Iran Guards chief warns Israel of ‘bitter consequences’ after attack

Iran Guards chief warns Israel of ‘bitter consequences’ after attack
Iranians walk next to an anti-US and Israeli billboard with pictures of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff, Major General Mohammad Bagheri and US President Joe Biden and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on a street in Tehran. (File/Reuters)
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Updated 28 October 2024
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Iran Guards chief warns Israel of ‘bitter consequences’ after attack

Iran Guards chief warns Israel of ‘bitter consequences’ after attack
  • Salami said the Israeli attack was a sign of “miscalculation and helplessness”

TEHRAN: The top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has warned Israel it would face “bitter consequences” after its attack on Iranian military sites, local media said on Monday.
Guards chief Hossein Salami, quoted by Tasnim news agency, said Israel had “failed to achieve its ominous goals” with its air raids on Saturday.
Israel struck military sites in response to Tehran’s October 1 missile attack, itself retaliation for the killing of Iran-backed militant leaders and a Revolutionary Guards commander.
Salami said the Israeli attack was a sign of “miscalculation and helplessness” as Israel battles Tehran-aligned militants in Gaza and Lebanon.
“Its bitter consequences will be unimaginable” for Israel, Salami warned according to Tasnim.

Iran will ‘use all available tools’

On Monday Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said that Tehran will “use all available tools” to respond to Israel’s weekend attack on military targets in Iran,
Speaking at a weekly televised news conference, Baghaei said: “(Iran) will use all available tools to deliver a definite and effective response to the Zionist regime (Israel).”
The nature of Iran’s response depends on the nature of the Israeli attack, Baghaei added, without elaborating.
Scores of Israeli jets completed three waves of strikes before dawn on Saturday against missile factories and other sites near Tehran and in western Iran, Israel’s military said.
Iranian media have played down the severity of the Israeli operation, signalling what analysts say is the Islamic republic’s reluctance to escalate further.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday said that Israel’s attack which killed four soldiers “should neither be exaggerated nor minimized.”
He described it as a “miscalculation” on Israel’s part.
President Masoud Pezeshkian said: “We do not seek war but we will defend the rights of our nation and country.”
Iran “will give an appropriate response to the aggression of the Zionist regime,” Pezeshkian added.
Also on Sunday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated Iran’s “right to respond,” also saying that Tehran had “received indications” hours before Israel’s attack.
US news website Axios on Saturday said Israel has “sent message to Iran” ahead of its attack and warned it “against a response.”


Israel FM says ‘may have opportunity’ for Gaza hostage deal

Israel FM says ‘may have opportunity’ for Gaza hostage deal
Updated 9 sec ago
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Israel FM says ‘may have opportunity’ for Gaza hostage deal

Israel FM says ‘may have opportunity’ for Gaza hostage deal
JERUSALEM: Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Thursday that Israel may have “an opportunity now” to secure a deal for the release of its hostages held by Palestinian militants in Gaza.
Speaking in a video message from a meeting in Malta, he said: “We may have an opportunity now for a hostage deal. Israel is serious about reaching a hostage deal and I hope we can do this and do it as soon as possible.”

Palestinian security forces exchange gunfire with militants in West Bank

Palestinian security forces exchange gunfire with militants in West Bank
Updated 55 min 22 sec ago
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Palestinian security forces exchange gunfire with militants in West Bank

Palestinian security forces exchange gunfire with militants in West Bank

JENIN: Gunfights erupted in Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank on Thursday between militants and Palestinian security forces following the theft of vehicles belonging to the Palestinian Authority, according to AFP journalists in the city.
The intense exchanges of fire began around 9:30 PM (1930 GMT) and followed the deployment of members of the security forces around the Jenin refugee camp, which is adjacent to the city and a stronghold for armed groups in the territory, according to the journalist.
Witnesses reported that the Palestinian security forces set up roadblocks on routes leaving the camp.
Tensions were running high in Jenin earlier in the day after a group of armed men seized two vehicles belonging to the PA and paraded through the streets waving Islamic Jihad flags.
In a statement, General Anwar Rajab, spokesman for the security forces, said “a group of outlaws opened fire on the headquarters of the security services” and stole two vehicles.
He said the security forces would “recover the vehicles and hold accountable anyone who committed this act.”
Tensions between the PA and armed groups appear to have been exacerbated by recent arrests by the security forces.
At a press conference inside Jenin camp, Mahmud Abu Talal, spokesman for a collective of local armed groups, said the PA had “abandoned its people in the most difficult circumstances.”
He rejected the label of outlaws and accused the PA of “carrying out a continuous operation to undermine those who protect their people.”
Jenin has long been a bastion of Palestinian armed groups and was the focus of a major Israeli raid launched at the end of August.
Violence in the West Bank, already increasing, surged after the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023.
Israel has occupied the territory since 1967.


Syria war monitor says tens of thousands flee Homs as rebels advance

Syria war monitor says tens of thousands flee Homs as rebels advance
Updated 06 December 2024
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Syria war monitor says tens of thousands flee Homs as rebels advance

Syria war monitor says tens of thousands flee Homs as rebels advance

BEIRUT: Tens of thousands of members of President Bashar Assad’s Alawite minority community were fleeing Syria’s third city Homs Thursday, for fear that Islamist-led rebels would keep up their advance, a war monitor said.
Homs lies just 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Hama, which the rebels captured on Thursday.
Analysts said they expected the fighters led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) to push on toward the city, a key link between Damascus and the Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean coast.
Britain-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported “the mass exodus of Alawites from Homs neighborhoods, with tens of thousands heading toward the Syrian coast, fearing the rebel advance.”
Khaled, who lives on the city’s outskirts told AFP that “the road leading to (coastal) Tartus province was glowing... due to the lights of hundreds of cars on their way out.”
In April 2014, at least 100 people, mostly civilians, were killed in twin attacks in Homs that targeted a majority Alawite neighborhood.
The attacks were claimed by the Al-Nusra Front, the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda which now HTS leader Abu Mohammed Al-Jolani previously led.
Jolani announced his group had cut ties with the jihadists in 2016, and Al-Nusra was dissolved the following year, to be replaced by the key component of HTS.
Haidar, 37, who lives in an Alawite-majority neighborhood, told AFP by telephone that “fear is the umbrella that covers Homs now.”
“I’ve never seen this scene in my life. We are extremely afraid, we don’t know what is happening from one hour to the next,” he said.
He has managed to send his parents to Tartus, but has not found a car to take him and his wife “due to the high demand.”
“When we find a car, we’ll leave as fast as possible for Tartus.”
The province, which hosts a naval base operated by Assad ally Russia, has remained safe though 13 years of war.


Hezbollah leader says $77m allocated to Lebanon war displaced

Hezbollah leader says $77m allocated to Lebanon war displaced
Updated 06 December 2024
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Hezbollah leader says $77m allocated to Lebanon war displaced

Hezbollah leader says $77m allocated to Lebanon war displaced
  • “A total of $57 million has been paid,” covering 172,000 families, or some 75 percent of those registered, while the rest will receive a total of $20 million, Qassem added
  • He thanked Iran for “the generous support,” emphasising Hezbollah’s commitment to shelter and reconstruction

BEIRUT: Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said Thursday that his group and its backer Iran had allocated $77 million so far to Lebanese displaced by its war with Israel, with more to come.
“In November, Hezbollah decided to give a monetary gift — a gift from the Iranian people and Hezbollah — of between $300 and $400 for each family,” out of more than 233,000 families who registered for its assistance, Qassem said.
“A total of $57 million has been paid,” covering 172,000 families, or some 75 percent of those registered, while the rest will receive a total of $20 million, he added in a televised address.
Qassem thanked Iran for “the generous support,” emphasising Hezbollah’s commitment to shelter and reconstruction.
Israel stepped up its campaign in south Lebanon in late September after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges begun by Hezbollah in support of its ally Hamas following the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.
In a report released last month, the World Bank provided estimates for damage between October 8, 2023, and October 27, 2024, saying “the conflict has caused $5.1 billion in economic losses,” with damage to physical structures amounting to “at least $3.4 billion” on top of that.
It has also “damaged an estimated 99,209 housing units” — mainly in the south near the border with Israel — totalling $2.8 billion in damage, it said.
Eighty-one percent of damaged and destroyed houses are in the southern districts of Tyre, Nabatiyeh, Sidon, Bint Jbeil and Marjayoun, it said.
Qassem said that in addition to the $77 million already set aside, for “all those whose homes have been completely destroyed and cannot return to them” in Beirut and its southern suburbs, Hezbollah will pay “$14,000 over one year” to cover rent and furniture.
Those living in other areas will receive $12,000 for the same purpose, he added.
“Most of the amount will be offered in cash by the Islamic republic (of Iran) for shelter,,” Qassem said, calling on “brotherly Arab countries and friendly countries to contribute to the reconstruction.”
After Hezbollah and Israel went to war in 2006, Gulf countries led by Qatar helped with reconstruction, while Iran assisted with rebuilding bridges, roads and establishing service centers.


Syrian, Iraqi, Iranian foreign ministers to meet on Friday

Members of a joint force involving Hashed Al-Shaabi and Iraqi army standing guard at the Iraqi-Syrian border on December 5. (AFP
Members of a joint force involving Hashed Al-Shaabi and Iraqi army standing guard at the Iraqi-Syrian border on December 5. (AFP
Updated 06 December 2024
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Syrian, Iraqi, Iranian foreign ministers to meet on Friday

Members of a joint force involving Hashed Al-Shaabi and Iraqi army standing guard at the Iraqi-Syrian border on December 5. (AFP
  • Ministers will discuss situation in Syria after militants seize Aleppo and Hama

CAIRO: Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein will meet his Syrian and Iranian counterparts on Friday to discuss the situation in Syria, the Iraqi state news agency said on Thursday.
The Friday meeting comes after a whirlwind advance by Syrian militantss that started last week as they captured the main northern city of Aleppo from Iran-backed Syrian President Bashar Assad and then captured the city of Hama on Thursday.
Earlier on Thursday, Syrian foreign minister Bassam Sabbagh arrived in Iraq’s capital Baghdad, the Iraqi state news agency (INA) said, adding that the Iranian foreign minister is to arrive on Friday.
Some Iraqi fighters entered Syria early this week to support Assad, Iraqi and Syrian sources said. Iraq’s Iran-aligned Hashd Al-Shaabi paramilitary coalition has mobilized along the border with Syria, saying this was purely preventative in case of spillover into Iraq.