by The Associated Press | Jul 4, 2026 | Iran Tensions, News
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of mourners began a dayslong funeral on Saturday for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, beating their chests in sorrow before the glass case containing his flag-draped coffin in Tehran and calling for revenge against Israel and the United States.
The funeral for Khamenei, who ruled Iran for decades before he was killed at age 86 in a Feb. 28 airstrike in the opening moments of the Iran war, could provide a boost for the country’s theocracy and its new supreme leader, his son Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.
That is important as Iran tries to leverage its hold on the Strait of Hormuz in negotiations with the U.S. over a permanent end to the war and as concern lingers that Israel could attack again. The funeral was delayed as the war raged, and talks appear to be on hold until it is over.
During the ceremony, Iran’s top negotiator warned France and the U.K. over their comments about potentially launching joint patrols in the waterway, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas once passed in peacetime.
Mourners wept at the sight of Khamenei’s coffin alongside those of his family members also killed in the airstrike, with some chanting: “Our word is one! Revenge! Revenge!” Some carried banners and flags. Billboards across the city bore Khamenei’s image. Crowds of men rhythmically beat their chests in mourning, a common practice at Shiite funerals.
“Imam Khamenei was our heart, our father, our everything,” mourner Masoumeh Mohammadi said. “I still can’t believe they martyred him. We will not rest until we avenge his death.”
Coffins on display at Grand Mosalla
An outdoor
by Steve Benen | Jun 18, 2026 | Iran Tensions, Maddowblog, News, Politics
On the first day of the war in Iran, a missile strike on an Iranian girls’ school killed 175 people, many of them children. A week later, a reporter asked Donald Trump whether the United States was responsible for the horrific incident. The president replied, “No. In my opinion and based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran. … We think it was done by Iran.”
In the days that followed, he repeated the claim, which the White House stopped echoing after a preliminary investigation by the Pentagon found the strike was the result of dated targeting information: U.S. intelligence indicated the school had been part of an Iranian Revolutionary Guard base that had been turned into the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school several years ago.
Three months later, a reporter asked the president whether he’ll hold anyone accountable for what happened. The Republican apparently didn’t like the question.
NYT: Can you now say whether you will hold anyone in your administration accountable for the strike on a school that killed more than 100 children?TRUMP: No. It’s such a strange question to be asked. It’s a long time ago. Mistakes are made. I would ask Pete Hegseth that question.— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-06-17T16:57:20.374Z
“No,” Trump replied. “If it was a fault, and as you know, that’s under investigation. It’s such a strange question to be asked at this date, because you’re talking about a long time ago, but nobody did that on purpose. I guess you’d have to say about them, what about the thousands of soldiers that they blew up when they opened their car door?”
Relying on one of the worst passive-voice
by Steve Benen | Jun 17, 2026 | Iran Tensions, Maddowblog, News, Politics
On Feb. 28, when Donald Trump announced the start of the war against Iran in a prerecorded video filmed at his glorified country club in Florida, the president presented the public with five objectives, including creating the conditions necessary for regime change in Tehran. This was the opposite of what his own team had told Americans, but the president said it anyway.
In the days and weeks that followed, Trump repeatedly insisted that he’d successfully secured “regime change” in Iran, despite the fact that the country, which has been led for decades by religious clerics and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, was still led by religious clerics and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard.
This week, however, two days after announcing a purported framework to end the war, the Republican told reporters during the G7 summit, “You talk about ‘regime change.’ I never cared about regime change. It was never a part.”
It was like listening to the guys I knew in high school who asked out girls, got shot down, and said, “I really didn’t want to date her anyway.” It is classically what is known as “sour grapes.”
And these grapes were not the only example of the problem to emerge Tuesday. MS NOW reported as part of the its liveblog coverage:
Trump had repeatedly said that Iran handing over its enriched uranium stockpile was one of the goals of the war. After the memorandum of understanding was signed Sunday, Trump appears to have changed his tune.
At the G7 summit … he downplayed the importance of destroying Iran’s enriched uranium, or “nuclear dust,” as he calls it, which is believed to be buried deep under a
by Steve Benen | Jun 16, 2026 | Iran Tensions, Maddowblog, News, Politics
As this week got underway, and Donald Trump started making a series of claims about a purported agreement with Iran, among the initial problems was the unsettling fact that U.S. officials and Iranian officials issued contradictory statements on key aspects of the framework.
But in the hours that followed, as Monday unfolded, a related and parallel problem emerged: Not only were Trump administration officials contradicting Iran, but they were also contradicting Trump.
Senior U.S. officials told reporters on a background call, for example, that the still-hidden text of the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding would be made public in the next 24 to 48 hours, in the interest of “full transparency.” Shortly after, the American president, speaking to reporters during the G-7 summit in France, was asked when the public could expect to see the MOU.
“I would say sometime after Friday,” the Republican replied.
Q: When will the text of the MOU be released?TRUMP: I would say sometime after Friday. The strait is open now. But it opens completely.— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-06-15T16:14:34.387Z
The White House has not yet explained in any meaningful way why the finished document is being kept from the public, but just as notably, U.S. officials also failed to explain why Trump and his own team offered entirely different timelines for disclosure.
If this were the only contradiction, it would be easy to overlook, but as the day progressed, a broader pattern emerged.
Trump, for example, boasted that maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz will return to normal by Friday, while Trump administration officials said it could actually take weeks.
JD Vance, meanwhile, has been making media rounds and was asked by CBS
by Steve Benen | Jun 15, 2026 | Iran Tensions, Maddowblog, News, Politics
After far too many instances in which the White House told the world that an agreement with Iran was imminent, only to see those hopes dashed soon after, there actually appears to be something resembling a deal to end the monthslong conflict. MS NOW reported:
Iran and the United States reached a deal Sunday aimed at ending the Middle East war, according to President Donald Trump and Tehran’s deputy foreign minister, marking a major breakthrough after months of conflict and on-again, off-again negotiations.
The statements from Trump and Tehran raised hopes for an end to fighting that has left more than 7,500 dead, most of them in Lebanon and Iran, and rocked the global oil market.
In an item published to his social media platform, the American president boasted, “The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations to all!”
Neither Trump nor anyone in his administration has been willing to share any of the details surrounding this apparent breakthrough, which makes it effectively impossible to evaluate it on the merits. That said, a few things stand out.
Trump’s many unmet goals: On Feb. 28, when Trump announced the start of the U.S. offensive in a prerecorded video filmed at his glorified country club in Florida, the president didn’t explain why he’d decided to launch the war, but he did present the public with five objectives.
The Republican’s goals were relatively straightforward: (1) destroy Iran’s missiles and missile industry; (2) annihilate the Iranian navy; (3) sever the ties between Tehran and its proxies in the Middle East; (4) prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon; and (5) create the conditions necessary for regime
by Steve Benen | May 15, 2026 | Iran Tensions, Maddowblog, News, Politics
About a month after Donald Trump launched the war with Iran, he did something unexpected: The president suggested he was largely indifferent to one of the foundational reasons for the conflict.
After countless comments about the importance of addressing Iran’s nuclear program, when asked about the country’s enriched uranium, he told Reuters, “That’s so far underground, I don’t care about that.” He went on to say Iran was “incapable” of developing a nuclear weapon in light of the damage it has suffered, fueling his passive attitude about its stockpiles.
In the days and weeks since that April 1 interview, the president has not just shifted his focus back to the purported Iranian nuclear threat, he has also raised the possibility of some kind of invasion to seize the enriched uranium that he claimed not to “care about,” creating uncertainty about whether Trump was confused or has changed his mind.
During his latest interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, however, the Republican once again made it sound as if Iran’s enriched uranium just isn’t that important.
Trump on retrieving enriched uranium in Iran: I don’t think it’s necessary except from a public relations standpoint. I think it’s important for the fake news that we get it. I’m the one that said we are going to get it. pic.twitter.com/eaWVIbvVQd— Acyn (@Acyn) May 15, 2026
“I don’t think it’s necessary except from a public relations standpoint,” Trump said about Iran’s stockpiles. He added that the issue is only important “for the fake news.”
To be sure, it’s difficult to know whether the president believed what he said, whether he will change his mind at any given moment or whether
