US seeks free Hormuz access from Iran as talks focus on strait

 Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and his Omani counterpart on July 11 discussed arrangements for the safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, as Washington seeks a public pledge of free, secure transit.

US President Donald Trump said on July 10 the US and Iran had agreed to continue talks despite an escalation of hostilities this week, while also declaring an end to the ceasefire between the two countries.

No attacks were reported on July 10 or 11, however.

A senior Iranian source told Reuters that Iran, the US, Qatar and Pakistan had agreed to negotiate in a call that mediators were trying to arrange for July 11 while Araqchi is in Oman.

It was not immediately clear whether the efforts were successful, but Araqchi and Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi “exchanged views on appropriate mechanisms for the safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz,” in accordance with the ceasefire deal, according to a statement from the Iranian foreign minister.

Oman’s state news agency later said that Omani and Iranian negotiators would continue talks “at the technical and political levels”.

Oman is helping to mediate an end to a war that has destabilised the Gulf and raised prices around the world since the US and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran on Feb 28.

About a fifth of the world’s oil supply transited through the Strait of Hormuz before the war, and Iran’s effective blockade of the waterway has caused energy prices to surge, fuelling global inflation.

The United States is demanding that Iran publicly state it will stop attacks on ships in the strait – and that all lanes will be open with no tolls through the waterway, senior US officials told reporters on July 11.

CNN reported on July 11 that Oman made a draft proposal for the strait, including free navigation through its southern corridor in Omani territorial waters.

The plan called for vessels transiting the northern corridor through Iranian territorial waters to obtain prior approval from Iran, although no tolls would be imposed, CNN said.

The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the CNN report.

Qatari mediators held talks in Tehran on July 10

Three Qatari and Saudi commercial tankers came under fire earlier in the week, prompting the US to hit Iranian sites, and Iran to respond with strikes on US military sites in Gulf states.

Araqchi accused the US of violating the ceasefire agreement; the US revoked the licence authorising the sale of Iranian crude on July 7 after the vessels were hit.

“There can only be mutual compliance,” Araqchi wrote on X.

While Iran has not claimed responsibility for the ship attacks, analysts say Tehran uses such actions to gain leverage in negotiations.

The senior US officials told reporters on July 10 that Iran had informed US officials that recent attacks on shipping in the strait were from an “errant part of their system”, comments that appeared to be aimed at calming tensions.

The flare-up cast further doubt over the future of an interim agreement aimed at ending the conflict and pushed oil prices higher, a politically sensitive issue for Trump ahead of November congressional elections.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has asked us to continue ‘talks.’ We have agreed to do so, but the United States has stated to them, in no uncertain terms, that the Cease Fire is OVER!” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on July 10.

Iran threatens to avenge supreme leader’s killing

A written statement from Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, on July 11 threatened vengeance for the death of his predecessor and father, who was killed on Feb 28.

Released to mark funeral ceremonies for former leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on July 9, which the new leader did not attend, it said the vengeance would take place whatever happened to Iran.

“We pledge to avenge the blood of the martyred leader and all the martyrs,” the message said.

Trump had posted on July 10 that he had ordered the US military to be prepared to launch thousands of missiles against Iran if Tehran attempted to assassinate him.

The Wall Street Journal and other US media reported this week that Israel had shared intelligence with Washington that Iran had recently devised a plan to assassinate Trump.

At the funeral ceremonies on July 9, a huge crowd of mourners packed a courtyard, some bearing banners reading, “We Will Kill Trump.”

https://www.straitstimes.com/world/middle-east/us-seeks-free-strait-of-hormuz-access-from-iran-as-talks-focus-on-vital-waterway

'Axios: Iran said to fail to approve Oman's Hormuz proposal'

 The Iranian negotiating team in Oman failed to receive approval for the Omani proposition to keep two routes in the Strait of Hormuz open, Axios correspondent Barak Ravid reported on Saturday, citing a diplomatic source.

According to the report, since the Iranian delegation did not receive approval during the meeting with Omani and Qatari officials, it will have to take the proposal to Tehran for further internal discussion.

Meanwhile, previous reports from Iranian state media claimed that Iran's team also rejected Qatar's proposition to open up a third route in the waterway, which is reportedly the middle lane, separate from the Omani and Iranian routes, that Tehran has fully mined.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Iran-said-to-fail-to-approve-Oman's-Hormuz-proposal/66678857

Rubio Convenes 60-Nation Summit To Confront Transnational Far-Left Terrorism

 Secretary of State Marco Rubio has requested that senior officials from more than 60 countries convene in Washington next Thursday to discuss the alarming rise of transnational far-left terrorism, according to a Washington Post report.

The State Department confirmed the meeting in a post on X Friday afternoon titled, "Secretary of State Marco Rubio Is Setting His Sights on Antifa."

The initiative is intended to expand intelligence sharing, law-enforcement cooperation and potential terrorist designations targeting militant groups with alleged ties to Antifa.

Administration officials have discussed whether foreign-terrorism links could unlock broader investigative and surveillance powers against US-based far-left revolutionaries that are a part of subversion networks.

The problem is that countries have been addressing far-left revolutionaries as a domestic threat, but in fact it's transnational.

State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said the upcoming event is in response to the rise of the radical left. He said far-left terrorism is "an old threat re-emerging with strong transnational links and new convergences."

"Because this threat has not been adequately addressed in the past, each engagement, designation, or security assistance program creates a compounding effect supporting countermeasures at home and abroad," Pigott said in a statement.

In November, the State Department designated four European far-left groups as foreign terrorist organizations and directed agencies to investigate networks accused of fomenting political violence. One of the militant groups in Germany is called Antifa Ost. Two more were in Greece and one in Italy.

Related:

• Germany's AfD Tricks Thousands Of Antifa Revolutionaries

During the Antifa roundtable at the White House last October, Seamus Bruner, Director of Research at the Government Accountability Institute, briefed the president and his cabinet on a complex network of dark-money NGOs and activist groups fueling unrest nationwide via the permanent protest-industrial complex.

"We have identified dozens of radical organizations, not just the decentralized Antifa organizations, but dozens of radical organizations that have received more than $100 million from the Riot Inc investors," Bruner told Trump.

via Government Accountability Institute... 

Elon Musk chimed in on X, commenting on a video featuring Bruner's public briefing to the president about the dark-money NGOs, saying, "Way more than $100M of US taxpayer money.

Investigators have honed in on what appears to be foreign subversion networks operating in the US - one from Cuba and the other from China.

Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio sanctioned the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, or ICAP, a Castro-era organization used to spread Marxist ideology abroad.

As we've pointed out before (see the report), ICAP sits at the center, functioning as a partner to NNOC. Think of NNOC as a pathway for foreign subversion operations to infiltrate US NGOs.

Take a look at NNOC's member organizations, and you might notice several socialist and communist-linked NGOs, including the Democratic Socialists of America, whose members have actively promoted "destroying America from within."

DSA has stated they're ICAP partners...

Just days ago, independent Cuban news outlet ADN Cuba revealed that a US-based Cuba solidarity coalition was giving orders to their far-left revolutionaries embedded within the US to prepare rapid-response protests at US federal buildings, military bases, recruitment centers, and ICE facilities in the event of a military confrontation between the US military and the communist regime in Havana. As we've seen before, these protests tend to turn into riots, especially at ICE facilities.

Read leaked memo here.

Meanwhile, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York, authorized by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, is examining whether far-left China-based tech financier Neville Roy Singham, who has reportedly funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into left-wing nonprofits, media operations, and activist networks that seek to sow chaos and spread communism inside the US, has committed wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, or other financial crimes.

It gets better because even top officials in the Democratic Party are calling for investigations into far-left revolutionary groups, including a Bill Clinton insider:

• Bill Clinton Insider Warns Of Socialist Takeover, Calls For Probe Into Possible DSA Foreign Ties

And we wonder why:

Simultaneously, there has been a disturbing pattern arising across the West:

• Troubling Pattern Of Left-Wing Revolutionaries Targeting "Capitalists" Raises Alarm Over Youth Radicalization

Whether it is Antifa, other far-left revolutionary movements, foreign subversion networks tied to intelligence operations from Cuba to China, or DSA figures openly calling for the destruction of the US, the common ideological thread is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Even establishment globalist outlets such as The Atlantic have recently acknowledged the broader pattern:

More or less, the rise of the far-left revolutionary movement is driven by a shared objective: dismantling America from within and killing capitalism. The resurgence of these revolutionaries is creating a growing national-security and political problem.

President Trump's recent barrage of Truth Social posts attacking communism suggests the administration may be preparing to dramatically escalate its campaign against these revolutionary networks and what only appears to be foreign subversion networks that support them.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/rubio-convenes-60-nation-summit-confront-transnational-far-left-terrorism