Why are ties between Russia and Israel ‘at lowest point since fall of the Soviet Union’?

Russia’s pro-Palestinian stance has inflamed tensions and underscored shift in relations since invasion of Ukraine

When Vladimir Putin spoke by telephone this month to Benjamin Netanyahu, their first conversation in weeks, the two leaders found themselves in an unusual dynamic, engaging not as partners but against the backdrop of historic tensions.

Once touting their friendly relationship – Netanyahu has used billboards showing himself next to Putin during election campaigning in Israel, even last year – the events of 7 October and Russia’s pro-Palestinian stance in the aftermath have brought a decisive schism in their ties.

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Iran says it executed four people it claims engaged in ‘sabotage’ for Israel

Three men and one woman hanged on charges of ‘moharebeh’ – or waging war against God

Iran has announced it has hanged four people it claims were engaged in “sabotage” on behalf of Israel.

They were executed in Iran’s north-west province of West Azerbaijan, the judiciary’s Mizan website reported.

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Biden orders airstrikes against Iran-backed militias after US troops wounded in Iraq

Three US soldiers were injured in a drone attack in northern Iraq, which Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah group claimed credit for

Joe Biden ordered the US military to carry out retaliatory airstrikes against Iranian-backed militia groups after three US service members were injured in a drone attack in northern Iraq.

A national security council spokesperson, Adrienne Watson, said one of the troops suffered critical injuries in the attack that occurred earlier on Monday. The Iranian-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups, under an umbrella of Iranian-backed militants, claimed credit for the attack that utilized a one-way attack drone.

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Israeli airstrike in Damascus kills high-ranking Iranian general, says Iran

Officials vow revenge after Sayyed Razi Mousavi, top member of Revolutionary Guards, reportedly killed

An Israeli airstrike in a Damascus neighbourhood on Monday killed a high-ranking Iranian general, Iranian state media has said.

Iranian officials and allied militant groups in the region vowed revenge for the killing but did not immediately launch any retaliatory strike.

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Iran says it has executed Mossad agent accused of spying for Israel

Unnamed person had handed classified information to a ‘Mossad officer’, official Irna news agency reports

An agent of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service, has been executed in Iran, the official Irna news agency reported.

“This person communicated with foreign services, specifically [the] Mossad, collecting classified information, and with participation with associates, provided documents to foreign services, including the Mossad,” it said.

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Australia considers US request to send warship to Red Sea as Houthis target shipping lanes

US navy request comes as Iran-aligned militia wade into the Israel-Hamas conflict, attacking vessels in commercial shipping lanes

The United States has asked Australia to send a warship to the Red Sea amid ongoing attacks on commercial shipping from Iran-backed militia.

The request, made recently, came from the US navy which wants the vessel to join an international taskforce, of which Australia is one of 39 member nations.

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Mahsa Amini’s name is ‘secret code for freedom’ says mother as EU presents award

Family of 22-year-old blocked from coming to France from Iran to collect posthumous Sakharov prize

The European parliament has presented a rights prize posthumously to Mahsa Amini, whose death in Iranian custody prompted mass protests, as her mother hailed her daughter’s name as “a secret code for freedom”.

The award is the latest international recognition for the women challenging Iran’s religious government, after the jailed activist Narges Mohammadi was given the Nobel peace prize.

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Yemen peace plan at risk over Houthi attacks in shipping channels, says US

Diplomats say the group’s threats to merchant vessels it claims are linked to Israel jeopardise the deal

The US has warned Houthi rebels that the peace plan for Yemen that was negotiated with Saudi Arabia and handed to the UN peace envoy will fail if attacks on merchant shipping off the coast of Yemen continue.

The French defence ministry said on Tuesday that the French frigate Languedoc intercepted and destroyed a drone that was threatening the Norwegian oil tanker Strinda in a complex aerial attack originating from Yemen on Monday evening.

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Gaza ceasefire negotiations unlikely to restart for weeks, diplomats say

Second pause may rely upon Israel proving it has captured or killed some of Hamas’s senior operatives

Diplomats at the annual Doha Forum conference in Qatar have said they are not expecting any reopening of Gaza ceasefire talks for some weeks and say their resumption may turn on Israel being able to point to the killing or capture of some of Hamas’s key leaders as a sign that its military operation has achieved its purpose.

The US believes this can be achieved as early as Christmas, but different timeframes are circulating.

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Sweden demands immediate release of EU diplomat from Iran jail

Johan Floderus has been held for more than 600 days and is facing trial on charges of spying for Israel

Sweden has demanded the immediate release of an EU diplomat who has been held in an Iranian jail for more than 600 days and is facing trial on charges of spying for Israel.

Ulf Kristersson, the Swedish prime minister, said on Monday that intensive work was under way to try to free Johan Floderus from Tehran’s Evin prison after Iran said on Sunday that a trial of the Swedish national had begun.

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Iran accuses Swedish EU diplomat of crime that carries the death penalty

Johan Floderus faces trial for ‘spying for Israel’ and ‘corruption on Earth’, one of Iran’s most serious offences

Iran has accused a Swedish EU diplomat held in a Tehran prison for more than 600 days of spying for Israel and “corruption on Earth”, a crime that carries the death penalty.

“Johan Floderus is accused of extensive measures against the security of the country, extensive intelligence cooperation with the Zionist regime and corruption on Earth,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online news agency said on Sunday.

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Iran stops Mahsa Amini’s family from travelling to receive human rights prize

Ban comes as jailed Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi begins new hunger strike before award ceremony

Iran has banned Mahsa Amini’s family from travelling to France to receive the EU’s top human rights prize on her behalf, as the family of the imprisoned Nobel peace prize winner Narges Mohammadi said she had begun a new hunger strike before Sunday’s award ceremony in Oslo.

In Mohammadi’s absence, her 17-year-old twin children, Ali and Kiana, will instead collect the award on her behalf, reading out a speech their mother smuggled out of her cell.

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‘Deeply worried’ father of Swedish EU diplomat calls for his release by Iran

Exclusive: Matts Floderus says his son Johan has been through ‘levels of hell in his nearly 600 days in detention

The father of a 33-year-old Swedish citizen and EU diplomat held in captivity in Iran for the past 18 months has revealed the “levels of hell” his son has experienced, as his family and employers step up their fight for his release.

Johan Floderus, who on Friday will have been incarcerated for 600 days in Tehran’s Evin prison with no routine consular visits or phone calls, has been on hunger strike at least five times, his father said.

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Two Revolutionary Guards members killed by Israeli strike in Syria, says Iran

Airstrikes near Damascus follow end to seven-day pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza Strip

Two Iranian Revolutionary Guards members serving as military advisers in Syria have been killed in an Israeli attack, Iranian state media has said.

Strikes near the Syrian capital of Damascus came less than 24 hours after the end of a seven-day pause in fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah ally Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

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Iran execution of child condemned by UN human rights office

Seventeen-year-old Hamidreza Azari was executed along with Milad Zohrevand, 22, as UN agency calls for moratorium on capital punishment

The United Nations said Tuesday it deplored the executions of a 17-year-old and a 22-year old in Iran and urged Tehran to immediately stop applying the death penalty.

The UN Human Rights Office said it was troubled by Friday’s executions. “The execution of Hamidreza Azari, who was accused of murder, is the first reported execution of an alleged child offender in Iran this year,” spokesperson Elizabeth Throssell said in a statement.

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Yemen’s Houthi rebels seize cargo ship in Red Sea, calling Israeli vessels ‘legitimate targets’

Israel says Galaxy Leader is British-owned and describes seizure as an ‘escalation in Iran’s belligerence’

Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they have seized what they called an Israeli cargo ship in the Red Sea, and warned that all vessels linked to Israel “will become a legitimate target for armed forces”.

Houthi forces would “continue to carry out military operations against the Israeli enemy until the aggression against Gaza stops and the ugly crimes … against our Palestinian brothers in Gaza and the West Bank stop”, said a spokesperson for the group, Yahya Saree, in a statement on X.

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Gulf states fend off call from Iran to arm Palestinians at Riyadh summit

Iranian president had travelled to Saudi Arabia to try to force a more interventionist approach to Israel-Hamas war

Gulf state leaders have fended off an Iranian-led attempt to call for arming the Palestinians and severing all diplomatic ties with Israel at an extraordinary summit in Riyadh, in a effort to retain control of the region’s diplomatic response to the Israeli assault on Gaza.

Tehran, however, insisted on Sunday that its influence remained through its allied “resistance factions” operating in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. In a further sign that it has no intention of jettisoning a military path, militants near the Israeli border with Lebanon fired anti-tank missiles towards Israel, hitting a number of civilians, according to the Israeli military.

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Israel kills seven more Hezbollah fighters on border with Lebanon

Iranian foreign minister says wider regional conflict inevitable as death toll among militant group rises to 78

Israel has killed a further seven Hezbollah fighters on its northern border with Lebanon, taking the total death toll of Hezbollah fighters to 78 since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October.

The rising death toll in Lebanon and the killing of 18 Palestinians by Israeli security forces in the West Bank on Thursday prompted the Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, to declare that a wider regional escalation of the conflict was inevitable.

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Spanish police investigate possible Iran link to shooting of former politician

Alejandro Vidal-Quadras told police from hospital bed of his links to exiled Iranian opposition, source says

The Spanish rightwing former politician Alejandro Vidal-Quadras is recovering in hospital after being shot in the face on a central Madrid street.

Police said they were not ruling out any theories for the attack on Thursday afternoon, including a possible link to the former European lawmaker’s ties with the Iranian opposition.

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Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has ‘constant worry’ about family in Iran

British-Iranian imprisoned in Iran for six years speaks of slow recovery from captivity and severance from her Iranian family

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has spoken of her “constant worry” about her family in Iran, saying she cannot return to the country where she was imprisoned for six years.

The British-Iranian also revealed how it had been “very hard to adjust” since returning to the UK in March 2022.

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