{"id":94124,"date":"2026-02-26T07:19:03","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T12:19:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/?p=94124"},"modified":"2026-02-26T07:19:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T12:19:03","slug":"news-and-analysis-2-26-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/?p=94124","title":{"rendered":"News and Analysis 2\/26\/26"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As talks begin Iran states, yet again, that it will not develop nuclear weapons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cvg1vd95nl9o\">US and Iran Begin Talks Seen as Crucial to Prevent Conflict<\/a> (BBC)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/iran-nuclear-weapons-trump-war-deal-missiles-11584371\">Iran Answers Trump\u2019s Main Demand to Avoid War Before Last Ditch Talks<\/a> (Newsweek)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;Pentagon officials and Hill lawmakers are increasingly warning that prolonged Iran strikes could stress U.S. military stockpiles to the brink and make the country more vulnerable&#8221;:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/02\/25\/iran-weapons-trump-troops-defense-00797801\">Iran Strikes Threaten to Deplete US Weapons Supplies \u2014 and Put American Troops at Risk<\/a> (Politico)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"font-text text-lg leading-[1.6] mt-5 md:mt-[1.875rem]\" data-v-a500cf4d=\"\">&#8220;These Trump administration officials are privately arguing that an Israeli attack would trigger Iran to retaliate, helping muster support from American voters for a U.S. strike&#8221;:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/02\/25\/white-house-politics-israel-strikes-iran-00799456\">White House Officials Believe \u2018the Politics Are a Lot Better\u2019 if Israel Strikes Iran First<\/a> (Politico)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Zionist war on free speech &#8212; and the resistance &#8212; continues:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/feb\/25\/university-southern-maine-palestine-conference-trump\">Maine University Pulls Support from Conference on Palestine, Citing Trump Sanctions<\/a> (The Guardian)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c0e5zp8w7gzo\">Home Office Allowed to Appeal Palestine Action Court Ruling<\/a> (BBC)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;Only about 3 in 10 of U.S. adults have &#8216;a great deal&#8217; or &#8216;quite a bit&#8217; of trust in Trump\u2019s judgment on the use of military force, relationships with U.S. adversaries or the use of nuclear weapons&#8221;:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/poll-trump-iran-israel-nuclear-41f4f308683c2ee10420225e1380cf21\">Most Americans See Iran as an Enemy but Doubt Trump\u2019s Judgment on Military Force, AP-NORC Poll Finds<\/a> (AP)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;Muslim schools and Muslim families are being excluded from the education savings program that we passed in the legislature last cycle, and I feel it&#8217;s discriminatory based on religion&#8221; &#8212; State Rep. Salman Bhojani (D-Euless) &#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kvue.com\/article\/news\/politics\/democrats-raise-concern-exclusion-muslim-schools-texas-education-freedom-account-program\/269-0829855b-b36b-47b8-9535-3b846ba8e803\">Democrats Raise Concern About Exclusion of Muslim Schools as Texas Education Freedom Account Program Surpasses 130K Applications<\/a> (KVUE)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8230; &#8220;If Texas truly believes in educational freedom, then that freedom must apply equally to all students&#8221; &#8212; a Christian teacher at a Muslim school:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.statesman.com\/opinion\/columns\/your-voice\/article\/teach-muslim-school-students-deserve-access-21938521.php\">I Teach at a Muslim School. Our Students Deserve Access to Vouchers<\/a> (Austin American-Statesman)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;Security forces have targeted groups perceived as threats to the regime, including reformist politicians, doctors, lawyers and journalists, according to human rights observers&#8221;:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/world\/iran\/iran-arrests-protesters-reformists-crush-dissent-deadly-crackdown-rcna259294\">Iran Attempts to Crush Dissent with a Wave of Arrests After Deadly Crackdown<\/a> (NBC News)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;Australia advises dependants of officials in Israel and Lebanon to leave amid vast US military buildup in the region&#8221;:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/feb\/26\/us-iran-middle-east-travel-warnings\">Middle East Travel Warnings Expanded as Tensions Between US and Iran Increase<\/a> (The Guardian)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;Iran is aiming to tempt Donald Trump with financial incentives, including investments in its vast oil and gas reserves, as part of efforts to convince the US president to agree a deal on its nuclear programme and avoid war&#8221;:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/27f02d44-a223-4934-8f2b-7cfd8772b181\">Iran to Offer \u2018Commercial Bonanza\u2019 to US Companies<\/a> (Financial Times)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As talks begin Iran states, yet again, that it will not develop nuclear weapons: US and Iran Begin Talks Seen as Crucial to Prevent Conflict (BBC) Iran Answers Trump\u2019s Main Demand to Avoid War Before Last Ditch Talks (Newsweek) &#8220;Pentagon officials and Hill lawmakers are increasingly warning that prolonged Iran strikes could stress U.S. military [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94124"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94135,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94124\/revisions\/94135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.minaret.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}