First batch of 100 Indians leaves Iran, heads to Armenia: Government sources
As the Israel-Iran war enters its fourth day, India has initiated the evacuation of its citizens from Iran. According to government sources, the first batch of 100 Indian nationals is expected to cross into Armenia tonight.This comes after Tehran responded to New Delhi's request to provide safe passage for the evacuation of at least 10,000 students stranded in Iran, as Israel continued bombing major cities. Responding to India's request, Iran has mentioned that since it has shut its airspace down, students can use its land borders to cross into Azarbaijaan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.advertisementThe Indian Embassy in Iran issued an advisory on June 15, urging all Indian nationals and persons of Indian origin to stay in touch, avoid unnecessary movement, and follow Embassy social media pages for updates.
The Indian Embassy in Tehran clarified that it is continuously monitoring the security situation and engaging students in Iran to ensure their safety.TEHRAN THREATENS MORE PAINFUL RESPONSEAs the war escalated, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has warned that Tehran would deliver "more painful" responses if the United States fails to restrain Israel in its attacks against Iran.In a phone call with Sultan Haitham bin Tariitq of Oman on Monday, Pezeshkian said that Iran's retaliatory capability was demonstrated when its forces swiftly targeted attackers following deadly Israeli attacks. "Should such violations repeat, Iran's response will be even harsher," the president said.NETANYAHU DOES NOT RULE OUT TARGETING IRAN'S SUPREME LEADERadvertisementIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu avoided ruling out a potential strike on Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei when questioned by ABC News about the possibility."We're doing what we need to do," Netanyahu responded, without giving a direct yes or no. He claimed that such an action could actually "end the conflict" rather than worsen it.Israeli forces stepped up their bombardment of Iranian cities, while Iran proved capable of piercing Israeli air defences with one of its most successful volleys yet of retaliatory missile strikes.Must Watch
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Hindustan Times
29 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Trump's three excruciating choices on Iran
DONALD TRUMP promised to end the wars in the Middle East. Instead America's president finds himself supervising a new one. No matter: he thinks the conflict between Israel and Iran, now in its fourth day, will be simple to stop. 'We can easily get a deal done,' he wrote in a social-media post on June 15th. A few hours later he implied that peace between the two countries, bitter foes since 1979, was merely a matter of convincing them to trade more. His breezy optimism is easy to dismiss, out of place with a war that has rained air strikes on Tehran and missile barrages on Tel Aviv. But Mr Trump will nonetheless have a big say in when and how that war ends. In the coming days he will have to make several decisions that will either restrain or embolden Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. Mr Netanyahu started the war, but he is relying on Mr Trump to end it; how the president plans to do so, though, is anyone's guess. The first decision is whether to demand a diplomatic solution. Before the war America was trying to negotiate a new nuclear pact with Iran, to replace the one Mr Trump abandoned in 2018. A sixth round of talks had been scheduled for this weekend. Unsurprisingly, it was cancelled. Still, Mr Trump continues to urge negotiations. Iran's nuclear project is the ostensible focus of Israel's war effort; an agreement to restrict it would be a key part of a ceasefire. But Mr Trump will face a string of obstacles. More on the war between Israel and Iran: For a start, neither warring party is ready to make such a deal. Israel has spent years planning this war. It will not want to stop fighting after a few days, with many of its goals unmet. And while Iran says it is willing to accept a mutual ceasefire, it is not yet prepared to make major concessions on its nuclear programme. America will want it to forswear uranium enrichment and dismantle many of its nuclear facilities, things it has resisted doing for decades. Perhaps Iran will be more willing to capitulate as the damage mounts. The regime wants to survive. But it does not trust America in general, and Mr Trump in particular: he ditched the nuclear pact in 2018, assassinated Iran's top commander in 2020 and allowed Israel to start a war. The German foreign minister has offered, alongside Britain and France, to negotiate with the Iranians. But America would still have to play a central role in the talks. No one else could assure both Israel and Iran that an agreement would stick. If it is serious about a deal, it will need to be a more competent negotiator this time around. Steve Witkoff, the president's Middle East envoy, managed just five meetings with Iran in two months, while juggling a portfolio that also included the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. He also scorned help from American allies (a European diplomat says he received more detailed readouts on the talks from Iran than from America). If Mr Trump is not serious about diplomacy, his second choice is whether America should join the war. Satellite imagery suggests that Israel has destroyed the so-called 'pilot-fuel enrichment plant' at Natanz, an above-ground facility where Iran enriched uranium to 60%, a small step below weapons-grade. But it has yet to damage the enrichment facility at Fordow, which is dug into the side of a mountain, too deep for Israeli ordnance to reach. Israel could damage the entrances and ventilation shafts, in effect entombing the facility for a time. It would rather enlist help from America, which has specialised bombs capable of burrowing deep underground. It has asked Mr Trump to join strikes on Fordow (he has not yet agreed). In the most optimistic scenario those sorties would both cripple the facility and spook Iran into submitting to a deal. Reality is rarely so tidy, however. Iran may fear that strikes on Fordow are merely the opening act in a broader campaign to topple the regime. That could lead it to retaliate against America or its allies in the region. Iran has so far refrained from such actions, fearing they would draw America into the war; if America was already involved, though, Iran may feel it had nothing to lose. Some of Mr Trump's supporters in Washington, and some analysts in Israel, suspect Mr Netanyahu has such a scenario in mind. When the war began, after all, Israel said it only needed America's permission. Now it wants America to join a limited military campaign—one that could easily morph into something bigger. The prime minister seems increasingly fixated on toppling Iran's regime. In a statement addressed to the people of Iran on June 13th he urged them to 'stand up' against their rulers. Two days later, in an interview with Fox News, he was asked if regime change was Israel's goal. 'It could certainly be the result, because the Iran regime is very weak,' Mr Netanyahu replied. Several of Mr Trump's advisers have urged him not to approve American strikes, fearing it would become an open-ended campaign. That points to Mr Trump's third choice. Israeli leaders like to say that their country defends itself by itself. But it relies on America to protect it against Iranian ballistic missiles, to share intelligence and to resupply its army. If Mr Trump stays out of the war, and if he declines to pursue serious diplomacy—or if his efforts are aimless and futile, a hallmark of his administration—he will have to decide how much continued support to give Israel. He could urge Israel to end the war anyway. Or he could allow it to continue, much as he has done in Gaza since March, when Israel abandoned a ceasefire there. Israel could probably continue its strikes in Iran for weeks, especially if Iran runs short of the ballistic missiles it uses to counter-attack. Would it eventually declare victory? Or would it keep bombing and hope it could destabilise the regime? And if Iran could no longer effectively strike back at Israel, would it widen the war to neighbouring countries? The longer the war goes on, the more unpredictable it becomes. 'There's no end game for Israel unless it draws in the US or unless the regime falls,' says a Western diplomat. 'Both are big gambles.' Eventually the only plausible way out may be a deal. But getting one will require diplomatic savvy from Mr Trump and flexibility from both Israel and Iran—things that none of them are known for. Sign up to the Middle East Dispatch, a weekly newsletter that keeps you in the loop on a fascinating, complex and consequential part of the world. Get 360° coverage—from daily headlines to 100 year archives.
Hindustan Times
32 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Iran Israel war LIVE: Loud blasts heard near Iran's Natanz nuclear facility, report says
Iran Israel war news live updates: As the conflict between Iran and Israel continues to escalate, both sides have warned each other of the "largest attacks" yet to come. Meanwhile, the death toll in Iran and Israel continues to climb as a result of the exchange of missile and drone attacks. In Iran, at least 224 people have been killed and more than 1,200 wounded. ...Read More Meanwhile, in Israel, at least 24 people have been killed and 592 others have been wounded due to Iran's retaliatory attacks. Earlier, the Israeli Air Force bombed the office of Iran's state broadcaster IRIB in Tehran. The strike was captured during a live show at the IRIB offices in the Iranian capital. The attack on the state broadcaster came after Israeli defence minister Israel Katz stated that Tel Aviv will make "Iranian propaganda" disappear. 'The Iranian propaganda and incitement mouthpiece is on its way to disappear," Katz was quoted as saying. Katz also warned Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying that Israel will "strike everywhere" against the "Iranian director". Key updates Donald Trump has warned US citizens and asked them to leave Tehran in light of Israel vowing to launch massive attacks against Iran. During the G7 summit he also offered his support for Israel. Iranian air defences thwarted an Israeli attack on a gas field shared between Iran and Qatar Israeli PM Netanyahu called for Iranians to stand up against the 'weak regime' of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and stated that Israel was on their side.
Hindustan Times
33 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Why Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon are clashing with Trump over Iran-Israel conflict
President Donald Trump on Monday took a dig at MAGA allies Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon over their criticism of the United States' involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict. This comes as the 78-year-old warned people in Tehran to 'evacuate immediately' as tensions between the countries increased overnight. Since the conflict began, Carlson and Bannon have been critical of Washington's involvement. On the War Room podcast earlier on Monday, Carlson said that he actually does 'really love Trump'. Read More: Netanyahu says Iran 'wants to kill' Trump, was behind assassination attempts 'He is a deeply humane, kind person, and I am saying this because I am really afraid that my country is going to be further weakened by this. I think we are going to see the end of American empire. Other nations would like to see that, and this is a perfect way to scuttle the U.S.S. America on the shoals of Iran. But it is also going to end Trump's presidency,' he said. Trump retaliated during the G7 summit. 'I don't know what Tucker Carlson is saying. Let him go get a television network and say it so that people listen," he said. Only hours later, Trump slammed the former Fox News host on Truth Social. "Somebody please explain to kooky Tucker Carlson that,' IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!' the president wrote. Read More: UK citizen stranded in Jerusalem describes city after Iran attack: 'Ghost town' President Trump has cut short his G7 trip and is returning to Washington on Monday, the White House confirmed. 'President Trump will return to Washington tonight so he can attend to many important matters,' White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X, platform formerly known as Twitter. She added that he made the decision due to the situation in the Middle East. 'President Trump had a great day at the G7, even signing a major trade deal with the United Kingdom and Prime Minister Keir Starmer,' Leavitt wrote. 'Much was accomplished, but because of what's going on in the Middle East, President Trump will be leaving tonight after dinner with Heads of State.'
