the factories that build the missiles, and we are substantially degrading them,” he told FOX News.
So far there is news on;y of a massive air attack on Tehran by Israel on Saturday morning.
6:30 am EST: In yet another unhinged social media post, Trump has declared Iran has “surrendered” to the Gulf Arab states.
“Iran has apologized and surrendered to its Middle East neighbors, and promised that it will not shoot at them anymore. This promise was only made because of the relentless U.S. and Israeli attack,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Masoud Pezeshkian, the Iranian president, earlier Saturday apologized to the Gulf Arab states for Iran’s attacks in the past week. He said:
“I should apologize to the neighboring countries that were attacked by Iran, on my own behalf,” the president said. “From now on, they should not attack neighboring countries or fire missiles at them, unless we are attacked by those countries. I think we should solve this through diplomacy.”
Iran’s armed forces spokesman, Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, said after Pezeshkian’s remarks that Iran has “not hit countries that did not provide space for America to invade our country.” Mainstream reporting indicates that no U.S. attacks on Iran have originated from U.S. bases in the Gulf. Iran states that the mere presence of U.S. installations makes them allies of the U.S.
Gulf nations, including Saudi Arabia, have publicly denied the U.S. use bases on their territory, though The Washington Post reported that privately the Saudis had pressured Trump to attack Iran.
An analyst at Al Jazeera, Resul Serdar, said the IRCG is actually calling the shots on the conduct of the war, not Pezeshkian, who he estimated had only about 35 percent authority in Iran.
Pezeshkian later claimed on X that Iran only hit “U.S. military bases, facilities, and installations in the region.” He said Iran had not struck countries themselves, though many videos show attacks on U.S. diplomatic missions and other civilian areas of Gulf cities.
The fact that Iranian missile and drone attacks continued on Saturday would appear to confirm the IRCG’s authority. It also makes Trump’s post about Iran surrendering even more ridiculous. It followed a day after Trump demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender.”
“The idea that we would surrender unconditionally is a dream that our enemies will take to the grave,” Pezeshkian said.
2026 IS THE YEAR THE US PETRODOLLAR ENDS
Prediction is a mug’s game, however stark emerging facts today lead us to the inescapable conclusion above.
Criteria for the US petrodollar:
1. Client states must sell their oil/gas EXCLUSIVELY in USD.
2.In return, the USA provides military protection to those client states.
3.Profits from such sales are recycled back into the USA mostly in the form of US debt securities (= insecure T-Bills) but may also include the US Ponzi stockmarket or US real estate etc.
Events have proven the USA is unable/unwilling to defend the Gulf petrostates, which face collapse mere days after the YankeeZioNazis launched their war of choice against Iran.
The Gulf petrostates face literal STARVATION* (apart from the lethal damage to their economies) and will need to sell all their US assets to rebuild and to pay compensation to Iran to allow food ships into the Gulf.
Saudi Arabia faces the same fate if Ansarallah decide to shut Bab-El-Mandeb.
The USD is in reality worthless fiat currency and if the Gulf States want to obtain material goods eg metals, machinery, electronics, grain etc to enable their survival, they will need to trade with countries that offer such material goods eg Russia and China, and pay in those respective currencies.
Popular revolutions in the Gulf States may result in new governments that reject and eject all YankeeZioNazi parasites and turn to the BRICS.
Japan, the largest holder of US treasuries, gets 90% of its oil/LNG from the Gulf and will need to sell its >$1 trillion in USD assets to buy oil/gas at hyperinfalted prices, maybe even beg Russia for some fuel.
hXXps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVGn4KxTn4I
Basketcase Britain will have to sell off its T-Bills as well, however whatever Western Europe does is irrelevant. Lacking in both Russian and Gulf State oil/gas, Europe is faaaaaarked (apart from Norway which has declining oilfields anyway). Western Europe is a shitshow.
*they obtain 90% of their food by ships through Hormuz
When the US petrodollar collapses, the fake US economy also collapses, however the US economy may collapse sooner due to their stockmarket bubble bursting, which will independently end the USD as global reserve currency.
“Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said if Iranian attacks continue on Saudi territory or energy infrastructure, Saudi Arabia would be forced to allow U.S. forces to use bases on Saudi territory.”
Friggin’ terrific. This is one of the key reasons the United States suffered the attacks on September 11th. Please help us all.
Two nightmare scenarios: Trump in order to save face after an impending humiliating defeat, resorts to nukes. Israel in the face of imminent destruction invokes its Samson Option.
All sane people the world over must prioritize at once that none of this is even contemplated by our ruling class.
You quote Qatar media, government owned and operated, to say that the President of Iran ‘apologized’. I got a more diplomatic sense from that statement. The situation is quite complex, with Iran alleging that some of the attacks on the pro-American states in the Persian Gulf are coming from CIA / Mossad (CIAM?) false flag actions. True or not, who knows? With both Iran and CIAM being responsible for different attacks being a possibility. But Iran did make it plain that it did not regard itself at war with pro-American states like Qatar, even though Qatar is a close American ally and that Qatar pays money to fund the US base on its territory that is currently attacking Iran.
But, a Qatar government source like Al-Jazz should be regarded with suspicion on such matters. PressTV provides a slightly different quote ““If they (the enemies) attack and invade our territory from any country, we have to respond to the raid, and this does not mean that we have rifts with that country or want to make its people upset,” he said on Sunday.” And it goes on to say that “Iranian president apologized to the people of the region, who are upset about current tensions.”
Apologizing to the people of the region is different from apologizing to the pro-American, pro-Israeli Sheik of Qatar who is hosting the US military and constantly acting as America’s biased negotiator. Not that I’d expect All-That-Jazz to say so.
“I should apologize to the neighboring countries that were attacked by Iran, on my own behalf,” the president said. “From now on, they should not attack neighboring countries or fire missiles at them, unless we are attacked by those countries. I think we should solve this through diplomacy.”
Press TV: “Additionally in his remarks, the Iranian president apologized to the people of the region, who are upset about current tensions.”
hxxps://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/03/08/765105/Pezeshkian-Iran-has-to-respond-to-enemy-attacks-originated-from-any-country
Who would have thought that the world would be turned to shit by old, demented, bumbling idiots?
Oh well, I suppose evolution had to do a U turn at some point
We have come a long way down the hill of humanity. From Chelsea Manning leaked documents exposing human rights abuses by the US army and government coverups to the reality show of ‘American psycho on war fever steroid’ , bragging about committed war crimes.
Epstein was stupid but very clever in removing all limits for his clients.
Are you sure we are going a long way down the hill? I grew up in a world with pictures of naked girls burning with napalm, and stories about how the US military massacred entire villages with the goal of ‘running up the body count’. Are we really somehow further down the hill from that? Or is it that America has just remained at the same shithole bottom that it was occupying when it committed genocide against the people who were here when the Europeans arrived?
I don’t see where we’ve gone downhill at all, although the USA has reacted violently to any attempts to change itself from within. Dr. Martin Luther King got a bullet into his brain for trying to speak out to change America. Turns out he was allowed to protest for Civil Rights, but not allowed to protest against war or organize a poor people’s march on Washington. And today, neither party does anything more than honor his postage stamp. The Identity Left is now pure Malcolm X, with Dr. King and his peaceful ideas being shelved and forgotten. Seems to me like America is belligerently staying exactly where it has always wanted to be.
IS THERE NO SOLUTION?
With the world on the eve of destruction there may still be a way to prevent it. A much needed “showdown” by Russia/China against the US that finally shows they have the courage not be intimidated by genocidal criminals.
China and Russia need to take the initiative and invoke the principle of “mutually assured destruction” by openly warning the US and Israel that if they try to annihilate Iran with nuclear weapons Israel will also suffer the same fate. This should NOT be misinterpreted as bluff. They should do this at a meeting of the UN security council and also warn the US and Israel that if they do not start complying with international law and Geneva convention principles there will be a general assembly vote to exclude Israel and the US from UN membership and/or voting rights. The general assembly meeting should be conducted at Geneva, Switzerland so that the US cannot try to use the New York location as leverage over the members.
Someone or a group of individuals with global voice like prof Jeffery Sachs, Prof John Mersheimer and/or others should begin the process by meeting with Mr. Putin and Mr. Jinping and convince them it’s time for them to take a stand against the madness and act responsibly to protect Iran and humanity from a devastating catastrophe. What do you think?
As a parallel and secondary result of these actions we may see a triggering of a most necessary “exodus” by Israeli’s from Palestine that will be the first step in ending the illegal genocidal Israeli project. Hopefully, Iran will withstand US and Israeli aggression long enough for the aggressors to realize they should abandon their murderous plans. Also, it would be a stride forward toward justice if Trump and Netanyahu were deposed and convicted of their crimes against humanity, but I’m afraid that may be a bridge too far.
When depravity and fatal nihilism meet, the result is always deadly disaster.
Apart from the idea of nuking what is still called ‘israel’, since it is in fact Palestine, I think that your thoughts are worth being considered.
Something decisive must happen very soon to stop those insane bullies.
There is a solution. It is in remembering that the only thing that has truly changed the world is large masses of truly pissed off people who can’t take it anymore.
Putin and Xi are fully aware of the world, appear to be intelligent and have good intelligence services, and they talk regularly about the best ways to deal with all of this.
One key is to realize that in a conflict between America and the Land of Sun Tsu, when the Americans decide the time to start the war has arrived, the Americans will have already lost that war. Try analyzing current events from the perspective of Sun Tsu. Watching too much American gangster media can lead to misconceptions about the world.
-There has been significant immigration out of Israel for the last year or more.
-And holding the UN meetings in the middle of the European Empire would not be much better than holding them in the heart of the American Empire. There would likely be leaders who would have to worry about flying into European airspace to attend. Europe is at this point the leader of the calls for immediate major war with Russia.
That’s why experts say Iran is not Libya, Syria, Iraq, Sudan or Venezuela – even those who were toppled aided imperialism through betrayal and hypocrisy.
quote:
“I should apologize to the neighboring countries that were attacked by Iran, on my own behalf,” the president said. “From now on, they should not attack neighboring countries or fire missiles at them, unless we are attacked by those countries. I think we should solve this through diplomacy.”
——-
Wasn’t there an event , not long ago , where wailing with tissue and fireworks were the theme of the day .
Oh the memories anf forgiveness was the the annoucement for the transgressor .
He kicked your dog but yet a really nice chap ?
When is Trump the bad boy, with the worst behavior ever, going to be sent to his room, the door securely locked, the key smelted down and the residue buried in an unmarked place in the despoiled soil of his story?