Here are some news items during the month of September 2026 of the United States and Israel’s war on West Asia. They are sourced mainly from podcasts from the United States (eg Danny Haiphong) and also from Britain’s Electronic Intifada. We are grateful for their continuing reports at a time of extreme censorship. For example reports of the war on the national broadcaster (ABC), when they do occur, appear slanted and abbreviated. – Editor.
On 2 April 2026, during Sizdah Be-dar (Nature Day), the Iranian holiday at the end of Nowruz. The US target was the unfinished B1/Bilighan Bridge near Karaj, west of Tehran. Because of the public holiday hundreds of people were picnicing under the bridge which increased the number of casualties. As always, the United States administration bombs people with impunity.
The reporting establishes that the bridge was hit by U.S. airstrikes, apparently in two separate attacks.
“Weapons analysts identified the munitions used against the B1 bridge as 2,000-pound-class bombs, but there is no reliable public evidence establishing that they were delivered by F-35 fighter aircraft.”
6 Sept 2026, total war?
Escalation of war in The Straits of Hormuz
The United States has bombed targets in Iran, including civilian targets including a wedding party.
Iran has responded with strikes against U.S. military assets and targets in Jordan, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere in the Gulf. Iran has also fired missiles at U.S. naval vessels.
The Trump administration has now escalated the military confrontation further: after Iranian attacks on U.S. ships, American forces struck three Iranian oil tankers, reportedly sinking one of them. Iran has responded with further attacks.
We may, therefore, be entering a critical stage of the war. If the words of the Trump administration are taken literally and seriously, Washington is pursuing a strategy of increasingly severe economic and military pressure on Iran.
The administration has imposed further sanctions and intensified efforts to choke off Iranian oil exports. President Trump has reportedly shifted from a strategy of quickly “hammering” Iran towards one of seeking to “strangle” the country economically over time.
Iran cannot simply respond to an economic blockade through economic means. Its remaining leverage is its military capacity, particularly against U.S. forces and shipping in and around the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.
The danger is therefore that every attempt by Washington to “strangle” Iran economically will generate another military response, which in turn will provoke a still more severe American response.
That cycle of retaliation may now be pushing the conflict into a far more dangerous phase. As the United States tightens the economic noose and Iran uses its military assets to strike back, the possibility of a wider regional war—and of serious disruption to international oil shipping—becomes increasingly difficult to dismiss.
There is no milk
There is another dimension to this war that is becoming increasingly important: the economic situation of the Persian Gulf states themselves.
The Gulf monarchies have been investing enormous sums in an attempt to diversify their economies beyond oil and gas, with artificial intelligence and massive data centres at the centre of that strategy. Much of the technology, capital and infrastructure for this transformation has been tied to American companies and American investment.
That economic model is now being put under extraordinary pressure by the war.
The Gulf was supposed to be a safe, stable destination for American technology companies and their data centres. Instead, the war has demonstrated that the physical infrastructure of the new digital economy is itself vulnerable to missiles and drones. Data centres in the UAE and Bahrain have already been affected by attacks, while disruption to oil and gas exports, shipping and investment is undermining the wider economic environment.
So the problem is not simply that the Gulf states are losing oil revenue. The larger problem is that the economic future they were being promised — an enormous American-backed transformation into centres for artificial intelligence, finance, technology and logistics — is being placed at risk by the very war in which they have become unwilling participants.
The milk, in other words, is not simply drying up. The cow itself is being put under extraordinary stress.
3 September 2026
Judge Andrew Napolitano flew into Dubai while Iran was attacking targets in the UAE, but fortunately, he managed to get out safely. We don’t know exactly why he was there.
War crime
The Iranian attacks came in retaliation for what Iran regarded as a U.S. war crime: the bombing of a wedding gathering in southern Iran, in which civilians, including children, were killed. Fragments of US missiles were found at the scene.
This news was reinforced on Thursday, 3 September, in a podcast hosted by Danny Haiphong, in which former CIA analyst Larry Johnson and retired U.S. Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson described the attack as a war crime.
Iran responds
The only warning of incoming Iranian missiles is provided by the AWACS, because all ground-based radar systems have already been knocked out. Danny Haiphong had just made this point when Colonel Larry Wilkerson made the observation on a podcast in response to him.
An AWAC, more commonly written AWACS, is an Airborne Warning and Control System: a large aircraft equipped with a powerful radar and communications suite that detects and tracks aircraft, missiles, and other objects over a wide area. It can also coordinate air operations and share its picture with other forces. The term can refer both to the capability and, more specifically, to aircraft such as the U.S. EA7 Boeing Wedgetail programs.
It is broadly similar to Australia’s E-7 Wedgetail program.
Day 1056 in Gaza
Israeli strikes hit Gaza shelter and water infrastructure
Israeli forces bombed the vicinity of a UNWRA school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, killing at least three people and injuring others, according to Palestinian news agency WAFA. In a separate attack, Israeli strikes hit a water desalination plant in Gaza City, as well as a mosque, prayer hall and tents housing displaced Palestinians. The destruction of water infrastructure comes as Gaza’s civilian population continues to face severe shortages of clean water and other essential supplies. – EI podcast 27 August 2026.
Israel has banned kite flying by Palestinian children in Gaza claiming it is the national security issue.
Lebanon
Israel has systematically wiped out whole towns and villages in Southern Lebanon. According to the Lebanon Department of Health nearly 9,000 people have been killed since October 2023.
F35s
Much of the military power being brought into US-Israel’s bombing campaigns of innocent people is represented by weapons such as the enormously expensive Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter aircraft — a dark example of the vast evil being poured into these wars of choice in West Asia.
Regime change in Latin America
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is pursuing an aggressive agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean, including an even tougher blockade of Cuba and an escalating regime change in the government of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Washington is attempting to weaken Lula ahead of Brazil’s October election, in which Lula faces the right-wing candidacy of Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. At the same time, Rubio is positioning himself as Republican contender for the U.S. presidency in 2028.
Sanctions
And while all this is happening, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is waging the economic side of the war against Iran. The United States is expanding secondary sanctions against Iranian banks, shipping, aviation, technology, and other sectors, while warning countries and companies that continue doing business with Iran that they too could be targeted. Bessent has made it clear that those who refuse to comply with Washington’s demands risk being cut off from the U.S. dollar system. Sanctions mean people, mostly children die of starvation and disease.
China has refused to comply with these sanctions. Cuba will only feel released from the US blockade when the Chinese currency and banking system moves into the island holding out against the giant to its North.
Meanwhile, ordinary Australians are paying the price. Diesel has climbed above $2.60 a litre, with the disruption to global oil supplies caused by the conflict in the Middle East feeding directly into Australian fuel prices. Australia imports around 90 per cent of its refined fuel requirements, leaving motorists, farmers, truck drivers, and businesses particularly vulnerable to disruptions in international oil markets.
The United States’ sanctions and economic warfare are increasingly hurting the economies of its own allies and partners. Japan is perhaps the most striking example. Heavily dependent on imported energy and particularly vulnerable to disruptions in Middle Eastern oil supplies, Japan is being hit by higher energy and shipping costs, a weakened yen, and rising inflation.
Oil
The substitution of Venezuelan oil for the petrol products being lost coming out of the Gulf is not a realistic alternative because of the inability to refine it into the jet fuel and diesel oil needed to run airplanes and trucks on the US mainland.
Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson says the diesel from Venezuela is going to Israel and not to drive tractors on American farms.
“From a Russian point of view, the real enemy is Europe, and in particular the British and the Germans.” – Prof John Mearsheimer (Sept. 21, 2026) [At approximately 51:04, on https://youtu.be/Q50jYoX9lcM?si=aASfhd6vN5Q7tJSj ]
Three important elections are occurring within a six-week period: the Russian State Duma election in September, Israel’s election in October and the United States midterm elections in November. It is widely done that European states are aiding Ukraine’s wider war against Russia.
During the recent Russian election, Ukraine launched an exceptionally large drone offensive against targets across Russia, including Moscow. Russian authorities say that approximately 1,600 drones were launched during the election period, causing deaths and damage to civilian and industrial infrastructure.
The timing raises suggests the offensive was intended not only to strike military and economic targets, but also to disrupt Russia’s election and influence the wider political environment preceding the Israeli and American elections.
References
The material I have located so far includes:
Several news-video programmes also repeated the broad Russian account:
The last three reports are important because they show that the occurrence, scale and electoral timing of the offensive were not reported solely by Russian-aligned outlets. However, the precise figure of 1,600 drones remains attributed principally to Russian authorities.
Even in a total-war scenario, a ground invasion of Iran could not succeed. Experts argue that a war cannot be won by bombing alone. Their reasoning is that victory requires assuming power within a country, subduing its population and taking control of its territory and resources. Within those parameters, they are right.
The present US administration, however, may not accept those constraints. Israel appears intent on destroying Iran as a nation and has demonstrated elsewhere that it is prepared to pursue its objectives by devastating civilian infrastructure and inflicting enormous casualties. Trump has already made threats in this vein. A serious attack on the US homeland—whoever was responsible—could provide the pretext for such a campaign.
If “winning” were redefined to mean killing a large proportion of the Iranian population and bombing the country’s infrastructure back to the Stone Age, then bombing might accomplish that horrific objective.
The next question is what kind of bombing would be required. Iran has demonstrated a capacity for determined and strategically calculated resistance, and there is little doubt that its resolve is hardening. Iranian leaders have reason to believe that diplomacy no longer offers a path to resolution. The United States has gravely undermined diplomacy as a means of settling its disputes with Iran.
For an attack to prevent prolonged retaliation, it would have to be devastating enough to destroy Iran’s capacity to respond. I fear that even a bombing campaign on the scale of Dresden, Tokyo, Pyongyang or Hanoi would not achieve that objective. This raises the terrifying prospect of the nuclear option—and I do not mean the limited use of so-called “tactical” nuclear weapons.
What would follow such an attack, nobody can know. It could mark the beginning of a regional and global catastrophe from which there would be no easy return.
Basil Fawlty (not their real name).
22 September 2026
Ansar Allah, a.k.a. the Houthis in Western media, have taken control of the East-West Crude Oil Pipeline, the Abqaiq-Yanbu NGL Pipeline, the Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline, and the Manhel Dabli control of the straits in the Arabian Gulf. And, of course, the Iranians have taken control of the Straits of Hormuz.
https://workersbushtelegraph.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/wp-17892877258003550221505270541691.jpg
15 Sept 2026
Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) attacked Yemen today,
Saudis are running out of oil to export because the supply chain is blocked in The Straits of Hormuz and in the in the Red Sea [Perim (Mayyun) Island in the Bab al-Mandab Strait] with its pipelines under the control of the Yemeni leadership, Ansar Allah.
MBS attacks Yemen as Saudi Arabia’s oil-export strategy comes under enormous pressure. With the Strait of Hormuz largely closed, Riyadh shifted millions of barrels a day through the East–West pipeline to Yanbu on the Red Sea. Now that pipeline has been badly damaged, while Ansar Allah has extended its control along Yemen’s Red Sea coast and into the Bab al-Mandab. Saudi Arabia therefore finds both its Persian Gulf and Red Sea export routes under pressure at the same time.
Talks between the Saudis and Iran are occurring in Oman today.
https://youtu.be/K76Ea7QaqF0?si=uwZzBnGIbmrpgB0Y
Here in Gaza, even the birds and animals have not been spared from Israeli missiles.
The genocide continues.
See https://substack.com/@shaimaamarwan95
Food inflation is accelerating in the Global South, and the effects are beginning to reach the Global North.
A major cause is the shortage and rising cost of fertiliser that has emerged following the commencement of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran on 28 February 2026.
The disruption of the Strait of Hormuz has affected the international supply of fertiliser, energy and other essential commodities.
The fertiliser crisis is particularly significant because modern industrial agriculture depends heavily on nitrogen fertiliser and other chemical inputs.
The fertiliser shortage creates a chain reaction: higher fertiliser prices → higher agricultural production costs → reduced fertiliser application → potentially lower yields → tighter food supplies → higher food prices.
The effects are likely to be particularly severe in the Global South, where countries are more vulnerable to food and fertiliser price shocks.
The consequences are now beginning to spill over into the Global North.
U.S. diesel has reached approximately US$6 per gallon, dramatically increasing the cost of operating agricultural machinery and transporting food.
Diesel-price increases affect virtually the entire food system: planting, harvesting, trucking, refrigeration, distribution and retail.
The combination of fertiliser inflation and diesel inflation therefore creates a much broader agricultural and food-price crisis.
The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve is now at its lowest level in decades, leaving the United States with a much smaller strategic buffer against further oil-supply disruption.
The infrastructure built to store and distribute the strategic oil reserve is ageing and requires substantial investment and modernisation.
U.S. Navy ships involved in the prolonged Iran war deployment have experienced serious logistical and supply problems, including food rationing and shortages reported by personnel.
The broader crisis involves multiple interconnected resource pressures: oil shortages and depleted reserves, higher diesel prices, fertiliser shortages, higher agricultural costs, threatened food production, food-price inflation and greater food insecurity.
The effects are interconnected and cumulative: disruption of energy supplies feeds into fertiliser production and transport, which feeds into agricultural production and ultimately the price and availability of food.
The US Navy forced to stand further offshore
The significance of Iran’s new missile capability is that it appears to have changed the operating distance of US naval forces.
Following the recent Iranian attacks on US warships, reports indicate that American naval vessels have moved approximately 400 to 500 kilometres away from the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard has specifically reported that US warships have retreated about 400 kilometres from the Strait.
This is strategically important. A naval blockade depends upon being able to operate sufficiently close to the area being blockaded to intercept and control shipping. If US warships have to remain hundreds of kilometres away because of the threat posed by Iranian missiles, their ability to exercise direct control over the Strait is substantially reduced.
The immediate trigger for this change appears to be Iran’s use of increasingly sophisticated anti-ship missiles, including the reported first combat use of an electro-optical-guided missile against US naval forces. These missiles use an electro-optical seeker — effectively an imaging system — to identify and track a target during the terminal phase of the missile’s flight. Current reports say Iran used this capability in attacks against US warships near Hormuz on 9 September.
The United States retains the ability to attack Iranian targets using aircraft, drones and long-range missiles. But those aircraft and missiles also have to operate within an increasingly sophisticated Iranian air-defence and anti-ship environment.
The result is that Iran does not necessarily have to destroy an American aircraft carrier or sink a US destroyer to achieve an important strategic objective. If it can force US naval forces to remain hundreds of kilometres from the Strait, it can make the direct enforcement of the American blockade much more difficult.
That is the crucial point about the present battle for the Strait of Hormuz.
“If there is a place called hell I’m in it” – George Washington during the Civil War in 1862.
“United States is sinking oil tankers in the Gulf. This is not a very clever thing to do because we need oil, everyone needs oil.
WBT does not wish to sound alarmist but, by the latest count, United States military has sunk 10 oil tankers in and around the Persian Gulf. That cannot be good for the environment given the size of those oil tankers.
“We are seen as being terrorist because of the greater Israel project which the United States is supporting unconditionally.”
– Douglas McGregor retired Colonel and former advisor to the US Secretary of State. (said on Danny Haiphong’s podcast on 10 September 2026.)