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Iran labels California its ‘new territory’ after Trump’s Hormuz claim
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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi. [@Gharibabadi/X]
An official Iranian social media account labeled California a “new territory” of Iran on Tuesday in response to US President Donald Trump posting an image portraying the Strait of Hormuz as “NEW U.S. Territory,” Anadolu reports.
Trump shared the image on his Truth Social account Tuesday, showing a map of the Strait of Hormuz with the strategic waterway circled beneath the words “NEW U.S. Territory,” following up on his earlier remarks saying the strait would be made US territory after the war ends.
The White House later reposted Trump’s post on its official account on US social media platform X.
In response, the official Iran in Hyderabad account on X posted a map of the US showing California highlighted in blue, with the words: “NEW TERRITORY OF ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN.”
Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, also hit back at Trump’s post, writing on X: “His delusion regarding the Strait of Hormuz will soon either be corrected, or we will correct the delusions of this delusional man.”
READ: Trump says no talks with Iran underway or scheduled
California, particularly the Los Angeles area, is home to the largest concentration of people of Iranian descent outside Iran. An estimated 141,000 Iranian Americans live in Los Angeles County, according to the Iranian Diaspora Dashboard hosted by UCLA’s Center for Near Eastern Studies.
The Iranian community in Southern California expanded significantly following Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, with the Westwood area of Los Angeles becoming a major center of Iranian diaspora life, commonly known as “Tehrangeles.”
The exchange comes amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington following months of conflict.
Iran and the US signed a memorandum of understanding in June aimed at ending the war and paving the way for a broader agreement, but talks have since stalled amid disputes over its implementation and navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.
Negotiations involving Iran and Oman over arrangements for navigation through the strategic waterway, meanwhile, have continued without a breakthrough.
OPINION: Iran’s supreme leader is back in control. That may be why diplomacy with Washington just collapsed
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 Strait 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.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up
19 August 2026
ICC rejects new US sanctions, calls them ‘flagrant attack’ on judicial independence
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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
A general view of the International Criminal Court (ICC) building in The Hague, Netherlands on April 30, 2024 [Selman Aksünger/Anadolu Agency]
The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday strongly rejected new US sanctions targeting the court’s president and a senior lawyer in its prosecutor’s office, describing the measures as a “flagrant attack” on judicial independence, Anadolu reports.
The latest designations target ICC President Tomoko Akane of Japan and Abdoulaye Seye of Senegal, a senior trial lawyer at the Office of the Prosecutor, the Hague-based court said in a statement.
The ICC said nine of its 18 judges, both deputy prosecutors, a former prosecutor and one staff member are now under US sanctions.
“These sanctions are a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution which operates pursuant to the mandate conferred by its States Parties from across regions,” the court said.
READ: US sanctions International Criminal Court’s president, official
Measures targeting judges, prosecutors and other court personnel for carrying out the ICC’s mandate undermine the rule of law and put the international legal order at risk, it added.
The court also warned that threats and coercive measures affect victims’ ability to seek justice, particularly when they turn to the ICC after exhausting all other avenues.
“The court will continue to fully discharge its mandate with independence and impartiality, in full accordance with the Rome Statute and in the interest of victims of international crimes,” it said.
It also welcomed expressions of support from member states, civil society organizations and others backing international justice and the rule of law.
READ: Netanyahu flight through Europe raises questions over ICC obligations of Rome Statute states
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 Strait 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.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up
19 August 2026
Israeli police arrest Palestinian minister of Jerusalem affairs
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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Israeli police take security measures in Haifa, Israel on November 15, 2024 [Mostafa Alkharouf – Anadolu Agency]
Israeli police arrested Palestinian Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Ashraf al-Awar at his home in the Silwan neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem on Wednesday, according to an official from his office.
The official, who requested anonymity, told Anadolu Agency that Israeli police detained al-Awar without providing a reason.
Israeli police did not immediately comment on the reason for the arrest.
Last year, Israeli authorities issued an order barring al-Awar from entering the occupied West Bank for six months, which was later extended.
READ: Israel bars Arab lawmaker from visiting detained Palestinian doctor Abu Safiya
The Palestinian Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs is based in the town of Al-Ram in the occupied West Bank, while Palestinian government meetings are held in Ramallah.
Since Oct. 7, 2023, Israeli authorities have intensified restrictions on Palestinian sporting, social, political, and economic activities in occupied East Jerusalem.
Israeli authorities have also stepped up settlement activity and demolitions of Palestinian homes, while facilitating settler incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and barring worshippers and preachers from the site.
Palestinians insist that occupied East Jerusalem is the capital of their future state, while Israel claims the entire city as its capital, a claim widely rejected by the international community.
READ: 9 Palestinians killed, 15 injured by Israeli strike on Gaza police station
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 Strait 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.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up
19 August 2026
The impunity granted to Israel is as shocking as its violence
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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s national security minister, during a news conference at the Knesset in Jerusalem, Israel, on, 05 February , 2024 [Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg via Getty Images]
by Ramona Wadi walzerscent
More incitement to violence from Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir exposes how colonial violence is aimed at the entire colonised population. Speaking on a podcast with former Israeli hostage Rom Braslavski, Ben Gvir said that Israeli forced should kill 30-40 Palestinians each night in Gaza.
Braslavski requested to act as executioner should Ben Gvir’s plan come to pass, to which the security minister replied, “I will turn the world upside down to make that happen. I promise you that I will do everything I can and turn the world upside down until it happens.”
As shocking as the comments are, both are the product of an enterprise that knows it can only sustain itself through ethnic cleansing.
In 2025, a poll by the Hebrew University Centre showed that 87 per cent of the Israeli government’s supporters perceived “no innocents’ in Gaza, while 64 per cent of Israelis held the same view.
Israel’s Channel 14 branded all Palestinians killed during the genocide as terrorists. Among settlers that normalise the killings of Palestinians, and which even glorifies those murdering them, Ben Gvir’s comments are unlikely to elicit any lingering shock. On the contrary, Ben Gvir’s wish for extrajudicial killings may well find willing participants. And while Gaza remains within reach of the Israeli military in terms of extrajudicial assassinations, the occupied West Bank faces both Israeli institutions and settlers.
READ: Extremist Israeli minister says “30 to 40” Gazans should be killed every day
Ben Gvir’s comments were aimed at Gaza, but Israel’s colonisation plans do not only include Gaza. The occupied West Bank, which faces daily violence from settlers, is much at risk from extrajudicial killings. In Ras al-Ain, south of Nablus, Israeli settlers besieged Palestinian families and cut off their electricity, water and food supplies. While attracting international attention, the UN as usual preferred to rely on its usual condemnations while Erika Guevara Ross, Amnesty International Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns, described the siege as “an accelerating and well-documented pattern of coordinated and strategic settler terror, enabled, backed and funded by the State of Israel.” True, but what is being done with the information that is already mainstream knowledge to the rest of the world?
Likewise, Ben Gvir’s comments have not prompted a reckoning with world leaders or international institutions. Israel has already internalised such thinking – it thrives upon creating victims to sustain itself. The international community, supposedly a reference for human rights under the UN, does not seem to consider Ben Gvir’s threats dangerous enough. Even though Israel has a proven history of torturing and killing Palestinians.
Killing 30-40 Palestinians per night is not merely a fantasy. It has already been carried out by the Israeli military during the genocide; also exceeding that quota. Ben Gvir has also found someone willing to carry out the assassinations, even on a much larger scale. For Israel, as Ben Gvir again elucidated, Palestinians “are not worthy of life. They shouldn’t live. They’re not even people.”
If, according to Ben Gvir, killing Palestinians is killing non-people, then Israel is already completely absolved of culpability. This is the type of impunity the UN is harvesting for Israel.
BLOG: Israel’s imaginings of forced displacement, and UN culpability
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
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.
Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it’s fun to kill everyone … unless he gets distracted or falls asleep.
18 August 2026
Israeli forces demolish Palestinian homes, shelters in West Bank
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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Israeli forces demolished homes, shelters, livestock pens and water wells in the Masafer Yatta area of the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, Anadolu reports.
The demolitions affected structures belonging to several Palestinian families.
Israel continues to demolish Palestinian homes and facilities in the West Bank under the pretext of unlicensed construction. Palestinians say Israeli authorities impose severe restrictions that prevent them from obtaining building permits, while expanding illegal settlements on occupied land.
According to the Palestinian Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, Israeli authorities carried out 341 demolitions in the first half of this year, destroying 740 Palestinian structures and affecting 923 Palestinians. It said Israel also issued 254 new demolition notices over alleged unlicensed construction.
READ: Israel survey: 38% of Jewish Israelis support annexing West Bank, 22% favour ‘relocation’ of Palestinians to other countries
International humanitarian law prohibits the destruction of civilian property except in cases of absolute military necessity under the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.
On Feb. 18, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Israeli demolitions in 2025 displaced more than 1,700 Palestinians.
Attacks by the Israeli army and occupiers in the West Bank have escalated since Israel launched its genocide in Gaza in October 2023. According to official Palestinian figures, more than 1,182 Palestinians have been killed, around 13,000 injured and nearly 24,000 arrested in the occupied territory during the same period.
READ: 47 Palestinian families face imminent displacement in West Bank as Israel cuts water supplies: Rights group
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
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.
Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it’s fun to kill everyone … unless he gets distracted or falls asleep.
18 August 2026

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… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

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