Category: 2. Middle East

Israel’s reckless actions are threatening regional and global peace and security, Bangladesh said on Saturday, urging the international community to hold Israel accountable, Anadolu reports.

Bangladesh strongly condemned Israel’s illegal and aggressive military attack against Iran and called for an immediate end to such provocations.

Bangladesh Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain made these remarks at the 51st Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers…

Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), on Saturday urged member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to support Palestinian refugees, Anadolu reports.

“I want to appeal to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and its member states. I urge you to take action, both politically and financially, to ensure that Palestinian refugees have access to the most basic services,” Lazzarini told the…

US President Donald Trump said Saturday that American forces completed “very successful” air strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites amid fears of a wider conflagration in the region, Anadolu reports.

Trump said a “full payload of” bombs was dropped on the “primary” Iranian nuclear site at Fordo, and additional strikes were conducted at the facilities at Natanz and Esfahan. All American warplanes departed Iranian airspace, he said.

“All planes are…

For nearly a half-century the United States has squabbled with Iran’s Islamic Republic but the conflict has largely been left in the shadows, with US policymakers believing, often reluctantly, that diplomacy was preferable.

With President Donald Trump’s order of strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, the United States — like Israel, which encouraged him — has brought the conflict into the open, and the consequences may not be clear for some time to come.

“We will only know if it succeeded if we…

More than four months since his release from Gaza, former hostage Keith Siegel bears the mental scars of 484 days of captivity in destroyed buildings and tunnels in the hands of Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The 66-year-old Israeli-American and his wife Aviva were among 251 hostages seized from residential communities along the Gaza border, army bases and a music festival on October 7, 2023.

In a recent interview with AFP, Siegel told of physical and sexual abuse that he had experienced…

President Donald Trump delivered brief remarks from the White House late Saturday after the US military carried out strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.

Here is what Trump said in full:

“A short time ago the US military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime: Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan.

“Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horribly destructive enterprise.

“Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment…

Mahmoud Khalil, one of the most prominent leaders of US pro-Palestinian campus protests, pledged Saturday to keep campaigning after he was released from a federal detention center.

“Even if they would kill me, I would still speak for Palestine,” Khalil said as he was greeted by cheering supporters at Newark airport, just outside New York City.

Khalil, a legal permanent resident in the United States who is married to a US citizen and has a US-born son, had been in custody since March facing…

Thousands marched on Saturday outside a French trade fair, calling for an end to war profiteering and Israel’s offensive in Gaza in the latest demonstration to hit the event.

The long-planned protest at the Paris Air Show outside the French capital also comes as Israel’s war with Iran drags on into a ninth day, with Tehran threatening to hit back in force at Israel’s offensive against its arch-rival.

The presence of Israeli defence firms at the show has already become a bone of contention,…

A privately run aid organisation brought in to distribute food rations in war-hit Gaza last month with US and Israeli backing said Saturday that people in the Palestinian territory “desperately need more aid”.

The admission by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) that it has been unable to meet demand came after severe criticism from other aid groups and near-daily deadly shootings near distribution points.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Saturday that Israeli troops had killed at least 17…

Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters marched in London on Saturday calling for an end to the war in Gaza, amid concerns that the Iran-Israel conflict could spark wider regional devastation.

Protesters waved Palestinian flags, donned keffiyeh scarves and carried signs including “Stop arming Israel” and “No war on Iran” as they marched in the sweltering heat in central London.

“It’s important to remember that people are suffering in Gaza. I fear all the focus will be on Iran now,”…