A look at soaring border tensions between Cambodia and Thailand
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Tens of thousands of people gathered in Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh on Wednesday for a march to show their solidarity with the government and military, amid soaring tensions with neighboring Thailand following a border row that erupted last month.
Here's what to know about the latest dispute between the two Southeast Asian neighbors.
What was the latest conflict about?
The recent dispute was triggered in May after armed forces of Thailand and Cambodia briefly fired at each other in a relatively small 'no man's land' constituting territory along their border that both countries claim as their own.
Both sides have said they acted in self-defense. One Cambodian soldier was killed.
While the countries said afterwards they have agreed to de-escalate the situation, Cambodian and Thai authorities continue to implement or threaten measures short of armed force at each other, keeping tensions high.
Thailand has added restrictions at the border such as limiting crossing times and barring Thai casino tourists and workers from crossing into Cambodia.
Cambodia has banned Thai movies and TV shows, stopped the import of Thai fruits and vegetables and boycotted its neighbor's international internet links and power supply.
How long have the two fought over land?
Border disputes are long-standing issues that have caused periodic tensions between the two neighbors. Thailand and Cambodia share more than 800 kilometers (500 miles) of land border.
The contesting claims stem largely from a 1907 map drawn under French colonial rule that was used to separate Cambodia from Thailand.
Cambodia has been using the map as a reference to claim territory, while Thailand has argued the map is inaccurate.
In February, Cambodian troops and their family members entered an ancient temple along the border in one of the disputed areas and sang the Cambodian national anthem, leading to a brief argument with Thai troops.
The most prominent and violent conflicts broke out around the 1,000-year-old Preah Vihear temple.
In 1962, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) awarded sovereignty over the area to Cambodia and that became a major irritant in relations.
Cambodia went back to the court in 2011, following several clashes between its army and Thai forces which killed about 20 and displaced thousands of people. The court reaffirmed the ruling in 2013, a decision that still rattled Thailand.
What happens next?
Similar to the Phear Vihear area, Cambodia is seeking a ruling again from the ICJ over several disputed areas, including where the deadly clash happened.
Thailand has said it doesn't accept the jurisdiction of the ICJ and that any conflicting border claims between the two should be solved by the existing bilateral mechanism, including a joint committee which was established in 2000 as a technical means to discuss the survey and demarcation of the land border.
Cambodia nevertheless said it has submitted the case to the ICJ, and insisted that it would no longer discuss these areas under the two countries' bilateral mechanism.
Tensions have soared as they engaged in a war of words that appeared intended to mollify nationalistic critics on both sides of the border.
Bickering neighbors
The ill feeling between the two neighbors is not just about overlapping border claims, but also deep-seated cultural enmity that has its roots from centuries ago, when they were large and competing empires.
In more modern times, bad feelings have lingered, as Cambodia's development, hindered by French colonialism and, in the 1970s, the brutal rule of the communist Khmer Rouge, has fallen well behind Thailand.
—— Jintamas Saksornchai reported from Bangkok
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San Francisco Chronicle
42 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Fear stalks Tehran as Israel bombards, shelters fill up and communicating grows harder
NEW YORK (AP) — The streets of Tehran are empty, businesses closed, communications patchy at best. With no bona fide bomb shelters open to the public, panicked masses spend restless nights on the floors of metro stations as strikes boom overhead. This is Iran's capital city, just under a week into a fierce Israeli blitz to destroy the country's nuclear program and its military capabilities. After knocking out much of Iran's air defense system, Israel says its warplanes have free rein over the city's skies. U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday told Tehran's roughly 10 million residents to evacuate 'immediately.' Thousands have fled, spending hours in gridlock as they head toward the suburbs, the Caspian Sea, or even Armenia or Turkey. But others — those elderly and infirm — are stuck in high-rise apartment buildings. Their relatives fret: what to do? Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 585 people and wounded over 1,300, a human rights group says. Local media, themselves targets of bombardment, have stopped reporting on the attacks, leaving Iranians in the dark. There are few visible signs of state authority: Police appear largely undercover, air raid sirens are unreliable, and there's scant information on what to do in case of attack. Shirin, 49, who lives in the southern part of Tehran, said every call or text to friends and family in recent days has felt like it could be the last. 'We don't know if tomorrow we will be alive,' she said. Many Iranians feel conflicted. Some support Israel's targeting of Iranian political and military officials they see as repressive. Others staunchly defend the Islamic Republic and retaliatory strikes on Israel. Then, there are those who oppose Iran's rulers — but still don't want to see their country bombed. To stay, or to go? The Associated Press interviewed five people in Iran and one Iranian American in the U.S. over the phone. All spoke either on the condition of anonymity or only allowed their first names to be used, for fear of retribution from the state against them or their families. Most of the calls ended abruptly and within minutes, cutting off conversations as people grew nervous — or because the connection dropped. Iran's government has acknowledged disrupting internet access. It says it's to protect the country, though that has blocked average Iranians from getting information from the outside world. Iranians in the diaspora wait anxiously for news from relatives. One, an Iranian American human rights researcher in the U.S., said he last heard from relatives when some were trying to flee Tehran earlier in the week. He believes that lack of gas and traffic prevented them from leaving. The most heartbreaking interaction, he said, was when his older cousins — with whom he grew up in Iran — told him 'we don't know where to go. If we die, we die.' 'Their sense was just despair,' he said. Some families have made the decision to split up. A 23-year-old Afghan refugee who has lived in Iran for four years said he stayed behind in Tehran but sent his wife and newborn son out of the city after a strike Monday hit a nearby pharmacy. 'It was a very bad shock for them,' he said. Some, like Shirin, said fleeing was not an option. The apartment buildings in Tehran are towering and dense. Her father has Alzheimer's and needs an ambulance to move. Her mother's severe arthritis would make even a short trip extremely painful. Still, hoping escape might be possible, she spent the last several days trying to gather their medications. Her brother waited at a gas station until 3 a.m., only to be turned away when the fuel ran out. As of Monday, gas was being rationed to under 20 liters (5 gallons) per driver at stations across Iran after an Israeli strike set fire to the world's largest gas field. Some people, like Arshia, said they are just tired. 'I don't want to go in traffic for 40 hours, 30 hours, 20 hours, just to get to somewhere that might get bombed eventually,' he said. The 22-year-old has been staying in the house with his parents since the initial Israeli strike. He said his once-lively neighborhood of Saadat Abad in northwestern Tehran is now a ghost town. Schools are closed. Very few people even step outside to walk their dogs. Most local stores have run out of drinking water and cooking oil. Others closed. Still, Arshia said the prospect of finding a new place is too daunting. 'We don't have the resources to leave at the moment,' he said. Residents are on their own No air raid sirens went off as Israeli strikes began pounding Tehran before dawn Friday. For many, it was an early sign civilians would have to go it alone. During the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, Tehran was a low-slung city, many homes had basements to shelter in, and there were air raid drills and sirens. Now the capital is packed with close-built high-rise apartments without shelters. 'It's a kind of failing of the past that they didn't build shelters,' said a 29-year-old Tehran resident who left the city Monday. 'Even though we've been under the shadow of a war, as long as I can remember.' Her friend's boyfriend was killed while going to the store. 'You don't really expect your boyfriend — or your anyone, really — to leave the house and never return when they just went out for a routine normal shopping trip,' she said. Those who choose to relocate do so without help from the government. The state has said it is opening mosques, schools and metro stations for use as shelters. Some are closed, others overcrowded. Hundreds crammed into one Tehran metro station Friday night. Small family groups lay on the floor. One student, a refugee from another country, said she spent 12 hours in the station with her relatives. 'Everyone there was panicking because of the situation,' she said. 'Everyone doesn't know what will happen next, if there is war in the future and what they should do. People think nowhere is safe for them.' Soon after leaving the station, she saw that Israel had warned a swath of Tehran to evacuate. 'For immigrant communities, this is so hard to live in this kind of situation,' she said, explaining she feels like she has nowhere to escape to — especially not her home country, which she asked not be identified. Fear of Iran mingles with fear of Israel For Shirin, the hostilities are bittersweet. Despite being against the theocracy and its treatment of women, the idea that Israel may determine the future does not sit well with her. 'As much as we want the end of this regime, we didn't want it to come at the hands of a foreign government,' she said. 'We would have preferred that if there were to be a change, it would be the result of a people's movement in Iran.' Meanwhile, the 29-year-old who left Tehran had an even more basic message for those outside Iran: 'I just want people to remember that whatever is happening here, it's not routine business for us. People's lives here — people's livelihoods — feel as important to them as they feel to anyone in any other place. How would you feel if your city or your country was under bombardment by another country, and people were dying left and right?' 'We are kind of like, this can't be happening. This can't be my life.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Iran's leader rejects call to surrender, saying US intervention would cause 'irreparable damage'
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's supreme leader on Wednesday rejected U.S. calls for surrender in the face of blistering Israeli strikes and warned that any military involvement by the Americans would cause 'irreparable damage' to them, in an official statement read by a state TV anchor. The remarks from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has only been seen once since the strikes began, came after U.S. President Donald Trump demanded 'UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER' in a social media post and warned Khamenei that the U.S. knows where he is but has no plans to kill him, 'at least not for now.' Trump initially distanced himself from Israel's surprise attack on Friday that triggered the conflict, but in recent days has hinted at greater American involvement, saying he wants something 'much bigger' than a ceasefire. The U.S. has also sent more warplanes to the region. An Iranian official had earlier warned Wednesday that U.S. intervention would risk 'all-out war.' Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei did not elaborate, but thousands of American troops are based in nearby countries within range of Iran's weapons. The U.S. has threatened a massive response to any attack. Another Iranian official said the country would keep enriching uranium for peaceful purposes, apparently ruling out Trump's demands that Iran give up its disputed nuclear program. Strikes in and around Tehran The latest Israeli strikes hit a facility used to make uranium centrifuges and another that made missile components, the Israeli military said. It said it had intercepted 10 missiles overnight as Iran's retaliatory barrages diminish. The U.N. nuclear watchdog said Israel had struck two centrifuge production facilities in and near Tehran. The Israeli military said it also carried out strikes in western Iran, hitting missile storage sites and a loaded missile launcher. Israeli strikes have hit several nuclear and military sites, killing top generals and nuclear scientists. A Washington-based Iranian human rights group said at least 585 people, including 239 civilians, have been killed and more than 1,300 wounded. Iran has fired some 400 missiles and hundreds of drones in retaliatory strikes that have killed at least 24 people in Israel and wounded hundreds. Some have hit apartment buildings in central Israel, causing heavy damage, and air raid sirens have repeatedly forced Israelis to run for shelter. Iran has fired fewer missiles as the conflict has worn on. It has not explained the decline, but Israel has targeted launchers and other infrastructure related to the missiles. Casualties mount in Iran The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists said it had identified 239 of those killed in Israeli strikes as civilians and 126 as security personnel. The group, which also provided detailed casualty figures during 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, crosschecks local reports against a network of sources it has developed in Iran. Iran has not been publishing regular death tolls during the conflict and has minimized casualties in the past. Its last update, issued Monday, put the toll at 224 people killed and 1,277 others wounded. Shops have been closed across Tehran, including in its famed Grand Bazaar, as people wait in gas lines and pack roads leading out of the city to escape the onslaught. A major explosion could be heard around 5 a.m. in Tehran Wednesday morning, following other explosions earlier in the predawn darkness. Authorities in Iran offered no acknowledgement of the attacks, which has become increasingly common as the Israeli airstrikes have intensified. At least one strike appeared to target Tehran's eastern neighborhood of Hakimiyeh, where the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has an academy. No signs of backing down Israel says it launched the strikes to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon, after talks between the United States and Iran over a diplomatic resolution had made little visible progress over two months but were still ongoing. Trump has said Israel's campaign came after a 60-day window he set for the talks. Iran long has insisted its nuclear program was peaceful, though it is the only non-nuclear-armed state to enrich uranium up to 60%, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. U.S. intelligence agencies have said they did not believe Iran was actively pursuing the bomb. Israel is the only country in the Middle East with nuclear weapons but has never publicly acknowledged them. Iran's ambassador to Geneva, Ali Bahreini, told reporters that Iran "will continue to produce the enriched uranium as far as we need for peaceful purposes.' He rejected any talk of a setback to Iran's nuclear research and development from the Israeli strikes, saying, 'Our scientists will continue their work.' He said Trump's remarks were 'completely unwarranted' and 'very hostile,' and that Iran could not ignore them. He said Iranian authorities were 'vigilant' about the comments and would decide if the U.S. crossed any lines. 'Once the red line is crossed, the response will come.' Israel welcomes first repatriation flights Israelis began returning on flights for the first time since the country's international airport shut down at the start of the conflict. Two flights from Larnaca, Cyprus, landed at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport on Wednesday morning, said Lisa Dvir, an airport spokesperson. Israel closed its airspace to commercial flights because of the ballistic missile attacks, leaving tens of thousands of Israelis stranded abroad. The conflict has disrupted flight patterns across the region. ___ Frankel reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Amir Vahdat and Nasser Karimi in Iran, and Jamey Keaten in Geneva, contributed.
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Fear stalks Tehran as Israel bombards, shelters fill up and communicating grows harder
NEW YORK (AP) — The streets of Tehran are empty, businesses closed, communications patchy at best. With no bona fide bomb shelters open to the public, panicked masses spend restless nights on the floors of metro stations as strikes boom overhead. This is Iran's capital city, just under a week into a fierce Israeli blitz to destroy the country's nuclear program and its military capabilities. After knocking out much of Iran's air defense system, Israel says its warplanes have free rein over the city's skies. U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday told Tehran's roughly 10 million residents to evacuate 'immediately.' Thousands have fled, spending hours in gridlock as they head toward the suburbs, the Caspian Sea, or even Armenia or Turkey. But others — those elderly and infirm — are stuck in high-rise apartment buildings. Their relatives fret: what to do? Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 585 people and wounded over 1,300, a human rights group says. Local media, themselves targets of bombardment, have stopped reporting on the attacks, leaving Iranians in the dark. There are few visible signs of state authority: Police appear largely undercover, air raid sirens are unreliable, and there's scant information on what to do in case of attack. Shirin, 49, who lives in the southern part of Tehran, said every call or text to friends and family in recent days has felt like it could be the last. 'We don't know if tomorrow we will be alive,' she said. Many Iranians feel conflicted. Some support Israel's targeting of Iranian political and military officials they see as repressive. Others staunchly defend the Islamic Republic and retaliatory strikes on Israel. Then, there are those who oppose Iran's rulers — but still don't want to see their country bombed. The Associated Press interviewed five people in Iran and one Iranian American in the U.S. over the phone. All spoke either on the condition of anonymity or only allowed their first names to be used, for fear of retribution from the state against them or their families. Most of the calls ended abruptly and within minutes, cutting off conversations as people grew nervous — or because the connection dropped. Iran's government has acknowledged disrupting internet access. It says it's to protect the country, though that has blocked average Iranians from getting information from the outside world. Iranians in the diaspora wait anxiously for news from relatives. One, an Iranian American human rights researcher in the U.S., said he last heard from relatives when some were trying to flee Tehran earlier in the week. He believes that lack of gas and traffic prevented them from leaving. The most heartbreaking interaction, he said, was when his older cousins — with whom he grew up in Iran — told him 'we don't know where to go. If we die, we die.' 'Their sense was just despair,' he said. Some families have made the decision to split up. A 23-year-old Afghan refugee who has lived in Iran for four years said he stayed behind in Tehran but sent his wife and newborn son out of the city after a strike Monday hit a nearby pharmacy. 'It was a very bad shock for them,' he said. Some, like Shirin, said fleeing was not an option. The apartment buildings in Tehran are towering and dense. Her father has Alzheimer's and needs an ambulance to move. Her mother's severe arthritis would make even a short trip extremely painful. Still, hoping escape might be possible, she spent the last several days trying to gather their medications. Her brother waited at a gas station until 3 a.m., only to be turned away when the fuel ran out. As of Monday, gas was being rationed to under 20 liters (5 gallons) per driver at stations across Iran after an Israeli strike set fire to the world's largest gas field. Some people, like Arshia, said they are just tired. 'I don't want to go in traffic for 40 hours, 30 hours, 20 hours, just to get to somewhere that might get bombed eventually,' he said. The 22-year-old has been staying in the house with his parents since the initial Israeli strike. He said his once-lively neighborhood of Saadat Abad in northwestern Tehran is now a ghost town. Schools are closed. Very few people even step outside to walk their dogs. Most local stores have run out of drinking water and cooking oil. Others closed. Still, Arshia said the prospect of finding a new place is too daunting. 'We don't have the resources to leave at the moment,' he said. No air raid sirens went off as Israeli strikes began pounding Tehran before dawn Friday. For many, it was an early sign civilians would have to go it alone. During the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, Tehran was a low-slung city, many homes had basements to shelter in, and there were air raid drills and sirens. Now the capital is packed with close-built high-rise apartments without shelters. 'It's a kind of failing of the past that they didn't build shelters,' said a 29-year-old Tehran resident who left the city Monday. 'Even though we've been under the shadow of a war, as long as I can remember.' Her friend's boyfriend was killed while going to the store. 'You don't really expect your boyfriend — or your anyone, really — to leave the house and never return when they just went out for a routine normal shopping trip,' she said. Those who choose to relocate do so without help from the government. The state has said it is opening mosques, schools and metro stations for use as shelters. Some are closed, others overcrowded. Hundreds crammed into one Tehran metro station Friday night. Small family groups lay on the floor. One student, a refugee from another country, said she spent 12 hours in the station with her relatives. 'Everyone there was panicking because of the situation,' she said. 'Everyone doesn't know what will happen next, if there is war in the future and what they should do. People think nowhere is safe for them.' Soon after leaving the station, she saw that Israel had warned a swath of Tehran to evacuate. 'For immigrant communities, this is so hard to live in this kind of situation,' she said, explaining she feels like she has nowhere to escape to — especially not her home country, which she asked not be identified. For Shirin, the hostilities are bittersweet. Despite being against the theocracy and its treatment of women, the idea that Israel may determine the future does not sit well with her. 'As much as we want the end of this regime, we didn't want it to come at the hands of a foreign government,' she said. 'We would have preferred that if there were to be a change, it would be the result of a people's movement in Iran.' Meanwhile, the 29-year-old who left Tehran had an even more basic message for those outside Iran: 'I just want people to remember that whatever is happening here, it's not routine business for us. People's lives here — people's livelihoods — feel as important to them as they feel to anyone in any other place. How would you feel if your city or your country was under bombardment by another country, and people were dying left and right?' 'We are kind of like, this can't be happening. This can't be my life.'
