Erik Prince: Off Leash Update

Off Leash update 27 October 2026

MIDDLE EAST
•Top security officials from Mecca Pact countries – Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, Pakistani army chief Asim Munir, and Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin – visited Tehran yesterday for an unusual meeting with senior Iranian officials, including Pres. Pezeshkian and national security chief Mohsen Rezaei.
•According to Iranian state media, the rather unlikely bedfellows “agreed to continue the dialogue to strengthen cooperation amongst the four regional countries, including for peace and security in the region.”
•Analysts suggest they’re worried that another round of U.S. and Israeli war on Iran could plunge the region into even deeper turmoil and are trying to resolve their differences diplomatically to see if that can be avoided.
•Saudi also wants Iran to rein in its Houthi proxies and force them to stop striking the Kingdom. Iran clearly didn’t pass the message along urgently: the Houthis fired three more ballistic missiles and four more drones at Saudi later in the day.
•Meanwhile, Egypt’s parliament voted to allow Pres. Abdel Fattah al Sisi to authorize military support for Saudi against the Houthis.

ISRAEL
•The media reported that Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered a new airstrike on Iran ahead of today’s parliamentary election – in which Netanyahu faces his toughest political challenge yet – and his military chief refused to comply.
•Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir reportedly took the unusual step of rejecting an order because he believed it to be a miscalculation that could provoke Iran to escalate.
•Separately, the U.N. Independent Commission of Inquiry released a new report by a panel of human rights experts who concluded Israel is committing genocide against Palestinian civilians in Gaza and carrying out crimes against humanity in the West Bank. Israel immediately rejected the curiously-timed report’s claims.

BRAZIL
•Markets weren’t as excited about Pres. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s re-election as 52% of Brazilian voters apparently were. Brazil’s stocks slid, and the real saw its largest single-day decline against the dollar since 1999 (8%).
•Investors are jittery about a longer Lula tenure because the left-wing policies he introduced in his first three terms drained public coffers. His current government runs a deficit of 9% of GDP – and that’s before the additional new handouts he’s promised in his next term.

VENEZUELA
•Thousands of Venezuelans cheered opposition leader Maria Carina Machado’s return to the country, but one wasn’t thrilled to have Machado back.
•Interim President Delcy Rodriguez – who rarely speaks to reporters – gave a press conference in which she chastised Machado for sneaking back into Venezuela (presumably because she was worried Rodriguez’s goons would snatch her at the airport if registered her return in advance) and said she hoped Machado would show “regret, remorse and a change of course.”
•Rodriguez’s truculence suggests her government isn’t going to give Machado much freedom to organize her opposition movement or mobilize supporters to call for elections. Rodriguez likely feels threatened by Machado, and she should: polling suggests that if an election were held today between the two of them, Machado would win.
•Machado doesn’t have to worry about joining the estimated 500 to 900 political prisoners that Rodriguez’s government currently holds. When asked if Machado should be held accountable for her past actions against the regime, Rodriguez said – rather unconvincingly – “there is no political persecution in Venezuela.”
6:59 AM · Oct 27, 2026

Off Leash update 27 October 2026

MIDDLE EAST
•Top security officials from Mecca Pact countries – Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, Pakistani army chief Asim Munir, and Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin – visited Tehran yesterday for an unusual meeting with senior Iranian officials, including Pres. Pezeshkian and national security chief Mohsen Rezaei.
•According to Iranian state media, the rather unlikely bedfellows “agreed to continue the dialogue to strengthen cooperation amongst the four regional countries, including for peace and security in the region.”
•Analysts suggest they’re worried that another round of U.S. and Israeli war on Iran could plunge the region into even deeper turmoil and are trying to resolve their differences diplomatically to see if that can be avoided.
•Saudi also wants Iran to rein in its Houthi proxies and force them to stop striking the Kingdom. Iran clearly didn’t pass the message along urgently: the Houthis fired three more ballistic missiles and four more drones at Saudi later in the day.
•Meanwhile, Egypt’s parliament voted to allow Pres. Abdel Fattah al Sisi to authorize military support for Saudi against the Houthis.

ISRAEL
•The media reported that Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered a new airstrike on Iran ahead of today’s parliamentary election – in which Netanyahu faces his toughest political challenge yet – and his military chief refused to comply.
•Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir reportedly took the unusual step of rejecting an order because he believed it to be a miscalculation that could provoke Iran to escalate.
•Separately, the U.N. Independent Commission of Inquiry released a new report by a panel of human rights experts who concluded Israel is committing genocide against Palestinian civilians in Gaza and carrying out crimes against humanity in the West Bank. Israel immediately rejected the curiously-timed report’s claims.

BRAZIL
•Markets weren’t as excited about Pres. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s re-election as 52% of Brazilian voters apparently were. Brazil’s stocks slid, and the real saw its largest single-day decline against the dollar since 1999 (8%).
•Investors are jittery about a longer Lula tenure because the left-wing policies he introduced in his first three terms drained public coffers. His current government runs a deficit of 9% of GDP – and that’s before the additional new handouts he’s promised in his next term.

VENEZUELA
•Thousands of Venezuelans cheered opposition leader Maria Carina Machado’s return to the country, but one wasn’t thrilled to have Machado back.
•Interim President Delcy Rodriguez – who rarely speaks to reporters – gave a press conference in which she chastised Machado for sneaking back into Venezuela (presumably because she was worried Rodriguez’s goons would snatch her at the airport if registered her return in advance) and said she hoped Machado would show “regret, remorse and a change of course.”
•Rodriguez’s truculence suggests her government isn’t going to give Machado much freedom to organize her opposition movement or mobilize supporters to call for elections. Rodriguez likely feels threatened by Machado, and she should: polling suggests that if an election were held today between the two of them, Machado would win.
•Machado doesn’t have to worry about joining the estimated 500 to 900 political prisoners that Rodriguez’s government currently holds. When asked if Machado should be held accountable for her past actions against the regime, Rodriguez said – rather unconvincingly – “there is no political persecution in Venezuela.”

— ErikDPrince (@realErikDPrince) October 27, 2026