🇮🇷❌🇮🇶👑 —IRGC drone strike Kurdish separatist party headquarters in Koya, Erbil, with columns of smoke rising from the site.

@IntelSlava

🇮🇷❌🇮🇶🌞 — Iran recently destroyed a massive amount of missile, ammunition, mortar, shell, and rocket stockpiles and depots belonging to Kurdish separatist parties in the Kurdistan region. These weapons were supplied by Mossad and the CIA to wage a diversionary attack on Iran while the US was conducting its limited ground invasion on the southern coast of Iran.

@IntelSlava
@LeonovZ

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️ — According to sources cited by The New York Times, Trump is considering three main options regarding Iran: escalating military action, tightening economic sanctions, or declaring victory and withdrawing troops.

"Trump appears to be trapped in a war with Iran, even though he wields the largest 'hammer' in the world. The president, who believed his power was limitless, has discovered several limitations, which has further frustrated him and made him unstable. His presidency has gradually been consumed by a war from which he cannot find a way out," the publication writes.

As an example of this "instability," the publication cites how, last week, Trump's Secretary of Energy signed a historic agreement with Saudi Arabia on the supply of civilian nuclear energy to the kingdom, only for the president to undermine the deal less than 24 hours later, shocking the Saudis with a statement that the agreement, which had been negotiated for 18 months, was doomed to fail unless the country joined the Abraham Accords and recognized Israel.

Aaron David Miller, a former American diplomat with extensive experience in the Middle East, stated that Mr. Trump has once again "pushed the Saudis away, pleased Benjamin Netanyahu, and given Iran strong arguments as to why entering into deals with the United States is a futile endeavor that will inevitably lead to betrayal."

@Intelslava

🇮🇷🇸🇦⚡️ — Large fires, thick plumes of smoke, and visible signs of burning were observed today at the Abqaiq oil processing complex, owned by Saudi Aramco, the largest oil refining facility in the kingdom.

According to an analysis of today's launches, the attacks originated from Iraq.

The Saudis have stated that the attacks were carried out by Iranian proxies.

🇺🇸⚡️ — The American administration believes that if the media publishes updated data on the stockpiles of Patriot and THAAD missiles in the United States, it could pose a threat to the country's national security, according to The Wall Street Journal.

🇮🇷🇸🇦⚡️ — Saudi Aramco has suspended operations at the Abqaiq oil processing and stabilization facility following today's attack.

@IntelSlava

🇾🇪🇮🇷🇸🇦⚡️ — Satellite imagery confirms today's attack on Saudi Aramco's Abqaiq oil processing and crude stabilization facility, with a large plume of smoke rising from the site.

Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Defense said the facility was targeted by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, while Ansar Allah (Houthis) claimed responsibility for the attack.

@IntelSlava

🇷🇺🇺🇦⚡️ — Footage from the Turkish ship RAGNAR, which was attacked off the coast of the Odesa region.

@Intelslava

🇨🇳⚡️ — China has taken another step toward making its semiconductor industry independent from foreign suppliers. A Shanghai-based company has begun production of immersion DUV lithography machines.

▶️ Five units are expected to be built this year, and by 2027 production is set to increase to around 20 units.

This is a move that will help mitigate the impact of Western sanctions.

▶️ The first recipients of the Chinese systems are set to be SMIC, CXMT, and Hua Hong.

▶️ The biggest unknown remains the capabilities of the new machines.
It is not yet known what their throughput is or what advanced process nodes they can handle.

▶️ For comparison, the latest TWINSCAN NXT:2150i from the Dutch company can process over 300 wafers per hour, but the Chinese offering will certainly be less efficient initially.

▶️ For CXMT, which produces DRAM memory using older process nodes, this may not be a serious limitation. A much more difficult task awaits SMIC, which may try to use the equipment to produce 5nm-class chips using multi-patterning.

▶️ Nevertheless, even if the first Chinese machines prove significantly weaker than ASML's systems, their launch carries major strategic significance.

▶️ Beijing gains a foundation for further developing its own lithography and gradually reducing the impact of Western sanctions.

@IntelSlava

🇺🇸🇮🇱🇹🇷⚡️ — Trump on Netanyahu's resistance to the F-35 fighter jet deal with Turkey:

No one is going to tell me whether to sell the planes or not.

@IntelSlava

🇷🇺⚡️ — Putin signs decree expanding the Russian Armed Forces to 2,426,000 total personnel, effective August 1.

➡️ Of these, 1,535,000 will be active-duty military — an increase of 25,000.

@IntelSlava

🇮🇷❌🇺🇦 — Iran could strike Ukraine with ballistic missiles at any time, with no adequate interception capability currently in place, Defence Express reports.

➡️ The Ghadr missile has a range of up to 2,000 km and a ~750 kg warhead.

➡️ The Emad matches those specs and features a maneuvering reentry vehicle.

➡️ The Sejjil reaches up to 2,000 km with a warhead of 700–1,500 kg.

➡️ The Khorramshahr has a claimed range of up to 4,000 km and can carry a warhead of up to 1,500 kg, including a cluster variant with 20 submunitions.

➡️ Defence Express assesses that intercepting the Ghadr, Emad, and Sejjil would require THAAD, Arrow-2, or Arrow-3 systems — Patriot capabilities against such targets are limited.

@IntelSlava

🇺🇦🇮🇶⚡️ — Iraq's National Security Advisor, Qasim al-Aboudi, claimed that Ukrainian intelligence cells are active across Iraq and are responsible for carrying out false flag attacks.

According to al-Aboudi, the cells conduct attacks on Iraqi territory and falsely attribute them to various armed factions.

He also stated that Iraqi authorities had arrested several individuals who confessed that Ukrainian intelligence cells were behind attacks targeting sovereign Iraqi facilities.

@IntelSlava

🇺🇸🇺🇦🇷🇺⚡️ — Trump and Zelensky will discuss a peaceful resolution between Moscow and Kiev on July 28 — CNN.

@Intelslava

🇮🇶🇸🇦🇾🇪⚡️ — The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has denied responsibility for the attack on the Abqaiq oil processing and crude stabilization facility in Saudi Arabia.

The group says the attack was actually carried out by Yemen, and that Saudi Arabia is attempting to justify its inability to respond to Ansar Allah (Houthis), instead choosing to blame the attack on Iraqi groups.

@IntelSlava

🇹🇩Ⓜ️⚡️ — The government of Chad has announced the start of the process of withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, just days after Venezuela also made a similar announcement on Friday.

In a statement, the Chadian government said the decision was made after a "thorough analysis of the Court's activities since its establishment in 2002, as well as its achievements, which, nevertheless, are characterized by limited and uneven effectiveness."

The government also criticized the "excessive focus of the Court on African countries." According to the statement, out of 13 investigations launched since the Rome Statute came into force, nine concern African countries, while only four have been initiated in other regions of the world, "without any significant progress." It also claims that there are currently only seven detainees in the Court, six of whom are linked to cases concerning African countries.

Last week, the website of Chad's Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State had asked Chad to withdraw from the Court, but Chad's Foreign Minister emphasized today that the decision was not made under pressure from the United States.

@IntelSlava