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Iran Warns Israel Not to ‘Test Its Resolve,’ Says ‘Unacceptable’ for Gulf Arabs to Assist Jewish State
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi looks on before a meeting with Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, in Tehran, Iran, Aug. 26, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned Israel “not to test Iran’s resolve” as the Jewish state continued to discuss plans to strike its arch foe, saying any attack on the Islamic Republic would be met with harsh retaliation.
“We tell the Zionist regime [Israel] not to test Iran’s resolve, as any attack on Iran will be met with an even stronger response than before,” Araghchi was quoted in Iranian media as saying at a conference in Tehran on Tuesday titled, “Al-Aqsa Flood; The Beginning of Nasrallah.”
The conference was held one year after Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, which the Palestinian terrorist group named “Al-Aqsa Flood.” The title of the gathering also referenced Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah who was killed in an Israeli airstrike last month.
Iran is the chief international backer of Hamas and Hezbollah, providing both Islamist terrorist groups with weapons, funding, and training.
Araghchi’s comments came after Israeli leaders vowed to respond following Iran’s recent missile attack on Israel.
Last week, Iran fired a salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel, forcing the Jewish state’s entire civilian population to take cover in bomb shelters. According to the Israeli military, there was one fatality from the barrage: a Palestinian man from Gaza who was killed by falling fuselage from an intercepted missile while in the West Bank village of Nu’eima, near Jericho.
Israel has said it will respond in a strong way, leading observers to speculate that the Jewish state may target Iran’s oil or nuclear facilities.
As Iran prepares for a potential Israeli attack, it has told Gulf Arab states it would be “unacceptable” if they allowed Israel to use their airspace or military bases against Tehran.
“Iran made it clear that any action by a Persian Gulf country against Tehran, whether through the use of airspace or military bases, will be regarded by Tehran as an action taken by the entire group, and Tehran will respond accordingly,” a senior Iranian official told Reuters.
“The message emphasized the need for regional unity against Israel and the importance of securing stability,” the official reportedly added. “It also made clear that any assistance to Israel, such as allowing the use of a regional country’s airspace for actions against Iran, is unacceptable.”
Iran’s warning came as Araqchi visited Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states including Qatar for talks on Wednesday. Araghchi met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and discussed regional developments, according to the Saudi state news agency.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone on Wednesday and were expected to discuss Israeli plans for a retaliatory strike on Iran.
The Biden administration has expressed support for Israel taking military action to respond to Iran’s attack but has called for Jerusalem to avoid taking steps that would risk escalating the situation into a wider conflict.
The post Iran Warns Israel Not to ‘Test Its Resolve,’ Says ‘Unacceptable’ for Gulf Arabs to Assist Jewish State first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.