Xi, Putin flay Israeli strikes on Iran; call for ceasefire
Beijing/Moscow: Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Thursday strongly condemned Israeli strikes on Iran and called for an immediate ceasefire, "especially" by Israel, and an end to attacks on civilians. In a phone call, Xi discussed the Israel-Iran conflict with Putin and said a ceasefire is an urgent priority in settling the conflict in West Asia, and the use of force is not the right way to resolve international disputes.
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Hindustan Times
25 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei faces his greatest test: Things to know about Iran's Supreme Leader
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who crushed internal threats repeatedly during more than three decades in power, now faces his greatest challenge yet. His archenemy, Israel, has secured free rein over Iran's skies and is decimating the country's military leadership and nuclear program with its punishing air campaign. It is also threatening his life: Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Khamenei 'cannot continue to exist.' The 86-year-old leader faces a choice. He could escalate Iran's retaliation against Israel and risk even heavier damage from Israel's bombardment. Or he could seek a diplomatic solution that keeps the US out of the conflict, and risk having to give up the nuclear program he has put at the center of Iranian policy for years. In a video address Wednesday he sounded defiant, vowing 'the Iranian nation is not one to surrender' and warning that if the US steps in, it will bring 'irreparable damage to them.' When he rose to power in 1989, Khamenei had to overcome deep doubts about his authority as he succeeded the leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. A low-level cleric at the time, Khamenei didn't have his predecessor's religious credentials. With his thick glasses and plodding style, he didn't have his fiery charisma either. But Khamenei has ruled three times longer than the late Khomeini and has shaped Iran's Islamic Republic perhaps even more dramatically. He entrenched the system of rule by the 'mullahs," or Shiite Muslim clerics. That secured his place in the eyes of hardliners as the unquestionable authority — below only that of God. At the same time, Khamenei built the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard into the dominant force in Iran's military and internal politics. The Guard boasts Iran's most elite military and oversees its ballistic missile program. Its international arm, the Quds Force, pieced together the 'Axis of Resistance,' the collection of pro-Iranian proxies stretching from Yemen to Lebanon that for years gave Iran considerable power across the region. Khamenei also gave the Guard a free hand to build a network of businesses allowing it to dominate Iran's economy. In return, the Guard became his loyal shock force. The first major threat to Khamenei's grip was the reform movement that swept into a parliament majority and the presidency soon after he became supreme leader. The movement advocated for giving greater power to elected officials – something Khamenei's hardline supporters feared would lead to dismantling the Islamic Republic system. Khamenei stymied the reformists by rallying the clerical establishment. Unelected bodies run by the mullahs succeeded in shutting down major reforms and barring reform candidates from running in elections. The Revolutionary Guard and Iran's other security agencies crushed waves of protests that followed the failure of the reform movement. Huge nationwide protests erupted in 2009 over allegations of vote-rigging. Under the weight of sanctions, economic protests broke out in 2017 and 2019. More nationwide protests broke out in 2022 over the death of Mahsa Amini after police detained her for not wearing her mandatory headscarf properly. Hundreds were killed in crackdowns on the protests, and hundreds more arrested amid reports of detainees tortured to death or raped in prison. Still, the successive protests showed the strains in Iran's theocratic system and lay bare widespread resentment of clerical rule, corruption and economic troubles. Trying to defuse anger, authorities often eased enforcement of some of the Islamic Republic's social restrictions. When Khamenei took power, Iran was just emerging from its long war with Iraq that left the country battered and isolated. Over the next three decades, Khamenei turned Iran around into as assertive power wielding influence across the Middle East. One major boost was the US's 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein, which eventually brought Iranian-allied Shiite politicians and militias to power in Iraq. Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel brought a massive Israeli retaliation on the Gaza Strip. It also brought a turnaround in Israeli policy. After years of trying to fend off and tamp down Iran's allies, Israel made crushing them it's goal. Hamas has been crippled, though not eliminated, even at the cost of the decimation of Gaza. Israel has similarly sidelined Hezbollah — at least for the moment — with weeks of bombardment in Lebanon last year, along with a dramatic attack with booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkies that stunned the group. An even heavier blow to Hezbollah was the fall in December of Syria's Bashar Assad when Sunni rebels marched on the capital and removed him from power. Now, a government hostile to Iran and Hezbollah rules from Damascus. Iran's Axis of Resistance is at its lowest ebb ever.
Hindustan Times
30 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Iran fires cluster bombs at Israel as conflict enters 8th day: Death toll mounts, no diplomatic breakthrough
Iran launched a missile carrying cluster submunitions into central Israel on Thursday, in what Israeli officials say marks the first use of such weapons in the eight-days at war. The Iranian missile reportedly scattered dozens of bomblets over civilian areas to maximise the chance of damage inflicted on the enemy side. "Today, the Iranian Armed Forces fired a missile that contained cluster submunitions at a densely populated civilian area in Israel," the Israeli embassy in Washington said in a statement to Reuters. The attack came amid a fresh wave of missile exchanges between Iran and Israel on Friday. According to Israeli media reports, the missile's warhead detonated at an altitude of around 7 kilometers, releasing approximately 20 submunitions over a radius of 8 kilometers in central Israel. Iranian officials have not commented on the allegations. Follow Israel Iran war live. Israeli authorities said on Thursday that the body of a woman was recovered from a building hit by an Iranian missile four days earlier, raising Israel's death toll to 25 since the war began, according to AFP. Iran, meanwhile, has reported at least 224 deaths from Israeli strikes as of Sunday. The killed individuals include top military officials, nuclear scientists, and civilians. However, Tehran has not given an updates figure since. European diplomats convened in Geneva with Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi on Friday in a last-ditch effort to prevent further escalation. Foreign ministers from France, Germany, the UK, and the EU urged restraint and diplomacy. British foreign secretary David Lammy emphasised the urgency, saying the coming two weeks represent 'a window... to achieve a diplomatic solution.' The UN Security Council is also expected to hold a second emergency session on the conflict, following a request from Iran backed by Russia, China, and Pakistan, diplomats confirmed. Back in Washington, President Donald Trump, said he would decide 'within the next two weeks' whether to back Israeli military action. 'There is still a substantial chance of a negotiated end to this,' Trump was quoted by AFP, as saying. The Wall Street Journal reported that while he has approved strike plans, he is waiting to see whether Iran shows willingness to abandon its nuclear ambitions. Meanwhile, Russia warned that any American involvement 'would be an extremely dangerous step.' Pro-Iranian militias in Iraq also threatened retaliation. Satellite imagery on Thursday revealed that several US military aircraft had been relocated from a base in Qatar. Iran, still reeling from last week's loss of senior officials, has appointed Brigadier General Majid Khadami as the new head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards' intelligence division, the state-run IRNA reported on Thursday. He replaces Mohammed Kazemi, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike that also claimed the lives of commanders Hassan Mohaghegh and Mohsen Bagheri. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tehran would pay a 'heavy price' after Iran's missile barrage hit Soroka Hospital in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba. The 1000-bed hospital's director Shlomi Codish said 40 people were injured, and the facility was left in flames. However, Tehran claimed the hospital was not the intended target; instead, it said the nearby military and intelligence base was the primary objective. This came as the Israeli military announced overnight strikes on Iranian nuclear infrastructure, including an 'inactive nuclear reactor' in Arak and the uranium enrichment facility in Natanz. A military spokesperson said the operation aimed to 'prevent the reactor from being restored.' (With AFP, Reuters, AP inputs)
Time of India
34 minutes ago
- Time of India
Israeli travelers stranded in Cyprus by fighting begin return trip by boat
Israeli travelers stranded in Cyprus by fighting begin return trip by boat (Image: AP) LIMASSOL: David Agami has been eager to leave Cyprus and get back to his wife and six children since his flight from the US was diverted when Israel and Iran began trading air attacks last week. On Thursday, he was among hundreds of other Israelis who found spots aboard the Israeli cruise ship Crown Iris, which embarked on the trip of about 270 kilometres (167 miles) to Israel. The ship docked in the port city of Limassol on Wednesday morning after dropping off hundreds of Jewish emigrees from the US who were evacuated from Israel. "There's nothing you can do, it's all God's hands. If it's your time it's your time. I think we'd prefer to be there than here, definitely," said Agami, who is to attempting reach Bet Shemesh, between Israel's port city of Ashdod and Jerusalem. Cyprus' chief Rabbi Arie Zeev Raskin told The Associated Press that approximately 6,500 Israelis were in Cyprus after being diverted to the east Mediterranean island, the closest European nation to Israel, or traveling there voluntarily in hopes of catching a flight or boat trip back to their country. Cyprus has become a key transit point for the repatriation of third-country nationals fleeing conflict areas in the region, as well as Israelis and others wishing to return home in the absence of direct flights there. Like many other Israelis, Agami said a collective drive to assist their homeland's defence overrides any concerns about personal safety or security. "If any other country, I don't think you'd have anyone, you know, going. Everyone would be fleeing," Agami said. He described an Israeli businessman he knows who left his company and returned to join the army. "If we're not going to fight for it, who is?" It's a sentiment shared by Ben Fox, the pulmonary unit chief at the Shamir Medical Centre, and his wife Liat Fox, an oculoplastic surgeon in central Israel. The couple wanted to get back to their three daughters in Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut after attending separate medical conferences in Germany and Sweden. But they also were eager to help the defence effort as medical professionals. "Obviously, what's happening is very worrying, what's happening with the rocket fire," Ben Fox said. "On the other hand, we're very happy that our army and our government's taking care of the Iranian problem and, of course, we want to be with our family and we want to be available to help, you know, if there's medical problems and just, you know, go back home." The couple were aware of a missile strike against Soroka Hospital, in the Beersheeba area of Israel, on Thursday, which wounded at least 40 people. "It's a very important medical centre. It's the only medical centre for the south of Israel. And it's just a travesty that it was attacked," Ben Fox said, expressing surprise that Iranian forces would target a hospital serving a mixed population of Jews, Arabs and Bedouins. Haifa resident Hanit Azulay - another Israeli in Cyprus - said she doesn't care about the missiles because Israelis have become inured to the threat. "No, I don't scare. My little daughter is over there, my family is over there and we're regular to this," Azulay said.
