Ex-CIA chief blames Trump for Iran war, says US stuck with no way out
India Today
Leon Panetta said Iran war was not an unexpected risk. He pointed out that for years, US security officials have known Iran could disrupt global oil supplies by blocking the Strait of Hormuz. According to him, this was a well-known danger, but one that appears to have been overlooked in the current conflict.
The longer the Iran war continues, the more complicated it becomes for US President Donald Trump, who is facing boiling criticism with no easy way out in sight. Leon Panetta, former US defence secretary and Central Intelligence Agency director, said that Donald Trump is stuck between "a rock and a hard place" after weeks of conflict.
Speaking to The Guardian, he said the Middle East crisis is largely of his own making. Leon Panetta said this was not an unexpected risk. He pointed out that for years, US security officials have known Iran could disrupt global oil supplies by blocking the Strait of Hormuz. According to him, this was a well-known danger, but one that appears to have been overlooked in the current conflict, despite repeated warnings in the past.
"This is not rocket science to understand that if you’re going to conduct a war with Iran, one of the great vulnerabilities is the strait of Hormuz," he said as quoted by The Guardian.
He added that the current situation shows a clear lack of preparation, claiming the administration either underestimated Iran’s response or assumed the conflict would end quickly. "They were not prepared for it and they’re now paying a price," he said, warning that the fallout is now being felt not just in the region but across global markets.
The ex-CIA chief also questioned the outcome of the initial military push and stressed it has not weakened Iran in the way Washington may have expected. He argued, instead, the leadership in Tehran appears more entrenched, with a new and more hardline figure (Mojtaba Khamenei) now in power. "We have a more entrenched regime and he’s much more of a hardliner," he said. "That didn’t turn out too well."
This is a developing story.
A version that came within minutes is now being questioned days later. As new evidence emerges from Bahrain, the gap between first claims and fresh findings is raising difficult questions.
The clip, shared by a user on X, captures a Lamborghini repeatedly doing donuts at a public junction under a flyover in Bengaluru, even as other vehicles pass by.
Tokyo has no immediate plans to seek arrangements to allow passage through the Strait of Hormuz for stranded Japanese vessels, Motegi said, adding it was "extremely important" to create conditions that allow all ships to navigate through the narrow waterway.
The continued absence of Mojtaba, according to an Axios report, has been a matter of discussion during President Donald Trump's intelligence briefings. The report also quoted an official as saying that the US national security team is still assessing who is in charge in Tehran.
If true, the deployment will give Britain the capability to launch strikes on Iran in case the regional conflict escalates drastically. Earlier, on Friday, the British government had authorised the US military to use military bases in Britain to carry out strikes on Iranian missile sites that are attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
Muddy floodwaters smothered vast stretches of Oahu's North Shore, a community world-renowned for its big-wave surfing. Raging waters lifted homes and cars and prompted evacuation orders for 5,500 people north of Honolulu. Authorities cautioned that a 120-year-old dam could fail.
The agency, along with Customs and Border Protection, has deployed agents over the past few months to multiple areas as part of the crackdown, most recently to Minnesota in an operation that resulted in agents fatally shooting American citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
An Iranian missile struck Jerusalem near the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Eid al-Fitr, with Israel condemning the attack near key religious sites.
An Indian man in London spotted an auto rickshaw on one of the roads in the city, and shared it in a now-viral video on social media.
Ashraf Wani's firsthand account from the frontlines amid the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. He narrates the relentless challenges amid heavy shelling in Lebanon, which has already registered over 1,000 deaths.
A son found his mother secretly gaming late at night on Spider-Man 2, flipping the usual parent-child dynamic and delighting the internet.