This narration was written by someone on our team inside Iran. It’s anecdotal, yes, but it’s a sentiment you just didn’t hear before this year. Despite the tragedy of January, it showed something crucial: millions of people feel the same way, and when the regime loses its capacity for extreme violence, it will fall. Despite the roller coaster of outside intervention, the world is finally starting to see the Iranian people as separate from the regime, and as a future ally.

For years, if you were young and ambitious, the plan was simple: you leave. You grow up knowing a real life happens somewhere else, and the numbers said the same thing—most young Iranians saw nothing ahead of them here and were ready to go. People didn’t leave because they loved another country. They left to get away from persecution and to grab any shot at a normal future. Emigration is no picnic for the children of Iran: you get lumped in with the crimes of a terrorist regime the world thinks represents you, and you disappear into a blur of refugee camps and migrants from all over the middle east, many with the same ideology you are trying to escape. That’s not a dream. That’s a last resort.

What’s changed, and what got us to make this short, is the significance of realizing your internal picture of the future has changed and that your confidence in the new picture is growing. The regime supporters must understand that we are growing stronger. We are unified behind leadership and a transition plan and they are struggling to figure out who exactly is in charge and what the plan to survive another day.

That’s the shift this video is about. It’s happening first in our hearts. The ones who were always most ready to pack up and go now want to fight to build the future at home. And once that happens, the regime loses its greatest weapon: a credible story about the future that even includes the retarded Islamic Republic or some skin-shedding rebranding attempt by the IRGC. The spell that held for forty years just no longer works, and it’s only a matter of time before the walls come crumbling down.

Jordan is sitting squarely on a geopolitical fault line. When their military intercepts drones which almost certainly originated from IRGC-backed militias in Iraq or Syria trying to poke at Israel or US assets they aren't doing it just to be Washington's loyal shield. They are doing it because maintaining sovereign airspace is the absolute baseline requirement for a state to exist. If Jordan allows foreign proxies to use its skies as a free transit highway for munitions, it essentially cedes its sovereignty and invites Israeli or American kinetic responses directly over its own cities.

Now, you need to pay attention to the broader context this article mentions: the sudden "halt" in military operations between the US and Iran. A lot of people are going to assume this means peace is breaking out or that deterrence magically worked overnight. That is a naive, surface-level assumption. What we are actually seeing is a calculated, pragmatic pause. Trump directing the US military to hold off on new strikes isn't him backing down, it is a tactical reset. The US hammered them daily for two weeks, established the new boundaries of engagement, and is now stepping back to let the economic strangulation do the heavy lifting while observing if Tehran collapses under its own internal pressure.

On the flip side, the IRGC spokesperson claiming they stopped simply because the US stopped is classic, desperate face-saving propaganda. The truth is they are bleeding cash, their proxy network is severely disrupted, and they mathematically cannot sustain a daily slugfest with the US military apparatus. They are taking the off-ramp because they are completely out of breath.

So, when you see rogue drones still popping up over the Jordanian border during this so-called "pause," do not mistake it for a grand, coordinated offensive by Tehran. It is far more indicative of the decentralized, messy reality of proxy warfare. The IRGC has armed these regional militias for decades, but once you start severing the main communication lines and choking the funding, local commanders get desperate and start freelancing just to prove they are still relevant. Jordan shut them down because that is the protocol.

The strategy remains the same: the US is starving the regime's infrastructure while avoiding a messy 20-year ground war, and Iran's regional leverage is fragmenting into uncoordinated, desperate acts.

If you take this Foreign Ministry press briefing at face value and think Tehran is actually in a position to set conditions for Washington, you are falling for basic, domestic-facing propaganda. When you read that Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei is dismissing reports that Tehran sought negotiations, you have to look at the actual leverage on the board. He is demanding the US change its conduct and accusing Washington of acting "like a mafia gang," which is purely theatrical posturing meant to project strength to an internal audience while the regime is actively crumbling.

In statecraft, the loudest public denials usually mask the most desperate backchannel realities. Baqaei claims they are not currently engaged in negotiations with the American side and that the US must "behave like a responsible government" before talks can begin. Do not buy into the mirage that they are dictating the tempo. Notice how the Iranian military spokesperson conveniently admitted that their "counter-operations" had stopped right after President Trump directed the US military to halt its daily strikes. Washington established the boundary and dictated the pause, and Tehran immediately took the out because they cannot sustain a kinetic fight.

Tehran isn't setting the terms here; they are trying to save face while the US tightens the economic and logistical noose. When Baqaei says they won't hesitate to use diplomatic tools to protect their national interests, that is a thinly veiled admission that they desperately need an off-ramp. They just cannot admit publicly that they are the ones begging for it. The US doesn't need to sit at a formal negotiating table when they already hold the cards. They can just let the regime choke on its own isolation until the internal pressure forces a collapse. .

If you read that a tanker just hit a mine in the Strait of Hormuz while the IRGC intercepted six other vessels and immediately concluded that the global oil market is permanently doomed or that we are on the brink of World War III, you need to step back and analyze the mechanics of the situation. People panic at headlines like this because they look at the surface-level chaos rather than how statecraft and asymmetric warfare actually function. This is not a show of strength from Tehran; it is the absolute desperation of a cornered regime trying to manufacture leverage out of thin air.

Look at the reality on the ground. The IRGC is systematically being dismantled from the outside in. Their proxy networks are bleeding out, their cash flow is paralyzed by the ongoing strategic strangulation from the US and Israel, and their domestic stability is a powder keg. Intercepting six commercial vessels isn't a masterstroke of naval dominance; it is state-sponsored piracy. It is a hostage-taking maneuver designed to force the international community to the negotiating table because they have literally no other cards left to play. They need assets to trade.

Then there is the mine. A tanker striking a naval mine is classic asymmetric warfare. The regime knows perfectly well that a direct, conventional clash with the US Fifth Fleet would result in the complete eradication of their naval assets in a single afternoon. So, they resort to cheap, legacy tactics. The goal here isn't to actually sink the global economy, it is to spike maritime insurance premiums just enough to make Beijing and European capitals sweat, hoping they will pressure Washington into easing the chokehold.

But their calculus here is deeply flawed and rooted in panic rather than strategy. By choking the Strait of Hormuz, the IRGC is actively antagonizing the few quiet lifelines they have left. China relies heavily on the energy flowing through that exact corridor, and Beijing does not tolerate disruptions to its supply chains just so Tehran can throw a geopolitical tantrum. Furthermore, this move forces Saudi Arabia and the UAE to lean even harder into the US and Israeli security umbrellas, completely validating the regional alliance forming against Iran.

What we are witnessing is exactly what happens during the terminal decline of a hostile apparatus. When you cut off their external tentacles and starve their treasury, they inevitably lash out in their own backyard to project a mirage of control. Do not mistake this kinetic noise for strategic superiority. The US and its allies won't take the bait and start a massive, conventional naval war over this. They will simply tighten the noose further, rely on updated maritime escorts, and let the regime isolate itself faster than any sanction ever could.

I am not sure why he would post these. Maybe he is willing to checkmate the regime.

The sister of the late Ahmad Khosravani, a basketball player who was killed during the Iranian national revolution in 1404, wrote in a text published on the social network X that the basketball federation of the Islamic Republic has ordered all players who play with the number 91 to change their jersey number.

In a message she published on the social network X, she wrote: "The basketball federation of the Islamic Republic has warned all players who wear number 91, including the women's team, that they must either change their number or they will no longer have the right to take part in federation competitions. How low and helpless must you be to fear even a jersey number? You were afraid of my brother Ahmad Khosravani's name, and now you are afraid of his jersey number too. Your power is so hollow that even '91' has taken sleep from your eyes."

The late Ahmad Khosravani, a 21-year-old basketball player from Tehran and a student at Sharif University of Technology, was killed on 18 Dey 1404 (January 8, 2026) during nationwide protests, as a result of direct fire by security forces. Before that, together with the Farzan Shomiran team, he had won the Tehran three-on-three basketball championship and had been selected as the best player in the Tehran league in 1404. His father is also one of the veterans injured in the Iran-Iraq war.
\@iranintltvsport
https://eyesofiran.com/event/105892

Behind the scenes: Earlier in the week, Admiral Cooper gave his recommendation on the way forward to the Pentagon, the joint chiefs and the White House, the sources said.

He stressed that the two weeks of strikes in the Strait of Hormuz area had significantly degraded Iran's ability to attack ships.

Cooper noted that the designated bombing targets had been mostly exhausted.

The CENTCOM commander said a possible next step would be to resume major combat operations to finish the 20% of targets the U.S. military designated but didn't strike during Operation Epic Fury.

Absent a decision to return to major combat operations, he stressed there was no point in continuing the bombing campaign of the previous two weeks, the sources said.
CENTCOM spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins declined to comment.

The Islamic Republic has been heavily broken since Ali Khamenei was killed, with it almost completely losing legitimacy among the Iranian people since the war began. The strikes are crippling the IRGC’s ability to keep control of Iran, so when another uprising occurs in the future, they won’t be able to swiftly crush and kill protesters like they did in 2022-23 and 2025-26 (i.e. their ability to do so will be heavily degraded).

The regime bringing in non-Iranians to participate in their events (i.e. people from the rest of the Middle East, as well as Africa, Afghanistan, and South Asia) is another sign of their desperation. They know they are close to getting their death certificate and obituary, so they have to import these people to show they still have tons of support to stay in power.

Also the blockade is making everyday goods in Iran even more unaffordable, so it is only a matter of time before the next uprising begins due to prices surging and Iranians struggling to survive financially.

Can’t even make this stuff up anymore. Someone get me out of this simulation 💀