Operation Epic Fury (April 13-17): Joint U.S. & Israel Operation Against Iran
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Trump Says He Doesn’t Care If Iran Returns to Talks — ‘If They Don’t Come Back, I’m Fine’
April 13: Breitbart by Joshua Klein
President Donald Trump said Iran is “in very bad shape” and vowed it “will not have a nuclear weapon” as he signaled indifference to renewed negotiations, saying he “doesn’t care” if Tehran returns to talks, while confirming a U.S. blockade of Iranian oil flows set to take effect Monday morning.
Speaking late Sunday after returning to Washington from Florida, Trump underscored his posture following the collapse of U.S.-Iran talks, stating plainly, “I don’t care if they come back or not. If they don’t come back, I’m fine.”
The remarks came after roughly 21 hours of negotiations in Islamabad late Saturday into early Sunday between U.S. officials — including Vice President J.D. Vance, envoy Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner — and Iranian counterparts ended without agreement. Vance said the talks included “substantive discussions” but ultimately failed because Tehran would not accept U.S. terms, warning that outcome “is bad news for Iran, much more than it is for the United States.”
Trump framed the collapse of talks as secondary to Washington’s core objective, insisting, “Iran is in very bad shape,” before reiterating the administration’s red line: “Iran will not have a nuclear weapon… There is no way that they’re going to get it. They still want it, and they made that clear the other night.”
Netanyahu: U.S.-Israel Strike on Iran Turned ‘Never Again’ Into Reality
April 13: Breitbart by Joshua Klein
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Monday that the joint U.S.-Israel campaign against Iran has turned the longstanding pledge of “Never Again” into reality, saying the strikes dealt the regime “the hardest blow in its history” and prevented a second Holocaust.
Speaking at Israel’s state Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Netanyahu framed the ongoing campaign against Iran as the fulfillment of a commitment he has repeated for years, insisting that the Jewish state would never again face annihilation. The ceremony, marking the beginning of Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day, was held under security constraints and broadcast nationally, honoring the six million Jews murdered by Nazi Germany while underscoring Israel’s present-day security challenges.
Netanyahu centered his remarks on what he described as a historic reversal of Jewish vulnerability, contrasting the helplessness of Jews during the Holocaust with the military strength of the modern State of Israel.
Iran Announces Blockade of Its Own Petrochemical Industry
April 15: Red State by Steiff
Iran has halted the export of all petrochemical products until further notice. Citing an April 6 airstrike on two petrochemical plants in the South Pars region, Iran’s director of downstream-petrochemical industries development has announced that all petrochemical exports will be suspended indefinitely.
The petrochemical sector exports about 29 million tons of products, earning about $13 billion per year, making it Iran’s largest source of non-oil revenue. These products include plastics, polymers, and agricultural chemicals.
Israel, Lebanon Agree To 10-Day Ceasefire After Negotiations, Trump Says
April 16: Daily Caller by Frances Kapper
President Donald Trump announced that the leaders of Israel and Lebanon agreed to a ten-day ceasefire Thursday after Secretary of State Marco Rubio mediated negotiations between the two nations.
Trump said on Truth Social that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun agreed to a temporary ceasefire that would begin at 5:00 p.m. EDT on Thursday. Ambassadors for the two countries met for the first time in more than 34 years on Tuesday for negotiations mediated by Rubio in Washington, D.C.
Trump Cheers Strait of Hormuz Reopening During Israel-Lebanon Ceasefire
April 17: Red State by Teri Christoph
President Trump took to Truth Social on Friday morning with some good news for enthusiasts of the Strait of Hormuz being fully open and operational: “IRAN HAS JUST ANNOUNCED THAT THE STRAIT OF IRAN IS FULLY OPEN AND READY FOR FULL PASSAGE.”
The declaration from the president came on the heels of an announcement by Iran that the Strait was open to commercial traffic during the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. “In line with the ceasefire in Lebanon, the passage for all commercial vessels through Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire,” Iran Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X. He added that vessels must use a “coordinated route as already announced by Ports and Maritime Organisation of the Islamic Rep. of Iran.”
Following the foreign minister’s tweet, President Trump followed up with a clarification of his own (and yet another warning shot to Iran): yes, the Strait is open for business, but the U.S. naval blockade “will remain in full force” until a deal with Iran is “100% complete.As RedState’s Ward Clark reported earlier this week, the naval blockade coordinated by U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) involves 10,000 U.S. Sailors, Marines, and Airmen and dozens of warships and aircraft. CENTCOM revealed Thursday that the first 72 hours of the blockade were successful, with 14 ships having “turned around to comply with the blockade.”
The House Narrowly Rejects a War Powers Resolution as Democrats Seek to Limit the Success Seen in Iran
April 17: Red State by Brad Slager
This week has delivered a series of positive results in the Epic Fury effort, playing out in Iran. The ceasefire is holding, Iran’s defense is reduced to a few stray button pushers in the fragmented military, the Iranian ports are on full lockdown, we have partnered with angry nations in the region to confiscate banking access, and we have just seen the news that the Strait of Hormuz is essentially open for commerce.
And yet the Democrats, in the face of these successes, are pitching a political fit and seek to handcuff the president. Despite repeated losses, the House Democrats brought another War Powers Resolution to a vote Thursday, and this was narrowly defeated by a solitary vote. Iran is crippled, yet they want the operation to shut down. This is an effort to lower the speed limit and install speed bumps to target a vehicle that is up on blocks in the front yard.
The partyline breakdown saw Republican Rep. Thomas Massie (KY-04) joining the Dems, Democrat Rep. Jared Golden (ME-02) flipping to vote against the measure, another Dem voting “present,” and three other Republicans abstaining altogether. Making this fourth attempt all the more impotent for Democrats on the Hill is that this result matches the Senate’s attempt to disarm the military being shot down, by a 52-47 margin.
That Senate vote was the fourth attempt to get this passed, yet in the face of repeated rejections, the Democrats are undeterred. A perfect sign of the impacted thinking by the Dems comes from Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), who insists that they will continue to bring these votes up, convinced they will eventually peel away enough Republicans to get their way.
Understand this cement-head logic: As our military has just imposed near-complete control over this terror regime, they want the resolution passed that will force us to back away from the blockade that has entirely shut down Iran’s commercial trade. That country is essentially frozen and withering, but the Democrats want us to drop the shackles and let the country run free, not unlike their domestic immigration policy of seeing arrested illegal aliens released back into the public.
Why they think there will be others inspired to corral our military at a point when we are looking dominant over Iran in less than two months is amazing. It seems apparent that the Democrats are buying the snake oil being sold in the press that Iran is winning this conflict, a clear case of desperate wishcasting that has been on display since Epic Fury began.
This is what it looks like when hatred of one man is so encompassing that it eclipses the desire to see the nation succeed. The result is a political party voting against an action they spent years declaring was a needed effort – only now they oppose it stridently, because the “wrong” person is enacting the policy.
Mike Hernandez is co-founder of the Citizens Journal–Ventura County’s online news service and writes for CitizensJournal.net and MountainTopMedia.com. He is a former Southern California daily newspaper journalist and religion and news editor, writer of “Prayer Over News Daily” and edits the weekly “Stories Speak Volumes” and other columns. Mr. Hernandez mentors citizen journalists with trainings held every other month (on Saturdays at Shasta Bible College and online) and can be contacted at MikeHernandezMedia.com.