Farooq Abdullah warns Middle East conflict could trigger global economic crisis
Srinagar, June 23 (UNI) National Conference president and former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah on Monday warned that the ongoing conflict in the Middle East could spiral into a global economic crisis if not contained.
Expressing concern over US strikes on Iran, Abdullah said he hoped world powers were closely monitoring the situation.
'If this conflict escalates, the economic condition of every country will deteriorate. They should make efforts to stop it, and I pray they succeed . Our condition in India is also very bad,' Abdullah told reporters in Srinagar.
The veteran leader said the United States has long maintained a policy of preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power.
He also issued a stark warning to Arab nations, suggesting they could be next in line for similar attacks.
'All the Sunni countries oppose the attack on Iran, but they lack the courage to speak out. Today they think only Iran has been targeted, but I am warning them — one day, Israel will attack them too,' he said.
'They want their oil and gas. Israel is only standing in front while as America is standing right behind,' Abdullah added.
On the domestic front, Abdullah strongly refuted media reports claiming that the Centre is considering restoring Jammu and Kashmir's statehood only after fresh elections under a new framework.
He accused sections of the media of spreading misinformation.
'Statehood is the rightful claim of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. It is not a favour to them,' he asserted.
In a separate development, Abdullah announced the formation of a Human Rights Wing within the National Conference. The wing will be headed by retired Justice Hasnain Masoodi, the sitting MLA from Pampore. He will be assisted by two other members yet to be named.
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Indian Express
41 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Why Iran gave ‘early notice' of its attack on US base in Qatar
A day after the United States struck Iranian nuclear facilities in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, Iran on Monday (June 23) retaliated with missile attacks against the Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the forward headquarters of the US Central Command. The Iranian attack was telegraphed, calibrated, and evidently symbolic in nature. After promising retaliation following the American strikes, Iran gave 'advance notice' to their Qatari and American counterparts to minimise casualties. Almost all Iranian missiles were intercepted, with no American or Qatari casualties reported. This was confirmed by US President Donald Trump himself, who posted on Truth Social that Iran's response was 'weak and expected,' and 'there will, hopefully, be no further HATE.' 'I want to thank Iran for giving us early notice, which made it possible for no lives to be lost, and nobody to be injured. Perhaps Iran can now proceed to Peace and Harmony in the Region, and I will enthusiastically encourage Israel to do the same,' he wrote. Monday was the 11th straight day in which Iran and Israel exchanged missile strikes. According to reports, the latest Israeli strikes were the largest in scale, including an attack on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC') headquarters. Iran's Qatar gamble The American strikes on Iranian nuclear sites have neither eliminated Iran's enrichment capabilities, nor destroyed its existing stock of enriched uranium. Iranian officials claimed that stockpiles of 60%, 20%, and 3.67% enriched uranium had already been withdrawn from Fordow, partially or fully, ahead of the strikes. (This stockpile will remain central to Iran-US negotiations, if they ever resume). Arab media reports suggest that Washington supplied advance notice to Tehran of its June 22 strikes, and communicated privately that the attacks were a 'one-off' and that it was willing to resume negotiations. Across the 10 days of Israeli attacks, the Iranians consistently maintained two positions – that it was willing to resume nuclear negotiations if Israel ceased its attacks, and that Iran would certainly attack US bases (including those in Arab states) if the US joined Israel's attack. After the American attacks, Tehran had to find the optimal point between acting to preserve the credibility of its threats, and restraining itself enough to retain space for negotiations and recuperate. This is more so given Iran's abject economic condition, which has increasingly worsened over the last five years. Among all Arab states, Qatar was arguably among the few where the Iranians could risk targeting US assets, and attempt to contain diplomatic fallout. Qatar, which has positioned itself as a neutral mediator for the region's many conflicts (including between Israel and Hamas), has long maintained strong ties with Iran. This relationship was among the crucial reasons for Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, and Bahrain imposing an unprecedented blockade on Qatar between 2017 and 2021. This blockade ended in 2021, two years before the Arab rapprochement with Iran. Iran's 'advance notice' allowed Qatar to shut its airspace an hour before the attacks. Moreover, the US has spent the last week removing its aircraft from the base. By June 19, there were reportedly less than five American aircraft left at Al-Udeid. Iran's Israel challenge While the US strikes were the first American military attacks on Iranian soil in history, it is Israel's sustained attacks which have imposed the most substantial costs. Iran now faces an active threat to the Supreme Leader, attacks on its military, energy, and nuclear sites, and the elimination of key IRGC senior leaders. Its homeland defences have all but been decimated. However, while Ali Khamenei has reportedly named his successors in the event of his own demise, the IRGC has reorganised itself enough to sustain its missile salvos against Israel. For Iran, this is both symbolically and substantially important. Its threshold of success is lower, defined simply by its ability to hit Israel, beating both American air defence units in the region, and Israel's multi-layered AD systems. Following the US strikes, the IRGC for the first time employed its homegrown Kheybar Shekan solid-fuel missiles against Israel. This is what triggered a larger-than-before Israeli salvo on Monday. Unlike the US, which declared its one-time operation complete and successful, Israel's campaign continues to be fought with the maximal objectives of both Iranian nuclear dismantlement and regime change. Despite contradictory statements coming from the White House, Washington evidently remains unwilling to support the latter objective. Moreover, any bombing campaign, let alone a one-off strike, is likely to only delay, not end, Iran's road to a nuclear weapon. It is this clear inference that has always pushed both the US and Europe to seek negotiations with Tehran, despite the severe imbalance in conventional military power. What did not happen Despite issuing threats to this end, Tehran in the end did not close — or even try to close — the Strait of Hormuz, as has always been the case. The Strait is vital for both global and Iranian energy needs, and even now, the Iranian position is not dire enough to warrant a blockade. What is more interesting is the complete absence of its proxies in the Iranian retaliation. While the Yemeni Houthis declared an end to their April ceasefire with the US, the group has not yet resumed attacks against US shipping. The Houthis have thus far shown a marked ability to start/halt attacks on their own terms. On the other hand, Iran's Lebanon-based proxy, Hezbollah, has consistently maintained ambiguity, especially in the light of its significant internal challenges. Even after the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel, Hezbollah engaged only in calibrated rocket and drone attacks, drawing Israeli retaliation at a level it could absorb. Hassan Nasrallah did not commit to a full-scale war — until Israel initiated it in the second half of 2024, and killed Nasrallah himself. On June 20, Hezbollah's current chief, Naim Qassem, expressed strong solidarity with Iran amid Israel's attacks, but committed only to 'act as we see fit' — retaining the ambiguity that the group has now preferred for the past 20 months. In Iraq, Iran has cultivated the Hashd-al-Shaabi as an umbrella proxy group since 2019, after their successful campaign against ISIS in Iraq. The government in Baghdad, though firmly opposed to the Israeli and American aggression against Tehran, has long worked to remove Iraq as a proxy battleground, and to potentially integrate the Hashd, which has a strength of about 50,000 fighters collectively, into Iraq's armed forces. While US bases in Iraq were most expected to bear the brunt of any Iranian retaliation, Iran evidently did not press this militia into action, much like in January 2020. That month, after the US assassinated Iran's Maj Gen Qassem Soleimani, the IRGC launched missiles directly at US bases at Ain-al-Assad and Erbil in Iraq but excluded Hashd from an operational role. The Americans did not suffer any casualties, and chose not to escalate — then too Iran had telegraphed its impending attack. Not using its proxies, arguably allows Iran a greater ability to calibrate its actions, with relatively lesser risk of inadvertent escalation. But the attack on Al-Udeid is markedly different from the Iranian 2020 action in Iraq. The Al-Udeid base is the US military's crown jewel in the Middle East. The 29 year old self-sufficient base houses 10,000 troops from multiple countries and is the nerve-centre for US operations in the region. However, like in 2020, the US has recognised Iran's need to save face, and has refrained from escalating in response — as Trump's message makes amply evident. What now? With Israel keeping up its attacks, it is uncertain whether Iran will remain committed to its offer — which stood between June 13 and June 22 — to negotiate if the Israelis stop their assaults. Iran is close to withdrawing from the NPT and suspending cooperation with the IAEA, which indicates that the US attacks may have made it even more determined to pursue a nuclear weapon. However, Iran's economic imperatives for negotiations remain. In the larger scheme of things, the developments of the past few days might have convinced the Arab states in the Middle East of the value of nuclear deterrence. While Saudi Arabia and the UAE have long worried about an Iranian nuclear weapon and Iranian or Houthi-led attacks against their energy sites, the Israeli actions have potentially created a new threat-in-being. The UAE completed the first nuclear power plant of the Arab world last year, and Saudi is on the road to its own. One downstream impact of the Israeli aggression against Iran may be an increase in the collective Arab anxiety, regardless of their recent rapprochement with Israel.
India Gazette
43 minutes ago
- India Gazette
604 Indians evacuated from Israel under Operation Sindhu
Tel Aviv [Israel], June 24 (ANI): Amid the ongoing conflict between Iran and Israel, a total of 604 Indian nationals have been safely evacuated from Israel via Jordan and Egypt under Operation Sindhu, the Indian Embassy in Israel said on Monday. In a post on X, the Embassy stated, 'Under Operation Sindhu, so far, 604 Indian nationals have been safely evacuated from Israel via Jordan and Egypt. ' It added, 'The first batch of 161 Indian nationals will reach New Delhi on 24 June at 0119 hrs IST.' The evacuation is part of India's ongoing 'Operation Sindhu' to ensure the safe return of its citizens amid rising tensions between Iran and Israel. Earlier, BJP MP Manoj Tiwari praised the Centre's launch of Operation Sindhu, calling it a testament to the Modi government's commitment to bringing every Indian home safely. 'One policy of the Modi government which is praised in every corner of India is that without any discrimination, if even a single person of India is trapped in any trouble or tension, then we believe in bringing him back safely to India and for this India does whatever it has to do,' Tiwari told ANI. 'Once again, the same has happened, and for this, the country is grateful to the Government of India, Prime Minister Modi,' he added. Under Operation Sindhu, the Indian government safely evacuated another group of 290 Indian nationals and one Sri Lankan from conflict-hit Mashhad in Iran on Monday, bringing them to Delhi and taking the total number of Indians rescued so far to 2,003. Speaking to the ANI upon arrival, an Indian student who was part of the group said, 'We received a message from the Indian embassy that we would soon be evacuated. After a little difficulty, we were evacuated. The government evacuated us smoothly and safely...' Fatima Iman, a Sri Lankan national who was also evacuated, expressed gratitude, saying, 'I feel really good, and I am grateful for everything. I contacted the Sri Lankan Embassy for help when the Indian students from my university were getting evacuated,' Iman told ANI. She further added,'The condition is getting worse with each passing day... This is a great gesture from India, and I am grateful to be part of this operation.' (ANI)
Economic Times
2 hours ago
- Economic Times
Iran Israel war: Will Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Arab league, Gulf countries now join US, Israel against Tehran?
Live Events FAQs (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Qatar, the United Arab Emirates or UAE, and Saudi Arabia have condemned Iran's attack on Al-Udeid US military air base in Qatar. While, Arab league called Iran's missile attack 'unacceptable', a Gulf official warned that Iran's actions play into the hands of Israel, as per reports. The US military as of early this month about 40,000 servicemembers in the Middle East, many of them on ships at sea as part of a bolstering of forces as tensions rose again in the region, according to the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations research and policy center. The US has military sites spread across the region, including in Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the United Arab Foreign Ministry condemned the attack on Al Udeid base by Iran's Revolutionary Guards calling it 'a flagrant violation of Qatar's sovereignty, its airspace, and international law.'The ministry added that the continuation of such military activities endangers security and stability of the region. Qatar's Defense Ministry says Iranian strikes on the gas-rich nation did not inflict any casualties. The ministry added that Qatari forces took part in intercepting Iranian missiles that were directed toward the Al Udeid base that houses U.S. said it would push for diplomatic efforts for 'a serious return to the negotiating table and dialogue.'The United Arab Emirates on Monday condemned "in the strongest terms" Iran's attack against a U.S. military base in Qatar. The UAE's Foreign Ministry said it was a violation of international law and Qatar's sovereignty and Arabia on Monday condemned 'in the strongest terms' Iran's attack against a US military base in Qatar. The kingdom's Foreign Ministry described the action as a violation of international law and said it affirmed its 'full support' for recent years, Gulf countries Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have restored once-frayed ties with Arab League chief has expressed his "complete solidarity" with Qatar following Iran's missile attack, calling it "unacceptable". Ahmed Abou-Gheit reiterated his warning about the risks the military escalation poses to the region. "We remain hopeful that the current confrontation will be contained as soon as possible," he wrote on Iranian attack on Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar will impact relationship-building efforts that have been underway between the Arab Gulf states and Iran, a Gulf official told Reuters on Monday. "Iran's actions play into the hands of Israel, which wants to sow discord and derail recent improvements in relations between Iran and the Gulf countries," the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.A1. Iran launched missile attack on Al-Udeid US military air base in Qatar.A2. President of USA is Donald Trump.
