—❗️🇮🇱/🇵🇸/✝️ NEW: The Israeli Police harassed and arrested Palestinian Christians who were celebrating Christmas in Haifa

Earlier today, Israeli settlers set fire to a Christmas tree in the West Bank, and IDF soldiers beat up an elderly man in Bethlehem who carried a cross pendant around his neck.

@Middle_East_Spectator

—❗️🇮🇷/🇹🇷 NEW: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will visit Tehran next week

He will meet with President Masoud Pezeshkian and likely Iran's Supreme Leader.

@Middle_East_Spectator

— 🇺🇸/🇷🇺 NEW: Recently declassified NSA documents show interaction between Russian President Vladimir Putin and American President George Bush

In the early 2000s, Putin warned Bush that pushing for Ukraine's NATO membership would lead to 'long-term confrontation'.

Bush simply replies: 'Why?'

@Middle_East_Spectator

—❗️🇮🇷/🎅 BREAKING: Santa Claus has violated Iranian airspace

After it was confirmed that no Zionists were on board the sleigh, the IRGC Air Defense Forces HQ allowed it to continue on its way.

@Middle_East_Spectator

—❗️🇺🇸/🇮🇷/🇻🇪 NEW: The Venezuelan-Iranian oil tanker 'BELLA-1', which has been chased by the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard for 3 days now, has still not been seized

The vessel refuses to be boarded and continues to sail. The U.S. Coast Guard reportedly lacks specialized forces to conduct a landing maneuver on the ship. – Reuters

@Middle_East_Spectator

— 🇸🇾/🇯🇴 NEW: The Royal Jordanian Air Force announces it carried out airstrikes against factories and warehouses belonging to weapons and drugs smuggling gangs in Syria

@Middle_East_Spectator

—❗️🇺🇸/🇻🇪 NEW: The White House has ordered U.S. forces in the Caribbean to focus exclusively on enforcing the blockade of sanctioned Venezuelan oil for at least the next two months, a U.S. official says

Military options remain on the table for Venezuela, but President Trump's priority is economic pressure, enforcing sanctions first to achieve its desired outcome. – Reuters

@Middle_East_Spectator

— 🇮🇷/🇷🇺 Interesting trannoscript from a newly declassified NSA document:

In the early 2000s, Putin tells Bush that 'there is no doubt' Iran wants to obtain a nuclear weapon.

He also says he told 'his people' (i.e. the Russians) not to tell Iran about 'such things' (nuclear know-how).

Remember, Iran-Russia ties in the early 2000s were much less close than they are now. But this again confirms that Iran's nuclear program is almost entirely domestic (since the beginning), and that Russian support is often exaggerated in the media.

In fact, North Korea helped Iran more with nuclear technology than any other country ever did, including Russia.

@Middle_East_Spectator

— 🇷🇺/🇮🇷 Vladimir Putin on Iran, early 2000s: 'They're quite nuts. They may be crazy in their ideology, but they're intellectuals. They are educated in university, come from an academic environment — including Ahmadinejad, his entourage, the Speaker of Parliament. They are not primitive people, it was quite a surprise to me.'

@Middle_East_Spectator

They said it was 3,000 last week, now it's 1,000 — what happened?