Nasir Khan blog

Friday, July 31, 2026

Jordanian figures demand withdrawal of US forces and cancellation of military agreement

MEM, July 30, 2026

General view of the US Embassy in Amman, Jordan on March 02, 2026. [Screengrab/AA]

More than 130 Jordanian political, academic, cultural, trade union and tribal figures have called for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Jordan and the cancellation or restriction of the kingdom’s military agreement with the United States.

In a statement published last week, the signatories warned that the presence of foreign forces had exposed Jordan to security, political and economic threats and increased the risk of the country becoming involved in a regional war in which it had no direct interest.

“Based on our national responsibility and in recognition of the magnitude of the risks facing the region as a result of the accelerating military escalation, we demand the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Jordanian territory,” the statement declared.

Read: Iran urges Jordanians to seek removal of US bases after strike on air base

It added that their presence “increases the likelihood of our country becoming involved in a regional conflict to which it is not a party”.

The appeal followed repeated Iranian missile and drone attacks against facilities hosting US forces in Jordan, which caused American casualties and damage to military assets. The attacks have intensified public debate over whether Washington’s military presence has turned Jordan into a target in the escalating confrontation between the US and Iran.

The signatories urged the Jordanian government to withdraw the security and military agreement concluded with Washington and submit it to the National Assembly for proper scrutiny.

They argued that Jordanians, their elected representatives and civil society institutions had a right to examine obligations that “may affect the state’s sovereignty and national security”.

The statement called on parliament to debate whether the agreement should be cancelled or restricted and demanded greater public transparency regarding its terms.

Jordan’s defence cooperation agreement with the US was signed in 2021. It grants US troops, aircraft and vehicles broad freedom of entry and movement in Jordan and permits American forces to carry weapons and transport and store military equipment. Critics objected at the time that the government had approved the agreement without submitting it to parliament.

The Jordanian figures also demanded that the authorities prevent the use of the kingdom’s airports, ports, military bases and other strategic infrastructure in operations connected to the regional conflict.

“We stress the necessity of neutralising all Jordanian strategic facilities, especially airports, ports, military bases and other vital facilities,” the statement continued.

Read: Heavy US losses reported in Iranian attacks across Arab countries

It called for guarantees that the sites would not support “any military, security or logistical actions or operations related to the ongoing aggressive war against the peoples of the region”.

“Jordan is not a party to this war, and its people must not bear its consequences or pay the price for policies that do not serve their highest interests,” the signatories warned.

They highlighted the economic and social pressures already facing Jordanians and argued that continued regional escalation threatened the national economy, domestic stability and Jordan’s relations with neighbouring states.

The statement praised the Jordanian Armed Forces-Arab Army but insisted that its military doctrine should remain focused on defending the country, its people and its holy sites.

It said the army’s national role should remain directed towards confronting what it described as “the Zionist enemy marked by genocide, displacement and expansion”, recalling Jordanian forces’ historical role in the battles of Al-Karama, Bab Al-Wad and Latrun and in the defence of Jerusalem.

The signatories called on the authorities to adopt what they described as a policy of “true neutrality”, based on refusing to participate in military or logistical activities serving any side in the conflict.

They urged the government to take “immediate and practical steps” to protect Jordan’s sovereignty, security, stability and independent decision-making and to spare the kingdom “the dangers of alignment under the American cloak”.

The statement concluded: “Long live Jordan, free, sovereign and independent. Shame and disgrace to all the colonial forces in our region.”

Israel ‘racing’ to deepen US integration amid collapsing public support: Report

Congressman Thomas Massie says Israel’s merger with the US military constitutes a loss of US sovereignty

News Desk, The Cradle, JUL 30, 2026

(Photo credit: Israel Defense Forces)

Israel is pursuing a long-term strategy to enmesh itself within the US military, intelligence, and defense establishment, fearing that a collapse in US public support for Israel could otherwise jeopardize billions in future US aid, Capital & Empire reported on 30 July.

According to a new US intelligence assessment, “Israeli officials believe the political fight over Israel in the United States is becoming harder to win, and that the era of indefinitely securing billions of dollars in annual military aid is coming to an end.”

Israeli officials are therefore seeking ways to embed the Israeli military within the US military in “ways future administrations would struggle to unwind,” according to an assessment described to Capital & Empire by US officials.

Currently, Israel receives military aid from the US that must be approved annually through transparent votes by lawmakers in Congress and the Senate.

But the collapse in public support in the US for Israel following the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza that started in October 2023 has put such future US military aid to Israel in jeopardy.

The assessment, written primarily by the CIA, discusses expanding intelligence cooperation with Israel and hosting a permanent US military base on Israeli territory.

It says Israeli officials have been grooming prominent US tech executives to build long-term political and financial support for the effort.

Israel has been advancing this agenda since earlier this year, lobbying lawmakers to pass the $1.1-trillion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

The NDAA includes Section 219, which integrates US military intelligence and the defense industrial base with the Israeli military.

The House of Representatives passed a version of the bill on 22 July. The bill now heads to the Senate, where it must be approved before it is sent to US President Donald Trump for his signature.

The vast majority of Democratic lawmakers in the House voted against the bill, as public shows of support for Israel are becoming a political liability.

However, six House Democrats, Henry Cuellar, Don Davis, Jared Golden, Vicente Gonzalez, Adam Gray, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez joined Republicans to vote for the bill, just enough to allow it to pass.

Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who lost in a Republican primary for re-election in May in part due to the Israel lobby, called Section 219 of the NDAA “a betrayal of our sovereignty.”

Earlier this year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed he wanted to end Israel’s reliance on US military aid.

However, the assessment states that the CIA believes that Netanyahu made such statements as part of a plan to replace highly unpopular “foreign aid with deeper, longer-lasting forms of military and industrial integration.”

“From Israel’s perspective, embedding the alliance more deeply within the US national security apparatus would make it far more difficult for future administrations to pressure Israel by slowing or withholding arms transfers,” Capital & Empire wrote.

During former US president Joe Biden’s term, Secretary of State Antony Blinken needed to take several emergency measures to ensure that US bombs kept flowing to Israel as it perpetrated the genocide of Palestinians.

Providing US military aid to Israel as it committed war crimes in Gaza was not only unpopular among Biden’s Democratic base, it was also illegal under US law.

Blinken moved ahead with the bomb shipments, which helped Israel’s Air Force kill tens of thousands of children, despite public backlash.

About 60 percent of US adults now hold an unfavorable view of Israel, according to an April Pew Research Center survey.

An Economist/YouGov poll published on 28 July found that 49 percent of US citizens said Netanyahu should be taken into custody if he sets foot on US soil while subject to an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant, whereas only 27 percent said he should not be. Netanyahu visited the White House earlier this week.

If the NDAA is passed with section 2019 included, Israel will not risk future US politicians buckling to public pressure to end the arms flows it needs to continue the genocide in Gaza and bombing and ethnic cleansing of southern Lebanon.

According to the intelligence assessment, Israeli officials also want Israeli technology, intelligence, and weapons systems to be embedded within the US military itself, making the US increasingly reliant on Israel.

The assessment says Israeli officials want to convince US officials and lawmakers that Israel is a “model ally” whose relationship with the US is mutually beneficial, rather than a liability.

According to some reports, Israel played a key role in dragging the US into its current war with Iran. Israel is no longer participating directly in the war, which is highly unpopular in the US and costing taxpayers some $2 billion a day.

Rubio’s Paranoid Cuba Report Designed to “Justify a Military Attack on Cuba,” Says Democratic Rep.

Did Cuba foment Black Lives Matter and anti-ICE protests? The State Department seems to think so.

Noah Hurowitz, The Intercept, July 26 2026

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends the 33rd ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers Meeting in Pasay, Metro Manila on July 23, 2026. (Photo by Ezra Acayan / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends the ASEAN Regional Forum in Manila on July 23, 2026Photo by Ezra Acayan/AFP via Getty Images

A report published this week by the State Department is the latest weapon employed by the Trump administration in its campaign for aggressive intervention in Cuba, according to members of Congress and experts on the beleaguered Caribbean island nation.

Despite Cuba being severely hobbled by in the throes of a humanitarian crisis engineered by U.S. sanctions and fuel blockades, the new report paints the country as a major threat.

The report appears to be the brainchild of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a first-generation Cuban American who has made the overthrow of the Cuban government a top priority under the second Trump administration.

Published Monday without a listed author, the report says Cuba is the “capital of 21st century communism,” ideologically immovable, and a permanent enemy committed to the destruction not just of the U.S. but also of “Western civilization” through the spread of “Third Worldism.”

If that sounds like a throwback to the long-settled Cold War, that’s because it is — something critics of the report in Congress seized upon.

Whatever truths the report contains, they’re largely overshadowed by a feverish paranoia about the alleged reach of Cuban intelligence into American civil society, according to Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., days after returning from a fact-finding trip to Cuba.

“It may be the stupidest, most fantastical, most biased thing I’ve ever read from a governmental agency,” Pocan said in a statement Tuesday. “This report focuses on the 1960s & 70s with no clear connection to today. Yet somehow, the State Department uses this report to say that this impoverished nation is responsible for everything from Black Lives Matter to Antifa, the anti-ICE protests and more.”

Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., who went on the fact-finding mission with Pocan, said the report was aimed at manufacturing consent for an invasion of the island — and to crack down on dissent at home.

“While criticizing the regime in Cuba, it instead attacks Americans’ constitutional rights to free speech and free assembly.”

“This report was intentionally designed to instill fear of the Cuban people and to justify a military attack on Cuba,” Ramirez told The Intercept. “It’s hypocrisy at its finest, because while criticizing the regime in Cuba, it instead attacks Americans’ constitutional rights to free speech and free assembly.”

In sketching a broad, anti-American conspiracy in nearly dozens of left-wing social movements, organizations, and educational institutions, the report also functions as a broadside on civil society in the U.S — and hardly for the first time.

“Cuba is not a new cudgel,” said Miriam Pensack, a historian at Princeton University specializing in Latin America and the Caribbean. “The Cuban revolution was a galvanizing event for the way that the United States thought about its national security, really until the end of the Cold War. And it still has an ideological utility, even as the country is limping along.”

Center of Global Conspiracy

Running 100 pages, the report lays out what its authors describe as a decadeslong effort by Cuba to foment revolutionary movements throughout the world and to build a latter-day “axis of evil” by allying with other governments opposed to U.S. interests, including the current-day governments of Iran, Russia, China, and North Korea.

“Even as it expands and revitalizes its network within the next generation of American left-wing activists, it has also forged new partnerships — or deepened and repurposed old ones — with other foreign governments and movements around the world,” the report warns. “The regime continues to act as a force multiplier for a much broader anti-American coalition, positioning itself as a staging ground for a wide range of foreign adversaries to conduct operations against the United States.”

Cuba, the authors allege, is “less a nation-state than an all-encompassing intelligence and subversion operation, focused around its existential revolution against the United States.”

The report goes on to list a slew of left-wing groups and individuals as accomplices, both witting and unwitting, of this intelligence operation, including the Democratic Socialists of America, Code Pink, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, and leftwing streamer Hasan Piker.

How Local Cops Are Running With Trump’s NSPM-7 Attacks on Antifa

In a section stretching nearly five full pages on the National Lawyers Guild, a long-standing right-wing bugaboo, the report’s authors describe the venerable progressive law association as “one of the most persistently relevant — and insidious — organizations in Cuba’s U.S. network.”

Posting to X for the first time since March, the organization quipped, “We have been called much worse, by much better.”

Academic Freedom at Home

The report took aim at universities in the U.S. for maintaining exchange programs and partnerships with Cuban universities, implying that such programs functioned as a feeding ground for Cuban agents looking to recruit spies and fellow travelers.

The report singled out Harvard University, pointing to trips by faculty to Cuba as recently as 2017.

The Cuban government “would probably argue that it was U.S. universities that were trying to penetrate Cuban institutions and to foment subversion there!”

If anything, however, the Cuban government has been wary of exchange programs with American schools, according to Alejandro de la Fuente, a professor of Latin American history and economics at Harvard who chairs the university’s Cuba Studies Program and took part in a trip to Cuba in 2017 that is mentioned in the report.

“They did their best to delimit those exchanges as much as possible because they understood that knowledge production requires freedom and a plurality of viewpoints — precisely what they do not allow,” de la Fuente told The Intercept in an email Wednesday. “Indeed, they would probably argue that it was U.S. universities that were trying to penetrate Cuban institutions and to foment subversion there!”

How Florida’s Cuban Diaspora and the Israeli Lobby Came Together — and Are Coming Apart

Born in Cuba, De la Fuente is hardly an apologist for the Cuban government, at whose feet he laid the blame for the country’s collapse. He acknowledged that Cuban intelligence may have targeted American students and academics in the past, but scoffed at the underlying thesis of the report that Cuba continues to pose a grave threat to the U.S.

“The ineptitude and corruption of the regime have destroyed the country’s economy and society, to the point that the very existence of the nation is in danger,” de la Fuente said. “Can a country like this pose a threat to the national security of the United States today? The answer, any reasonable observer would agree, is emphatically no.”

“War on the Cuban People”

Cuba has made no secret of its support for revolutionary movements throughout the 20th century. And it was a vital partner to left-wing governments in Latin America in the 21st century.

With Cuba today crippled by sanctions and fuel shortages, however, Ramirez, the member of Congress, said the report’s notion of the country as a central node in some threatening conspiracy was a “fiction.”

Accusations about Cuba’s extensive reach into protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, antifascist organizing, and Black Lives Matter don’t square with the reality of the severe crisis that has gripped Cuba. In early January, the Trump administration tightened its embargo of the country into a virtual blockade on all fuel arriving in Cuba.

Already weakened by internal tensions and by decades of economic sanctions imposed by the U.S., the island nation has in recent months been plunged into repeated, extended blackouts; its tourism-dependent economy has effectively collapsed; and its citizens face a daily question of where to find their next meal.

Her voice on the verge of tears as she described the humanitarian crisis she witnessed on the island, Ramirez forcefully rejected the notion that the U.S. has anything to fear from Cuba.

“Under no circumstances, at any moment during my trip, did I see anything to make me believe that Cuba poses an existential threat to the United States,” Ramirez said. “On the contrary, what I witnessed was a war on the Cuban people by the United States, and specifically by Donald Trump and Marco Rubio.”

Thursday, July 30, 2026

At Lindsey Graham’s funeral, Trump hails a senator who “never saw a war he didn’t like”

Patrick Martina, WSWS, 29 July 202

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, left, gestures as President Donald Trump speaks with reporters while in flight on Air Force One, Jan. 4, 2026, as they were returning to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. [AP Photo/Alex Brandon]

The official funeral of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, held Tuesday at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., was a spectacle of reaction that underscores certain fundamental truths about American and world politics.

First, American imperialism is irrevocably committed to a global policy of militarism, seeking to use its military power in a desperate effort to maintain its dominant world position despite decades of economic decline.

Graham was one of the most persistent and aggressive supporters of American military operations around the world, summed up in Trump’s statement, in the course of his tribute to Graham, that “he was truly hawkish; he never saw a war he didn’t like.”

This was not an offhand or joking remark, as Trump read out an obviously scripted tribute, filled with mawkish language crafted by his speechwriters. Trump praised Graham’s record in the Senate, pushing through record military spending, huge tax cuts for the wealthy and the Supreme Court nomination of reactionary Justice Brett Kavanaugh. But his main focus was on Graham’s advocacy of the use of American military power.

Second, on the twin fronts of Ukraine and Iran, American imperialism is in the initial stages of a world war targeting not only Russia and Iran but ultimately China, perceived by all factions of the US ruling elite as its most dangerous economic and military rival. The merging of these two fronts was signaled this week by the Ukrainian attack on an Iranian cargo vessel in the Caspian Sea.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky justified the attack by describing Iran as an active participant in the war between Ukraine and Russia, because it has supplied Russia with combat drones. By that logic, every NATO country could be targeted by Moscow for air strikes, since they have sent the weapons and supplies used by Ukraine to bomb Russian oil refineries, military installations and urban centers.

Both Zelensky and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Washington to attend Graham’s funeral. Each met separately with Trump on Tuesday morning before the ceremony, making their pitches for stepped-up US military support for the US-NATO war against Russia and the US-Israeli war against Iran.

Third, the most reactionary forces in American society are being mobilized behind the program of war abroad and dictatorship at home. Trump was followed to the rostrum of the funeral service by Sean Hannity, the fascist commentator from Fox News; Tony Perkins, president of the fundamentalist Family Research Council; Marjorie Dannenfelser, head of the fanatical anti-abortion group Pro-Life America; and evangelical minister Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham.

The entire ceremony was saturated with fundamentalist Christian religion, not only in the remarks of the speakers and the reading of Bible verses, but in the emphasis on Lindsey Graham’s personal adherence to “scripture,” as Trump put it, another unfamiliar word put in his mouth by speechwriters. It is well known that Trump’s bedtime reading is not the Bible but a volume of the collected speeches of Adolf Hitler.

Fourth, the program of global war against the rivals of American capitalism has the unstinting support of the Democratic Party. Leading Democrats paid tribute to Graham during a ceremony at the Capitol Rotunda before the funeral service. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sat in the front row and helped lay a wreath, and other Democrats were seen touching the casket in a gesture of affection.

All 100 senators were invited to meet separately with Zelensky, in a show of support for the war against Russia. Leaders of both parties announced agreement to pass bipartisan legislation imposing even more sweeping sanctions on Russia—with a few additional sanctions on Iran to ensure Trump’s support. The first test vote was to be held Tuesday evening.

“We are proud to announce an agreement on legislation to stop purchasers of Russian oil and gas from fueling Putin’s war machine and to continue restricting the Iranian regime’s ability to support terrorism and build its nuclear program,” a bipartisan statement said. “There is no greater way to honor Senator Graham’s legacy than to move forward with this bipartisan agreement, and we look forward to today’s vote.”

Socialism AI

by the WSWS SocialismAI.com

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The statement was issued by Republican senators Darline Graham of South Carolina (Lindsey Graham’s sister and appointed successor), Jim Risch of Idaho, Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Katie Britt of Alabama, and Democratic senators Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire. Blumenthal said he had worked with Graham for more than a year to win support for the bill.

The legislation would impose heavy penalties on countries that purchase Russian oil, including China and India, which are among the largest customers, although Trump will have the power to waive sanctions on US allies like India and impose them only on China if he cites “national security” reasons.

Fifth, there is the role of the corporate media, which treated the event at the National Cathedral with the greatest respect. Fox News, of course, broadcast the entire proceeding live. All the evening television news programs gave prominent coverage, while being careful not to focus on Trump’s declaration of Graham’s love for war. NBC, for example, did not even mention it.

The day began on a note of farce, courtesy of the Washington Post,which under owner Jeff Bezos is an open ally of the Trump administration. The Tuesday edition of the Post carried an op-ed column claiming that Graham was “beloved by the Iranian people,” under the byline of Reza Pahlavi, identified by the newspaper only as “a leader of the Iranian democratic opposition.” Actually, Pahlavi is the son of the late Shah, whose bloodstained police-state regime was overthrown in 1979 by one of the great mass popular uprisings in history. He is no more a “democrat” than Graham was a “man of peace,” as he was described by Sean Hannity at the National Cathedral.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the Graham funeral, however, was the enormous security cordon around the event. The National Cathedral audience was carefully vetted, surrounded by Secret Service agents and other police, to ensure that no one seeking to speak the truth about Graham’s record as an advocate of militarism and an apologist for mass murder—including the Israeli genocide in Gaza—could get within miles of the ceremony.

The denizens of official Washington, Democrats as well as Republicans, live in constant fear of the American population. Their main concern is that the program of world war, requiring massive attacks on the living standards and democratic rights of the American working class, is leading to an explosion of the class struggle in America. They are right to be afraid.

Amnesty: India sent 2,596 arms shipments to Israel during genocide in Gaza

Amnesty said its ‘conservative’ methodology meant it was likely underestimating the true extent of India’s contribution to Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, attend a press conference in Jerusalem, on 26 February 2026 (Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP)

Azad Essa

Published date: 30 July 2026 00:01 BST | Last update:14 mins 57 secs ago

Indian state-owned and private companies shipped at least 2,596 consignments comprising hundreds of thousands of arms, ammunition and military components to Israel during the genocide in Gaza, a new Amnesty International report has revealed.

The shipments, sent between 7 October 2023 and 30 November 2025, included machine-gun components, 155 mm high-explosive artillery shells supplied to Elbit Systems, explosive warheads for the SkyStriker “kamikaze” drones – similar to those discovered amid the ruins in Khan Younis – and armoured vehicle components destined for major suppliers to the Israeli military.

According to Amnesty, these amounted to 564,970 parts of explosive ordnance (drone warheads, artillery shell casings and others), 390,516 small arms parts for military-grade weapons, and 298 components of military vehicles to large Israeli companies that supplied the Israeli armed forces.

As of 29 July 2026, at least 247,387 Palestinians have been either killed or injured since Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza, following the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023.

The report, “Made in India: The Supply of Weapons and Ammunition to Israel”, published on Thursday, said its findings were “based on a deliberately conservative methodology”, and were likely to underestimate the “true extent of India’s contribution to Israel’s military supply chain”.

Rising Indian complicity

The report is the latest in a series alleging that India has materially supported Israel’s genocide in Gaza, following earlier allegations that New Delhi supplied combat drones, bombs and weapons components to Israel after October 2023.

In May, the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and No Harbour for Genocide warned of a “flood” of military supplies from India to Israel.

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“Israel has a huge domestic production, but they rely on specific components, whether it’s like high-end technology material for aerospace or bulk materials such as military steel,” a spokesperson for No Harbour for Genocide told Middle East Eye at the time.

Likewise, an Al Jazeera investigation based on Israeli Tax Authority import data found that India was the second-largest exporter of military-related goods to Israel between October 2023 and October 2025.

Israeli army reservist ‘flees’ India after war crimes allegation filed

Al Jazeera noted the data likely represented only a partial picture of total arms transfers to Israel and did not establish the end use of the shipments in Gaza.

Likewise, Amnesty’s investigators based their analysis on shipments classified under specific Harmonized System (HS) codes, the internationally used customs classification system for traded goods.

These included HS codes 9301–9307, which cover weapons, ammunition and their parts and accessories; and HS code 8710, which covers armoured and fighting vehicles and their components.

Researchers excluded shipments labelled only with internal product or part numbers, where it was not possible to determine whether the items were military or civilian.

It also excluded hundreds of shipments of dual-use small-arms components, as well as weapons, parts and ammunition likely intended for anti-missile defence systems.

Amnesty said its deliberately conservative methodology meant its findings were likely to underestimate the true extent of India’s contribution to Israel’s military supply chain.

Nonetheless, its findings revealed there were several companies, including state-owned ventures, involved in supplying military aid to Israel.

It said it wrote to nine companies as well as the Indian state but did not receive a reply by the time of publication.

“In light of the International Court of Justice’s provisional measures orders recognizing a plausible risk of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, the Indian authorities cannot credibly argue that they did not know that continuing to authorize and facilitate arms transfers to Israel carries a substantial risk of contributing to serious violations of international law,” Agnes Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary general, said in a statement.

Callamard added that while the Israeli military continued to inflict death and suffering in Gaza, “Indian companies continued to profit by supplying components and munitions destined for Israel’s defence sector.”

India-Israel defence ties

India-Israel ties have accelerated over the past decade under the leadership of Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Benjamin Netanyahu.

India is the world’s largest purchaser of Israeli weapons, and several Israeli arms manufacturers have established production facilities in the country through joint ventures with Indian companies.

Earlier this year, during Modi’s visit to Israel, the two countries upgraded ties to a Special Strategic Partnership for Peace, Innovation and Prosperity.

The relationship has since expanded further, with a series of new memorandums of understanding and reports of potential defence partnerships, including discussions over India manufacturing Iron Dome interceptor missiles for Israel.

Israel to install statue of Indian Maratha king as gesture of friendship

Diplomatically, the Indian government has been one of Israel’s staunchest supporters.

New Delhi has refused to join South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, which alleges violations of the Genocide Convention, and has rejected calls to impose an arms embargo on Israel.

It has also cracked down on pro-Palestine protests and activism within India.

When Indian civil society groups petitioned the Supreme Court in September 2024 to halt arms exports, the court dismissed the case, ruling that decisions on foreign policy fall within the government’s domain, not the judiciary.

External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has also maintained that India’s arms exports are guided by the country’s “national interest”.

“The issue of India’s exports, including India’s exports of anything which directly or indirectly has any military implications, is guided by our national interest and by our commitments to various regimes,” Jaishankar said in December 2024.

“Where Israel is concerned, it is a country with which we have a strong record of cooperation in national security. It is also a country that has stood by us at different moments when our national security was under threat,” he added.

Tuesday, July 28, 2026

Trump Says US Has Taken “Billions and Billions” From Venezuela and Iran Is Next

Trump said that Congress should approve legislation to allow Venezuela’s funds to be rerouted to the US military.

By Sharon Zhang , Truthout, July 27, 2026

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks while aboard Air Force One for a trip to Michigan on July 27, 2026 in flight.

Truthout is an indispensable resource for activists, movement leaders and workers everywhere. Please make this work possible with a quick donation.

President Donald Trump claimed that the U.S. has seized over $13 billion in oil revenues from Venezuela and is using it for “running the country” in remarks on Monday in which he threatened to do the same to Iran.

Late last week, the Financial Times estimated that the U.S. has put roughly $13 billion of Venezuela’s oil revenues into a reported U.S. Treasury account ever since the Trump administration’s likely illegal coup operation in Venezuela in January. The report pointed out that the administration has said very little about the money it’s seized thus far, outside of claiming that it is being spent on helping the government.

The report also said that there are very few indications that it’s being spent to boost the ailing economy in Venezuela, which also suffered two devastating earthquakes last month, “a potential sign that the US has not sent all the revenues back to Caracas.”

Answering a question from a reporter on Air Force One on Monday, Trump claimed that the U.S. has actually seized more than $13 billion, and was tight-lipped in answering where the funds have gone. He suggested, however, that some of the revenues have gone toward paying the U.S. back for the strike operation on January 3 in which the U.S. abducted then-President Nicolás Maduro and killed dozens.

“Venezuela, we paid for that war many times over, and that’ll happen with Iran also,” Trump said.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright shakes hands with Venezuela's Acting President Delcy Rodriguez during a press conference after a meeting at the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas, Venezuela, on February 11, 2026.

News

War & Peace

The US May Not Have Troops on the Ground, But Venezuela’s Government Is Occupied

As Delcy Rodríguez capitulates to US demands, the Venezuelan left is calling for resistance. By Rodrigo Acuña , Truthout

June 13, 2026

When pressed again on where the money has gone, Trump repeatedly said it’s going toward “running the country.” However, he suggested that Congress should pass legislation to allow the funds to be rerouted to the U.S. military.

“It can’t go to the military, Congress has to approve it. Congress doesn’t like approving money for the military, they like giving it to things that shouldn’t be done. But we’re taking in a lot of money — billions and billions of dollars from Venezuela,” he said. “That’ll be done to Iran, too.”

Trump administration officials have previously said that the U.S. is using Venezuela’s money to fund the country, an account that some within the country have disputed. In an interview with NBC in February, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that Trump has “final say” over what funding is allowed to go back into Venezuela.

“The largest revenue source that funds the government … is now controlled by the United States,” Wright said at the time. “If they’re driving positive change that benefits Americans and is improving the life opportunities of people in Venezuela, that money will flow. If they steer off that path, we have, just simply, tremendous leverage.”

Meanwhile, Trump also threatened to use any potential funds seized from Iran to pay for damages that the country has done to American assets amid the U.S.-Israeli war on the country.

“We’re going to use Iran’s money to pay for the damage they did. The Iran money that we control,” he said.

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‘Stop All Military Aid’: Sanders Condemns US Complicity in Israel’s Decimation of Gaza

A Palestinian boy carrying a quilt walks past destroyed buildings following an Israeli strike on Gaza City on July 24, 2026.

(Photo by Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP via Getty Images)

“We have funneled tens of billions of dollars in military aid to an Israeli government that has consistently violated international law and whose leader is a war criminal.”

Jake Johnson

Jul 27, 2026

US Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday decried the ceaseless and horrific suffering that the Israeli military has inflicted on the population of the Gaza Strip with the assistance of American weapons, complicity that the Vermont senator called “shameful” and illegal under international law.

“We have funneled tens of billions of dollars in military aid to an Israeli government that has consistently violated international law and whose leader is a war criminal,” wrote Sanders (I-Vt.), referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a fugitive from the International Criminal Court who is expected to travel to the US this week. “Enough is enough! Congress must listen to the American people. NO MORE US MILITARY AID TO ISRAEL.”

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Sanders, who has repeatedly tried to block Trump administration arms sales to Israel, noted that the Israeli military’s genocidal assault on Gaza has continued during the so-called ceasefire agreement enacted last year, with Israeli forces aggressively extending their reach into the occupied Palestinian territory.

The Associated Press reported last week that “the Israeli military is quietly but quickly building a giant earthen barrier separating the over 50% of the Gaza Strip it controls from the rest of the territory, according to satellite imagery, further entrenching the division of the tiny Palestinian enclave.”

“More than 23 kilometers (14 miles) have been constructed in recent months, running through Palestinian communities demolished by the military,” AP observed. “That is equivalent to more than half the length of the coastal strip, which is some 40 kilometers (25 miles) long and 11 kilometers (7 miles) wide, and home to over 2 million Palestinians.”

Sanders noted in his statement on Sunday that Israel “now controls an estimated 70% of Gaza, well beyond what they agreed to, and has built dozens of military outposts inside Gaza since the ‘ceasefire’ began.”

“In the nine months since the ‘ceasefire’ was announced, Israel has killed at least 1,150 Palestinians, including a family of six last week,” the senator wrote. “Now, as if to remove any doubt about their intentions, senior leaders of the Netanyahu government are moving to make the occupation permanent.”

“The good news is that the American people are catching on,” Sanders added. “More and more Americans—Democrats, Republicans and independents—are demanding that we stop all military aid to Israel and use our considerable leverage to end the suffering of the Palestinian people.”