Seyyed Jalal Maleki, the spokesman for Tehran’s fire department and safety services says the emergency was reported at 16:04 local time on Tuesday, prompting the dispat of firefighters from multiple stations to Khavarshahr.
Plumes of smoke billowing into the sky were visible from several kilometers away.
There are no reports of the possible toll and the cause of the incident.
Referring to the match between Iran and Japan on Saturday, Qalenoei pointed out that VAR was not in their favor, emphasizing a missed opportunity for the referee to review a critical scene in the Japan game.
He also raised concerns about the choice of an Arabic-speaking referee for the Iran-Qatar match in the semi-finals te be held on Wednesday, urging AFC to respond.
Refusing to engage in Wednesday’s referee discussion due to his technical role, the gaffer highlighted the importance of fairness in football, stating, “Justice will be upheld as other countries and continents observe, given that football carries the motto of fair play and courageous play.”
The Iranian head coach also urged AFC to explain the rationale behind these decisions, emphasizing the need for transparency and adherence to the principles of fair play.
Speaking at a televised press briefing broadcast live from the Yemeni capital city of Sana’a on Tuesday, Yahya Saree stated the Houthis struck the US-owned Star Nasia bulk carrier and British Morning Tide general cargo ship in the Red Sea.
He noted that both ships were struck with “appropriate” naval missiles.
Saree went on to note that the missile attacks came in support of the oppressed Palestinian population in Gaza and in response to joint American-British aggression against Yemen.
He stressed that all US and British warships in the Red Sea and the Arab Sea are legitimate targets for Yemenis within the legitimate right to respond to any act of aggression, defend their homeland and nation, and in reaffirmation of their staunch support of Palestine.
The senior Yemeni military figure also emphasized that his country’s military will continue its anti-Israel operations until the Tel Aviv regime halts its onslaught against Gaza and lifts all restrictions on supplies of humanitarian aid for its residents.
Yemenis have declared their open support for Palestine’s struggle against the Israeli occupation since the regime launched a devastating war on Gaza on October 7 after the territory’s Palestinian resistance movements carried out a surprise retaliatory attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, against the occupying entity.
Yemeni forces have said that they won’t stop their attacks until unrelenting Israeli ground and aerial offensives in Gaza, which have killed at least 27,500 people and wounded another 67,000 individuals, come to an end.
Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi has said that it is “a great honor and blessing to be confronting America directly.”
The attacks have forced some of the world’s biggest shipping and oil companies to suspend transit through one of the world’s most important maritime trade routes. Tankers are instead adding thousands of miles to international shipping routes by sailing around the continent of Africa rather than going through the Suez Canal.
General Saeed Montazer al-Mahdi said on Tuesday that the two terrorists were identified in a sophisticated operation and were arrested before they could carry out their plot inside Iran.
“The members of the team were about to carry out terrorist acts, but they were identified in collaboation between intelligence communities before the sabotage, and were arrested by the devoted police officers in a technical and complex operation,” General Montazer Al-Mahdi said.
The arrests came a day after two gunmen involved in the assassination of a police officer in the southeastern province, bordering Pakistan, were arrested.
Terrorists often sneak into Sistan and Baluchestan province from neighboring Pakistan to carry out terror operation inside Iran.
Mahdi Mohammad Nabi, the Iranian national team’s caretaker, said on Tuesday, “According to the regulations of this edition of the AFC Asian Cup competitions, 8 percent of the seats of the stadium have to be allocated to the Iranian Football Federation.”
“Unfortunately, for whatever reason that is not acceptable for us, they have allocated four percent to Iran, which means 1000 people,” he added.
The Iranian football team, popularly known as Team Melli, defeated Japan 2-1 in the quarterfinals on Saturday and has to play against Asian Cup holder and host Qatar.
Also on Saturday, Qatar defeated Uzbekistan on penalties after a 1-1 draw to find a place in the semis.
In the other semifinal match, Australia’s conqueror South Korea will go up against Jordan for a spot in the final.
His comments came after US military forces struck more than 85 targets in Iraq and Syria overnight Friday. The airstrikes were carried out over 30 minutes, using more than 125 precision munitions.
The US claims the strikes came in response to a drone attack that killed several American soldiers at a remote base in Jordan.
“The US military action is illegitimate, illegal, and unjustified, and blatantly violates the basic norms and principles of international law, [and] the United Nations Charter, particularly Paragraph 4 of Article 2 of the Charter,” Iran’s ambassador said, adding, “It is a flagrant breach of Iraq’s and Syria’s territorial integrity, sovereignty, and political independence.”
He also strongly condemned “the joint military actions of the United States and the United Kingdom against Yemen, which constitute an obvious violation of the United Nations Charter and international law.”
Iravani noted that such illegal strikes target “civilians and vital infrastructure, [and] jeopardize regional peace and security, as well as posing a serious threat to international peace and security.”
The Iranian ambassador asserted that “the United States continues to occupy Syrian territory, loot Syrian property and resources, and support separatists and terrorist groups” in the country while “people in Syria are experiencing economic hardship and a humanitarian crisis as a result of the United States’ hostile and harmful actions”.
He said following its unlawful military intervention in Iraq in 2003, “the US and the so-called coalition ignored Iraqis’ opinions and aspirations and continued [their] illegal activities and presence under the guise of fighting terrorism”.
“All these measures violate international law, the UN Charter, and related Security Council resolutions,” Iravani added.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Iran’s UN ambassador touched on anti-Israeli and anti-US operations by various resistance groups across the West Asia region.
He said, “All of the resistance groups in the region are independent and their decisions and actions are motivated by their legitimate rights under international law, which include ending the illegal presence of the US in their territories, stopping the genocide in Gaza, and ending the occupation of the Palestinian territories.”
“Therefore, any attempt to attribute these actions to Iran or its Armed Forces is misleading, baseless, and unacceptable,” Iravani added.
“It is evident to everyone that the root causes of the current situation in the region are occupation, aggression, and the continued genocide and horrific atrocities [that are being] committed by the Israeli regime and fully supported by the US against innocent Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,” he continued.
Iravani said Iran believes that “the only solution to end the conflict in the region and prevent the spillover of the war is … to force Israel to stop the genocide in Gaza, to establish an immediate ceasefire [there], to end the presence of US forces in Iraq and Syria, and to exert pressure to end the occupation of Palestinian territories by the Israeli regime”.
During the Hamas-led attack on towns near the Gaza frontier, an Israeli tank shelled a house in Kibbutz Be’eri, killing at least 12 Israelis, two survivors previously claimed.
The commander who led the fighting in Be’eri, Barak Hiram, said he ordered the shelling of the house knowing there were Israeli citizens inside. He added the group of Israelis were being held hostage by Palestinian fighters and that negotiations with them had failed.
The Israeli military had planned to probe the incident once the war was over. However, as fighting decreased, the army decided to launch the investigation now, Haaretz reported.
An investigation published by the New York Times has recently outlined in-depth details of Hamas’ attack on Kibbutz Be’eri in early October. The investigation was based on testimonies, text messages, video footage and phone recordings.
The report found that nearly 100 civilians were killed during the attack, constituting around one in ten people living in the kibbutz.
It recounts an incident in which a number of Israeli captives being held by Palestinian fighters in Be’eri were killed during crossfire with Israel’s military, in what was described by the report as “a delayed and chaotic military response”.
The Israeli military launched a rocket-propelled grenade at the house, according to witnesses.
Hiram recalled telling his men: “Break in, even at the cost of civilian casualties”.
Around 1,200 Israelis were killed in total during Hamas’ attack on 7 October, the majority of whom were civilians.
“We decisively condemn this new brazen act of aggression of the US against a sovereign state, creating further risks and increasing the level of instability in a region that is already on fire,” Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia told a UN Security Council meeting on threats to international peace and security.
The Council convened for an urgent meeting at the request of Russia as the war in Gaza continues to fan tensions across the Middle East, with potentially dramatic consequences for regional peace and security.
The meeting came against the backdrop of a series of airstrikes by the US on targets in Iraq and Syria on Friday against “Iranian-backed militias” in Iraq and Syria after a suicide drone attack killed three American troops in Jordan.
According to US military officials, more than 85 targets were struck in Iraq and Syria, including command, control and intelligence centers, munition and logistics supplies and rocket, drone and missile sites.
Nebenzia said the actions of the US in the region were “just the latest in a litany of unlawful and irresponsible attacks” against the backdrop of an unprecedented escalation of violence.
“The massive airstrikes by the US once again demonstrated to the world the aggressive nature of US policy in the Middle East and Washington’s complete disregard for international law,” he added.
Stressing that the US was “deliberately” trying to drag the largest countries of the Middle East, including Iran, into a regional conflict, he called on the international community to “unconditionally” condemn the reckless actions of Washington and its allies, which have violated the sovereignty of both Syria and Iraq.
Addressing the Council, China’s Ambassador Zhang Jun said the action taken by the US was creating “new turmoil” in the Middle East.
“History has shown that using military means would not provide any solutions to the problems roiling the Middle East,” he stated, adding the action by the US would only exacerbate a “vicious cycle of tit-for-tat.”
The ambassador also called on all countries concerned to stop acting out of self-interest.
“We are standing at a critical crossroads.”
Syria’s UN Ambassador Koussay Aldahhak said Syria completely rejects all the “pretexts and lies” that the US administration is trying to use to justify its aggression, which aims to protect its agents in the region.
“This aggression constitutes a threat to regional and international peace and security and is a blatant violation of international law, international humanitarian law and the principles and purposes of the United Nations.”
“Therefore, it should be condemned and denounced by the Security Council,” Aldahhak added.
Deputy Permanent Representative of Iraq Abbas Kadhom Obaid Al-Fatlawi said the crises in the Middle East were all linked.
Iraq condemns and categorically rejects any attack on its territory based on “futile and illogical pretexts”, he tressed.
“We reject all type of attacks against our military bases, which are a violation of our sovereignty and security. This Security Council must protect the territorial integrity of all states,” he added.
Addressing reports on Monday evening, Ahmad Vahidi stressed the importance of the parliamentary polls as a ‘symbol of democracy’ in the country.
He said, “The fate of the country will be decided for four years with the elections, and the planning of the country will be determined with the railway tracks set for the new parliament.”
Iranians will go to the polls on March 1 to choose both the lawmakers for the new parliament and members of the Assembly of Experts.
Vahidi said preparations are underway for 90,000 polling stations, including 50,000 mobile polls.
The interior minister also said opinion polls show a surging trend of the voter turnout for the upcoming elections.
His comments come as former president Hassan Rouhani and former intelligence minister Mahmoud Alavi are among those who have been disqualified to run for the
Assembly of Experts elections.
Under the Iranian Constitution, the Assembly of Experts is tasked with selecting the Leader, supervising his performance and if necessary, replacing him.
The reformist camp have earlier voiced disillusionment with the disqualification of their candidates, but have categorically ruled out banning the votes.
“Our goal is an absolute victory over Hamas. We will kill the Hamas leadership, therefore we must continue to act in all areas of the Gaza Strip. The war must not end before that. It will take time — months not years,” he said at at a faction meeting of his party, Likud, on Monday.
In the past, Israel has made no secret of its intention to continue hunting Hamas leaders long after the war is over. Netanyahu has also previously stressed that the war against Hamas “will be a long fight”.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also claimed on Monday Hamas’ leadership, including its top official in Gaza, is “on the run” as Israel’s military pushes further south in the Palestinian enclave.
The Israeli military operation in the southern city of Khan Younis will “soon achieve its goals” as troops advance southward on Rafah — Hamas’ last remaining stronghold, Gallant said in a televised briefing.
“Our forces operate on the ground in most of the territory of the Gaza Strip,” he added.
Israel has publicly accused Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar of being the “mastermind” behind the group’s October 7 attack — though experts say he is likely one of several — making him one of the key targets of its war in Gaza.
Gallant claimed Monday that Sinwar had no contact with his fighters and was forced to flee from one hideout to another with the Israeli military in close pursuit.
“He is not leading the forces; he is busy with his own personal survival. He became, instead of the head of Hamas, a fugitive terrorist,” Gallant continued.
Gallant also claimed that Israeli forces had killed or seriously wounded about half of Hamas’ fighters in Gaza.
Husam Badran, a Qatar-based spokesperson for Hamas, denied Gallant’s claims, stressing they were an attempt to raise Israeli morale.
Hamas fighters were “still operating in all areas” of Gaza, according to a statement from Badran published by Hamas media outlet Al Aqsa late Monday.
Israel has launched a military onslaught on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas in which Tel Aviv says nearly 1,200 Israelis were killed.
At least 27,500 Palestinians have been killed and 66,835 others injured in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7. The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
© All Content by IFP News ( Iran Front Page ) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
