Saudi-led coalition claimed it targeted a military storage facility run by Houthi rebels
More than 100 people are believed to have been killed in an airstrike by the Saudi-led military coalition on a detention centre in Yemen, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The coalition said it had targeted a facility run by Houthi rebels that “stores drones and missiles”, but the rebels said the attack had levelled a building they used as a prison.
Continue reading...Tensions between Israel and Iran threaten to drag Lebanon into renewed conflict
Hezbollah has launched an attack on Israeli military positions and drawn heavy return fire in the first cross-border clash for years between the longstanding foes.
Israel’s military said “two or three anti-tank missiles” had been fired from southern Lebanon toward an army base and a military ambulance but had caused no deaths or injuries..
Continue reading...The US has blacklisted the Iranian tanker Adrian Darya, saying it had “reliable information” it was transporting oil to Syria in defiance of wide-ranging sanctions on the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
Related: Trump tweets photo of Iran rocket site and says US 'not involved' in failed launch
Continue reading...Donald Trump’s offer to talk peace with Iran sent a shiver of alarm through Israel’s political and security establishment last week. With a too-close-to-call general election looming on 17 September, Benjamin Netanyahu is counting on his hardline anti-Tehran alliance with Washington – and fear of conflict – to win him crucial votes. A North Korea-style Trump tryst with Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, was the prime minister’s “ultimate horror scenario”, one analyst noted.
Yet after a recent series of escalatory strikes against Iran-linked forces in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria, Israel’s voters may reflect that if one thing is worse than peace with Iran, it’s war with Iran. Trump’s policy of “maximum pressure” on Tehran, strongly backed by Netanyahu and fellow Tel Aviv hawks, is placing Israel squarely in the firing line. The intensifying confrontation is also sucking in regional states, notably Iraq.
Continue reading...US president’s release of high resolution photo raises concerns over disclosure of classified information
President Donald Trump has released a photograph of an apparently failed Iranian rocket launch and said the US had nothing to do with it, prompting concerns he disclosed classified information.
Tehran has made no official comment on the indications from aerial photos that a rocket exploded on Thursday on the launch pad at the Semnan Space Center in northern Iran.
Continue reading...Decision to rule out UK and Hong Kong would be major blow to both financial centres
Saudi Arabia’s revived plans for a $2tn mega-listing of its state oil company may rule out the London Stock Exchange amid Britain’s rising political uncertainty, according to reports.
Saudi Aramco, the world’s most profitable company, may instead look to Japan’s Tokyo stock exchange to host the second phase of what would be the biggest public offering in history.
Continue reading...Aid efforts to help communities struggling to recover from drought compounded by continuing conflict, aggravated by al-Shabaab
Somalia faces a new humanitarian crisis with more than 2 million people now threatened by severe hunger, aid agencies say.
A further 3 million people are uncertain of their next meal, latest assessments suggest.
Continue reading...Signs Beijing may be importing Iranian oil as Trump’s two biggest foreign policy headaches converge
In early June, a Chinese-owned supertanker abruptly went dark in the Indian Ocean, the tracking system signalling its course apparently deactivated.
It was not the first ship to vanish from the monitors. The deactivation of transponders that generate a unique ID issued to ships by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has become increasingly familiar in recent weeks to the companies that track tankers.
Continue reading...Multiple attacks in region suggest drone warfare could extend to distant battlefields
A spate of drone attacks in Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and now Lebanon has raised the spectre of a new era of conflict in the region, due to the ability of stealth-like weapons to penetrate distant battlefields and hit closely guarded targets.
Drone warfare has become an instrumental factor in the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, now being fought over both sides of the Israeli border and in skies across the region.
Continue reading...Will Swanson has been photographing displaced people in southern Yemen and at the conflict frontline in Ad Dhale for two years, and describes some of the terrible conditions they endure
All photographs: Will Swanson/International Rescue Committee
Hamas declares state of emergency after suspected suicide bomb attacks
Explosions at two police checkpoints run by Hamas in Gaza have killed three officers and wounded several other Palestinians, in an apparent attack that has so far been unclaimed.
The Hamas-run interior ministry declared a state of emergency across the coastal enclave after the blasts, with authorities searching for perpetrators. Witnesses said the blasts appeared to have been suicide bombings, which are rare in Gaza and suggest an attack might have been carried out by a rival faction.
Continue reading...Hassan Rouhani says US must first lift sanctions before summit can take place
Iran’s president has back-pedalled on possible talks with Donald Trump, saying the US president must first lift sanctions imposed on Tehran, otherwise a meeting between the two would be a mere photo op.
Hassan Rouhani’s change of heart came a day after Trump said there was a “really good chance” the two could meet after a surprise intervention by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, during the G7 summit to try to bring Washington and Tehran together.
Continue reading...Aras Amiri and Anousheh Ashouri accused of spying as UK-Iran tensions rise
Iran has sentenced a British-Iranian man to 12 years in prison after accusing him of spying for Israel, while upholding the 10-year sentence of another UK resident.
A spokesman for the Iranian judiciary, Gholamhossein Esmaili, said on Tuesday that Anousheh Ashouri – the latest Iranian national with a western passport to be detained in Iran – had been sentenced to 12 years for ties to Israel’s Mossad spy agency.
Continue reading...Escaping poverty and drought, Ethiopians are making the dangerous sea crossing from Djibouti to Yemen and then on foot to the Saudi border. Many only realise they are crossing a conflict zone when they are picked up by gangs or militias
Photographs by Susan Schulman
Continue reading...Israel has also allegedly bombed Iraq recently, and claimed an attack on Syria
The UN called for maximum restraint on Monday night after a reported drone attack in a Hezbollah stronghold south of Beirut that was blamed on Israel.
A spokesman said the UN was unable to confirm the reports about Sunday’s incident, the latest in a series of attacks reported recently in the region that have stoked a proxy conflict raging between Israel and Iran across the Middle East. “The United Nations calls on the parties to exercise maximum restraint both in action and rhetoric,” he said. “It is imperative for all to avoid an escalation.”
Continue reading...Complaint against International Organization of Migration of ‘severe concerns’ over treatment of rescued migrants in Tunisia
The UN migration agency is the subject of a formal complaint after “severe concerns” were raised about its treatment of Bangladeshi migrants, including children.
A Tunis-based NGO, Forum Tunisien pour les Droits Economiques et Sociaux (FTDES), filed a complaint to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) this month, after migrants alleged officials and diplomats had put pressure on them to return home following weeks at sea.
Continue reading...The G7 thought it had solved Africa’s problems, but rising child poverty is a ticking time bomb
Time was when Africa dominated gatherings of the G7. In the period between two summits held in the UK – Birmingham in 1998 and Gleneagles in 2005 – the talk was of little else. There was public activism and it led to political action.
In part, that was because the big developed countries were enjoying a spell of low-inflationary growth and could look beyond their own problems to see a bigger picture. There was the occasional financial panic, but the G7 thought the problems of economic management had largely been solved and all that was needed was a bit of tinkering by technocratic central bankers.
Continue reading...Israeli prime minister says Iran has ‘no immunity anywhere’ after military says Tehran drone plot thwarted
The Israeli air force struck in Syria to prevent an Iranian force from launching an attack on the Jewish state with drones armed with explosives, the army said on Sunday.
Although Israel operates regularly in Syria, it rarely acknowledges its actions so swiftly, with its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, warning arch-foe Iran it had no immunity from his state’s military.
Continue reading...Analysts say sending a warship to patrol the Strait of Hormuz risks binding Australia to an incoherent and inflammatory US foreign policy
Australia’s announcement this week that it will join US-led freedom of navigation operations patrolling the Strait of Hormuz brings the number of American allies willing to contribute to America’s latest Middle East sortie to just three.
The increasing tensions in the narrow, but critical, strait are almost universally regarded as an avoidable, US-created crisis, the result of Washington tearing up the Iran nuclear deal.
Continue reading...Quantum Fertiliser, part of ASX-listed Incitec Pivot, says it is reviewing its operations to avoid a recurrence
The Australian multinational at the centre of an Iran sanctions scandal has offloaded a $15m shipment of Iranian cargo it says it was duped into taking, and is reviewing its operations to avoid a repeat.
A subsidiary of ASX-listed company Incitec Pivot took hold of a cargo shipment of fertiliser from Iran late last month, potentially risking a contravention of strict United States sanctions.
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