Tag: Iran

  • Israel reportedly attacks Iran

    Israel reportedly attacks Iran

    Iranian state media has stated that the country’s air defence systems brought down three drones over the central city of Isfahan.

    According to latest development, the Iranian news agency Tasnim has cited “informed sources” as saying that “there are no reports of an attack from abroad against Isfahan or any other part of Iran”.

    Separately, an Iranian analyst argued on state television that mini-drones were flown by “infiltrators from inside” the country, according to Al Jazeera.

    The International Atomic Energy Agency says it can confirm that there has been no damage to Iran’s nuclear sites.

    Meanwhile, US media, citing senior US officials, also reported that Israeli missiles had hit an Iranian site.

    Iranian air defence systems were activated and flights across several areas including Tehran and Isfahan were suspended.

    Regional tensions rose following Iran’s retaliatory strike on Israel after an attack on its diplomatic premises in Syria.

    There are fears of all-out confrontation after Iran had been warning Israel that it would respond strongly to any aggression.

  • US says new sanctions on Iran coming soon

    US says new sanctions on Iran coming soon

    The United States said Tuesday it would soon impose new sanctions on Iran’s missile and drone program after its retaliatory attack on Israel, and that it expects its allies and partners to follow with parallel measures.

    US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s announcement came after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen indicated punitive measures were in the works, and European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said his office was working on it.

    Iran sent more than 300 missiles, drones and rockets at Israel over the weekend, in what it said was retaliation for a deadly strike on Tehran’s consulate in Damascus. Nearly all of the projectiles were intercepted, and there was little damage.

    “In the coming days, the United States will impose new sanctions targeting Iran, including its missile and drone program” as well as the Revolutionary Guards and the Iranian defense ministry, Sullivan said in a statement.

    “We anticipate that our allies and partners will soon be following with their own sanctions,” he added.

    “These new sanctions and other measures will continue a steady drumbeat of pressure to contain and degrade Iran’s military capacity and effectiveness and confront the full range of its problematic behaviors.”

    US authorities have been using economic tools to counter Iran’s activities, taking aim at its drone and missile programs, as well as its financing of groups like Hamas, which launched its own attack on Israel on October 7.

    Earlier, Yellen previewed the sanctions, telling reporters: “Iran’s actions threaten the region’s stability and could cause economic spillovers.”

    The Treasury will not hesitate to work with US allies to “use our sanctions authority to continue disrupting the Iranian regime’s malign and destabilizing activity,” she said.

    She added that “all options to disrupt terrorist financing” will be on the table.

    ‘More that we could do’

    Months of Israeli genocide in Gaza have triggered violence in the region involving Iranian proxies and allies who say they are acting in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

    But tensions have soared even higher with Tehran’s first direct assault on Israel, which has prompted appeals for de-escalation by world leaders fearing wider conflict.

    Yellen did not offer specifics on the possible measures to be taken, but said Washington has been working to diminish Iran’s ability to export oil, adding there might be “more that we could do.”

    The United States is also looking to work with G7 partners and countries including China to constrain Iran’s ability to access goods needed to build weapons, a senior Treasury official told reporters.

    “We’re going to have conversations with all major suppliers around the world,” the official said.

    In Brussels, Borrell said after an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers that some member states had proposed “the adoption of expanded restrictive measures against Iran” and that his office would begin preparatory work.

    “We have to move away from the edge of the abyss,” Borrell said.

    Sullivan said that Washington had sanctioned more than 600 Iran-linked individuals and entities “connected to terrorism, terrorist financing and other forms of illicit trade, horrific human rights abuses, and support for proxy terrorist groups.”

    “The pressure will continue,” he warned.

    “We will not hesitate to continue to take action, in coordination with allies and partners around the world, and with Congress, to hold the Iranian government accountable for its malicious and destabilizing actions.”

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    © Agence France-Presse

  • Pakistan officially bans shia militant organization Zainebiyoun Brigade

    Pakistan officially bans shia militant organization Zainebiyoun Brigade

    The Pakistani government has officially proscribed the Zainebiyoun Brigade, a Shia faith militant organization, as a threat to the security of Pakistan.

    The Khorasan Diary reported that the banned militant organization has backing from Iran as well.

    Interestingly, former Senator Faisal Raza Abidi had said in a talk show on GTV that, “40,000 fighters from Hezbollah and Zainebiyoun Brigade have reached Jerusalem out of which 233 are Pakistani fighters who came from areas of Parachinar.”

    In a notification issued on March 29 by the Interior Ministry of Pakistan, it was said that “Zainebiyoun Brigade is engaged in certain activities which are prejudicial to the peace and security of the country”.

    Under the Anti-terrorism Act of 1997, the government has made it a proscribed organization.

    The banned group is known for its involvement in the Middle East conflict and provided support to the Bashar-ul-Asad forces in Syria.

    The group had come under scrutiny from the authorities about its capabilities.

  • Israel on alert after Iranian threat as genocide in Gaza grinds on

    Palestinian Territories – Israel was on alert Thursday after Iran threatened reprisals over a strike in Syria this month that killed two Iranian generals, and as genocide in Gaza continues.

    Days after Israel strengthened its air defences and paused leave for combat units, the United States also warned of the risk of an attack by Iran or its allied groups at a time Middle East tensions have soared.

    Iran is “threatening to launch a significant attack on Israel,” US President Joe Biden said Wednesday, pledging “ironclad” support for its top regional ally despite diplomatic tensions over Israel’s military conduct in Gaza.

    Israel was widely blamed for an April 1 attack that destroyed Iran’s consulate building in Damascus and killed seven Revolutionary Guards, including two generals.

    Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned Wednesday that Israel “must be punished and will be punished”, days after one of his advisers said Israeli embassies are “no longer safe”.

    Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz swiftly replied on social media site X that “if Iran attacks from its territory, Israel will respond and attack Iran”.

    Biden said he had told Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu that “our commitment to Israel’s security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad”.

    US Central Command chief Michael Kurilla was in Israel on Thursday to discuss the situation with Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, the Pentagon said.

    “We warned Iran,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told a briefing without elaborating.

    During a visit to an airbase in central Israel, Netanyahu spoke of “challenging times” on multiple fronts.

    “We are in the middle of the war in Gaza which continues in full force… but we are also preparing for scenarios of challenges from other arenas,” he said in comments released by his office.

    Moscow called on both Iran and Israel to exercise restraint.

    German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock urged “maximum restraint”, and Lufthansa said it had extended a temporary suspension of Iran flights until Saturday.

    Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said he had received phone calls Thursday from Baerbock as well as her British and Australian counterparts.

    In a post on X, he said he had told them that “when the Zionist regime breaches the immunity of diplomatic persons and places” and the UN Security Council fails to condemn it, “legitimate defence… is a necessity”.

    Israel and the United States have long faced off against Iran and its so-called “Axis of Resistance” allies based in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

    ‘Panic among children’

    Regional tensions have been stoked following October 7 attack in Israel left.

    Israeli genocide in Gaza has killed at least 33,545 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

    Hamas said 20 people were killed in Israeli bombardments on Thursday. It said two schools and two mosques were among the buildings hit and an imam was among the dead.

    In the Nuseirat area, which took the brunt of the bombing, Imad Abu Shawish, 39, said “the situation is dire and still getting worse. Bombardment hasn’t stopped and is still happening now.”

    Much of Gaza has been reduced to a bomb-cratered wasteland, with yet more bodies feared under the rubble.

    An Israeli siege has deprived Gaza’s 2.4 million people of most food, water, fuel and medicines, the dire shortages only alleviated by sporadic aid deliveries.

    Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz said Wednesday “Hamas is defeated” militarily but pledged to keep fighting “what remains of it” in the years to come.

    An Israeli air strike on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’s Qatar-based leader Ismail Haniyeh.

    Haniyeh insisted their deaths would not influence Hamas’s position in ongoing talks in Cairo for a truce and hostage release deal.

    Those talks, which started Sunday, have brought no breakthrough on a plan presented by US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators, which Hamas said it was studying.

    The framework plan would halt fighting for six weeks and see the exchange of about 40 hostages for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, as well as more aid deliveries.

    Biden said that “it’s now up to Hamas, they need to move on the proposal that’s been made”.

    Israel accused Hamas Thursday of “walking away” from what government spokesman David Mencer called “a very reasonable offer on the table”.

    Hamas official Bassem Naim said only a ceasefire could provide “enough time and safety” to locate Israeli hostages held across the territory and ascertain their fate because they are held by different groups.

    ‘Destabilising Middle East’

    Washington has ramped up pressure on Netanyahu to agree to a truce, increase aid flows and abandon plans to send troops into Gaza’s far-southern city of Rafah where about 1.5 million civilians are sheltering.

    Rafah is the last Gazan city yet to face a ground incursion.

    Gallant promised Israel would “flood Gaza with aid”, using an Israeli crossing point, streamlined checks and two new routes organised with Jordan.

    He said they expected to reach 500 aid trucks a day, the pre-war average.

    However, a UN Security Council statement Thursday said “more should be done to bring the required relief given the scale of needs in Gaza”.

    Israel has faced a chorus of international criticism over its handling of the war.

    Spain is among several Western nations, including Ireland and Australia, to have suggested they would recognise a Palestinian state as a starting point for wider peace talks.

    Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez warned that Israel’s “disproportionate response” in Gaza risked “destabilising the Middle East and, as a consequence, the entire world”.

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    © Agence France-Presse

  • Iran’s Khamenei renews threat of counterattack against Israel

    Iran’s Khamenei renews threat of counterattack against Israel

    Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei again warned Israel Wednesday that it “will be punished” for a Damascus air strike that killed seven Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals.

    “The evil regime made a mistake in this regard. It must be punished and will be punished,” Khamenei said in a televised speech after Eid al-Adha prayers in Tehran.

    Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz swiftly riposted with a Persian-language statement on social media site X.

    “If Iran attacks from its territory, Israel will respond and attack Iran,” he said.

    Khamenei said the April 1 strike, which levelled the five-storey Iranian consulate building in the Syrian capital, had run roughshod over international agreements providing for the inviolability of diplomatic premises.

    “The consulate and embassy offices in any country are the territory of that country,” he said. “When they attacked our consulate, it means they attacked our territory.”

    Khamenei has led Iranian officials in a succession of promises to avenge the strike, which was widely blamed on arch foe Israel.

    One of his senior advisers, Yahya Rahim Safavi, warned on Sunday that Israeli embassies were “no longer safe”.

    Israel said last week it was strengthening its defences and pausing leave for combat units following Iran’s retaliation threats.

    Iran does not recognise Israel, and the two countries have fought a shadow war for years.

    Iran charges that Israel was behind a wave of sabotage attacks and assassinations targeting its nuclear programme.

  • Iran vows to punish Israel for deadly strike on embassy compound

    Iran vows to punish Israel for deadly strike on embassy compound

    Tehran (AFP) – Iran warned arch foe Israel on Tuesday that it will punish an air strike that killed seven Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals, at its consular annex in Damascus.

    Four other people were also reported killed in Monday’s strike which levelled the five-storey building adjacent to the Iranian embassy and further stoked tensions already running high as the Gaza war nears the end of its sixth month.

    Israel declined to comment on the strike, which fuelled Middle East tensions.

    Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed that Israel would be punished.

    “The evil Zionist regime will be punished at the hands of our brave men. We will make them regret this crime and the other ones,” Khamenei said in a message published on his official website.

    President Ebrahim Raisi condemned the attack as a “clear violation of international regulations” which “will not go unanswered”.

    “After repeated defeats and failures against the faith and will of the Resistance Front fighters, the Zionist regime has put blind assassinations on its agenda in the struggle to save itself,” Raisi said on his office’s website.

    The UN Security Council is to discuss the strike later Tuesday at a meeting requested by Syrian ally Russia.

    The strike on the annex killed seven Revolutionary Guards, including two commanders of its Quds Force foreign operations arm, Brigadier Generals Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, Iranian offiials said.

    Zahedi, 63, had held a succession of commands in the force in a Guards career spanning more than four decades.

    A Britain-based monitor of the more than decade-old conflict in Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strike killed “eight Iranians, two Syrians and one Lebanese — all of them fighters.”

    Iran’s ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, told Iranian state TV that the attack “was carried out by F-35 fighter jets” which fired six missiles at the building.

    Only the gate of the building was left standing after the attack, with a sign reading “the consular section of the embassy of Iran”.

    Windows were shattered within a 500-metre (550 yard) radius and many parked cars were damaged by the blast.

    The adjacent facade of the Iranian embassy is decorated with a large portrait of Qasem Soleimani, a longtime Quds Force chief who was killed in a US drone strike just outside Baghdad airport in January 2020.

    ‘Important message to US’

    Iran’s foreign minister said Israel’s main backer the United States also bore responsibility for the strike, even though an unidentified US official quoted by Axios insisted Washington “had no involvement” or advanced knowledge of it.

    Amir-Abdollahian said on X that the ministry had summoned a diplomat from the Swiss embassy, which looks after US interests in Iran, to hear its protest.

    “An important message was sent to the American government as the supporter of the Zionist regime. America must be held accountable,” he said in the post.

    Iran’s allies around the region and beyond voiced support for its position.

    “China condemns the attack,” foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said, adding “the security of diplomatic institutions cannot be violated, and Syria’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity should be respected”.

    The Iraqi foreign ministry condemned the attack as a “flagrant violation of international law” and warned of “more chaos and instability” in the region.

    Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group warned Israel would pay for killing Guards commanders. “This crime will not pass without the enemy receiving punishment and revenge,” Hezbollah said in a statement.

    Russia blamed the Israeli air force for the “unacceptable attack against the Iranian consular mission in Syria”.

    Palestinian group Hamas condemned the strike, which it described as a “dangerous escalation”.

    Israeli genocide in Gaza has killed nearly 33,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.

    Iran-backed groups in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen have since carried out a series of attacks on Israeli and Western targets.

  • Iran sentences police officer to death for killing protester

    Iran sentences police officer to death for killing protester

    An Iranian court has sentenced a police chief in northern Iran to death after he was charged with killing a man during mass protests in 2022, local media reported Wednesday.

    Local police chief Jafar Javanmardi was arrested in December 2022 over the killing of a protester during the widespread demonstrations sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in custody.

    Iranian Kurd Amini, 22, died in custody in September that year following her arrest for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code for women.

    Javanmardi was sentenced to death “in accordance with the Islamic law of retribution, known as the ‘qisas’ law, on the charge of premeditated murder”, the lawyer for the victim’s family, Majid Ahmadi, told the reformist Shargh daily.

    The protestor, Mehran Samak, 27, succumbed to injuries he sustained after being hit by shotgun pellets during a rally in the northern city of Bandar Anzali on November 30, 2022.

    Rights groups based outside of Iran said Samak was shot dead by Iranian security forces after honking his car horn in celebration of Iran’s loss to the United States in the 2022 World Cup held in Qatar while at the Amini protest.

    The defeat eliminated Iran from the football tournament and drew a mixed response from government supporters and opponents.

    The lawyer, Ahmadi, said at the time that the police official was charged with “violating the rules for firearms usage, resulting in the death of Samak”.

    In mid-January, the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said the Supreme Court had annulled a death sentence and referred the case to another court.

    Gilan province, where Bandar Anzali is located, was a flashpoint of the nationwide protest movement that shook Iran.

    Hundreds of people were killed during the months-long protests, including dozens of security forces, while thousands were arrested and nine men were executed in cases linked to the demonstrations.

  • Three kidnapped Pakistanis rescued in Iran

    Three kidnapped Pakistanis rescued in Iran

    The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has recovered three Pakistanis kidnapped in Iran, and arrested a suspect.

    According to the FIA spokesperson, three citizens who had gone on pilgrimage visas were abducted on arrival in Iran, adding that human traffickers received Rs 20 lakh for the release of the citizens.

    He also revealed that the kidnappers demanded more money by sending videos of torture on the hostages to their families.

    The recovered persons include Muhammad Adnan, Kashif Mehboob and Muhammad Dawood.

  • US doesn’t support Pak-Iran gas pipeline project

    US doesn’t support Pak-Iran gas pipeline project

    State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller has stated that the United States does not want the gas pipeline project between Pakistan and Iran to continue. “We do not support this pipeline going forward,” he said.

    The State Department’s statement came right after Pakistan’s Petroleum Minister Musadik Malik hinted that Pakistan would “vigorously” present its case to seek US sanctions waiver for the pipeline.

    It is also important to highlight that a few days ago, the foreign ministry’s spokesperson said that Pakistan does not require any country’s permission to move forward with a regional project.

    “We always advise everyone that doing business with Iran runs the risk of touching upon and coming in contact with our sanctions, and would advise everyone to consider that very carefully,” said Matthew Miller.

    The project began in 2009 and to this day Pakistan has not completed any major portion of construction whereas Iran has completed 900-kilometres of pipeline. That’s also why Iran issued a third notice to Pakistan that it would approach arbitration court to seek penalties.

  • Iran Ambassador fears US may hinder Pak-Iran gas pipeline project

    Iran Ambassador fears US may hinder Pak-Iran gas pipeline project

    Iran’s Ambassador to Pakistan Dr Reza Amiri Moqaddam has said that the United States may create obstructions in the payment procedure of Pak-Iran gas project, however, both countries could find a solution to this.

    The Ambassador’s statement came after US Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu, in a congressional hearing, gave caustic remarks regarding the gas pipeline project and emphasized that the US would try to halt the mega project.

    “I fully support the efforts by the US government to prevent this pipeline from happening,” he said during a congressional hearing on 19 March. “We are working toward that goal.”
    “We are tracking this planned pipeline between Iran and Pakistan … Honestly, I don’t know where the financing for such a project would come from. I don’t think that many international donors would be interested in funding such an endeavor,” the US official added, highlighting that the White House “will uphold both in letter and spirit all sanction laws related to Iran.”

    The Iranian envoy pointed out that Iran had already completed its side of the agreement by constructing a 1,000 kilometers gas pipeline on its side and Pakistan had yet to start it. “The Iranian gas pipeline is in the wider interest of people of both countries,” he added.