A significant surge in United States Air Force aerial refuelling tankers crossing the Atlantic has prompted scrutiny from defence analysts and observers, amid heightened tensions in the Middle East | On Sunday night, an unusually large formation of American aerial refuelling aircraft — including over two dozen KC-135 Stratotankers and KC-46 Pegasus tankers — was observed transiting eastbound from North America at cruising altitudes consistent with strategic repositioning. The volume and pattern of these flights suggest a deliberate deployment of refuelling assets, rather than routine training or ferrying operations. ● This mass movement does not appear to be linked to any currently scheduled multinational air exercise such as Atlantic Trident, leading many to assess it as a pre-positioning effort in support of future operations or rapid response plans. While the precise destination of the tankers remains unconfirmed, many were observed heading toward European airspace or potentially onward to Middle Eastern bases used by US and NATO forces.

Sources familiar with the matter have told Antiwar.com Editorial Director Scott Horton that the Trump administration is poised to enter Israel’s aggressive war against Iran directly. US airstrikes on Iran could begin as soon as Monday. | The US has supported the war by reportedly providing Israel with intelligence and helping intercept Iranian missiles and drones, but so far, there have been no direct US attacks on Iran. Iranian officials have warned that Tehran would hit US bases in the region in response to any US strikes. ● Axios reported on Saturday that Israel is urging the US to join the war since Israel lacks the bunker-busting bombs necessary to do serious damage to Iran’s Fordow plant, which is buried deep underground. An Israeli official told Axios that President Trump had previously suggested the US could strike Fordow. ● Trump himself said on Sunday that it was “possible” that the US would get directly involved in the war, which Israel launched early Friday morning with airstrikes across Iran.

✅ The Folly of A War With Iran (Chris Hedges)

This is Bat Yam, greater Tel Aviv. 🇮🇱

Israel has never seen destruction like this.

Parts of the city lie in smouldering ruin, and resemble what it has done to Gaza. pic.twitter.com/8U4ZcHeZvx

— Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) June 15, 2025

■ Haaretz admits Iran’s precision strikes, says PM lacks war strategy (Al Mayadeen)
■ Fars: в Иране заявили о подготовке «очень мощного удара» по Израилю, RT На русском
■ A surveillance camera captured the moment of an Iranian ballistic missile strike in the city of Petah Tikva
■ Iran has published a video of a 3D model showing the city of Tel Aviv... (Telegram "Slavyangrad")
✅ Absolutely They Are... (Andrei Martyanov)

According to the report, the aerial target was destroyed over the city of Dehloran | Iranian air defenses have shot down Israel’s US-made MQ-9 Reaper drone, Iran’s state broadcaster reported. According to the media outlet, the aerial target was destroyed over the city of Dehloran near the Iran-Iraq border.

✅ Pascal Lottaz | The Collective West insists that Israel's attack on Iran is covered by its limitless right to self-defence. | For a brief moment in 2022, it looked as if the West had rediscovered the inviolability of state borders and the inadmissibility of foreign interventions when Russian troops started pouring into Ukraine. Luckily, we can all rest assured that that moment is over again. Yesterday, western leaders from Ursula von der Leyen all the way to the UN Security Council representative of Greece, and of course the US President have confirmed that Israel’s blatant attack on Iran is not, in fact, a breach of the UN Charter’s prohibition on the use of force, but that it constitutes part of Israel’s limitless “right to self-defense”.

■ Iran live: Israeli strike damages Iranian hospital, patients wounded (MEE)
■ Israel Kills Senior Iranian Official Who Wanted a Nuclear Deal With the US (Antiwar.com)
■ Iranian Health Ministry: Israeli Strikes on Iran Have Killed 224 Since Friday (Antiwar.com)
✅ The Illegal Attack on Iran (Vijay Prashad)

✅ Andrew Korybko | Even if only some of what Zelensky is worried about comes to pass, especially reduced US aid and forthcoming American pressure upon Ukraine to comply with Russia’s demands, then the conflict might end sooner than expected. | Zelensky fired off over a dozen paragraphs in his latest tweetstorm on Saturday afternoon that can be read in full here. He demanded the imposition of more sanctions against Russia’s banking and energy sectors, complained about the “warm” tone of the US-Russian dialogue, expressed worries about reduced aid, fearmongered about Russia’s military-industrial complex, and pushed back against claims that he’s oppressing Russians, Russian speakers, and Russian Orthodox Christians. He’s clearly panicking.