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Iran says to hold joint naval drill with Russia, China in near future

Iran Navy

Speaking at a naval base in Iran’s northern city of Manjil, Rear Admiral Irani said the joint exercise will be held before the end of the current Iranian year (March 19).

The commander noted that a number of other countries have also been invited to attend the joint drill.

The war game will be held with the purpose of ensuring regional security and fulfilling common interests, he added.

In March 2023, the Iranian, Chinese and Russian naval forces staged the 2023 Marine Security Belt war game in the northern parts of the Indian Ocean.

It was the fourth joint exercise among them in recent years.

Nearly 9,800 aid trucks have entered Gaza since start of war: Red Crescent

Gaza War
Trucks carrying humanitarian aid from King Salman humanitarian aid and relief center (KSrelief), line up as they prepare to cross Rafah crossing port to Gaza Strip.

Between Oct. 21 and Feb. 1, nearly 7,000 aid trucks entered from the Rafah border crossing and 2,884 trucks entered from the Karem Abu Salem crossing, it said on Sunday.

The aid materials, including food, water, medical supplies and medicine, were distributed to the UN agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), the Health Ministry, the Ministry of Social Affairs and hospitals.

The number of aid trucks entering Gaza during this period corresponded to approximately 95 trucks per day, it added.

Before Israel’s attacks, approximately 600 trucks were entering Gaza daily.

Israel has launched a deadly offensive on Gaza following an Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas, killing at least 27,365 Palestinians and injuring 66,630 others, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

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.

Zelensky says planning a “serious” overhaul of Ukraine’s leadership team

Zelensky

Tensions between the Ukrainian president and his top general have grown since last year, with numerous reports over the past week suggesting Zaluzhny would soon be relieved of his post. In the interview published on Sunday, Zelensky addressed the rumors for the first time.

“When we talk about this, I mean a replacement of a series of state leaders, not just in a single sector like the military. I’m thinking about this replacement, but you can’t say ‘here we replaced a single person’,” he explained, arguing that “if we want to win, we must all push in the same direction, convinced of victory”

“Definitely a reset, a new beginning is necessary.”

“I have something serious in mind, which is not about a single person but about the direction of the country’s leadership,” Zelensky concluded, without elaborating further on any possible personnel shakeup within his administration.

The president appeared to be alluding to a lack of “positive energy” in his top general, who on Thursday called for a “wholesale redesign of battlefield operations – and the abandoning of outdated, stereotypical thinking” in an op-ed published by CNN. Zelensky has publicly criticized Zaluzhny’s characterization of the conflict as a “stalemate” in a November interview.

However, in Sunday’s interview, Zelensky acknowledged to TG1 that there was indeed a “stalemate” in the “war on the ground”, even echoing Zaluzhny’s call for “modern technical means” to continue the fight against Russia.

“Ammunition is not enough”, he claimed.

Zelensky reportedly warned US President Joe Biden’s administration in advance that he planned to fire Zaluzhny, news the White House took in stride, showing neither support nor opposition, according to inside sources who spoke to the Washington Post.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed to CBS on Sunday that it was not Washington’s place to “get embroiled” in “personnel decisions” like Zaluzhny’s dismissal.

“That is not something the US government should be weighing in on one way or the other,” Sullivan told the network.

Zelensky has yet to formally dismiss the general and has not yet even chosen a replacement for Zaluzhny, according to an unnamed senior official at the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense cited by the Post. Sources told the news outlet Zelensky was searching for a suitable new position for his military commander in the hope of “tempering public disapproval” over his ouster.

Leader’s advisor dismisses Trump claims on Iran’s targeting of US base in Iraq

Donald Trump

Ali Shamkhani, who is also a former secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, was quoted by Nour News website on Monday as saying that the claim by Trump made at various campaign events in recent months are “completely false.”

“After the US terrorist move in assassinating General Soleimani, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and other resistance commanders, based on a consensus, we decided to carry out a large-scale and completely surprise missile operation against the Ain al-Asad base, which is the most important American base in Iraq, to inflict destruction,” Shamkhani said.

He also stated that due to Iran’s close relations with Iraq and the ‘neighborly considerations,’ the former Iraqi prime minister was informed half an hour before the operation to give the country sufficient time for precautionary measures.

He said, “Making false statements by a person like Trump, who is known for lying, and who has now re-entered the presidential election scene in the US, despite serious political, economic, and corruption cases, is not strange.”

The US media, like the CNN, have also debunked Trump’s claims that Iran’s missiles missed the base.

The Washington Post noted in its own fact check last year that several Iranian missiles hit the al-Asad base Iran targeted in the retaliatory attack.

US says Iraq should do more to combat militia groups that attack American soldiers

Us Troops

In an interview on “Fox News Sunday” with Shannon Bream, Kirby reaffirmed the United States’s commitment to respond to any attack on US troops “as aggressively as we need to” when asked about the Iraqi government’s criticism of the US retaliatory strikes on Friday.

“We’ve got to take seriously the attacks on our troops and our facilities. In this case, in Jordan, three Americans were killed, three troops, three families now are grieving,” Kirby told Bream.

“The president’s not going to sit back and idly just take that. We’re going to respond. We’re going to respond as aggressively as we need to,” he added.

Kirby would not get into the details about what the exact discussions were between the United States and the Iraqi governments but stated, “There were appropriate notifications and discussions with the Iraqi government. I’ll leave it at that.”

He called on the Iraqi government to assist the US.

“But we also want to see the Iraqi government move with more alacrity to help us rid the threat of these militia groups on Iraqi soil. That should be — they should consider a violation of their sovereignty, that these groups are operating with some manner of impunity on Iraqi soil,” Kirby continued.

The interview comes after the US military began its first round of airstrikes on armed groups in Syria and Iraq on Friday, in response to an attack on a base in Jordan that killed three American troops and injured about 40 others.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan also stated Sunday that the US intends to continue launching strikes against the Iranian-backed groups.

“It began with strikes on Friday night, but that is not the end of it. We intend to take additional strikes and additional action to continue to send a clear message that that the United States will respond when our forces are attacked, or people are killed,” Sullivan said Sunday on NBC News’s “Meet the Press”.

Former FM Zarif: Surging migration from Iran can’t be reversed by officials’ hopes, dreams

Javad Zarif

Addressing a gathering at the Iranian House of Humanities Thinkers on migration of experts and professionals from Iran, Zarif said the problem started after the ‘people-oriented’ policies set in the post-Islamic Revolution era were replaced by ‘tool-oriented’ policies.

The former top diplomat said, “Development should be human-centered and human beings are at the center of development,” reminding, “Those who resisted during the (Iran-Iraq) war, those ones who resisted against the (US-led Western) sanctions, and those who prevented the 2002 war in Iraq from coming to Iran were the people, not the tools.”

Zarif noted that the country saw signs of reverse immigration of the elites in 2015, giving the credit partly to former vice president for science and technology Sorena Sattari, under then president Hassan Rouhani, ‘only by creating hope’ among the Iranian migrants.

“Unfortunately, with a consistent policy, we build up despair and humility in this country,” he said.

Although no official figures have been released on the migration from Iran, some reports indicate that the country ranks high in terms of the number of migrants.

Israeli war leaves 110k Gazans killed, injured or missing: Report

Gaza War

“Approximately 110,000 Palestinians are reported killed, missing and injured, leaving many suffering long-term disabilities four months into Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip,” Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said in a statement issued on Sunday.

According to Euro-Med’s report, the figure includes a total of 35,096 fatalities — 32,220 of whom civilians — including 12,345 children, 7,656 women, 309 health personnel, 41 civil defense personnel, and 121 journalists.

The death toll provided by the rights organization encompasses those who have been trapped beneath the debris of buildings hit by Israeli air and artillery strikes for more than 14 consecutive days and are, therefore, presumed dead.

Euro-Med noted the number of those wounded throughout the Israeli war of aggression stands at 67,240, including hundreds who have suffered critical injuries.

Euro-Med’s report added that the Israeli atrocities continue unabated despite an interim ruling that was issued by the International Court of Justice last week, obliging the regime to take all possible measures to prevent genocide against Gaza’s population.

“Within a week of the International Court of Justice’s ruling, the Israeli army killed over 1,048 Palestinians—most of them civilians—and injured over 1,800 others, and carried out 108 massacres,” the rights organization said.

It added that continuation of the regime’s crimes is “against international humanitarian law, [and] the 1949 Geneva Convention, and amounts to war crimes according to the Rome Statute, which governs the International Criminal Court.”

The rights organization also urged the international community to act swiftly “to impose a binding executive decision on the International Court of Justice’s ruling, establish an immediate ceasefire [in Gaza], [and] guarantee the safety of civilians and their return to their homes”.

Throughout its unrelenting aggression, the Israeli military has uprooted about two million Palestinians, approximately 90 percent of the total population of Gaza, from their homes and residential areas amid a lack of safe shelters, the Euro-Med said.

It added that the regime’s displacement spree has led to complete destruction of 79,200 housing units and partial damage to 207,000 units.

“…Israel has targeted more than 245 square kilometers, [which accounts for] 67 percent of the entire Gaza Strip. This includes all of Gaza City and the Strip’s northern regions, where residents have been ordered to evacuate since late October. The majority of them have not yet been able to return; neither have residents of large areas in the central and southern sections of the Strip that Israel had designated as safe areas.”

Elsewhere in its report, the rights organization warned that the Israeli military aggression is apparently aimed at re-occupying Gaza — from which the regime withdrew in 2005.

“Israel continues to escalate its military assaults against Palestinian civilians in an apparent attempt to expand its territory to include the entire Gaza Strip [by] uprooting the vast majority of the Strip’s population in violation of international law. This likely amounts to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide,” the rights group stated.

It also emphasized that the regime is deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure in order to cause as many casualties, material losses, and as much general destruction as possible as a form of retaliation and collective punishment.

According to Euro-Med Monitor’s team, the facilities targeted by Israel during its ongoing attacks include 334 schools, 1,720 industrial facilities, 183 health facilities, 478 mosques, three churches, 171 press offices, and 199 archaeological sites.

Russia says EU threats against Moscow serving own interests

Kremlin

On February 1, EU leaders signed off on a €50-billion ($54-billion) package of economic aid to Ukraine. This followed months of back-and-forth on the matter.

“They [politicians in EU countries] need to continue to construct an image of the enemy, to do it in a textured, prominent way, in order to justify the increase in spending. And, you see, the allocation of 50 billion – on the one hand, for the EU this amount is not a very big deal, but on the other hand it is still noticeable against the backdrop of the crisis markers manifesting themselves in the economies of EU countries,” Peskov told journalist Pavel Zarubin on Sunday.

This effort to distract populations from domestic problems with talk about a purportedly looming conflict with Russia has been undertaken by multiple countries of the bloc, the spokesman pointed out. In particular, Germany has clearly taken such an approach to hide the internal issues it has been facing lately, he suggested.

“Germany is an economic engine of the EU, and now whole sectors of the German economy are losing their attractiveness and competitiveness. And, of course, against this backdrop, it is best to divert attention by creating some kind of enemy and maintaining its image. And for this there is probably no one better than [Russia] in their opinion,” the spokesman explained.

In recent months, senior officials from various EU countries have been urging their citizenry to brace for an allegedly inevitable conflict with Russia, with governments redirecting funding towards their militaries. Berlin has actively taken such a route, adopting a new military and strategic doctrine late last year that aims for “war-ready” forces. At the time, Chancellor Olaf Scholz claimed the country needed “a long-term, permanent change of course”, with the goal of creating “a powerful Bundeswehr” actually able to fight in the war that has been flagged as imminent.

Russia has repeatedly dismissed claims that it is somehow seeking to attack any EU or NATO countries, describing such allegations as “absurd”. Late last year, for instance, Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated that Moscow has “no interest… geopolitically, economically or militarily… in waging war against [the US-led NATO bloc]”.

US, UK carry out more air raids on Yemen

US UK Attack Yemen

According to a Yemeni military source, American and British aircraft carried out as many as 15 strikes against the western province of Hudaydah as well as Sa’ada province in the country’s northwest, Yemen’s al-Masirah television network reported Sunday evening.

According to the military source, the attacks included eight raids on Ras Issa district and three strikes on al-Zaydiyah district in al-Hudaydah province.

Four more raids were also conducted by American and British aircraft in the eastern part of Sa’ada province.

Over the past several weeks, the US and the UK have conducted scores of aerial assaults against various parts of Yemen in response to the country’s missile and drone strikes on vessels owned by Israel or heading to ports in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The Yemeni Armed Forces have announced that they are staging the strikes in support of the Palestinian people in the besieged Gaza Strip, who have been under Israel’s US- and UK-backed war of genocide for four months now. The Israeli military aggression has so far claimed the lives of over 27,300 people, mostly women and children, while injuring more than 66,600 others.

The new strikes came after spokesman of the Yemeni Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Saree said earlier on Sunday that the aggressor countries had conducted 48 air raids on the Yemeni provinces of Sana’a, Hudaydah, Sa’ada, al-Bayda, Ta’izz and Lahij.

“Such attacks will not deter the Yemeni forces and nation from keeping up their support for Palestinians in the face of the Zionists’ occupation and crimes,” he stated, warning, “The raids by the aggressors will not go unanswered.”

The Yemeni Armed Forces have vowed to keep up their strikes in support of Gaza as long as the Israeli regime continues its genocidal war and a concomitant siege on the Palestinian territory.

US Senate unveils $118bn funding bill for Ukraine, Israel

US Senate

US President Joe Biden and Democratic and Republican leaders in the Senate have been pushing to resupply Ukraine with wartime aid but have faced resistance from conservative Republicans who have insisted on measures to tackle illegal immigration at the border with Mexico.

The bill announced on Sunday would provide $60bn in aid to Ukraine, whose efforts to push back Russia’s invasion have been hampered by a halt in US shipments of ammunition and missiles.

The deal would also provide $14.1bn in military aid to Israel: $2.44bn to address security in the Red Sea, where Yemen’s Houthi rebels have launched dozens of attacks on commercial shipping, and $4.83bn to support partners in Asia where tensions have spiked between China and Taiwan.

Under the deal, the president would be granted new powers to immediately expel migrants if authorities become overwhelmed with asylum claims and applications at the border would be subject to quicker and tougher enforcement.

Illegal immigration is expected to be a key issue during the presidential election in November, with Republican frontrunner Donald Trump campaigning heavily on claims of an “invasion” from the southern border.

Biden on Sunday urged Congress to “swiftly pass” the deal so he could sign it into law, warning Republicans who have expressed alarm about the security of the border that “doing nothing is not an option”.

“Now we’ve reached an agreement on a bipartisan national security deal that includes the toughest and fairest set of border reforms in decades. I strongly support it,” Biden said in a statement.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer stated he would aim to hold a vote on the bill on Wednesday, describing the package as a “monumental step towards strengthening America’s national security abroad and along our borders”.

“This is one of the most necessary and important pieces of legislation Congress has put forward in years to ensure America’s future prosperity and security,” Schumer added in a statement.

Despite the backing of top Democrats, the bill faces uncertain prospects in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, where Republicans hold a majority.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Sunday that the Senate deal would be “dead on arrival” if it reaches his Republican-controlled chamber.

“I’ve seen enough. This bill is even worse than we expected, and won’t come close to ending the border catastrophe the President has created,” Johnson wrote on X.

“As the lead Democrat negotiator proclaimed: Under this legislation, ‘the border never closes’.”

The bill could also face resistance from some Democrats over its provision of more military aid for Israel, which is under mounting international pressure over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, has called for the removal of $10bn earmarked for offensive weaponry while keeping funds for defensive systems.