Latest from Asharq Al-Awsat
Asharq Al-Awsat
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Israel Warns of ‘Prolonged' War Against Iran
Israel's war against Iran, now in its second week, will be "prolonged", military chief Eyal Zamir said Friday as the arch rivals traded fire and European powers held talks with the country. "We must be ready for a prolonged campaign," Zamir told Israelis in a video statement, eight days after his country launched a massive wave of strikes it said aimed at stopping Iran from developing nuclear weapons -- an ambition Tehran has denied. "We have embarked on the most complex campaign in our history to remove a threat of such magnitude," said Zamir. "The campaign is not over. Although we have made significant achievements, difficult days still lie ahead." Iran has responded with barrages of missiles and drones, which Israeli authorities say have killed at least 25 people. A hospital in the Israeli port of Haifa reported 19 injured, including one person in serious condition, after the latest Iranian salvo, which President Isaac Herzog said hit a mosque. Iran said on Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people since June 13, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians. As US President Donald Trump mulls the prospect of entering the war between the two foes, top diplomats from Britain, France and Germany were meeting with their Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi on Friday. French President Emmanuel Macron said the Europeans were "putting a diplomatic solution on the table". On the ground, Israel's military said it struck missile launchers in southwestern Iran after overnight air raids on dozens of targets including what it called a "nuclear weapons project" research and development center. In Israel, sirens sounded in the afternoon after missiles were launched from Iran for the second time on Friday, with a military official saying that "approximately 20 missiles were launched towards Israel". Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted military sites and air forces bases. - 'Betrayal' of diplomacy - Trump has said he will decide "within the next two weeks" whether to involve the United States in the fighting. Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy said "a window now exists within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution", while agreeing with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that "Iran can never develop or acquire a nuclear weapon". Western governments suspect Iran of seeking a nuclear weapons capability. The International Atomic Energy Agency said that while Iran is the only country without nuclear weapons to enrich uranium to 60 percent, there was no evidence it had all the components to make a functioning nuclear warhead. "So, saying how long it would take for them, it would be pure speculation because we do not know whether there was somebody... secretly pursuing these activities," the agency's chief Rafael Grossi told CNN. "We haven't seen that and we have to say it." France's foreign ministry spokesperson Christophe Lemoine said that "military solutions are not long-term solutions" to ensure Iran respects its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Addressing the UN Human Rights Council on Friday, Araghchi said Israel's attacks were a "betrayal" of diplomatic efforts to reach a nuclear deal between Tehran and Washington. "We were attacked in the midst of an ongoing diplomatic process," he said. In an interview with German publication Bild, Israel's top diplomat Gideon Saar said he did not "particularly" believe in diplomacy with Iran. "All diplomatic efforts so far have failed," said Saar, whose country had supported Trump's 2018 decision to abandon a previous nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers. - 'Madness' - The UN Security Council convened on Friday for a second session on the conflict, which was requested by Iran with support from Russia, China and Pakistan, a diplomat told AFP on Wednesday. The escalating confrontation is quickly reaching "the point of no return", Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned on Friday, saying "this madness must end as soon as possible". UN chief Antonio Guterres meanwhile pleaded with all sides to "give peace a chance". Any US involvement in Israel's campaign would be expected to involve the bombing of an underground uranium enrichment facility in Fordo, using powerful bunker-busting bombs that no other country possesses. In Iran, people fleeing Israel's attacks described frightening scenes and difficult living conditions, including food shortages. Government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said authorities had restricted internet access to avoid "problems" like cyberattacks. Iranian authorities have arrested a European "who sought to spy on sensitive areas of the country", Tasnim news agency reported on Friday. Protests were held in Tehran and other cities after Friday prayers, with demonstrators chanting slogans in support of their leaders, state television showed. "I will sacrifice my life for my leader," read a protester's banner, a reference to supreme leader Ali Khamenei. Switzerland announced it was temporarily closing its embassy in Tehran, adding that it would continue to fulfil its role representing US interests in Iran.
Asharq Al-Awsat
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Armenian Prime Minister Meets Erdogan in Rare Visit to Türkiye Aimed at Mending Ties
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday as part of the two countries' efforts to normalize ties that were strained over historic disputes and Türkiye's alliance with Azerbaijan. The talks between the two countries, which have no formal diplomatic ties, were expected to center on the possible reopening of their joint border as well as the war between Israel and Iran. Türkiye, a close ally of Azerbaijan, shut down its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of solidarity with Baku, which was locked in a conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. In 2020, Türkiye strongly backed Azerbaijan in the six-week conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, which ended with a Russia-brokered peace deal that saw Azerbaijan gain control of a significant part of the region. Türkiye and Armenia also have a more than century-old dispute over the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians in massacres, deportations and forced marches that began in 1915 in Ottoman Türkiye. Historians widely view the event as genocide. Türkiye vehemently rejects the label, conceding that many died in that era but insisting that the death toll is inflated and the deaths resulted from civil unrest. The rare visit by an Armenian leader comes after Ankara and Yerevan agreed in 2021 to launch efforts toward normalizing ties and appointed special representatives to lead talks. Pashinyan previously visited Türkiye in 2023 when he attended a presidential inauguration ceremony following an election victory by Erdogan. The two have also held talks on the sideline of a meeting in Prague in 2022. It is Ankara and Yerevan's second attempt at reconciliation. Türkiye and Armenia reached an agreement in 2009 to establish formal relations and to open their border, but the deal was never ratified because of strong opposition from Azerbaijan.
Asharq Al-Awsat
9 hours ago
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Iraq Says 50 Israeli Warplanes Planes Violated Its Airspace
Iraq's representative to the United Nations said 50 Israeli warplanes planes violated Iraqi airspace shortly before a UN meeting on the Israel-Iran conflict on Friday. Abbas Kadhom Obaid Al-Fatlawi, charge d'affaires of Iraq's UN mission, told the UN Security Council the aircraft came from the Syrian-Jordanian border areas. "Twenty airplanes started, followed by 30 airplanes heading to the south of Iraq, and they flew over Basra, Najaf and Karbala cities," he said. "These violations are violations of international law and the UN Charter," he said, adding: "They also constitute a threat to the sacred sites and regions which might cause strong popular reactions, considering the importance of these holy sites for our peoples."
Asharq Al-Awsat
9 hours ago
- Health
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Israeli Strikes Kill 44 Palestinians in Gaza, UN Warns of Man-Made Drought
Israeli fire killed at least 44 Palestinians in Gaza on Friday, many of whom had been trying to get food, local officials said, while the United Nations' children's agency warned of a looming man-made drought in the enclave as its water systems collapse. At least 25 people awaiting aid trucks were killed by Israeli fire south of Netzarim in central Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run local health authority said. Asked by Reuters about the incident, the Israel Defense Force said its troops had fired warning shots at suspected gunmen who advanced in a crowd towards them. An Israeli aircraft then "struck and eliminated the suspects", it said in a statement, adding that it was aware of others being hurt in the incident and was conducting a review. Separately, Gazan medics said at least 19 others were killed in other Israeli military strikes across the enclave, including 12 people in a house in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza Strip, taking Friday's total death toll to at least 44. In a statement on Friday, the Hamas group, which says Israel is using hunger as a weapon against the population of Gaza, accused Israel of systematically targeting Palestinians seeking food aid across the enclave. Israel denies this and accuses Hamas of stealing food aid, which the group denies. Meanwhile UNICEF, the UN's children's agency, warned in Geneva of drought conditions developing in Gaza. "Children will begin to die of thirst ... Just 40% of drinking water production facilities remain functional," UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told reporters. "We are way below emergency standards in terms of drinking water." UNICEF also reported a 50% increase in children aged six months to 5 years admitted for treatment of malnutrition from April to May in Gaza, and half a million people going hungry. FOOD AID Elder, who was recently in Gaza, said he had many testimonials of women and children injured while trying to receive food aid, including a young boy who was wounded by a tank shell and later died of his injuries. A lack of public clarity on when the sites - some of which are in combat zones - are open is causing mass casualty events, he added. The route near Netzarim has become dangerous since the start of a new US-backed aid distribution system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), witnesses told Reuters, with desperate Gazans heading to a designated area late at night to try and get something from aid supplies due to be handed out after dawn. The route has also been used by aid trucks sent by the United Nations and aid groups, and people have also been heading there in the hope of grabbing bags off trucks. UNICEF said GHF was "making a desperate situation worse". On Thursday, at least 70 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes, including 12 people who tried to approach a site operated by the GHF in the central Gaza Strip. In an email to Reuters, GHF accused Gazan health officials of regularly releasing inaccurate information. It said Palestinians do not access the nearby GHF site via the Netzarim corridor. The statement did not address a question about whether GHF was aware of Thursday's incident. The GHF said in a statement on Thursday it had so far distributed nearly three million meals across three of its aid sites without incident. The Red Cross told Reuters that the "vast majority" of patients that arrived at its Field Hospital during mass casualty incidents had reported that they were wounded while trying to access aid, at or around aid distribution points. Between May 27 and Thursday, the aid group received 1,874 patients wounded by weapons, according to Red Cross figures. The Gaza war was triggered when Palestinian Hamas fighters attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 55,700 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, while displacing almost the entire population of more than 2 million and causing a hunger crisis.
Asharq Al-Awsat
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Arab Foreign Ministers to Discuss Political Solutions to Iran-Israel Conflict in Istanbul
Arab foreign ministers are set to convene on the sidelines of the upcoming Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit in Istanbul early next week to discuss the repercussions of the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict and explore diplomatic avenues to reduce regional tensions, Egyptian and Arab diplomatic sources told Asharq Al-Awsat. The call for the meeting was spearheaded by Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, who urged an emergency session of Arab foreign ministers in Istanbul to coordinate a unified Arab stance amid rapidly evolving developments and regional challenges. Iraq currently holds the rotating presidency of the Arab League, having assumed the role from Bahrain at the regular summit held on May 17. The Iraqi foreign ministry confirmed that the minister's proposal followed a phone call with his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty on Wednesday. Egypt's foreign ministry had earlier announced that Abdelatty engaged in consultations with ministers from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain to address the escalating military tensions and the broader implications for regional and international peace and security. An Arab diplomatic source said the upcoming meeting aims to discuss the impact of the Israeli-Iranian conflict and is part of intensified efforts to coordinate regional positions and ease the crisis. The 51st Council of Foreign Ministers meeting of OIC member states, hosted in Istanbul on June 22-23, will gather nearly 1,000 participants from the organization's 57 member states, along with affiliated institutions, observer states, and international organizations, reported Türkiye's Anadolu Agency. However, the source ruled out any immediate plans for an emergency Arab League summit to address the conflict. Another Egyptian diplomatic official told Asharq Al-Awsat that the OIC foreign ministers' meeting would feature several bilateral and multilateral sessions focused on regional coordination, adding that the Istanbul meetings aim to revive diplomatic negotiations. Egypt and several Arab countries have intensified diplomatic outreach to regional and international actors to push for a military de-escalation, a ceasefire, and prevent the conflict from spreading across the Middle East, the source said. Cairo University's Professor of International Relations Ikram Badreddine highlighted the importance of a coordinated Arab and Islamic position, describing it as a significant regional and international bloc. He told Asharq Al-Awsat that 'aligned stances among these countries could influence the current escalation and promote conflict containment.' He also warned of the risks posed by failure to contain the Israel-Iran conflict, including the potential involvement of major powers such as the United States, Russia, and Pakistan, which could further destabilize the region.
