Simply unacceptable
This is simply unacceptable. America should not encourage Israel to wage a war against Iran for no reason. Already Israel is bombing at Gaza for a very long time, which should be stopped completely by now. I feel Israel should be discouraged from showing audacity to push other countries at his free will. I don't know what United Nation is doing. UN should come forward to sort out the mess around the world. ('Israel, Iran accept ceasefire,' Gulf Today, June 24, 2025.)
Israel and Iran on Tuesday accepted a ceasefire plan proposed by US President Donald Trump to end their 12-day war that roiled the Middle East, after Tehran launched a retaliatory limited missile attack on a US military base in Qatar. The world has not recovered from Covid-19 pandemic and this war has started creating mess.
Ashok Raina,
By email
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The National
35 minutes ago
- The National
Israel's economic losses as a result of Iran war estimated at $6bn
The total economic losses to Israel following the 12-day war with Iran are estimated at around $6 billion, with infrastructure hit particularly hard. The war is likely to cost Israel about 1 per cent of its gross domestic product, or about 20 billion shekels ($5.9 billion), Israel Central Bank Governor Amir Yaron told Bloomberg television. According to Naser Mufrej, professor of finance and economics at the Arab American University in Ramallah, along with heavy damage to property, the total losses also include revenue affected due to the brief closure of Israel's airspace as well as the impact on manufacturing and agriculture sectors. 'All productive sectors were affected heavily during the war,' Mr Mufrej told The National. Israel and Iran entered into a fragile ceasefire this week after days of attacking each other. The US also entered the war with a strike on Iran's nuclear sites, after which the President Donald Trump announced the ceasefire. The conflict began on June 13 when Israel launched a wave of strikes across Iran, killing senior military officials and hitting nuclear sites. Iran also launched retaliatory missile strikes on Israel, hitting a number of targets including residential buildings, a hospital and other infrastructure in Tel Aviv and other cities. Israel, which has also been attacking Gaza since October 2023, is expected to take a hit to economic growth this year, according to analysts. "Our forecast for 2025 [for Israel's economy] was downgraded from 3.3 per cent real GDP growth to 1.7 per cent real growth right after the military conflict began between Israel and Iran almost two weeks ago," Ralf Wiegert, head of Mena Economics at S&P Global Market Intelligence. "So a reduction of 1.6 percentage points is probably at the high end of the spectrum and could be reduced further as Israel is going back to full capacity over the next couple of days." Mr Wiegert also said that "replenishing the military arsenal will be more costly, which will increase the budget deficit in 2025 from the 5.7 per cent of GDP which we had projected previously". With missile strikes having damaged vital infrastructure, military spending will push the country's fiscal deficit from 5.5 per cent to 8.5 per cent of GDP, the International Institute of Finance said in a note. "Public debt will rise from 69 per cent to 74 per cent. Still, Israel's strong external position, ample reserves, and moderate debt burden offer resilience," it added. Before the war with Iran, the International Monetary Fund in its World Economic Outlook in April projected Israel's economy to grow 3.2 per cent this year. Rising compensation claims Israel's Tax Authority has been receiving thousands of compensation claims from affected people for damaged property and vehicles since the beginning of the war two weeks ago. As of Wednesday, it had received 41,651 claims, including 32,975 for structural damage, 4,119 for vehicle damage, and 4,456 for damage to contents and equipment. It is estimated that thousands of additional structures have been damaged, for which no claim has yet been submitted, according to the Israel Tax Authority website. Last week, Iran hit the Weizzman Institute, a major research institution in Israel, causing heavy damage to the building. It also hit the Bazan oil refinery complex in the port city of Haifa, damaging its infrastructure and shutting down its operations. The cost of property damages from the Iranian attacks is estimated to be around double the sum of claims stemming from the Hamas attack on October 7 and subsequent attacks in time since then, the head of the Tax Authority's compensation department told the Knesset finance committee on Monday. 'I believe that we'll reach 5 billion shekels ($1.47 billion) [in compensation],' Amir Dahan said at the time. 'These are amounts we have never seen in direct damage. The Weizmann Institute and Bazan are huge events. In total, we have 25 buildings for demolition; in comparison, from the start of the war until the round with Iran, there was one building for demolition."
The National
an hour ago
- The National
Iran expected to step up nuclear secrecy after US strikes
US air strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities have strengthened Tehran's desire to become more secretive about its activities and sideline the UN's atomic watchdog, experts said on Thursday. President Donald Trump said his administration 'successfully' struck three nuclear sites – Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan – in Iran on Sunday, although the extent of the damage remains unclear. The attacks followed Israeli strikes across Iran aimed at destroying its nuclear capabilities over 12 days. Iran retaliated by striking key areas in Israel, while blaming the International Atomic Energy Agency for fuelling unease about its nuclear activities. An Iranian bill to suspend co-operation with the IAEA moved closer to passage on Thursday. A ceasefire was agreed upon early on Tuesday, ending the exchanges that killed hundreds of people and caused extensive damage. However, questions remain on how badly Iran's nuclear activities have been set back. 'Air strikes haven't destroyed all of Iran's nuclear programme, and if anything, they have reinvigorated a desire to be more secretive on their nuclear programme,' said Dina Esfandiary, a Middle East expert at Bloomberg Geoeconomics. 'That's not to say that they're going to dash for the bomb, but many people in Iran are calling for that,' she told The National. A leaked US Defence Intelligence Agency assessment has suggested the core components of Iran's nuclear programme have not been destroyed and the strikes only set back Iran's efforts by months rather than years. But that is only an initial assessment, and is labelled as 'low confidence' because it is early in the process of trying to understand what happened. On June 13. Israel attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and targeted top military commanders and scientists. More than a dozen were killed. That was followed by the US attack that hit the nuclear sites with 'bunker-buster' bombs. 'Despite the elimination of senior defence figures and nuclear experts, the regime still possesses the technical expertise necessary to develop a nuclear weapon,' Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East programme at London's Chatham House, said. She said it is likely that 'Iran relocated sensitive nuclear materials from prominent locations such as the Fordow facility before the assault. The scope of the damage remains uncertain.' 'Therefore, a long-term resolution to the nuclear challenge will ultimately require a diplomatic approach,' Ms Vakil told The National. Iranian hostility towards IAEA The UN watchdog is requesting access to some of Iran's major nuclear facilities now that the war is over, but it is highly unlikely that Tehran will allow it, Ms Esfandiary said. IAEA inspectors have remained in Iran throughout the conflict and are ready to start work as soon as possible, going back to the country's nuclear sites and verifying the inventories of nuclear material, the agency's director Rafael Grossi said. Iran's parliament approved a bill on Wednesday to suspend co-operation with the IAEA. The decision was approved on Thursday by the Guardian Council, a panel of clerics and jurists that vets legislation. The National has contacted the IAEA for a comment. 'Iran is taking a hostile posture towards the IAEA with its vote in parliament as a prelude to negotiations,' Ms Vakil said. Iran has long denied any intention of building a nuclear bomb and it insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. 'The Iran-Israel war has further negatively affected Iran's relationship with the IAEA,' Farzan Sabet, managing researcher at the Geneva Graduate Institute, said. 'Tehran historically has had its suspicions of the IAEA and raised questions about its impartiality. 'Tehran will be suspicious about the extent to which the IAEA was used both by the Americans, the Israelis and other western intelligence to infiltrate its nuclear programme and gain knowledge that was then used to conduct strikes on Iranian facilities,' Mr Sabet told The National. Before the Israeli strikes, the IAEA board had passed a resolution declaring that Tehran was breaching its non-proliferation obligations, which triggered objections from Iran. Since the start of the war, Iranian officials have criticised the agency for failing to condemn the Israeli attacks.
The National
2 hours ago
- The National
Pentagon chief defends US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites as ‘resounding success'
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday said US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities had been a 'resounding success', angrily pushing back against the 'fake news' media for questioning how effective the attacks were. President Donald Trump and his administration are furious after a preliminary assessment of the strikes suggested they may not have fully destroyed Iran's nuclear facilities. The report was leaked to the press. 'President Trump directed the most complex and secretive military operation in history. And it was a resounding success, resulting in a ceasefire agreement, and the end of the 12-day war,' Mr Hegseth told Pentagon reporters. He then lambasted the Pentagon press corps for reporting on the initial assessment. 'It's like in your DNA and in your blood to cheer against Trump,' he said. 'It's almost personal when we see the way in which leaks are used to try to disparage the outcome or muddy the waters about the impact of what happened.' Gen Dan Caine, the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was also at the press conference. He said experts had spent 15 years developing the technology to attack Fordow and other Iranian nuclear sites. He told reporters the GBU-57, the 30,000-pound (13.6-tonne) munition dropped from B-2 stealth bombers on Saturday, had been designed to burrow into the Fordow site and explode once deep underground. Experts 'accomplished hundreds of test shots and dropped many full-scale weapons against extremely realistic targets for a single purpose, kill this target at the time and place of our nation's choosing,' he said. The bombs don't leave a large crater as they explode far below the surface, he said, noting that the weapons had flown down three ventilation shafts and all exploded as planned. Gen Caine also described how US troops at Al Udeid Air Base had defended against an Iranian missile attack on Sunday. He said roughly 44 American service members responsible for defending the entire base were present as rounds of Patriot missiles were launched. Gen Caine said Qatar joined in the successful defence of what he called the largest single Patriot engagement in US military history.
