More Tehran

Iranians walk in front of a large anti-US billboard featuring US President Donald Trump and the Strait of Hormuz, at Valiasr Square in Tehran, Iran [File: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA]

Islamic Street Art

A woman in Tehran, Iran, walks past a mural featuring Iranian drones on May 26 [File: Majid Asgaripour/West Asia News Agency via Reuters]

I like this picture though I'm not sure why, possibly because we've been watching Tehran and I'm seeing everything through Trumpian glasses.

Tehran - Apple TV Series - Season 1 of 3

Tehran — Official Trailer | Apple TV
Apple TV

Israel-Iran conflict up close and personal. Our girl is a computer hacker in the employ of Mossad. By exchanging clothes with a flight attendant, she gets into Iran and the flight attendant gets a flight out. Mossad's goal is to get her into the same room as a secure computer system so she can turn off the power to the anti-aircraft radar that is protecting an Iranian nuclear installation so the Israeli jets can come in and bomb it into smithereens.

Unlike James Bond, the operation does not go smoothly. When the op collapses, our girl has an opportunity to leave (extraction in military parlance), but she refuses. She is determined to fulfill her mission. Her bosses are totally willing to let her go ahead with her hairbrained scheme, not like there is much they can about it, other than sending in a hit team to execute her, which they are totally capable of doing. This is real hot-war espionage shit.

Our girl is talented, but she isn't James Bond. The show basically rocks from one coincidence to another, sometimes in favor of our girl, and sometimes in favor of the Iranian secret police. Numerous people get sacrificed on the altar of operational security.

I am beginning to understand the problem with dictatorships - they are stupid and brutal - but they work in that the people in charge stay in charge.

Early on we have an old man lamenting that they didn't realize how powerful Khomeini had become until it was too late. The way I see it is that the upper class were so impressed with themselves and their great success is that they didn't realize how much resentment was growing in the lower classes. If you are in the upper class, you need to insure that the lower classes are getting what they need, and what they need is:

1. a share of the benefits that the upper class is creating,
2. something to do (a job for instance), and
3. something to believe in (a religion).

Failure to address these three issues is how you get your revolutions.

War with Iran

Press conference with a couple of missile mockups

Couple of pieces of Iranian propaganda, for your amusement.

Anti-U.S. mural depicts American military aircraft being caught in a fishing net by Iranian forces

These are from the Valdai Discussion Club, a Moscow-based think tank and discussion forum.

Strait of Hormuz

Far Side 1987

This whole business about the Strait of Hormuz isn't making a lot of sense. Supposedly, we (the USA) launched a devastating attack on Iran. That should have knocked out all their offensive capability but evidently it didn't. An empty oil tanker can be worth $100 million so I can understand why people would not want to send their ships through the strait if there are still hostile forces operating in the area. 

Strait of Hormuz

Anyway, I'm hearing a lot of noise, but no good explanations, so I asked Google and this is what I got back:

Based on reports as of April 2026, Iranian forces around the Strait of Hormuz have not been fully destroyed despite significant damage from U.S. and Israeli strikes because of the asymmetrical, dispersed, and unconventional nature of Iran's maritime capabilities, which are designed specifically to withstand such an onslaught. 

While U.S. and Israeli airstrikes have destroyed key Iranian missile launchers, ships, and infrastructure, several factors prevent complete neutralization: 

• Asymmetric "Mosquito Fleet": Iran's primary threat comes from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy, which relies on a massive, dispersed network of fast attack boats, drones, and uncrewed vessels. These small assets are hard to target compared to large, conventional naval vessels. 
• Geographical Advantages & Hiding Spots: Iran uses its rugged coastline, small islands, and underground naval facilities to hide launchers, making them hard to completely wipe out. 
• Mobile and Low-Cost Drones: Many of Iran's disruptive weapons, such as sea drones and missiles, are launched from mobile platforms on land, making them difficult for intelligence to track and destroy in their entirety. 
• Persistent Naval Mines: Iran has deployed acoustic mines that are challenging to detect. Clearing these would require an extensive and slow-moving mine clearance operation, even while IRGC forces are hunted. 
• The "Human Shield" of Shipping: The Strait is extremely narrow, with shipping lanes running close to Iran's coast. Full-scale destruction of all Iranian capabilities risks civilian collateral damage or catastrophic, immediate oil market shocks. 
• "Destroyed" vs. "Deterred": While US officials aimed to destroy the Iranian navy to remove the threat, the IRGC continues to operate in a guerrilla-like fashion. 

As of mid-April 2026, despite a US naval blockade, Iran still maintains a "strict control" posture over the waterway, using the threat of its remaining capabilities to disrupt traffic. 

Ray Castle

Ray Castle

Ray Castle is in Tehran. It it not to be confused with Rayen Castle which is 500 miles to the southeast.

Rey Castle was an ancient fortification that dates back to the Median kingdom, over 2,300 years ago, although the settlement of Rey itself has archaeological evidence of continuous habitation since as early as 6000 BCE.

Tehran

Tehran Iran

Seems like it might a good time to post an image of Tehran. 

Previously posted images of Tehran:

• More War in the Middle East
• Iran

Strait of Hormuz

Drone, Coast Guard Cutter and US Navy Ships in Strait of Hormuz

I will admit to being curious about how the war on Iran is going, but I don't trust any of the reports I am seeing. I am afraid I will just have to wait six months to see how it all shakes out, then we might have some better information. Of course, the world is always in turmoil, so in six months there will be some other war in the headlines and will we even remember what was going on in Iran?

Meanwhile, G-Captain has got a theory about what's going on. I like it because it puts finance front and center:

The Hormuz Hypothesis – What If the U.S. Navy Isn’t in a Hurry to Reopen the Strait? by John Konrad

Introduction: 

The Strait of Hormuz is twenty-one miles wide. Two shipping channels, each two miles across, separated by a two-mile buffer. There is no alternative. Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline to Yanbu and the UAE’s pipeline to Fujairah can handle maybe five million barrels combined. The math doesn’t work. The bottleneck is not political. It is geological and hydrographic.

Every TV analyst in America is talking about minesweepers and carrier strike groups. They are asking the wrong questions. The binding constraint on Hormuz was never a minefield or insurance. It is the US Navy’s willingness and ability to reopen it.

Every talking point suggests the White House and Navy are working hard to reopen the strait but progress is slow. A new post on Truth Social suggests we may have to consider a new hypothesis.

“I wonder what would happen if we “finished off” what’s left of the Iranian Terror State, and let the Countries that use it, we don’t, be responsible for the so called Strait?” wrote President Trump in a post this morning. “That would get some of our non-responsive “Allies” in gear, and fast!!!”

The article goes on to talk about insurance and the politics thereof. It's a little complicated. Hell, it's very complicated.

CMA CGM Tower Marseille

One thing stood out and that is CMA CGM. Why are they getting mentioned in this story about geopolitics and high finance? Because CMA CGM, otherwise known as Compagnie Maritime d'Affrètement - Compagnie Générale Maritime, is the third-largest container shipping company in the world.

Via Marcel at MONDAY EVENING

 

Toyota At War

What do You Think They're Doing With All Those Landcruisers?
Kagan Dunlap

Hilux - The Evolution of Revolution

Everybody's Watching Iran

I made a 4D god's eye replay of the Iran strikes using public OSINT data.

When I turned on the orbital layer in worldview something jumped out.

You can see satellite passes stack up over the strike zones in the hours before & after impact. Everyone was watching. Some of them… pic.twitter.com/1yW2CiueKY

— Bilawal Sidhu (@bilawalsidhu) March 3, 2026

Via Sondrak's Gulch

P. S. Watching the video at one-quarter speed and blown up to full screen made it much more comprehensible.

Iran Assassination Plots

Iran plotting to kill people in the West? Well, of course they are. 'Death to the USA' has been their line since forever. What got me is that this story appeared in Aljazeera, that bastion of Palestinians-good-Israel-bad since forever. Is the Emir of Qatar (where Aljazeera comes from) having a tiff with the Ayatollah?

UK, US and allies accuse Iran of cross-border assassination plots

UK and 13 allies have accused Iran of plotting killings and kidnappings on Western soil.

The United Kingdom and 13 allied nations have publicly accused Iran’s intelligence services of orchestrating a wave of assassination attempts, abductions and intimidation campaigns against individuals residing in Europe and North America.

In a joint statement issued on Thursday, governments including the United States, France, Germany and Canada denounced Tehran’s alleged extraterritorial operations as a flagrant breach of national sovereignty.

What's even odder is that other countries joined in on these accusations, other countries that are well known for denouncing Israel if not outright coddling terrorists. 

Today's Chuckle

Saw this headline on Aljazeera  and just howled.

US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters about the Israel-Iran conflict, aboard Air Force One on June 24, 2025, while traveling to attend the NATO's Heads of State and Government summit in The Hague in the Netherlands [Brendan Smialowski/AFP]

Did God want Trump to bomb Iran?

Invoking God to bomb Iran, Trump is reviving a deadly tradition of religiously justified US violence.

Like Iran's mullahs haven't been promoting religiously justified violence since forever.

 

Old Man Of The Mountain

Betty Boop - The Old Man Of The Mountain - 1933 HD
Betty Boop HD

JMSmith is talking about the Old Man of the Mountain, and that sparks a vague memory of old cartoons and YouTube delivers this one featuring Betty Boop. Here's the intro to JMSmith's post:

Notes on Assassination
 

“The extirpation of the Assassins or Ismaelians of Persia may be considered as a service to mankind.” - Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776)

Ismaleans are the largest branch of Shia Islam.  Shia Islam itself is in some respects comparable to Catholic Christianity, at least insofar as it grants great authority to Imams, who are honored as successors to Mohammed, the Prophet, much as Catholic Christians grant great authority to Popes, who are honored as successors to Jesus, the Christ.   Sunni Islam on the other hand is in some respects comparable to Protestant Christianity because it is grounded on the scripture of the Koran and hadith.

The Order of Assassins to whom Gibbon refers was an Ismaelian sect that flourished in the twelfth and thirteenth century.  Although dispersed throughout Syria and Persia (Iran), the Order of Assassins operated with the discipline and policy of an organized state.  Its capital was a mountaintop fortress known as Alamut Castle, located north of Tehran, wherein dwelt a dictator known to West as the Old Man of the Mountain.  This Old Man did not, however, give law to a large territory, but rather to  a large network that spread through neighboring states, much as veins of blue mold spread through cheese.  There were “knots” in this network—minor fortresses subordinate to Alamut—and the whole might be likened without originality to a spider’s web.

The Order of Assassins (or Nizari Ismaili state) is of course best remembered for eschewing open battle and employing the stealthy strategy of targeted assassination, a word that is derived either from the first Old Man of the Mountain, Hassan-I Sabbah, or from their rumored use of hashish.  So, as Gibbon goes on to say,

“Among the hills south of the Caspian, these odious sectaries had reigned with impunity above an hundred and sixty years; and their prince, or imam, established his lieutenant to lead and govern the colony of mount Libanus [that is to say Mount Lebanon, on the Syrian coast] . . . . With the fanaticism of the Koran, the Ishmaelians had blended the Indian transmigration, and the visions of their own prophets: and it was their first duty to devote their souls and bodies in blind obedience to the vicar of God.  The daggers of his missionaries were felt both in the East and West: the Christians and the Moslems enumerate, and perhaps multiply, the illustrious victims that were sacrificed to the zeal, avarice, or resentment, of the old man (as he was corruptly styled) of the mountain.”

He goes on to talk about assassination and Israel's recent targeting of Iran's nuclear scientists. 

Which reminds me of an old story about a man going to visit a scientist at his home. The scientist is working on building some fearsome new weapon. The man tries to dissuade the scientist from completing his weapon, as the leader to whom the new weapon will be entrusted is seriously deranged. The scientist refuses on the basis that he is not responsible for what fearless leader does. While the scientist is distracted, the man slips into the scientist's imbecile child's room and places a loaded revolver in the kids bed. He then leaves. The scientist discovers the gun and asks 'what kind of lunatic would give a loaded gun to a imbecile?'

Meanwhile, France denied Israel permission to participate in their air show, and here's Israel's response:

Israel Defense Industries

Iran has been stirring up shit in the mideast ever since their last revolution. It's time somebody smacked them down.

Life in Iran

 The whole story is very entertaining.

Iran’s economy minister impeached as inflation rises, currency falls - Aljazeera

"In 2015, the Iranian rial was worth 32,000 to the United States dollar, but by the time Pezeshkian took office in July, it had plummeted to about 600,000 to the dollar on the open market."

This bit gives a little insight:

"Rampant local mismanagement and corruption paired with decades of US-led sanctions have battered Iran’s economy. Amid the expanding fallout of Israel’s war on Gaza and blows dealt to the Iran-led “axis of resistance” in recent months, public concern over further economic instability has only risen.

"For the past three months, Iran has been forced to shut down key services across the country due to a lingering energy crisis."

 

Mideast

Mideast

The Ayatollah is a dirty commie. He may not proclaim himself a commie, but by his actions you may know him. Doesn't it say something like that in the Bible, the Christian Bible? According to the Ayatollah, it's either his way or prison, which is the modus operandi of ever good, er, dirty commie. It doesn't matter whether his way makes any sense or not, which is why they have a hard time putting together a military force that is powerful enough for anyone to consider it a threat. Anyone who has a brain is going to be insulted by the Ayatollah's bullshit. The only way anything gets done is if you have slimey weasels to run interference, people who can takes the Ayatollah's blabber and translate it, transform it, or possibly even deflect it before it reaches the ears of those who are actually capable of doing the work. That would be a tough job, I don't think I could do it, and I certainly don't want to be in a position where I would be compelled to.

Israel, you may have heard, has killed two top terrorists in the last few days. One was a leader of Hamas and the other was a big shot in Hezbollah. I couldn't be happier, especially when I read the nonsense coming out of Al Jazeera.

I've been wondering why someone doesn't quash some of these tin-pot dictators and set up a new system of government, like we did with Japan and Germany in WW2. Then I realized doing something like this generally means war, and wars are expensive. These days it has become a question of economics. If you invade and take over some country, are you going to be able to extract enough money to make it worth while? I mean the chief-jerks-in-charge would be fine with it as long as it doesn't impact their whores, toot and private jets, but with inflation the cost of whores, toot and private jets ranks right up there with funding a small army. So as long as North Korea and Iran are just spouting off and aren't seriously bothering anybody, it's easier and cheaper to just let them go along their merry way.

Hamas went over the line and Israel is angry, they are going to continue their war against Hamas and Hezbollah until they are eliminated from the face of the earth. At least I hope they are. It certainly doesn't make any sense to stop now. Iran might get involved, but I think they are just going to continue  doing what they are doing, which is spouting nonsense and funding terrorists. They are unlikely to do anything serious, even assuming they are cabable of launching a competent attack, given that the USA might take offense. But that's all idle speculation and I'm not going to worry about it. It would be a shame if someone carpet bombed Tehran, but it's no more than they deserve. It could be an opportunity to create a new society in Iran, one that wasn't hell bent on picking fights with its neighbors.

Mosques

Hosseiniyeh Ershad in Tehran, Iran

Technically, this building is not a mosque, but it is an old Islamic building. RT has a story about the recent election in Iran. It opens with this:

Hosseiniyeh Ershad in Tehran is not just a religious site for Shiite Muslims, but also one of Iran’s most renowned political venues. Before the 1979 revolution, prominent Iranian intellectual and revolutionary Ali Shariati delivered his fiery speeches against Shah Pahlavi here. On Friday, starting at 8am, this beautiful building with its turquoise dome hosted the largest and oldest polling station in the country.

Remember the Shah? 

During World War II, the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran forced the abdication of Pahlavi's father, Reza Shah, whom he succeeded. During Pahlavi's reign, the British-owned oil industry was nationalized by the prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, who had support from Iran's national parliament to do so. However, Mosaddegh was overthrown in the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, which was carried out by the Iranian military under the aegis of the United Kingdom and the United States. Subsequently, the Iranian government centralized power under Pahlavi and brought foreign oil companies back into the country's industry through the Consortium Agreement of 1954. 

The election isn't going to make much difference, the Ayatollah and his cronies are still in charge. Wikipedia has a page about the building.

Streetview Ad

I got the picture at the top from Google Streetview. Pan 90 degrees to the left and you get this message in Persian plastered over the view. Translated* it reads:

1402

Website design and launch shop

Praise for curbing inflation and production growth

Advertisement of your brand and products on the Google map. Registration of your business on the Google map

09126063498

Vahid is stable

Digital publication ID: 13742

Shamad code: 1-1-870037-65-100

Maneh Culture Development Center in Naft Ber Game

www.241.ir

I wonder if they have hacked Google Maps or are they doing this with the connivence of Google? Surprisingly, the website URL works.

al-Nuri Mosque, Mosul, Iraq

Over in Mosul, Iraq, Aljazeera has a different story:

Iraq: 5 big ISIL bombs found hidden in Mosul’s al-Nuri Mosque

Five large bombs were discovered hidden in the walls of the historic al-Nuri Mosque in the city of Mosul in northern Iraq, a remnant of the armed group ISIL’s (ISIS’s) rule over the region.

The mosque – famous for its 12th-century leaning minaret – was destroyed by ISIL in 2017 and has been a focal point of the UN cultural agency UNESCO’s restoration efforts since 2020.

The UN agency said five large-scale explosive devices, designed for significant destruction, were found inside the southern wall of the Prayer Hall on Tuesday.

“These explosive devices were concealed within a specially rebuilt section of the wall,” a UNESCO statement said on Saturday.

Streetview takes you inside the mosque

* Translate means taking a screen shot, feeding it to Google Lens, picking up the text and feeding it to Google Translate, stuff that was science fiction 20 years ago.

Land of Paradoxes

Sheraton Plaza Ufa - Congress Hotel
Site of Fourth Central Asian Conference of the Valdai Discussion Club

Someone trying to make sense of Iran's behavior:

Land of Paradoxes by Timofey Bordachev

The strongest impression from Iran is the paradox that accompanies almost all aspects of public life. On the one hand, the state strictly monitors order on the streets and compliance with religious requirements. On the other hand, there are no excessive security measures. Moreover, sometimes I even want these measures to be strengthened. For example, at airports, where the random movement of people creates the impression of easy accessibility for terrorists. The ban on all foreign instant messengers is combined with the universal use of VPNs. The conflict with the United States, which has been going on for almost half a century (Iran is one of the few countries where there is not even an American embassy), does not prevent the elite and representatives of the academic environment from fluently speaking English and often publishing in overseas journals.

This paradox is fully inherent in Iranian foreign policy, as one could see after spending several days in the country during the pause between exchanges of drone and missile strikes with Israel. General impression: Tehran is completely satisfied with the results achieved and is not at all eager for an all-out war with its main regional enemy. What from the outside looks like an insufficiently powerful response to Israel is, in Iranian paradoxical logic, exactly optimal. Because it allows you to solve a foreign policy problem without creating unnecessary risks. Everyone understands perfectly well that a big war in the Middle East is beneficial only to Israel? This means that the response to even his most aggressive attack should not serve the interests of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. For Tehran, the main thing is not to give Israel what it wants, and not at all to try to impress anyone.

This unique approach to foreign policy and solving internal problems is the result of the special conditions in which Iran has developed since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Its main consequence was the strategic confrontation with the West, which unfolded at the very peak of world dominance of the United States and its European allies - in the 1980s - 2000s. At first, Tehran’s enemy was also the USSR, which supported the government of Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War. By the way, people in Iran remember this well. But this does not mean that the attitude towards the Soviet Union is transferred to Russia - here Iranian strategic logic easily accepts that yesterday’s enemy can be a reliable ally today. The conflict with the West, despite the possibility of tactical deals, has an ideological character: the Iranian state is built on the independence of internal decisions, which the United States and Europe deny to everyone else.

The price of this Iranian independence is very high. First of all, there is a constant outflow of educated young people, dissatisfied with the restrictions of private life. The price also includes a significant number of poor people and air pollution in cities due to the use of old cars and poor quality gasoline. The answer to these challenges, as should be typical of a Grand Strategy, is paradoxical: it consists in a constant increase in the number of students and large universities with their own research laboratories (mainly in the natural sciences). Now Iran is probably the country with the most rapidly growing educational programs, including those aimed at international cooperation. At the same time, no one is preventing the return of those who have left, if they have not committed any offenses. Collaborative research with Iranians living abroad is also encouraged. And Iran’s consistent efforts in developing the natural sciences allow us to think that over time it will be possible to solve the economic and technological problems of development. Under the conditions of the American blockade and UN sanctions, results are coming slowly, but the alternative is a renunciation of independence, which is not part of Iran’s plans.

When assessing Iran's foreign policy, we must first understand that this power has fought against all odds for several decades, outnumbered and alone. And therefore, she may, like few others, be characterized by the paradoxical logic that distinguishes the owners of a real Grand Strategy. And every decision of the Iranian authorities - tactical or more ambitious, such as joining BRICS in January of this year - should be assessed precisely as a manifestation of a paradoxical, completely devoid of linearity logic. Predicting behavior within the framework of such logic is almost impossible, but it is precisely this logic that makes relations with Iran interesting and instructive.