The president of the United States, Donald Trump, again threatened Iran this Sunday, this time with destroying “each and every one of Iran’s power plants, and each and every one of Iran’s bridges” if that country does not accept the agreement offered by the U.S. and which he assured is “very fair and reasonable”.
The meadows of Bushehr’s maritime corridor are full again. The heat has subsided and the sun begins to set over the blue waters of the Persian Gulf. Entire families throw blankets in any free space, preferably under the palm trees. They have everything they need to spend a couple of hours enjoying the sea breeze: gas stoves on which they heat the food they have prepared, thermoses full of tea, and there are even those who load their hookah. A few have taken to the sea with their parachutes to kitesurf, taking advantage of the breeze at this time of year, and several children play on the beach. “Everything seems normal, but nothing is,” says Amin – as he wants us to call him – who shows us videos and photos taken in Bushehr a few days ago in Tehran, when the ceasefire had already begun.
With his military offensive on Iran, Donald Trump created a problem that did not exist before the war: the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
A French soldier from the UN force deployed in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was killed this Saturday and three other soldiers were injured -two of them very seriously- in an attack recorded in the south of that country which President Emmanuel Macron attributed to Hezbollah. Hours later, this pro-Iranian Shiite militia issued a statement denying any involvement in the ambush against the blue helmet contingent, which sparked all kinds of speculation.
Iran stated this Saturday that it has reimposed “strict control” over the Strait of Hormuz, alluding to a new closure of the strategic passage one day after announcing its reopening to allow the transit of commercial vessels. The Persian country thus responds to the blockade maintained by the United States against Iranian ports.
In Milan, the “patriots” wanted to flex their muscles, but ended up like a meeting of orphans: more melancholy than vehemence. The date of this Saturday’s European far-right rally had been conceived with a slogan, “remigration,” the flagship concept of the continent’s new far-right, which united all populist right-wing parties, members of the parliamentary group promoted by Viktor Orbán, who nevertheless did not appear in Milan, and inspired by that Donald Trump who, during hours of demonstrations and speeches, was not cited even once, beyond allusions perceptible only to journalists and embassy analysts.
It is a mistake to think that we are better. Seeing the world as a competition between good and bad only leads to more political, economic, and military confrontations. That is why I believe it is a mistake to gather a few progressive leaders in Barcelona without including others
The same weekend that Barcelona hosted the progressive summit and an event with various Latin American leaders in defense of Democracy, in Madrid, the presence of Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado stood out. She received an award from the Community of Madrid from its president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and met in the preceding hours with both the leader of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and that of Vox, Santiago Abascal, as well as the mayor of the capital, José Luis Martínez Almeida.