Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer boards a plane at the airport in Doha, Qatar, following his visit to the Gulf region, April 10, 2026
… KEIR STARMER’S claims that he’s “fed up” of Donald Trump’s wars ramping up the cost of living ring hollow until he stops the US using British military bases and arming Israel, anti-war campaigners said yesterday.
The Prime Minister compared the US leader with Russian President Vladimir Putin as he expressed frustration over skyrocketing global oil prices following Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for US-Israeli bombings.
“I’m fed up with the fact that families across the country see their bills go up and down on energy, businesses’ bills go up and down on energy, because of the actions of Putin or Trump,” he told ITV’s Talking Politics Podcast.
A spokeswoman for Stop the War Coalition told the Morning Star: “Keir Starmer continues in his cowardly appeasement of Donald Trump, even in his failure to stand up for working people as the economic crisis caused by the US’s illegal war on Iran hits home.
“He may be ‘fed up’ but he remains complicit until he stops allowing US planes to use British bases and stops arming Israel.”
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/Keir Starmer explains that UK is defensively bombing Iraq in support of Israel’s genocidal expansionism. He explains that while his bombs still kill people that they are especially called defensive for the gullible and to be harder to convict of war crimes.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
A friend of the photographer watches Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu’s press conference on the first day of the ceasefire on April 08, 2026 in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
To make lasting peace in the Middle East, the US must end its blank check to Israel’s perpetual wars and join with the rest of the world to force Israel to live within its internationally recognized borders of June 4, 1967.
A two-week ceasefire has partially halted the Israel-US war on Iran. The war accomplished precisely nothing that a competent diplomat could not have achieved in an afternoon. The Strait of Hormuz was open before the war and it is open again now, but with more Iranian control.
Meanwhile, the chaos continues. Israel is intent on blowing up the ceasefire, as this was Israel’s war from the start. Israel dazzled Trump with the prospect of a one-day decapitation strike that would put Trump in charge of Iran’s oil. Israel, in turn, was out for bigger prey: to bring down the Iranian regime and thereby become the regional hegemon of Western Asia.
The foundation of the ceasefire is Iran’s 10-point plan, which Trump (perhaps unwittingly) called a “workable basis on which to negotiate.” The plan makes sense, but it is a major climbdown for the US, and probably a redline for Israel. Among other points, the plan calls for an end to the wars raging in the Middle East, almost all of which have Israel at their root cause. The plan would also resolve the nuclear issue, essentially by going back to the JCPOA that Trump ripped up in 2018.
The Iran War, and the other wars raging across the Middle East, trace back to one core Israeli idea, that Israel will permanently and steadfastly oppose a sovereign Palestinian state and will topple any government in the Middle East that supports armed struggle for national sovereignty. It is crucial to note that the UN General Assembly has passed multiple resolutions, such as Resolution 37/43 (1982), affirming that political self-determination is so vital, that armed struggle in the quest for self-determination is legitimate. The UN was born, in part, out of the determination to end the centuries of European imperial domination over Africa and Asia. Of course, there would be no cause for armed struggle if Israel would accept a political solution, notably the two-state solution that has overwhelming support throughout the world.
The peace is within reach, if the US grasps it.
Netanyahu’s core goal may be summarized as Greater Israel. This means no Palestinian sovereignty, and no clear boundaries for Israel even beyond the boundary of historical Palestine under British rule after WWI. Zionist extremists like Netanyahu’s political allies, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich favor Israeli control over parts of Lebanon and Syria, as well as permanent control over all of what was British Palestine. America’s Christian Zionists, exemplified by the US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, and a strong voter base of Trump, speak of God’s promise to Israel of the lands between the Nile and the Euphrates. Crazy stuff, but these are real beliefs, nonetheless, and they are conveyed in the White House.
Israel’s strategy is therefore regime change in every country that resists Greater Israel, a plan already foreshadowed in the famous political document “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm,” written by US Zionist neocons as a platform for Netanyahu’s new government in 1996. We’ve had constant wars in the Middle East since then to implement the Clean Break vision. This has included the war in Libya to overthrow Moammar Qaddafi, the wars in Lebanon, the war to overthrow Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, the war to overthrow Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, and now the war to topple the Iranian regime.
This is not to say that the US lacks its own grandiose ideas. Israel wants regional hegemony, this is not a secret. Netanyahu confirmed these ambitions in his recent remarks about Israel becoming “a regional power, and in certain fields a global power.” On the other hand, American officials dream of global hegemony. And Trump dreams of money. He craves the Iranian oil and repeatedly said so.
In any event, it’s clear that this war was Netanyahu’s creation. He and the Mossad chief came to Washington to sell Trump a bill of goods. It’s not hard. Trump was suckered, while everybody else had their doubts about Netanyahu’s claims of an easy one-day decapitation strike—essentially a replay of the US operation in Venezuela.
It’s pathetic to “listen in” on the White House discussion, as revealed by the New York Times. Netanyahu, a con man, presented rosy scenarios of regime change that US intelligence contradicted, yet Trump foolishly accepted. Trump and Netanyahu were cheered on by Christian Zionists (Hegseth), Jewish Zionists and real-estate developers (Kushner and Witkoff), a faith healer (Franklin Graham), and high-level sycophants (Rubio and Ratcliffe).
While Trump was telling the world that Iran was begging for a ceasefire, it was Trump himself who was begging for a ceasefire.
Until Tuesday evening, it looked like Trump might lead the world blindly to World War III. The vulgarity and brutality of his public rhetoric was unmatched in US presidential history. Now we know that he was desperately seeking an off-ramp and using Pakistan for that purpose. While Trump was telling the world that Iran was begging for a ceasefire, it was Trump himself who was begging for a ceasefire. The Pakistani leader delivered it.
The ceasefire is good, and the 10-point plan is good, even if perhaps Trump didn’t know what was in it when he said that it was a good basis for negotiation. Israel will, in any event, work overtime to break it, and has already started to do so, with carpet bombing of Beirut that is killing hundreds of civilians, and with other strikes. A permanent US-Iran agreement is the last thing that Netanyahu wants. That would end his dream of Greater Israel.
Yet there is a way to peace and that is for the US to face reality. Israel is the real “terror state,” waging perpetual war throughout the Middle East for a wholly indefensible reason—to have unchecked freedom to terrorize and rule over the Palestinian people and to expand its borders as Israel’s zealots see fit. To make lasting peace in the Middle East, the US must end its blank check to Israel’s perpetual wars and join with the rest of the world to force Israel to live within its internationally recognized borders of June 4, 1967. Iran’s 10-point plan can be the basis of a comprehensive regional peace—if the US accepts the reality of a state of Palestine. In that case, Iran would likely agree to stop funding non-state belligerents, and Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the entire region could live in mutual security and peace. That outcome should be the basis of a negotiated agreement of the US and Iran in the next two weeks.
Israel is the real “terror state,” waging perpetual war throughout the Middle East for a wholly indefensible reason…
The American people have made their views clear. A 2025 Pew survey finds most Jewish Americans lack confidence in Netanyahu and back the two-state solution. Most Americans now view Israel unfavorably, the highest unfavourability in history. Sympathy for Israel has hit a 25-year low. Now the political class must catch up with the public.
The peace is within reach, if the US grasps it. Iran’s proposal is serious and the ceasefire is a fragile opening for a comprehensive settlement. The question is whether the US will, once again, allow Israel to destroy the peace, or rather this time stand up for America’s interests and the world’s interests in a lasting peace.
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/Donald Trump explains why he established his Bored of PeaceClimate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Comedian Dave Columbo parodies the Trump administration’s rational for the Iran war in a video that has gained millions of views across social media. (Photo: Screen grab via X)
“Our goal from day one was for Iran to open the strait that didn’t close until after we attacked.”
Comedian Dave Columbo on Wednesday released a parody video that lampooned the Trump administration’s contradictory and constantly changing rationales for its unconstitutional war with Iran.
In the video, which was first posted on Instagram and has since gone viral on other social media platforms, Columbo assumes the role of a White House spokesperson trying to explain what the US has achieved so far with its war, which Trump illegally launched without any congressional authorization more than a month ago.
“This is a victory for the US,” Columbo says at the start of the video. “Because our goal from day one was for Iran to open the strait that didn’t close until after we attacked, which was completely controlled by their military that we had total dominance over. And it was a waterway that we could have taken over, but instead we asked for help that we didn’t need, but we’ll remember our allies did not give us.”
— Barney Panofsky's Best Intentions (@mynamesnotgordy) April 8, 2026
Columbo then explains that this purported victory has only come about due to “a FIFA Peace Prize recipient’s threat to annihilate a civilization in order to liberate them.”
The comedian next touts the administration’s success in changing the Iranian regime from “an old man who hates us to his younger son, who hates us for those reasons, and that we killed his father.”
Columbo acknowledges that the administration is unsure about “the status of Iran’s nuclear capabilities that we obliterated last year, but were going to be a problem in two weeks,” before boasting that Iran now has “more money and control over the strait than they had when they made the old deal that we ended because it was terrible.”
While Columbo’s video is intended as satire, much of it simply relies on arguments that the Trump administration has made throughout the course of the war, such as the president’s demands that NATO allies give help to reopen the Strait of Hormuz that he also says is unnecessary given US military strength.
As of this writing, the Iran War has cost US taxpayers more than $45 billion, and the Strait of Hormuz has still not reopened.
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Straight of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don’t need people to join wars after they’ve already won. He’s challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF.Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
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A view of a banner featuring Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and senior commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as the attacks by the United States and Israel against Iran continue on March 14, 2026. [Fatemeh Bahrami – Anadolu Agency]
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei said in a message Thursday that the management of the Strait of Hormuz will “certainly enter a new phase,” while vowing that Tehran will demand compensation for all war-related damages, Anadolu reports.
The message, released by his office on the 40th day since the killing of his father, former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, described his death as a “heavy and historic blow” for the Iranian nation, and one of the most painful moments in its recent history.
It portrayed the current phase as a continuation of his path and legacy.
Strait of Hormuz
Khamenei said Iran will move toward a new strategic phase with the Strait of Hormuz.
“The management of the Strait of Hormuz will certainly enter a new phase,” he said, without elaborating.
Compensation, accountability
Khamenei stressed that Iran will pursue legal and material accountability for damages.
“We will certainly not leave the criminal aggressors who attacked our country unpunished,” he said.
He added that Iran will “demand compensation for all damages, as well as the blood of the martyrs and the wounded.”
The remarks come as Iran prepares to negotiate with the United States in Pakistan, expected to begin Saturday under Pakistan’s mediation and continue for up to two weeks.
Iran has said the talks aim to finalize details of a potential agreement, emphasizing that it does not signify the end of the conflict.
Khamenei also warned that Iran remains ready to respond to any renewed aggression.
“Our hands are on the trigger,” he said, adding that any mistake by adversaries would be met with a decisive response.
The region has been on alert since Israel and the US launched an offensive against Iran on Feb. 28, killing at least 3,000 people, including the former supreme leader.
Tehran has retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel, Jordan, Iraq and Gulf countries hosting US military assets, causing casualties and damage to infrastructure, and disrupting global markets and aviation.
US President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire Thursday, saying Iran presented a “workable” 10-point proposal, while negotiations are expected to determine whether a longer-term agreement can be reached.
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Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Straight of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don’t need people to join wars after they’ve already won. He’s challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF.Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Teams conduct search and rescue operation following the simultaneous Israeli attacks in Beirut, Lebanon on April 8, 2026. [Houssam Shbaro – Anadolu Agency]
Israeli airstrikes killed 303 people and injured 1,150 others across Lebanon on Wednesday, the Lebanese Health Ministry said Thursday, Anadolu reports.
In a statement, the ministry said at least 110 children, women and elderly people were among those killed in Wednesday’s deadly strikes.
Efforts are still ongoing to recover the bodies of the victims from under the rubble in several locations, the statement said. The ministry said the fatalities have brought the overall death toll from Israeli attacks since March 2 to 1,888 people, while 6,092 others have been injured.
The Israeli army escalated airstrikes across Lebanon since Wednesday despite the announcement of a two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran.
While Pakistani mediators and Tehran said the ceasefire includes Lebanon, Washington and Tel Aviv denied that.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Straight of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don’t need people to join wars after they’ve already won. He’s challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF.Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer boards a plane at the airport in Doha, Qatar, following his visit to the Gulf region, April 10, 2026
