|
Post by Webster on Apr 14, 2024 16:18:53 GMT -5
(The Guardian) The German government has defended its decision to shut down a conference of pro-Palestinian activists on Friday which aimed to throw light on what its organisers referred to as Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza. Interior minister Nancy Faeser said that it had been correct for the police to have intervened and brought the event to a premature close, just two hours after it had started. Police cut the power and called the three-day event closed on Friday after a speaker who had been banned from entering Germany on grounds of hate speech, appeared via video link. Salman Abu Sitta, who had penned an essay in January expressing sympathy for the Hamas terrorists who carried out the 7 October attacks, had begun to address the conference when police reportedly took to the stage and pulled the plug on the electricity supply. Another main speaker, Ghassan Abu Sittah, a British Palestinian doctor, who was recently appointed rector of Glasgow University, was earlier denied entry into Germany after landing by plane at Berlin’s airport. He said that preventing him from participating in the event was the equivalent of “silencing a witness to genocide before the ICJ which adds to Germany’s complicity in the ongoing massacre”, referring to Germany’s supplying of weapons to Israel and the legal cases filed against Germany to the International Court of Justice over its support for Israel. The former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis was among the speakers due to address the congress. Faeser said on social media: “It is right and proper that the Berlin police intervened firmly at the so-called Palestinian Congress.” Ahead of the event she had told the hundreds of police drafted in to oversee the event to clamp down if any hate speech was heard at the congress. Berlin police said their decision to close the event was triggered by “a speaker …who was subject to a ban on political activity.” It added there had been “a risk of a speaker being put on screen who in the past made antisemitic and violence-glorifying remarks. The gathering was ended and banned on Saturday and Sunday”. The event’s location was kept secret until Friday morning amid fears of a backlash from opponents. About 800 tickets to it were sold, organisers said.
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Apr 14, 2024 16:22:47 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Iran informed Turkey in advance of its operation against Israel - sourceIran informed Turkey in advance of its planned operation against Israel, a Turkish diplomatic source has told Reuters. The source also said that the US conveyed to Iran via Ankara that its operation must be “within certain limits”. These reports come after Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, said in a meeting with foreign ambassadors in Tehran that Iran had informed the US that its attacks against Israel will be “limited” and for self-defence only. John Kirby, the White House’s top national security spokesperson, told ABC’s This Week programme on Sunday that the US will continue to help Israel defend itself, but does not want war with Iran. “We don’t seek escalated tensions in the region. We don’t seek a wider conflict,” Kirby said. Biden tells Netanyahu he would oppose any Israeli counterattack against Iran -reportNews outlet Axios has reported that Joe Biden, the US president, had told Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that he would oppose an Israeli counterattack against Iran and that the prime minister should “take the win”. The White House national security spokesperson, John Kirby, did not deny that Biden had warned Netanyahu that the US would not take part in any Israeli counter-strike against Iranian territory when he was asked earlier. He told CNN: The president wanted to congratulate prime minister Netanyahu for an incredible military achievement. The prime minister was very grateful for the support that President Biden offered and demonstrated in supporting Israel, and the President made it clear that the self-defence of Israel is something we take seriously and we will continue to take that seriously.
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Apr 14, 2024 16:23:53 GMT -5
(The Guardian) 10:40am Summary--Tehran has warned it will strike again with greater force if Israel or the US retaliate for the Iranian strike on Israel by more 300 drones and missiles on Saturday night. The air raids, the Islamic Republic’s first ever direct attack on the Israeli state, brought a years-long shadow war into the open and threatened to draw the region into a broader conflagration as Israel said it was considering its response. --However, the attack, mostly launched from inside Iran, caused only modest damage in Israel as most of the drones were shot down with the help of the US, Britain and Jordan. An air force base in southern Israel was hit, but continued to operate as normal and a seven-year-old child was seriously hurt by shrapnel. Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said that 99% of the launches had been intercepted. --Most of the Iranian drones flying over Syria’s airspace during Tehran’s strikes overnight were downed by Israeli and US jets before reaching their targets in Israel, two western intelligence sources told Reuters. --Benny Gantz, a member of the war cabinet, said that Israel will exact a price from Iran in response to its mass missile and drone attack when the time is right. His comments came ahead of a war cabinet meeting alongside Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the country’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant. --The UN security council will hold an emergency meeting on Sunday, at the request of Israel’s ambassador to the UN, the council’s president said in a statement to media. --Iran informed Turkey in advance of its planned operation against Israel, a Turkish diplomatic source has told Reuters. The source also said that the US conveyed to Iran via Ankara that its operation must be “within certain limits”. These reports come after Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, said in a meeting with foreign ambassadors in Tehran that Iran had informed the US that its attacks against Israel will be “limited” and for self-defence only. --John Kirby, the White House’s top national security spokesperson, told ABC’s This Week programme on Sunday that the US will continue to help Israel defend itself, but does not want war with Iran. “We don’t seek escalated tensions in the region. We don’t seek a wider conflict,” Kirby said. News outlet Axios reported that Joe Biden, the US president, had told Netanyahu that he would oppose an Israeli counterattack against Iran and that the prime minister should “take the win”. --Jordan’s prime minister, Bisher Khasawneh, warned that any escalation in the region would lead to “dangerous paths”. Countries including the UK, Spain, the US, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and China, have called for restraint amid fears of a regional escalation of conflict across the Middle East. Iran’s foreign ministry has summoned the ambassadors of the UK, France, and Germany to question what it referred to as their “irresponsible stance” regarding Tehran’s retaliatory strikes on Israel, the semi-official Iranian Labour news agency reported. --Major airlines across the Middle East, including Emirates Airlines and Qatar Airways, announced they would resume some of their operations in the region after cancelling or rerouting some flights in response to Iran’s attack on Israel. Israel said it had reopened its airspace as of 7:30am local time on Sunday morning, with Beirut airport also reopening this morning. Several Iranian airports, including Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International, however, have cancelled flights until Monday.
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Apr 14, 2024 16:25:00 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Bolivia's president warns of possible 'third world war' after Iran's attack on IsraelLatin American leaders and governments have voiced disquiet and apprehension over the Iranian strike on Israel and its potential consequences, with Bolivia’s president warning of a possible “third world war”. “War is the worst way to resolve international conflicts … there are no winners in war, everyone loses, and the escalation of violence worldwide puts humanity at risk of disappearing,” the Bolivian leader Luis Arce tweeted, urging the UN secretary general to call an emergency meeting “to prevent this conflict escalating into a third world war”. Mexico’s left-wing president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, also expressed fear the conflict could spread. “War is irrational, (a) synonym for suffering and death; it benefits no one, not even warmongering magnates and governors. Let’s support peace and universal brotherhood,” López Obrador tweeted. Argentina’s right-wing president, Javier Milei, offered his “emphatic” support for Israel’s right to defend its sovereignty, “in particular against regimes which promote terror and seek to destroy western civilization”. Brazil’s foreign ministry expressed “serious concern” over Iran’s drone and missile attacks and urged its citizens to avoid non-essential visits to the region. “Brazil calls on all involved parties to exercise maximum restraint and urges the international community to marshal efforts towards avoiding an escalation,” it said in a statement. Chile’s foreign ministry expressed “deep concern” over the attacks and the “serious escalation of tensions” in the region. Iran’s main Latin American ally, Venezuela, did not condemn the attacks. In a statement, its foreign ministry blamed “the [worsening] situation of instability” in the region on the “genocide in Palestine and the irrationality of the Israeli regime, as well as the inaction of the United Nations”. Colombia’s leftist president Gustavo Petro, a fierce critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza, tweeted: “Israeli children will only sleep in peace when Palestinian children sleep in peace”.
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Apr 14, 2024 16:27:28 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Israel said it has an opportunity to form a strategic alliance after Iran’s drone and missile attacks were repelled. Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant said: “We have an opportunity to establish a strategic alliance against this grave threat by Iran which is threatening to mount nuclear explosives on these missiles, which could be an extremely grave threat.”Iran’s retaliatory attacks on Israel came two weeks after Israel killed a top Iranian commander on its strike against the Iranian consulate in Damascus.
US air carrier United Airlines has canceled Sunday’s planned flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Tel Aviv following rising regional tensions, Reuters reports. The flight was set to take off from Newark at 3:20pm local time and land in Tel Aviv at 8:55am local time.
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Apr 14, 2024 16:28:08 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Apr 14, 2024 16:29:49 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Syria: Iran's attacks were a 'legitimate act of self-defence'Iran’s action against Israel was a “legitimate act of self-defence,” Syria’s foreign minister Faisal Mekdad told his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in a phone call on Sunday. Syrian state media SANA further reports: It is a legitimate right to self-defense against this racist Zionist entity, which does not respect international law and will, nor the Charter of the United Nations. Mekdad denounced the negligent Western positions in the face of the massacres and inhuman actions of the Israeli entity.Iran’s retaliatory attacks on Israel comes two weeks after Israel killed a top Iranian commander in an attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria. Jordan's King Abdullah: Jordan 'won't be an arena for a regional war'Jordan’s prime minister Bisher Khasawneh said that escalation in the region would lead to “dangerous paths,” Reuters reports. Speaking to the Jordanian cabinet, Khasawneh said: “There is need for all parties to act responsibly and exercise utmost degree of self restraint... and not be dragged towards any escalation that will no doubt have dangerous consequences… The army will respond to anything that will jeopardise the security and safety of the kingdom and the sanctity of its airspace and territory in the face of any danger from any party with all the available means.”In a phone call with US president Joe Biden on Sunday, Jordan’s King Abdullah also said that Jordan “won’t be an arena for a regional war” and said that any “escalation by Israel would only widen the circle of conflict.”
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Apr 14, 2024 16:30:58 GMT -5
(The Guardian) A senior Joe Biden administration official has told reporters on Sunday: “We are committed to defending Israel. We would not be a part of any response they do. This is a very consistent policy.” -- “Our aim is to deescalate regional tensions. We do not want a broader regional conflict. Our focus has been to contain this crisis,” the official added.A senior US military official added: “Israel has made clear to us they’re not looking for a significant escalation with Iran. That’s not what they’re looking for. They’re looking to protect themselves and defend themselves.”
Jordan has summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest against Iran’s comments which were regarded by Jordan as an inteference in the kingdom’s internal affairs, Reuters reports. Speaking to Jordan’s state-owned Mamlaka news outlet, Safadi referred to comments made by Iranian official media which warned that Jordan would be the next target in the event it cooperated with Israel in a showdown with Iran.
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Apr 14, 2024 16:32:13 GMT -5
(The Guardian) UN chief: 'The Middle East is on the brink'UN chief António Guterres called for maximum restraint on Sunday following Iran’s retaliatory attacks on Israel, Reuters reports. In a UN security council meeting, Guterres said: “The Middle East is on the brink. The people of the region are confronting a real danger of a devastating full-scale conflict. Now is the time to defuse and de-escalate.” Earlier this month, Israel killed a top Iranian commander, among other members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, in a strike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus.
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Apr 14, 2024 16:43:37 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Apr 14, 2024 18:52:16 GMT -5
(The Guardian) United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has called on members not to further escalate tensions with reprisals against Iran, at a meeting of the UN security council called in the wake of Iran’s attack on Israel. Iran launched a swarm of explosive drones and fired missiles on Saturday in its first-ever direct attack on Israeli territory, risking a major escalation. The attack was in response to a suspected Israeli strike on Iran’s embassy compound in Syria on 1 April that killed top Revolutionary Guards commanders and followed months of clashes between Israel and Iran’s regional allies, triggered by the war in Gaza. “The Middle East is on the brink. The people of the region are confronting a real danger of a devastating full-scale conflict. Now is the time to defuse and de-escalate,” Guterres told the meeting.
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Apr 14, 2024 18:53:49 GMT -5
(The Guardian) 7:17pm Summary--The Israel Defense Forces announced that it intercepted a UAV that approached Israel earlier this evening. In a post on X, the IDF wrote: “A Sa’ar 6-class corvette successfully intercepted a UAV that approached Israeli territory from the south-east using the ‘C-Dome’ Defense System earlier this evening.” --UN chief António Guterres called for maximum restraint on Sunday following Iran’s retaliatory attacks on Israel, Reuters reports. In a UN security council meeting, Guterres said: “The Middle East is on the brink. The people of the region are confronting a real danger of a devastating full-scale conflict. Now is the time to defuse and de-escalate.” --Jordan’s prime minister Bisher Khasawneh said that escalation in the region would lead to “dangerous paths,” Reuters reports. Speaking to the Jordanian cabinet, Khasawneh said. “The army will respond to anything that will jeopardise the security and safety of the kingdom and the sanctity of its airspace and territory in the face of any danger from any party with all the available means.” --The G7 has released the following statement on Iran’s retaliatory attacks on Israel: “We, the leaders of the G7, unequivocally condemn in the strongest terms Iran’s direct and unprecedented attack against Israel … We express our full solidarity and support to Israel and its people and reaffirm our commitment towards its security.” --Jordan has summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest against Iran’s comments which were regarded by Jordan as an interference in the kingdom’s internal affairs, Reuters reports. --Speaking to Jordan’s state-owned Mamlaka news outlet, Safadi referred to comments made by Iranian official media which warned that Jordan would be the next target in the event it cooperated with Israel in a showdown with Iran. --A senior Joe Biden administration official has told reporters on Sunday: “We are committed to defending Israel. We would not be a part of any response they do. This is a very consistent policy.” “Our aim is to de-escalate regional tensions. We do not want a broader regional conflict. Our focus has been to contain this crisis,” the official added. --Iran’s action against Israel was a “legitimate act of self-defence,” Syria’s foreign minister Faisal Mekdad told his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in a phone call on Sunday. Syrian state media SANA further reports: “It is a legitimate right to self-defence against this racist Zionist entity, which does not respect international law and will, nor the Charter of the United Nations.” --US air carrier United Airlines has cancelled Sunday’s planned flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Tel Aviv after rising regional tensions, Reuters reports. The flight was set to take off from Newark at 3:20pm local time and land in Tel Aviv at 8:55am local time.
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Apr 14, 2024 19:01:48 GMT -5
(The Guardian) US military says it destroyed more than 80 drones intended for IsraelUS Central command (Centcom) has posted on X a short time ago, saying it destroyed more than 80 one-way drones from Iran and Yemen on 13 April and 14 April that were intended to strike Israel. Centcom says it was supported by US European Command destroyers and it included ballistic missiles: On April 13 and the morning of April 14, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces, supported by U.S. European Command destroyers, successfully engaged and destroyed more than 80 one-way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles (OWA UAV) and at least six ballistic missiles intended to strike Israel from Iran and Yemen. This includes a ballistic missile on its launcher vehicle and seven UAVs destroyed on the ground in Iranian-backed Houthi controlled areas of Yemen prior to their launch.
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Apr 15, 2024 0:32:35 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Israel calls for sanctions on IranIsrael has called for fresh sanctions on Iran at a meeting of the UN security council. Israel’s UN envoy, Gilad Erdan, has urged the council to “impose all possible sanctions on Iran before it’s too late” and “condemn Iran for their terror”, reports Agence France-Presse. It’s as the UN secretary general called for restraint – fearing an escalation in the wake of Iran’s attacks on Israel. “Neither the region nor the world can afford more war,” António Guterres told the body’s Security Council as it met to discuss Saturday’s Iranian attack. “The Middle East is on the brink,” he warned. “The people of the region are confronting a real danger of a devastating full-scale conflict. Now is the time to defuse and de-escalate.” Iran’s UN envoy, Amir Saeid Iravani, responded saying that the Islamic republic was exercising its “inherent right to self-defence” and “had no choice” but to act. He insisted his country did “not seek escalation or war”, but would respond to any “threat or aggression”. Iran’s mission to the United Nations also warned Washington to keep out of its conflict with Israel. It added in a message on X that “the matter can be deemed concluded”. “However, should the Israeli regime make another mistake, Iran’s response will be considerably more severe.” Iran launched its first ever direct attack on Israeli territory, in retaliation for a deadly airstrike widely blamed on Israel that destroyed Tehran’s consular building in Syria’s capital in April.
|
|
|
Post by Webster on Apr 15, 2024 0:33:42 GMT -5
(The Guardian) It’s being reported that Turkish, Jordanian and Iraqi officials say that Iran gave wide notice days before its drone and missile attack on Israel – but US officials are disputing that line and say Tehran was aiming to cause significant damage. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Sunday that Iran gave neighbouring countries and the United States 72 hours’ notice it would launch the strikes, according to the Reuters news agency. Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said it had spoken to both Washington and Tehran before the attack, adding it had conveyed messages as an intermediary. “Iran said the reaction would be a response to Israel’s attack on its embassy in Damascus and that it would not go beyond this. We were aware of the possibilities. The developments were not a surprise,” said a Turkish diplomatic source. But one senior official in US President Joe Biden’s administration denied Amirabdollahian’s statement, according to Reuters. The official says Washington did have contact with Iran through Swiss intermediaries – but did not get notice 72 hours in advance. “That is absolutely not true,” the official said. “They did not give a notification, nor did they give any sense of … ‘these will be the targets, so evacuate them.’” Tehran sent the United States a message only after the strikes began and the intent was to be “highly destructive” said the official. Two Iraqi sources, including a government security adviser and a security official, said Iran had used diplomatic channels to inform Baghdad about the attack at least three days before it happened.
|
|