‘IAEA Biased': Russia Blames West For Fuelling Israel–Iran Crisis, Warns Of Nuclear Catastrophe
Russia has condemned Israel's airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, calling them illegal and dangerous under international law. Moscow warned the attacks risk triggering a global nuclear catastrophe and further destabilizing the Middle East. Israel claims the strikes were necessary to halt Iran's alleged race toward a nuclear weapon, an accusation Iran denies. In response, Iran launched retaliatory missile and drone attacks. Russia also blamed Western nations for backing a biased IAEA resolution, accusing them of giving Israel political cover. Tehran maintains its nuclear program is peaceful and views the conflict as an attempt to sabotage diplomatic efforts with the United States.#russia #IranIsraelConflict #MiddleEastWar #ballisticmissiles #NoMercy #IDFStrikes #BreakingNews #khamenei #TehranUnderFire #IsraelUnderAttack #MissileWar
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Economic Times
30 minutes ago
- Economic Times
From revolutionary aide to Iran's shadow ruler: The life and power of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Tensions surge between Israel and Iran, spotlighting Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, as a potential target. Khamenei, who rose from prisoner to absolute authority, controls Iran's military and nuclear program. Amidst escalating threats and targeted killings, Khamenei's location remains concealed, raising concerns of regional chaos if he becomes a direct target. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Khamenei's Rise: From Prisoner to Supreme Leader The Absolute Authority Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Mastermind of Iran's Regional Strategy Under Tight Security—and Under Threat As tensions between Israel and Iran escalate, one key figure remains largely invisible: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei , the reclusive supreme leader of Iran and the man at the heart of the Islamic Republic's political and military U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have recently hinted at the possibility of targeting Khamenei. Netanyahu had claimed that striking Iran's top leader would 'end the conflict.' Trump followed with a post on social media saying, 'We know exactly where' Khamenei is but clarified, 'We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least for now.' He added ominously, 'Our patience is growing thin.'Born in 1939 in the religious city of Mashhad, Khamenei grew up in a modest clerical family. He became politically active during the years of growing unrest against the U.S.-backed shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Arrested and jailed multiple times by the shah's secret police, Khamenei earned his revolutionary credentials alongside Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the father of the 1979 Islamic the shah's overthrow, Khamenei rapidly climbed the ranks of the new theocratic state. He served as president during the 1980s and was named supreme leader in 1989 following Khomeini's death—despite lacking the highest clerical credentials at the time. Once in power, he moved quickly to consolidate control over Iran's government, military, judiciary, and Iran's constitution, the supreme leader is the final word on all state matters. Khamenei appoints the heads of the judiciary, military, security services, and state broadcasters. He holds veto power over presidential candidates and steers the country's foreign and defense also commands the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including its elite Quds Force, which orchestrates Iran's military interventions across the Middle East . His influence extends to Iran's nuclear program, placing him at the center of the current standoff with has long shaped Iran's regional strategy through the use of proxy forces and asymmetric warfare. Under his leadership, Iran has built a powerful network of allies and militias from Lebanon and Iraq to Syria and Yemen, allowing Tehran to counter its rivals—chiefly the U.S., Israel, and Saudi Arabia—without engaging in direct strategy, however, suffered a major blow last Friday when Israel launched its most extensive military operation against Iran to date, striking key military and nuclear facilities and killing several top Iran insists its nuclear program is strictly civilian in nature, Western governments and Israel remain unconvinced. Despite Khamenei's 2003 fatwa declaring nuclear weapons forbidden under Islam, suspicions persist that Tehran may be edging closer to weapons exact location is almost never revealed. According to the New York Times, he is protected by an elite unit of the IRGC that answers only to him. Reportedly he has been relocated to a secret facility to ensure his safety and maintain command amid growing Israel's targeted killings of Iranian military and nuclear figures continue, speculation about whether Khamenei himself could become a direct target has grown. But such a move would mark a drastic escalation, potentially unleashing regional chaos and reshaping the Middle East.
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First Post
38 minutes ago
- First Post
Israel warns Iran's Supreme leader will end up like Saddam Hussein: How did the Iraqi dictator die?
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has warned Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei 'of a fate similar to Saddam Hussein'. The Iraqi dictator ruled the country with an iron fist for nearly three decades. He was executed in 2006 following his capture by the US forces. But why was America after him? read more Israel has warned Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei 'of a fate similar to Saddam Hussein' — the late Iraqi dictator. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz made the remarks on Tuesday (June 17) during a meeting with Israeli military and security service commanders. 'I warn the Iranian dictator against continuing to commit war crimes and launch missiles toward Israeli civilians,' he said, as per a statement from his office. 'He should remember what happened to the dictator in the neighbouring country to Iran who took the same path against Israel.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Katz's comments come amid mounting tensions between Israel and Iran . The West Asian countries have launched strikes and counterstrikes against each other for six days now. But who was Saddam Hussein and what fate did he meet? We will explain. Who was Saddam Hussein? Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq for nearly 30 years. Born into a poor family in the al-Awja village outside Tikrit, 150 km north of Baghdad, in 1937, he went on to join an uprising against pro-British royalist rulers at the age of 19. As a member of the Baath Party, Saddam participated in a botched assassination attempt against Iraq's military ruler, General Abd al-Karim Qasim, in October 1959. Saddam, who was wounded in the attempt, fled – first to Syria and then to Egypt. He returned to Baghdad after the Baath Party returned to power in a military coup in February 1963. However, nine months later, the party was ousted and Saddam was imprisoned. He was made the deputy secretary-general of the Baath party while in jail. In July 1968, the party toppled the rule of President Abdul-Rahman Aref in a coup. Saddam helped install his cousin, Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, as Iraq's president. After serving as his cousin's vice president, Saddam replaced al-Bakr to become Iraq's president in 1979. He ruled the country with an iron fist, suppressing anyone who opposed him. While most of the public lived in poverty, Saddam had a taste for luxury and built over 20 lavish palaces throughout Iraq. To win public support, he provided universal healthcare, free university education, and equal rights for women, as per PBS. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Saddam Hussein rose through the ranks to become the leader of the Baath party. File Photo/AFP Saddam launched a war against Iran in September 1980. However, it evolved into a war of attrition that lasted eight years. The two countries agreed to a ceasefire in 1988, ending the fighting. In March 1988, Iraqi forces carried out a chemical attack on the Iraqi Kurdish town of Halabja, killing about 5,000 people. Under Saddam's leadership, Iraq invaded neighbouring Kuwait on August 2, 1990. His occupation of Iraq led to a global trade embargo against Iraq. In January 1991, the United States-led forces launched the Gulf War, targeting Iraq and occupied Kuwait with air strikes. Iraq fired missiles at Israel during the conflict, which ended six weeks later. The US forced Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. Saddam was elected unopposed as Iraq's president in October 1995. Eight years later, the US launched a war against Iraq to collapse the dictator's government. How Saddam Hussein met his end In March 2003, the US forces invaded Iraq to destroy the 'Iraqi weapons of mass destruction' and end Saddam Hussein's rule, claiming the Iraqi dictator had links with al-Qaeda. The US-led forces swept into Baghdad in April. As Saddam's rule crumbled, Iraqi civilians and US soldiers pulled down a statue of the Iraqi president in the capital's Firdos Square. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD On July 22, the US troops killed Saddam's two sons – Uday and Qusay – in a gun battle in the northern city of Mosul. However, Saddam continued to remain in hiding. After nine months on the run, the former Iraqi dictator was captured on December 13, 2003. The US soldiers found him hiding in a six-to-eight-foot deep hole, or 'spider hole,' at a farmhouse nearly 15 km outside his hometown of Tikrit. The pictures of his capture showed the once 'dapper' man with an unkempt, bushy beard and dishevelled hair. Despite being armed, Saddam did not resist his arrest by the US forces. Saddam Hussein is filmed after his capture in this footage released December 14, 2003. File Photo/Reuters In October 2005, the former Iraqi dictator's trial began. Saddam was charged with crimes against humanity for the killing of about 150 people in the Shiite Muslim town of Dujail, Iraq, in 1982. He pleaded not guilty. Another trial on charges of war crimes against Saddam in the 1988 'Anfal' campaign against Iraqi Kurds began in August 2006. The campaign had led to the killing of 100,000 Kurds. The Iraqi High Criminal Court charged the former president with genocide. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD In November, Saddam was sentenced to death by hanging for the 1982 Dujail massacre. An appellate chamber of the Iraqi High Tribunal upheld his death sentence. On December 30, 2006, Saddam, clutching a Quran, was hanged. In 2023, former Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi claimed that Saddam's body was 'disposed of' in an area between his home and that of Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi PM at the time of the former dictator's death, in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone. As per Al Jazeera, al-Kadhimi said in an interview with Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat, 'I disapproved of the act [of disposing his body next to his home], but I saw a group of guards, and I asked them to stay away from the body out of respect for the dead.' 'Yes, it [Saddam's body] was brought [outside al-Maliki's house],' said al-Kadhimi. 'Al-Maliki ordered its handover to one of the sheikhs of al-Nada tribe, Saddam Hussein's tribe, and so it was collected from the Green Zone.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD He added, '[Saddam] was buried in Tikrit. After 2012, when [the area] came under the control of ISIS (ISIL), the body was dug up and moved to a secret location no one knows to this day. The graves of his children were also tampered with.' Despite the US' claims, weapons of mass destruction were never found in Iraq. With inputs from agencies
Time of India
40 minutes ago
- Time of India
UK parliament votes to decriminalise abortion, repeal Victorian-era law
London: Britain's parliament voted on Tuesday to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales to stop a growing number of women from being investigated by police for terminating pregnancies under legislation dating back to the mid-19th century. Abortions have been legal in England and Wales for almost 60 years but only up to 24 weeks and with the approval of two doctors. Women can face criminal charges if they decide to end a pregnancy after 24 weeks under a Victorian-era law that carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. In Britain, criminal convictions for breaking this law are rare, but the number of prosecutions has increased following the COVID-19 pandemic when a change in the law allowed abortion pills to be taken at home to end pregnancies within 10 weeks of conception. In a free vote in parliament, when politicians were not ordered to vote along party lines, lawmakers gave an initial approval by 379 votes to 137 for an amendment to stop prosecutions for women who end pregnancies in all circumstances. Medical professionals who assist women in obtaining an abortion outside the 24-week limit could still face prosecution. The proposal could still be altered or even voted down as it is a part of a greater bill that is making its way through the House of Commons and the unelected upper chamber of parliament. Labour Member of Parliament Tonia Antoniazzi, who proposed the amendment, said the current law had been used to investigate 100 women in the last five years, including some who had given birth prematurely or had been forced into abortions by abusive partners. "Each one of these cases is a travesty enabled by our outdated abortion law," she told parliament. "This is not justice, it is cruelty and it has got to end." The vote was part of a broader government criminal justice bill that if passed in its entirety would bring the abortion laws in England and Wales in line with other Western countries including France, Canada and Australia. 'NO CONSEQUENCES' Some politicians warned the proposed amendment was being rushed through parliament and could have unintended consequences. Rebecca Paul, a Conservative member of parliament, warned "if this becomes law, fully developed babies up to term could be aborted by a woman with no consequences." The amendment would revoke parts of a law passed in 1861 by a then all-male parliament that made deliberately ending a pregnancy a crime and stipulated that those who carried it out could be "kept in penal servitude for life". A change to the law in 1967 permitted abortions in certain circumstances, but left the 19th century criminal prohibition in place. Between 1861 and 2022, only three women in Britain were convicted of having illegal abortions, according to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, which works to improve women's healthcare. But since then, six women have been charged by police, the group said. One woman has been jailed. In May, a British woman, Nicola Packer, was acquitted after taking prescribed abortion medicine when she was around 26 weeks pregnant, beyond the legal limit of 10 weeks for taking such medication at home.
