US Iran Crisis Deepens; Iran Mines Hormuz Strait Continues Strikes Seeks Reparations; Bryansk Strike (Alexander Mercouris)

This Alexander Mercouris update, 1 hour, basically says that the war was supposed to bring about regime change (or civil war), and that there's no sign of it, and that this agenda has failed. As a result he says to expect a long war. The Iranian leadership, and a lot of the population, is ready for it. What they want now is for the US to leave the Middle East. Russia is pissed with the US too, and will likely want to see them cop it. So the war will be pushed along a bit more until things turn really bad economically, unless both sides agree to a ceasefire. However, I think things have gone so far off the rails that any ceasefire agreement from Iran right now will be pretty far off. They'll want revenge for what's happened to them thus far. Putin, as usual, will be on the phone urging restraint, and negotiation, but to get any real lasting result, the Iranians might decide to bring things to a crunch point. Guessing what will actually happen is always pretty difficult.

The other big factor in all of this is what will the Chinese do? It depends what sort of strategic thinking is going on at the highest levels. Personally Every country should be as self sufficient as possible, with largely closed borders, and closed regions, with everyone sorting out their own problems and no interventions (except to help out with infrastructure development in poorer areas, to create suburban paradises).

[Posted at the SpookyWeather2 blog, March 13, 2026.]