Updates from endless war zone - will negotiations & ceasefire continue?

Around 120 U.S. military veterans from the anti-war group 'About Face: Veterans Against the War' yesterday staged a protest against the war with Iran inside the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, D.C.

• The two-week US/Iran ceasefire is set to expire on Wednesday, April 22. Media says that Witkoff, Kushner and JD Vance are on their way to Islamabad. So far we hear that Iran has not taken a decision to attend. 
• The Hebrew newspaper Maariv quotes the commander of the Nahal Brigade: "We didn't dare raise our heads in our area of ​​operations in southern Lebanon during the battle because of the drones and anti-tank missiles."
• Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan reveals the harsh truth about oil prices: The gap is enormous! In the commodities markets, there is a significant gap between the price displayed on the screen and the actual price of the asset. If you see a price of $90 per barrel on the screen, and you try to buy oil at that price, I can only wish you luck. The actual prices in recent weeks have ranged between $120, $130, $140, $150, and even $160 per barrel.
• A Zionist soldier destroys a statue of Christ in southern Lebanon, while Hezbollah was protecting these landmarks with its blood. 

• The Zionist occupation army destroys houses on the Bint Jbeil-Aitaroun road in southern Lebanon.

• Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan: Israeli expansionism is not just Türkiye’s problem, nor only the region’s; we are talking about a security issue that has become a global concern, driven by a fundamentalist government there. Everyone knows that Israel’s original aim—depopulating Gaza, whether by killing its people or forcing them to leave—has not changed.
• Argentina's so-called leader Milei (who is paving the way for 300,000 zionists to move into Patagonia) has arrived in Israel to embrace the genocidal Netanyahu. They made a deal for regular Israeli airline flights to Argentina. Wonder why? Two of a kind they are.

• Pepe Escobar via X channel: Iran bombed the secret center for cloud seeding, cloud pulling, fog, and radars in the UAE. Suddenly the climate in Iraq and Iran changed, and now there’s rain every week, and temperatures shifted dramatically by 5 degrees. Floods returned to Iran after it had suffered from severe drought, to the point that the Iranian government was considering moving the capital from Tehran to southern Iran due to the drought. The goal of this center was to destroy the agricultural sector in Iran and Iraq, as well as causing a drought and desertification disaster. The UAE is even more infidel and hypocritical.

• NBC News: A new poll shows that 74% of Generation Z sympathize more with Palestinians than with Israelis. That's why the zionists bought TikTok and other social media outlets. They're losing the info war. 

• IRGC spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaghari put Washington on notice immediately after the cargo ship seizure: Iran “will soon respond to this armed piracy and retaliation by the US navy.” Hours later, IRGC forces launched drone strikes on US military vessels in the area, according to Tasnim News Agency. This is not escalation by Iran. This is the inevitable reply of a sovereign power that refuses to let foreign gunboats turn its coastal waters into an American no-go zone. Washington sails halfway around the planet, opens fire on a commercial hull trying to reach its own port, then screams “violation” when the inevitable response arrives. The Strait belongs to those who live beside it. The empire can issue all the threats it likes from 7,000 miles away — power plants, bridges, “killing machines” but the Persian Gulf has a very long memory and the means to enforce its own rules.

• Retired CIA analyst Larry Johnson dropped a whopper on the Judge Napolitano show. He cited reports from inside the White House during an emergency meeting this past Saturday. Donald Trump wanted the nuclear codes against Iran and was stopped cold by General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Johnson didn’t mince words. “There is seriously something wrong with Trump,” he said. 

• Former President Rumen Radev and his left-wing Progressive Bulgaria alliance won the parliamentary elections with an outright majority. Here are the key stances of the new Bulgarian Prime Minister: Opposed to financing NATO/EU’s war time adventures in Ukraine, arming the Kiev Nazi regime, and imposing sanctions on Russia. Supports closer diplomatic and economic ties with China and Iran.  Strongly condemns Israel’s genocidal actions against the people of Gaza.

• Israeli media: Israel is preparing for a new opening strike against Iran. 
• The US empire just packed up and left Syria with a straight face. After 11 years of “fighting terrorism,” the last U.S. troops rolled out of Qasrak air base in Hasakah yesterday. Syrian army units and SDF fighters moved in together while American convoys torched equipment on the way out — the classic imperial exit: burn what you can’t steal. The man now running Syria as president is Ahmed al-Sharaa or better known to the world as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the former leader of al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch (Jabhat al-Nusra/HTS). Yes, the same guy the U.S. once put a $10 million fake bounty on. The same networks Washington spent over a decade pretending to bomb, sanctioning, and calling an existential threat. Now they hand the country over to him and call it mission accomplished. Eleven years of bases, drones, and endless “counter-terror” talk… only to leave the keys with a rebranded Salafist jihadist who was literally once on their own terrorist list.

• Lebanese civil defense teams begin diving under the Qasmiyeh bridge in search of bodies of those missing as a result of Israeli airstrikes on the bridge. 

• The US continues to move large quantities of additional munitions and equipment to the Middle East ahead of a possible new phase of Operation Epic Wrath. Between 15-20 transport aircraft are arriving at air bases in Qatar (Al Udeid), Jordan (Muwaffaq Salti), and Kuwait every 24 hours. In addition to munitions, the aircraft are transporting elements of air defense systems and equipment to ensure the security of the bases, which may be targeted starting Tuesday.

• Iranian President: "Keeping promises is the foundation of any dialogue. In addition to the deep-seated historical distrust in Iran regarding the behavior and actions of the US government, the unconstructive and contradictory approach taken by US officials in recent days carries a bitter message: they want Iran to surrender, and the Iranian people will not be forced to do so."