I - On Defense Podcast

For review:
1. US-Saudi relations have significantly deteriorated in recent months amid anger in Riyadh over Washington’s decision to launch a war against Iran that has caused massive blowback for the rest of the region, to the extent that the US is reportedly considering pulling troops from the Gulf kingdom.
2. Funeral processions for Khamenei will begin on Saturday in Tehran and conclude on July 9 with his burial in his hometown of Mashhad, with additional ceremonies planned in Qom and Iraq in between.
 The ceremonies are expected to draw 15 to 20 million mourners, according to officials, which would make it the biggest state funeral in the country’s history.
3. Syria’s foreign minister said during a visit to Beirut on Thursday that Syria was open to meeting the Iran-backed Lebanese terror group Hezbollah “if interests require it,” Lebanon’s state news agency reported.
Asaad al-Shaibani met Lebanese government leaders, including President Joseph Aoun and parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally. 
4. Israel has successfully completed a series of tests on an upgraded version of its Iron Dome aerial defense system, demonstrating new joint operational capabilities with the Iron Beam laser system, the Israeli ministry of defense said on Tuesday. 
This integration is a prerequisite for future operational deployments allowing commanders to dynamically toggle between missile and laser interceptions based on the nature of the incoming threat, system availability and cost-benefit calculations.
5. President Donald Trump will traveled for the first time on the new Air Force One aircraft Wednesday, according to the White House.

For review:
1. Talks between Cuba and the U.S. are at a standstill, despite the island recently approving a series of free-market reforms, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez announced Tuesday.
2. Attackers shot dead two members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps at their home in the western city of Paveh, near the border with Iraq’s Kurdistan region, state media reported Tuesday.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the shooting. 
3. Top US envoys Steve Witkoff and ‌Jared Kushner were in Doha on Tuesday for meetings with Qatari mediators to discuss negotiations with Iran, but Qatar and Iran said there would be no high-level meeting between Washington and Tehran on Tuesday or in the coming days.
4. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told IDF troops in the southern Lebanon security zone on Tuesday that the military would remain in the area for the foreseeable future, crediting the soldiers’ work for the recent agreement between Israel, Lebanon, and the US that demands Hezbollah’s disarmament to enable an Israeli withdrawal.
5. The Israel Defense Forces’ Military Intelligence Directorate and Southern Command submitted a warning last week to Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir that Hamas’s military wing is preparing for renewed war with Israel, the Kan public broadcaster reported Sunday.
6. Russian President Putin has admitted that there was no deal with President Trump to end the war in Ukraine, after Kremlin officials insisted such an agreement was made between the two leaders last August in Alaska.
7. China called on Ukraine and Russia to resume peace talks “as soon as possible” and reiterated its support for an immediate ceasefire during a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, June 30.
8. Outgoing UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced that British defense spending will reach close to £80 billion ($105 billion) annually by 2029.
9. Based in Townsville in northern Queensland, the Australian Army’s 3rd Brigade is undergoing a massive transformation, as the heavy armored formation absorbs whole new fleets of vehicles.
10. Russia and China conducted joint bomber patrol flights on Saturday for the first time this year, prompting Japan and South Korea to scramble fighter aircraft.

For review:
1. US & Iran have agreed to halt attacks on each other and to meet again on Tuesday in Doha to discuss the issues of the Strait of Hormuz.
2. The Israel-Lebanon framework agreement, signed last week, explicitly preserves the Israel Defense Force’s full freedom to act against threats in the southern Lebanon security zone, an official familiar with its contents told The Times of Israel on Sunday.
3. Hezbollah’s leader on Saturday pilloried the Israel-Lebanon framework agreement signed in Washington as “null and void” and a surrender of Lebanon’s sovereignty, with the terror group’s top ally in Beirut’s parliament going as far as calling it an “incitement to civil war.”
4. A top commander in Hamas’s naval police and a Hamas terrorist who invaded Israel during the October 7, 2023, onslaught were among four terrorists killed in recent strikes in the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces announced Sunday.
5. Turkey Offers to Host Russia - Ukraine Peace Talks.
6. The German Navy is moving two ships to the Red Sea in preparation for a possible mine-clearing mission in the Strait of Hormuz, the country’s defense minister confirmed on Thursday.
7. During a meeting with his Japanese counterpart in Tokyo, Canada’s defense minister has said that Ottawa is “interested in learning more about” the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) next-generation fighter.
The GCAP is a multinational effort between Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom that envisions a sixth-generation fighter jet as well as collaborative combat drones and high-tech data sharing.
8. Japan’s government has confirmed it will rename its air force to reflect a broadened mission set to include outer space.
The upper house of Japan’s parliament approved a bill today to rename the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) to the Japan Aerospace Self-Defense Force.
9. North Korea commissioned its largest warship to date, the 5,000-ton destroyer Choe Hyon (51), in a ceremony Tuesday in the port city Nampho.
Choe Hyon was domestically made, and was armed with indigenous weapons systems.

For review:
1. US Central Command (CENTCOM) says its forces conducted strikes against Iran earlier this evening in response to an attack on a commercial ship that was transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
2. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it attacked US sites in the Gulf region in retaliation to American strikes in Iran, according to state television.
3. The United States is considering moving Middle East military installations westward, including to Israel, to reduce their exposure to Iran’s missiles and drones.
4. Israel, Lebanon and the US reached an agreement Friday that will see the Israel Defense Forces begin to withdraw from small parts of southern Lebanon.
5. Officers from the Moroccan military, whose deployment was announced in February, have arrived in Israel to join a nascent international force for Gaza, US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace said Tuesday.
An official from the board separately told AFP on condition of anonymity that the contingent arrived on June 18 at the headquarters of the International Stabilization Force (ISF) in southern Israel.
6. The Kremlin said Wednesday that contacts between Moscow and Washington on the Ukraine war will resume when the American envoys become available amid their occupation with other issues.

For review:
1.  The U.S. government on Tuesday hit Cuban state companies with new sanctions.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the sanctions target five Cuban entities, including three linked to Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A., a business conglomerate operated by Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces. 
2. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that Washington would not accept Iranian tolls or fees on the Strait of Hormuz, as disputes over the vital waterway, nuclear inspections, and missiles exposed early strains in negotiations to end the Middle East war. 
3. Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed Wednesday that the IDF will not withdraw from its southern Lebanon security zone, “even if there is an American demand,” while adding there was no such demand at this time. 
4. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel needs to be “free” from military dependence on the United States and develop its own weapons-production capabilities, arguing that this is needed to support the ongoing fight with Iran and its terror proxies. 
5.  A senior Islamic State leader was killed by an airstrike last week, Central Command announced on Wednesday,. 
Ali Husayn al-Ulaywi was killed in a precision airstrike on June 19.
6.  U.S. President Donald Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Group of Seven summit in France that he would consider letting Ukraine build its own Patriot interceptor missiles.
7.  The Missile Defense Agency today awarded Lockheed Martin a $35 billion undefined contract action (UCA) to quadruple production of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors over a seven-year period, the company and the Defense Department announced.