
'Israel has launched unprovoked aggression on Iran': Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi addresses United Nations
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has addressed the United Nations in Geneva, calling Israel's actions an 'unjust war' and a 'stark violation' of Article 2 of the UN Charter.
Araghchi described the Israeli offensives on nuclear facilities as 'war crimes,' and decried the 'betrayal of diplomacy' ahead of a 15 June meeting with US officials to craft a deal regarding the Iranian nuclear programme.
Araghchi will now hold talks with officials from the UK, Germany, France, and the EU, according to Al Jazeera.

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Middle East Eye
20 minutes ago
- Middle East Eye
Israel blocks thousands of Palestinians from performing Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque
Israeli forces prevented thousands of Palestinians from performing Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, tightening their week-long shutdown on the religious site amid hostilities with Iran. Israeli soldiers were stationed around the outer gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the gates of the Old City of Jerusalem early on Friday, where they stopped thousands of Palestinians from entering, sources told Middle East Eye. They said that less than 500 people managed to make it through to the prayer areas and courtyard within Al-Aqsa, a fraction of the number that usually attend the holy site. Despite heavy restrictions on their daily lives, tens of thousands of Palestinians normally attend Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa each week. But since 13 July, the mosque has been completely closed off, in the largest shutdown since the Covid-19 pandemic. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Israel has tried to defend the decision, saying it is based on public safety due to Iranian missile strikes on Israel. Palestinians, however, fear that the conflict is being exploited to impose lasting changes on the status quo at the revered site. Earlier this week, Israeli authorities said they had opened two gates and would allow a partial reopening of the mosque. However, a senior source from within the mosque, who spoke anonymously to MEE due to fear of reprisals from Israeli authorities, said the announcement was misleading. He estimated that for every hundred trying to enter the mosque, they were letting in one. "In short, Al-Aqsa is empty. Even the staff are few in number," he said. The source said that the gates that workers were allowed to use were being changed frequently by Israeli forces, and were often very far apart in distance. 'The message Israel wants... is that it has complete control over the mosque, just as it has control over Tel Aviv' - source within Al-Aqsa He added that due to the arbitrariness of which gates were opened, he had to walk two kilometres to park his car and reach his office, and then a further 1.5km to enter the mosque to pray. As well as closing gates into the mosque, Israeli forces also closed off entrances into the Old City, restricting the ability of Palestinians who live outside of the city's gates from entering Al-Aqsa. 'The message Israel wants from closing the mosque completely and opening it partially is that it has complete control over the mosque, just as it has control over Tel Aviv,' the senior source said. Residents told MEE earlier this week that while the mosque was under lockdown, Israelis had unlimited access to the Western Wall Plaza, close to Al-Aqsa's Mughrabi Gate. "If people don't wake up quickly and push to change the situation, we'll find ourselves facing a new reality," said Fakhri Abu Diab, an activist and expert on Jerusalem affairs. 'The public is being conditioned to accept closures,' said Abu Diab. 'They want to diminish the sanctity of Al-Aqsa in people's minds, to make it seem normal that it's shut down.' In 2014 and then in 2017, Israeli forces briefly closed the mosque amid heightened tensions in Jerusalem. The 2014 closure was described as a 'declaration of war' by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas at the time. Before that, no such days-long closure has been recorded since Israel's occupation of the city in 1967. Israeli settlers and far-right activists raid Al-Aqsa Mosque almost daily, with their numbers steadily increasing over the past two decades. In recent months, they have raised the Israeli flag and regularly performed Jewish religious practices in the eastern section of Al-Aqsa Mosque complex, in an area known as Bab al-Rahma. Both actions were previously blocked by Israeli authorities, fearing a Palestinian backlash. Unsolicited visits, prayers, and rituals by non-Muslims at Al-Aqsa are prohibited under decades-old international agreements known as the status quo. Israeli authorities and settlers frequently violate these norms.


Al Etihad
an hour ago
- Al Etihad
Israeli army chief warns of 'prolonged campaign' in Iran
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Middle East Eye
an hour ago
- Middle East Eye
Israeli forces push deeper into Syria as strikes with Iran enter second week
Israeli forces advanced several kilometres into southern Syria this week, where they destroyed homes and razed vast acres of land, as Israel's strikes with Iran entered its second week. Local residents told Middle East Eye that heavily armed Israeli soldiers advanced at least 1.5 km into the southern province of Quneitra on Thursday, where they destroyed at least 15 homes and vast areas of forest and agricultural land. The residents said that Israeli soldiers launched their advance towards several towns, including al-Hamidiyah, with Israel claiming they were targeting "extremist militants" or preventing "attacks linked to Hezbollah or Iran". Israel and Iran have been trading strikes since last Friday, 13 June, in what Israel describes as an effort to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. Israel has failed to provide any evidence that Iran was close to developing a nuclear bomb, and the latest assessments of the international community, including from the US, have indicated that Iran had not made a decision to weaponise its nuclear programme, something it had abandoned in 2003. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Syria's geographic location has made its skies a battleground for the tit-for-tat strikes, with the Israeli air force repeatedly violating the country's airspace. Debris has repeatedly crashed on the ground, particularly in the southern provinces of Quneitra and Daraa, near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Mohammad al-Ali, an al-Hamidiyah resident, told MEE that his community was gripped by fear after Israel's latest incursions into southern Syria. "They (Israeli soldiers) arrived and suddenly told us we had to evacuate," he said. "I was prepared for anything when I left under the threat of weapons with my wife and three children, but I did not expect they would demolish our home, with all its furniture and memories, in such a savage way." 'Major instability' Mohammad al-Saeed, the director of the Media Directorate in Quneitra Province, suggested that whilst the world's and the Syrian government's attention was focused on the hostilities between Israel and Iran, Israel was exploiting the situation to seize more territory in Syria. "These Israeli assaults create major instability, particularly with the security checkpoints that the Israeli army sets up deep inside Syrian territory," he said. "Some have reached up to 17km into Syria, including areas like Tel al-Mal." According to multiple reports, Israeli forces have intensified efforts to grab land in a buffer zone between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and a 1974 ceasefire line since the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in early December. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Thursday that Israeli forces, using tanks, Humvees and SUVs, had amassed near three towns in Quneitra: Mashara, Jaba and al-Samdaniya al-Gharbiya, with the aim of establishing new military checkpoints. This came as Israeli forces began excavating forests in the Jubata al-Khashab Nature Reserve and land in adjacent areas, reportedly with the aim of establishing Israeli military bases and observation points. Syria's new rulers face unprecedented criticism as Israel uses air space to attack Iran Read More » Basel Othman, a long-time resident of Salam city, formerly known as al-Baath, said that the Israeli army had "bulldozed hundreds of hectares of farmland under the pretext that it obstructs the military's visibility". "Entire groves of trees that had stood for centuries were cut down simply because Israel suffers from paranoia of being attacked," he told MEE. Since the fall of the Assad dynasty, the Israeli army has carried out regular air raids and ground incursions into Syria, sometimes injuring and killing residents. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to double the number of Israeli settlers in the occupied Golan Heights, territory which is still recognised as part of Syria by the international community, with the exception of the United States. Al-Quds al-Arabi reported on Thursday that in recent days, Israeli forces deliberately attacked water pipelines and critical infrastructure when they stormed al-Hamidiyah and the village of Juba in Quneitra, resulting in hundreds of homes losing access to safe drinking water. Saeed, the director of the Media Directorate in Quneitra Province, said that the Israeli military's decision to set up random checkpoints was causing widespread alarm, with many in the area complaining about "systematic humiliation". "They (Israeli soldiers) often deliberately humiliate people by searching their phones and photos, detaining some for hours, and then releasing them," he said. "This is clearly aimed to instil fear and suppress morale."