Shot: 

Hamas leaders tell Kushner they will demilitarize Gaza, sources say

Chaser:

Iran’s Secret Plan to Escalate the War

Gee, which headline should we trust? Oh, let's not always see the same hands ...

Let's start with the latter from the Wall Street Journal, which reports that the regime in Iran has not (gasp) negotiated in good faith from the start. The IRGC determined that the US would use talks as a ruse for a devastating strike and therefore never planned to reach any real agreement. Instead, they have worked to expand the war as a way to wear down our allies and force us from the region:

Iran’s hard-line leaders huddled in Tehran and came up with a different plan, according to Iranian and Arab officials. In their view the pact was likely just an attempt by the U.S. and Israel to take pressure off the global economy and buy time for a bigger attack down the road. Instead of putting faith in talks, they took the past two months to prepare for a bigger fight. 

Their efforts include giving the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps more control of the country’s regular army, appointing hardened veterans of the war with Iraq and past internal crackdowns to key posts, expanding domestic counterintelligence operations and ramping up production of missiles and drones. The leadership quickly seized the initiative, attacking ships to tighten Iran’s grip on Hormuz and expanding the battlefield to the Red Sea, which Saudi Arabia has used to get around Iran’s chokehold on the Persian Gulf.

Arab intelligence officials have picked up evidence—including communications between Iran and militia allies in countries such as Yemen and Iraq—of a strategic shift inside the country’s hard-line leadership to get their forces ready to widen the war and raise the costs for the U.S., officials familiar with the findings say. Alarming weaker Gulf countries like Kuwait, Iran’s leaders are increasingly talking about offensive operations on enemy territory.

Their overriding goal is to inflict enough pain to ensure the kind of attacks Iran has endured with the 12-day war last year and the continuing conflict aren’t repeated.

“There is also a widespread view in Iran that the main war has not yet begun,” said Mohammad Hassan Sangtarash, a Tehran-based defense analyst close to the Iranian government. “What we have seen so far is increasingly interpreted through the lens of ‘salami-slicing’ tactics—limited, incremental escalation designed to weaken capabilities before a larger confrontation.”

Meanwhile, in Gaza, the IRGC's proxy that has refused to disarm as agreed insists they're still committed to doing the thing they won't do ... or something. Axios' Barak Ravid reports that Hamas is attempting to curry favor with the US while not actually doing what they agreed to do almost a year ago:

Hamas leaders reaffirmed their commitment to disarm and demilitarize Gaza in a meeting with President Trump's adviser Jared Kushner in Egypt on Sunday, according to a source with direct knowledge.

Why it matters: Kushner used the rare direct meeting to press Hamas for tangible steps on disarmament, warning that Israel doesn't trust the group to follow through.

• The source described the 90-minute meeting as "very productive" at making sure Hamas takes practical steps to fulfill its commitments.
• The White House and Trump's Board of Peace are pushing Hamas and Israel to move to the next phase of the U.S. 20-point peace plan.

Yada yada yada. The only reason this meeting took place at all is that Benjamin Netanyahu flat-out refused to comply with a US demand to pull back in Gaza while Hamas defied their agreement to disarm. Netanyahu and Israel have learned the difference between real negotiations and taqqiya in the hardest way possible. They are not going to dance to the Hamas Hokey Pokey this time around, and Netanyahu made that very clear last week.

Hence, the meeting with Kushner and the pinky-swear promise that this time the Iranian proxy is super serious about the previous agreement ... if the US can convince Israel to change it. Hamas has had several months to disarm. Instead, they're just "reaffirming their commitment" while stroking naïve US negotiators, attempting to pressure Israel into retreat. Their Iranian masters in the IRGC have spent the last four months doing the same on the macro level in the Strait of Hormuz. 

This time, Iran's trying to recruit Oman into the Tehran Two-Step, the progenitor of the Hamas Hokey Pokey. This morning, Trump issued a very pointed warning to Muscat about getting into that dance, warning that he would "bomb the s**t out of them" if they allied with the IRGC on Hormuz:

President Trump told Fox News that Iran should "put up the white flag of surrender."

"I have no time schedule," Trump added. "I'm not in a hurry...the midterms have nothing to do with my thinking."

The President confirmed there is a direct backchannel with IRGC officials.… pic.twitter.com/OAHFVWSQFs

— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) August 17, 2026

"I have no time schedule," Trump added. "I'm not in a hurry...the midterms have nothing to do with my thinking."

The President confirmed there is a direct backchannel with IRGC officials.

"They're good poker players, but they're dying."

President Trump also reacted to the ongoing talks between Iran and Oman regarding control of the Strait.

"If Oman gets in the way, we'll bomb the shit out of them."

Perhaps Trump has gotten tired of the dance, too. And the taqqiya.

Editor's Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all. 

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