Category Archives: Pakistan

Suicide bombing near railway track in Pakistan kills at least 23 people

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Explosives-laden vehicle detonated as passenger train travelled through south-western city of Quetta

A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle near a railway track as a passenger train travelled through the south-western Pakistani city of Quetta, killing at least 23 people and wounding more than 70 others, officials have said.

The force of the explosion on Sunday caused two of the train cars to overturn and catch fire, sending thick black smoke into the air, according to footage shared online.

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Qatar sends mediators to Tehran in sign talks to reopen strait of Hormuz are reaching climax

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Iran has threatened to impose tolls on shipping, while US demands that Iran hand over its highly enriched uranium may be deferred. Is there an end in sight?

Qatar has rushed a team of mediators to Tehran in a sign that talks to open the strait of Hormuz, in return for the lifting of US sanctions and asset freezes, are reaching a climax.

The aim would be to sign a memorandum of understanding on the strait that would lead to 30 days of talks on Iran’s nuclear programme – so deferring discussion of the US demand that Iran hand over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

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Trump threatens ‘a big hit’ if Tehran does not make deal soon

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Renewed threat comes after US president said he was ‘an hour away’ from ordering a strike before pulling back

Donald Trump has again threatened Iran, saying the US may launch new attacks if Tehran continues to refuse the significant concessions he wants before a deal can be struck to end the Middle East war.

The US president said he had called off a fresh wave of strikes, which would have broken the ceasefire in place since early last month. “I was an hour away from making the decision to go today,” Trump said on Tuesday.

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US awaiting response from Iran over proposals for ceasefire deal, says Rubio

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Diplomatic efforts continue despite fighting in and around contested strait of Hormuz in recent days

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has said that Washington is expecting a response from Iran to its proposals for an interim deal to end the conflict in the Middle East, as Iran accused the US of breaching the increasingly fragile ceasefire announced last month.

In recent days there have been the biggest flare-ups in fighting in and around the contested strait of Hormuz since the informal truce began. The rise in violence followed Donald Trump’s announcement – then rapid pause – of a new naval mission aimed at opening the strategic waterway.

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Afghanistan says Pakistani strikes kill seven and wound 85 in first attack since peace talks

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Pakistan officials dismiss Afghan media reports and official statements about strikes on university in Kunar province as ‘blatant lie’

Mortars and missiles fired from Pakistan on Monday struck a university and civilian homes in north-eastern Afghanistan, killing seven people and wounding at least 85, Afghan officials said.

Pakistan denied the accusation of targeting a university.

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Trump cancels his envoys’ Pakistan trip for Iran ceasefire negotiations

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Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were to travel to Islamabad to attempt to revive ceasefire negotiations

Donald Trump said he has told US envoys not to go to Pakistan for more talks with Iran, shortly after Tehran’s top diplomat left Islamabad late on Saturday.

Trump added to Fox News: “They can call us anytime they want.” The White House on Friday said Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would travel to Pakistan’s capital to attempt to revive ceasefire negotiations.

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Iran foreign minister to embark on three-nation tour as US peace talks remain stalled

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Abbas Araghchi to visit Pakistan, Oman and Russia to see if talks can be reopened, with both sides still in stalemate

The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, is planning a tour of Pakistan, Russia and Oman in an effort to see if there is a basis to reopen peace talks that can end with a permanent US-Israeli commitment to cease its attacks on Iran, now one of Tehran’s key demands.

Araghchi is also likely to discuss a potential permanent new arrangement on governing the strait of Hormuz with Oman, which oversees the south of the strait.

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Tehran has ‘no plans to participate’ in talks with US, state media reports

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Reported response comes hours after Trump announced delegation to Islamabad, having earlier threatened to raze Iran’s infrastructure

Tehran is not currently planning to take part in new talks with the US, Iran state media reported on Sunday evening, hours after Donald Trump said he was dispatching negotiators to Islamabad.

“There are currently no plans to participate in the next round of Iran-US talks,” state broadcaster IRIB said, citing Iranian sources.

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JD Vance says talks failed due to Iran’s refusal to give up nuclear programme

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Iranian delegates in Islamabad say Washington needs to do more to win their trust if talks to resolve US-Iran conflict are to be successful

The US vice-president, JD Vance, has blamed the failure of marathon negotiations with Iran on the country’s refusal to abandon its nuclear weapons programme, while Iranian delegates have claimed Washington needs to do more to win their trust.

Vance, who left Islamabad on Sunday morning after 21 hours of talks with Iranian officials in the Pakistani capital, said his team had been very clear on its red lines, as hopes faded of a quick end to the conflict that began on 28 February.

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Islamabad prepares to host historic negotiations between Iran and the US

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In Pakistan’s capital, the army has been deployed, a public holiday has been declared and the streets are eerily empty

The streets of Islamabad were on strict lockdown as Pakistan’s capital prepared to play host to historic negotiations between Iran and the US that have dangled the promise of an end to war that has devastated the Middle East.

Even as the US-Iran ceasefire looked increasingly precarious, amid Israel’s continued bombardment of Lebanon and disputes over the terms of the talks, Pakistani officials insisted that the make-or-break peace negotiations would be going ahead over the weekend as planned.

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Netanyahu says there is no ceasefire in Lebanon as Israel launches fresh strikes

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Israeli PM says he will continue to attack Hezbollah ‘with full force’ after attacks that killed more than 300 people

Benjamin Netanyahu has said there is “no ceasefire in Lebanon” and Israel would continue “to strike Hezbollah with full force” as the country’s military launched fresh strikes.

The Israeli prime minister’s remarks and latest attacks on what the IDF called “Hezbollah launch sites” came shortly after Donald Trump said he had asked Netanyahu to be more “low-key” in Lebanon.

Later on Friday, a US state department official said Israel and Lebanon will hold talks in Washington next week. The announcement came as Netanyahu ordered his ministers to seek direct talks with Lebanon focused on disarming Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

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Thursday briefing: ​What difference will the ceasefire in the Middle East make, and will it hold?

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In today’s newsletter: The truce offers a reprieve after weeks of turmoil, ​b​ut unresolved disputes and competing interpretations ​of what was agreed, threaten to pull the region back toward crisis​ at a moment’s notice

Good morning. On Tuesday, just an hour before the deadline imposed by Donald Trump for Iran to reopen navigation in the strait of Hormuz or face a wave of “civilisation-ending” strikes, a two-week pause in hostilities was announced. After weeks of US and Israeli attacks on Tehran, and Iranian retaliation across the region, the news prompted relief among world leaders.

But unanswered questions are piling up. Israel’s assault on Lebanon continues, with Trump describing that conflict as a separate skirmish not included in the deal, despite Iran seeming to think otherwise. Overnight the US president has used social media to warn that “the ‘shootin’ starts,’ bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before” unless Tehran complies with “the real agreement”.

Middle East | The fate of the two-week ceasefire in the Iran conflict looked in peril as both sides gave divergent versions of what had been agreed. Iran halted the passage of oil tankers because of an alleged Israeli ceasefire breach.

Middle East | Israel carried out its largest attack on Lebanon since its war with Hezbollah began, killing at least 254 people and wounding 837.

Middle East | The UK has a “job” to help reopen the strait of Hormuz, Keir Starmer said on arriving in the Middle East, as Iranian reports said the key shipping route was closed again just hours after the supposed US-Iran ceasefire.

Ukraine | The US has ignored compelling evidence that Russia has been helping Iran to target US bases in the Middle East because it misguidedly “trusts” Vladimir Putin, according to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Education | Many English universities are taking excessive financial risks with borrowing and expansion of student numbers, threatening not only their own survival but that of others in the sector, the thinktank Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) has warned.

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How Pakistan secured ‘biggest diplomatic win in years’ with Iran ceasefire

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Analysts say Pakistani officials’ efforts led to breakthrough that has helped avert catastrophe, at least for now

Pakistan’s leaders had almost lost hope. After more than two weeks of frantic negotiations, phonecalls and diplomatic summits to try to end the US-Israeli war with Iran, it looked like the conflict might instead be escalating into Islamabad’s worst nightmare.

In a cabinet meeting held at about 5pm on Tuesday, Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, was morose. “We should brace ourselves for the impact of the war,” he told his cabinet ministers. “The situation has really become very bleak. The chance of peace has become dim.”

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Explainer: What is in Iran’s 10-point ceasefire plan and will the US agree to it?

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Two-week ceasefire comes after Trump spoke to Pakistan’s leaders, with China also believed to be exerting influence over Tehran

The US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire on Tuesday barely an hour before Donald Trump’s deadline to obliterate Iran was set to expire, with Tehran agreeing to temporarily reopen the strait of Hormuz.

Israel also agreed to the ceasefire, the White House said. As Trump announced he was suspending his plans to escalate attacks across Iran, the US president said he had received a 10-point proposal from Iran which was a “workable basis on which to negotiate”.

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Pakistan and China propose five-part peace plan for Middle East

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Foreign ministers Ishaq Dar and Wang Yi met in Beijing as Pakistan pushes for peacemaker role

Pakistan and China have released a joint five-part proposal for peace in the Middle East, after Pakistan’s foreign minister flew to Beijing on Tuesday to seek Chinese support for the country’s faltering efforts to negotiate an end to end the war.

The one-day meeting between Ishaq Dar and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, came as Pakistan continues to push for the role of peacemaker between the United States and Iran, even as the war shows little sign of relenting.

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Islamabad talks signal emergence of new four-nation bloc in Middle East

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Unlikely grouping of Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey steps up efforts to broker ceasefire and curb dominance of Iran and Israel

The meeting on Sunday of the foreign ministers of Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey in Islamabad not only represented the best hope for a ceasefire in Iran but was also the embryo for a new order designed to curb Israeli and Iranian dominance after the war.

Although the four nations have met as a quartet before, the one-day meeting of foreign ministers in Islamabad on Sunday was, in a way, the official opening ceremony of an initiative that is intriguing diplomats.

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Iran accuses US of plotting ground assault while publicly seeking talks

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Tehran says it will confront any land attack, as Houthi missiles fired at Israel signal further escalation in region

Iran has warned the US that it is prepared to confront any ground assault, accusing Washington of secretly planning a land attack while publicly seeking talks, as the war that has killed thousands of people and caused the biggest ever disruption to global energy supplies entered its second month.

As efforts to find a negotiated conclusion to hostilities inched forward with a meeting of regional powers in Pakistan, there were signs of further escalation over the weekend as Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis entered the conflict for the first time and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said his country was widening its invasion of southern Lebanon.

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WHO warns of health crisis ‘unfolding in real time’ across Middle East

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Hostilities should halt and healthcare facilities must be treated as ‘safe havens’, WHO’s regional chief has said

A total stop to hostilities in the Middle East is needed to halt a “health crisis unfolding in real time”, the World Health Organization’s chief in the region has said.

Hospitals and other healthcare facilities must be treated as “safe havens”, urged Dr Hanan Balkhy, the WHO’s regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean.

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Afghans search for loved ones at Kabul rehab centre hit by Pakistani airstrike

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Afghan Taliban government says more than 400 people killed and 265 injured, as Pakistan disputes target of strike

Families and friends of people who were being treated at a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul have continued to search for their loved ones two days after it was bombed by Pakistan, in the deadliest attack so far in the months-long conflict between the two countries.

The Afghan Taliban government has said more than 400 people were killed and 265 others wounded in the airstrike, which took place on Monday night as people and staff at the centre were praying days before the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

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How Pakistan’s people-led solar boom is easing impact of Middle East energy crisis

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Falling costs and government incentives make solar an attractive option for many, reducing need for gas

After prices of liquefied natural gas surged to record highs after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, millions of people in Pakistan were repeatedly left without electricity. An intense heatwave and gas shortages amid record-breaking prices resulted in power cuts across the country.

But people soon started to realise there was an alternative. The falling costs of solar panels and generous government incentives to feed excess power back to the grid made rooftop solar an attractive option.

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