I - On Defense Podcast

For review:

1. President Trump to Address the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.

2. Houthi fighters were pushing to seize strategic heights in Yemen on Monday to cut off the Red Sea coast from remaining areas held by Saudi-backed forces, after a report that President Donald Trump had called off US strikes on the group at the last minute.

3. Prime Minister Andy Burnham says Britain has agreed to provide limited military support to Saudi A...

For review:

1. Yemen’s Houthis said on Saturday that they launched strikes targeting “sensitive sites” in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh and oil facilities in the kingdom’s port city of Yanbu.

2. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not among the world leaders scheduled to meet US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York next week, and it is unlikely the pair will have time i...

For review:

1. US officials met representatives of Yemen’s Houthis in Oman over the weekend, five sources familiar with the matter said Wednesday, days after the Iran-backed militia seized a strategic stretch of the Red Sea coast in a sweeping offensive that routed Saudi-backed forces.

2. China has privately asked Tehran to help rein in Yemen’s Houthis after an appeal to Beijing by Saudi Arabia following the Iran-backed g...

For review:

1. The leaders of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland called Monday for the British government to "prepare for, plan and facilitate" constitutional change that could lead to the breakup of the United Kingdom, with the remarks coming days after President Trump said he would "love to see" Irish reunification.

2. Apparent Houthi attacks early Tuesday morning triggered warnings in six Saudi cities, including Yanbu, the kingd...

For review:

1. Report: The Trump administration secretly explored an energy deal with Cuba earlier this year that would have provided US oil and investment to the island in exchange for major economic and political changes, according to media reports.

Miami Herald: "The deal with Cuba, while much smaller in its scale would have sent shockwaves throughout the Cuban government establishment, as it was also tied to a demand that the cou...

For review:

1. Using 1,100 tons of explosives, the Israeli military said on Thursday that it had demolished a “strategic” underground facility belonging to the Hezbollah terror group beneath a mountainous ridge in southern Lebanon.

2. An airstrike late Thursday in the southern Gaza Strip killed the commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, the Israeli military and the terror group said on Friday morning.

3. Yemen&rsq...

For review:

1. A group of eight Muslim-majority countries, including Israel’s ally the United Arab Emirates, praised the United Kingdom on Wednesday for announcing that it will impose sanctions on Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and called on other countries to do the same.

2. Iran’s Guards said on Wednesday that a new “prohibited zone” outside the Strait of Hormuz would cover parts of the Gulf of Oman a...

For review:

1, The new head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council on Sunday said Tehran plans to announce a “prohibited zone” outside the Strait of Hormuz aimed at vessels it believes are attempting to transit the waterway.

2. The Israel Defense Forces struck Hezbollah terror group targets in Lebanon overnight Sunday-Monday, reportedly killing eleven people, after the Iranian proxy fired two explosive drones a...

For review:

1. The US military said Saturday it had struck and destroyed three oil tankers linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps after the Iranian military organization fired on American warships.

2. The navy of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it targeted three oil tankers that were traveling through unauthorized routes in the Strait of Hormuz as well as three additional US vessels in other areas, accord...

For review:

1. The Israel Defense Forces said Thursday night that it had finished clearing a “strategic” underground facility belonging to the Hezbollah terror group beneath a mountainous ridge in southern Lebanon in recent weeks.

The Ali Taher Ridge is located within Israel’s southern Lebanon buffer zone, near Nabatieh. According to the IDF, Hezbollah built tunnel systems beneath the hill, which served as the &ldqu...

For review:

1. The US military hit targets in Iran on Tuesday, and Tehran fired missiles and drones in response, as hostilities flared once again.

2. Jordan’s army says it has intercepted 10 ballistic missiles launched from Iran while three others landed in remote areas.

3. A Syrian site held infrastructure “consistent with a nuclear reactor,” the UN nuclear watchdog said in a confidential report seen by AFP on Tuesd...

For review:

1. The U.S. military struck Iranian military targets to prevent the deployment of sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz, a U.S. official said.

2. Jordan’s army says it intercepted eight missiles, shortly after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it attacked US military targets in the Washington-allied kingdom.

“Air defense systems intercepted eight missiles that breached the kingdom’s airspace...

For review:

1. CIA Director John Ratcliffe was in Moscow, Russia, for meetings on Tuesday, sources familiar with the situation told CBS News.

2. Russia warned on Thursday that it could strike British military ​targets inside and outside Ukraine in response to Ukrainian attacks on targets inside Russia using long-range British cruise missiles.

3. The United States on Friday issued fresh Iran-related sanctions as the war hit its six-mon...

For review:

1. US President Donald Trump on Tuesday lamented what he called a “humanitarian crisis” in Iran, saying it “must be stopped,” as he accused the Tehran regime of killing protesters and failing to pay its armed forces.

“The failing Islamic Republic of Iran is not paying large segments of their military, while at the same time killing protesters, even when they are not protesting, at levels not ...

For review:

1. Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel blamed the United States for the country’s severe crisis in an interview, saying his government will not make any concessions to the Trump administration, has “no alternative but to resist,” and that talks with Washington are “very stalled.”

2. Mossad chief Roman Gofman and Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani held a meeting on Sunday to defuse tensions ...

For review:

1. The United States tightened sanctions on Cuba on Thursday, blacklisting three officials ​tied to a state-run organization that promotes Cuba's ties ‌with foreign solidarity activists, along with nine state entities in the metals, mining and construction sectors.

2. Israel reportedly claimed to the US that Turkey was planning to set up an air defense system on the airbase in northwest Syria that the IDF struck last week...

For review:

1. Israel confirmed late Tuesday that it was behind overnight strikes against a Sysrian military airport, where it claimed Turkey was planning to deploy forces.

2. Turkey’s Defense Ministry denied Thursday that a Turkish military delegation had visited Syria’s Abu al-Duhur airbase ahead of Israeli strikes on the site this week, a day after Syria’s foreign minister had said that such a visit took place.

3....

For review:

1. South Korea on Monday expressed hopes for resumption of diplomacy between the U.S. and North Korea to ease animosities on the Korean Peninsula, as President Trump reduces exercises with South Korea.

2. The runway of a military airport in northwestern Syria was targeted by unidentified fighter jets overnight Monday, with Damascus blaming Israel for the airstrike and the United States denouncing Israel for the attack.

3. ...

For review:

1. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and top aide Jared Kushner met with Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya in the Egyptian coastal city of El-Alamein on Sunday, an Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel.

2. The White House established a secret backchannel with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to a Sunday report, which said that the United States has been informed that the IRGC stands behind t...