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Saudi Arabia rules out Arab military intervention in Gaza conflict

By
IFP Media Wire
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Gaza War
Smoke rises over Gaza, as seen from Southern Israel, on November 10.

“Violence is not the answer, and we are not going to get drawn into this cycle of threat and counter-threatened violence and counter violence,” Farhan said when asked if Arab countries would consider threatening Israel with military intervention in Gaza.

The minister, who was speaking at a discussion hosted by the Wilson Center, led an Arab delegation that met in Washington on Friday with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss the Gaza conflict. Farhan was joined by his counterparts from Jordan, Qatar, and Egypt.

Farhan emphasized the need for a cessation of hostilities and immediate access for humanitarian aid.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi during the panel discussion stressed Israel has suffered a strategic defeat in the Gaza war.

“Israel is defying the whole world including the United States of America. Even Israel’s allies are saying abide by international law. It is not. It’s indiscriminately killing civilians. It’s denying people their right to food and water and medicine. It is taking 2.3 million Gazans hostage,” the minister emphasized.

The West’s position in the Gaza conflict, including of the United States, have been inadequate, Safadi stressed, adding that Arab countries disagree over the issue of not calling for a ceasefire.

The Joe Biden administration has repeatedly said it does not support a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict but backs humanitarian pauses. The United States has provided Israel with security assistance as it conducts military operations in Gaza to weed out Hamas following the October 7 attacks.

Putin says to run for Russian presidency in 2024 election

By
IFP Media Wire
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Russian President Vladimir Putin

The presidential election will be held between March 15 and March 17, 2024. The winner will be inaugurated in early May.

Putin made his remarks at a ceremony where he awarded Hero of Russia medals to servicemen who had taken part in the military operation against Ukraine.

Hero of the Donetsk People’s Republic Artyom Zhoga, who was recently named speaker of the Russian federal subject’s parliament, asked if he would run in 2024 and he replied in the affirmative.

The footage from the ceremony shows Zhoga shaking hands with Putin and telling him that the entire Donbass would like him to participate in the election.

“Thanks to your actions… we became free, we got the opportunity to choose… You are our president… We are your team, we need you, Russia needs you,” he stated.

Thanking him for the praise, Putin admitted that while he had “different thoughts at different times” on the subject, the time had come to make a final decision.

“I am going to run for President of the Russian Federation.”

Zhoga is the commander of the republic’s famous Sparta Battalion, which has been defending the DPR against Kiev’s forces since 2014. He took over the military post from his son Vladimir, who died at the age of 28 in 2022 while providing cover for the evacuation of civilians near the town of Volnovakha. For his heroic deeds, he was posthumously awarded the title “Hero of Russia”.

According to a Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) poll released on Thursday, about 70% of Russian citizens believe that Putin should run for another term in office, with another 15% saying that the incumbent should leave his current post but take a senior government position. Only 8% believe that the Russian leader should leave the political stage altogether.

Putin’s likely contenders for now include Gennady Zyuganov, the long-time leader of the Russian Communist Party, who announced his bid in late November but noted that the final decision would be made by his party’s Central Committee. Other Russian parties, including the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) and New People, have also signaled that they intend to put forward their own candidates.

Hamas says resistance to last until cessation of Israeli aggression, occupation

By
IFP Media Wire
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Hamas

In a phone call with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian on Friday, the Hamas official expressed gratitude towards the Islamic Republic over the country’s well-known and consistent position of support for the Palestinian nation and Tehran’s extensive diplomatic endeavors aimed at ending the Zionist regime’s atrocities.

“By God’s grace, resistance is going to last until the cessation of Zionists’ crimes and complete elimination of Palestine’s occupation,” he asserted.

The occupying regime launched the war on October 7 in response to an operation staged by Gaza’s resistance movements. Israel has killed more than 17,400 people, most of them women and children, and injured over 46,500 others in its relentless aerial and ground attacks on Gaza since.

Simultaneously, the regime has ramped up its aggression across the occupied West Bank and has carried out sporadic attacks against Lebanon, which has sparked a firefight with the Lebanese resistance movement of Hezbollah.

Amirabdollahian informed Haniyeh about the latest diplomatic maneuvers that have been taken by the Islamic Republic and other Muslim countries on the international level in support of the Palestinian people, condemnation of the Zionist regime’s war crimes, and cessation of its massacre of Palestinians across Gaza and the West Bank.

The top diplomat told the Hamas official that the crisis in the coastal sliver had formed a central plank of earlier discussions between President Ebrahim Raisi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

“Important talks have taken place between the Iranian and Russian presidents concerning the issue of Palestine,” Amirabdollahian added.

During a one-day trip to Moscow, the Iranian chief executive called for an immediate stop to the Israeli “genocide and crimes against humanity” in the besieged Gaza Strip, and drew attention to the United States and other Western countries’ support for the Israeli atrocities.

Saudi crown prince canceled UK trip before welcoming Russian leader: Report

By
IFP Media Wire
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London and Riyadh had been in negotiations about a potential visit of the Crown Prince, who is also known as MBS, for months already. UK officials said the two sides had been working towards December 3 as a possible date, but the plans were abruptly shelved last week.

Instead, MBS hosted Putin in Riyadh on Wednesday, amid the Russian president’s one-day tour of the region – his first trip to the Middle East since the beginning of the conflict with Ukraine in February 2022.

Senior UK officials and MPs were alarmed by the proximity of the Crown Prince’s visit to Britain which was apparently canceled and Putin’s Middle East tour. Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith described the development to FT as “astonishing”, and the apparent postponement as a “snub”.

Another senior Tory MP, Robert Courts, said the postponement of the visit is “a concern because it suggests a UK diplomatic failure in the face of a coordinated diplomatic offensive by Putin”.

“The UK should urgently review the resources and strategy behind its foreign and defense policy to prevent the slide of states towards our strategic competitors,” he added.

Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the UK, Prince Khalid bin Bandar, however, denied any connection between the canceled visit and the Russian president’s trip, insisting that “anyone familiar with the UK-Saudi relationship will know that the suggestion of a snub is nonsense”.

“The relationship is as strong as it has ever been and will remain so. Those wishing to interpret things differently are sorely mistaken,” he told FT.

The UK Foreign Office neither confirmed nor denied the postponement when reached by FT for comment, with its spokesperson effectively dodging the question.

“It is not for the UK to comment on the diplomatic engagements of other countries. We work closely with Saudi Arabia across a range of areas, including on providing support to Ukraine and addressing the current crisis in Israel,” the spokesperson stated.

Iran tourism: Iran’s Kish Island enjoying clean air 

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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Kish Island, bejeweling the Persian Gulf in southern Iran, has been a tourist attraction due to its fresh air, among many other things.

While many cities of the country rarely have a pollution-free day throughout the year, Kish Island has not experienced even a single day with air pollution in the current Iranian year that started on March 21, 2023.

Officials say clean air is a feature of the island that can draw more tourists who are seeking a respite from pollution.

Below you can take a look at images from Kish along the Persian Gulf:

Iranin knowledge-based company indigenizes production of cancer treatment medicine 

By
IFP Editorial Staff
-

Iran’s Vice-President for Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy Rouhollah Dehghani Firouzabadi unveiled the domestically-made production line of cyclophosphamide at Nanoalvand Company

on Friday in Karaj, near Tehran.

Cancer patients in Iran have been severely affected by the relentless US-led Western sanctions over the country’s nuclear program, which Tehran asserts has been peaceful.

The Iranian vice president said the country needs about 400 thousand doses of the drug every year that will be sufficiently met with the new production line.

Cyclophosphamide is used in the treatment of a wide range of cancers, including blood, ovarian, breast, and eye cancers.

Iran’s Esteghlal, Sepahan ranked among top ten football teams in Asia 

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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Tehran’s blues, Esteghlal, and Isfahan’s Sepahan were ranked seventh and eighth respectively to sit next to Saudi, Japanese and South Korean giants.

Iran’s Esteghlal, Sepahan ranked among top ten football teams in Asia 

Esteghlal’s old rivals, Persepolis, was ranked 13th among the best teams in the old continent.

Saudi clubs Al-Hilal, Al-Nasr, and Al-Ittihad grabbed the first to third spots respectively in the ranking.

Sour tea harvest season in southern Iran

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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About 30 hectares of land are under cultivation of sour tea in the region, which annually yields nearly 30 tons of products.

Sour tea is a wild plant that grows or can be cultivated with minimal water and fertilizer consumption.

The wet product is used for making jam, fruit rolls, and syrup, but it is mainly dried for brewing tea.

Below are some pictures of harvesting sour tea in Karun in Khuzastan Province:

Rockets reportedly fired towards US embassy in Iraq

By
IFP Media Wire
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US Forces

Explosions were heard early on Friday morning in the vicinity of the Iraqi capital’s heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses the institution. US troops and installations across the region have come under attack as Washington continues to support Israel’s bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip.

News agencies, quoting unnamed US and Iraqi military officials, report that rockets landed on the outskirts of the district housing government and diplomatic buildings at dawn.

Alarm sirens calling on people to “duck and cover” were activated. According to social media videos, rockets were seen landing near the US embassy.

In one video, sirens are heard amid a series of explosions close to the building. Another shows an area of Baghdad’s diplomatic zone as explosions are heard in the background.

The US embassy in Baghdad has not yet commented on the reports. It was not immediately clear whether the embassy’s air defence systems were activated or if there were any injuries.

Iraqi groups that support Palestinians have promised retaliation against Israel and its close ally the US for the deadly war in Gaza.

According to the Pentagon, since the Gaza war erupted on October 7, US forces deployed in Iraq and Syria have been attacked at least 66 times, causing injuries to more than 60 personnel. However, until now, diplomatic missions have been spared.

The US has occasionally retaliated against these attacks and has accused Iran of “actively facilitating” rocket and drone attacks by Iranian-backed proxy groups on its forces.

In November, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin asserted in a statement that Washington “does not seek conflict and has no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities”, but he added that “these Iranian-backed attacks against US forces are unacceptable and must stop”.

Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Hossein Amirabdollahian has said that Tehran “neither gives orders to the resistance groups across the region, nor stops them from taking decisions in their own countries based on their own interests”.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for any attack on the US embassy on Friday.

Kremlin says Putin and Raisi talked for over five hours

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Raisi and Putin

The Iranian president arrived in Moscow on a state visit on Thursday. Moscow and Tehran have developed strong ties in recent years and as a result have strengthened their respective economies, the Russian president told his counterpart.

The two leaders discussed bilateral ties and wider global challenges, including the Israel-Hamas conflict. Russia and Iran have built up “good momentum” over the past year, Putin said, pointing to cooperation in energy and education.

Trade between the two nations has grown by 20% over the past year and has reached $5 billion, the Russian president continued, adding: “We are engaging in active cooperation across the entire spectrum of our bilateral relations.”

The talks concluded a series of meetings that Putin has held in the past 48 hours with leaders and officials from Middle Eastern countries.

During the talks with the Iranian leader, Putin joked that he had considered visiting Tehran on Wednesday after visiting Saudi Arabia and the UAE, saying that he was flying over Iran on his way back home and thought perhaps he could just land in Tehran and meet with Raisi there, but he was informed that the Iranian president was already about to leave for Moscow. Raisi replied that Iran is ready to receive Putin at any time and invited him to visit Iran.

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