I - On Defense Podcast

For review:
1. Cuban lawmakers unanimously approved sweeping reforms backed by the Communist ​Party and former leader Raul Castro that would privatize a vast swath of the country's socialist economy in a bid to survive punishing U.S. sanctions.
The ‌measures, if implemented as passed, would represent the single largest change to Cuba's socialist model since former leader Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution and a major shift towards a market economy.
2. President Trump on Wednesday signed the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the U.S. and Iran ending the war between the two countries.
3. Iran will invite the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency to inspect its nuclear sites and begin work on identifying and uncovering the locations of Tehran’s enriched material, US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff tells US lawmakers in a private briefing.
4. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman warned Thursday that a continued IDF presence in southern Lebanon would mean the “annulment” of the memorandum of understanding it signed with the United States, as Israel doubled down on its plans to keep troops in the area amid its ongoing conflict with the Hezbollah terror group.
5. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told NATO Thursday the Pentagon will review its force presence in Europe within six months.
“This will be a real review. It will be designed to ensure that NATO is moving fast and irreversibly toward Europe leading, stepping up to take primary responsibility for the defense of Europe,” Hegseth told a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.
6. USAF CCA Update.

For review:
1. Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar opened Somaliland’s embassy in Jerusalem on Monday, the eighth top-level diplomatic mission in the capital.
The United States, Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, and Fiji also have embassies in Jerusalem, while other countries — including Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia — have embassy branches in Jerusalem.
2. The Hamas terror group carried out its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel partly in order to thwart the Jewish state’s rapprochement with Saudi Arabia, according to seized documents.
3. US & Iran MOU (Reaction/Analysis).

For review:
1. Senior Hezbollah commander Ali Mussa Daqduq, mastermind of a January 2007 attack that killed five US troops in Iraq, was killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon over the weekend, the IDF announced Sunday.
2. US & Iran Reach Deal; Ceasefire Extened 60 Days; Formal Signing in Switzerland Friday.
3. Ahmad Vahidi, the commander in chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, emerged as a key player during negotiations between the US and Iran, according to a Saturday profile in the Wall Street Journal, which found that the senior paramilitary leader pushed for a hard line in talks, advocating against any concessions to Washington. According to the report: Vahidi has “frequently overruled” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
 4. Israel was bracing for Iranian missile fire on Sunday after Tehran vowed that an Israeli Air Force strike on a Hezbollah target in Beirut’s southern suburbs earlier in the day would “not go unanswered.”
The strike in the Lebanese capital’s Dahiyeh district came shortly after Hezbollah fired drones into Israeli territory.
It was Israel’s first strike in a week in the Hezbollah stronghold, with the previous strike also a response to rocket fire on northern Israel.
“The IDF has just struck Hezbollah terror targets in the Dahiyeh district of Beirut, in response to Hezbollah’s firing at Israeli territory,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement after the strike on the Hezbollah stronghold.
5. CNN Report: Iran has, in recent weeks, deliberately collapsed tunnels and mined entrances to its bombed Isfahan nuclear complex in a bid to stop the US from launching a raid to retrieve the Islamic Republic’s store of highly enriched uranium that is believed to be buried at the site.

For review:
1. The U.S. imposed sanctions Thursday on Cuba’s state-owned oil company, part of a Trump administration effort to restrict fuel supplies and increase pressure on the island’s Communist government.
2. US President Donald Trump called off strikes on Iran Thursday evening, claiming an agreement to end the war had been reached and would be signed shortly.
He later said the document should “get done in the next few days,” possibly in time for a signing in Europe this weekend.
3. A US official said Friday that the emerging memorandum of understanding with Iran “leads to” Washington getting Tehran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
The official, who held a phone briefing with reporters on condition of anonymity, also said the draft agreement was “broad” and would include Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Iran’s proxy group Hezbollah. 
He added that Iran’s loosening grip on the Strait of Hormuz has cost it leverage in the talks, and that he was “80 to 85 percent” sure the deal would happen.

For review:
1. US Defense Secretary on Wednesday said the future of Cuba is in the hands of President Trump and Havana’s leadership amid increased U.S. pressure on the communist-ruled island.
“No matter what, the Department of War is going to be prepared and postured for any possible contingency,” Sec Hegseth told troops during a visit to the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
2. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said two U.S. Army aviators “got very lucky” after an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter was downed by Iran over the Strait of Hormuz, emphasizing that US retaliation is not over.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, the president declared, “We hit them hard yesterday and we’re going to hit them hard again today.”
3. US President Donald Trump said the US would be attacking Iran again on Wednesday, indicating that Tuesday night’s strikes against the regime were only the first part of Washington’s retaliation against the Islamic Republic for shooting down an American military helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz.
4. US Central Command confirms it has launched fresh “self-defense strikes” on “multiple targets in Iran at the direction” of President Donald Trump.
5. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says that it struck bases in Kuwait and Bahrain in response to the latest US strikes.
6. The United States and Iran have honed in on four key points of negotiation during talks to permanently end the fighting that began with a joint US-Israeli offensive back in February, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.
According to the newspaper, the deal will include agreements on an extended suspension of uranium enrichment by Iran; the dilution of Tehran’s existing stockpile of enriched uranium; the dismantling of Iranian nuclear sites; and the right for international nuclear watchdogs to conduct snap inspections in the Islamic Republic.
7. Iraq and the United Arab Emirates are fast-tracking plans to expand oil pipelines to replace the capacity lost by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, as new data reveals their stark dependency on the Persian Gulf. 
8. The Franco-German-Spanish Future Combat Air System (FCAS) has collapsed following the failure of industrial mediation between Dassault and Airbus on several issues, multiple reports said Monday.
9. The House Appropriations Committee released its $1 trillion defense spending bill for FY27.