🌐 Yeah, He's Dead.

Hi Global Recap readers,

I’ve been convinced he’s actually dead, so seeing BREAKING posts showing Iran’s newly released video of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei for the “FIRST TIME” genuinely caught me off guard.

But hang on a second… 👇

🇮🇷 IRAN
Yeah, He’s Dead

Iran’s state-backed Mehr news agency just released a “rarely seen new video” of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei in order to shut down speculation about his health.

But there’s one problem. This video was already published back in March. 👇

🇸🇾 SYRIA
Russia Gets Demoted (Sort Of)

Syria has cut a new deal that keeps Russian military in the country (but with a much smaller role). Russia’s Hmeimim and Tartous bases will become joint training centers, while Syria takes back control of civilian airport and port facilities within 3 months.

• This appears to be a demotion for Russia. Those bases helped Moscow project military power across the Mediterranean and into Africa, and were central to Russia’s intervention keeping Bashar al-Assad in power.

• But Syria isn’t simply switching sides. President Ahmad al-Sharaa seems to be keeping useful Russian military ties while aggressively rebuilding relations with the US.

📌 Context. President Trump has already ended broad Syria sanctions and started removing Syria from the US state-sponsor-of-terrorism list. Syria has also told the US that it’s willing to slash Russian oil imports.

🇸🇦 🇾🇪 SAUDI ARABIA & YEMEN
Islamic NATO

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis say they hit Saudi Aramco’s Jazan refinery with a drone on Sunday.

And the timing is pretty awkward.

• Just 2 days earlier, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan signed a new defense pact that some are already calling the “Islamic NATO.”

• That matters because Saudi Arabia has reportedly been looking less convinced that it can keep depending on the US to guarantee its security.

Iranian MP Ebrahim Rezaei mocked the pact as nothing but a “paper agreement.”

🇧🇬🇩🇪 BULGARIA & GERMANY
Drones Slip Through NATO

NATO just got 2 more drone scares.

1. Two drones showed up over a German military base involved in Patriot air-defense maintenance. This came just 2 days after an explosives-laden drone was found at Leipzig/Halle Airport.

2. Bulgaria says a drone crossed Romania and blew up near its Trans-Balkan gas pipeline. It believes the drone was most likely a Ukrainian Maya decoy. Ukraine hasn’t denied it could be Ukrainian, but insists it was not deliberately sent.

🇮🇷🇺🇸 IRAN & US
”Low-Keying It”

President Trump says he is “low-keying it” with Iran, backing away from further military threats and letting economic pressure do the work.

But the part what’s setting his critics off is a Wall Street Journal report that claims Trump has privately floated ending the war if Iran fully reopens the Strait of Hormuz (even without a nuclear deal).

• If true, that would be a huge retreat from Trump. Preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons was his justification for launching and sustaining the war. Just last week, he even called the ongoing negotiations as Iran’s “last chance.”

• Trump also said Iran’s economy is crumbling and he’s happy to let the pressure build.

But it seems like Iran isn’t handing him an easy off-ramp, though.

Iran’s Price

To reopen Hormuz, Iran says the US must:

1. Permanently end the war against Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen, and Iraq

2. Lift the naval blockade

3. Withdraw US forces from around Iran

4. Lift all sanctions

5. Release all frozen Iranian funds

6. Pay full compensation for war damage

7. Stop threatening or insulting Iran.

These demands are noteworthy, because only about a week ago, Iran was attaching many of them to a “nuclear deal.”

Now it wants them just to reopen the strait.