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Turkey says Russian-flagged tanker attacked in Black Sea

By
IFP Media Wire
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In a statement on Tuesday, Türkiye’s Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure’s General Directorate of Maritime Affairs said the MIDVOLGA-2 tanker, which was carrying sunflower oil, reported being attacked about 80 miles (120km) off the country’s coast.

“The ship, which currently has no adverse conditions among its 13 personnel, has issued no request for assistance. The ship is proceeding towards Sinop on its own engines,” officials said, without identifying the culprit behind the strike.

Later, Russia’s Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport said that the vessel had been attacked by a drone and had sustained some minor damage.

Last week, several explosives-laden sea drones struck two Gambian-flagged tankers – the Kairos and the Virat – off Türkiye’s coast, an assault Ukrainian media sources have described as a joint operation involving the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and Kiev’s navy.

In addition, a suspected Ukrainian drone attacked a crude hub on Russia’s Black Sea coast belonging to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), operated by Russia, Kazakhstan, the US, and several Western European nations.

Moscow has denounced the raids as “terrorist attacks,” with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also accusing Ukraine of encroaching on Turkish sovereignty.

While Ankara refrained from assigning blame, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Oncu Keceli said the “incidents, which took place within our Exclusive Economic Zone in the Black Sea, have posed serious risks to navigation, human life, property and the environment.”

ECB balks at €140bn Ukraine payout backed by Russian frozen assets: FT

By
IFP Media Wire
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The ECB determined that the European Commission’s scheme falls outside its mandate, the newspaper reported.

The EU has spent months trying to tap frozen Russian central bank reserves to back a €140 billion ($160 billion) “reparations loan” for Kiev. Belgium, where around $200 billion of the assets is held at the privately owned Euroclear clearing house, has repeatedly warned of potential litigation as well as financial risks if the EU goes through with the scheme.

Under the European Commission’s plan, EU nations’ governments would provide state guarantees to share the repayment risk on the loan for Ukraine.

Commission officials, however, have warned that member states might be unable to mobilize cash quickly in an emergency, risking market strains.

EU officials reportedly asked the ECB whether it could act as a lender of last resort to Euroclear Bank, the Belgian depository’s lending arm, to prevent a liquidity crunch. ECB officials told the commission this was not possible, the FT reported, citing sources familiar with the talks.

“Such a proposal is not under consideration as it would likely violate EU treaty law prohibiting monetary financing,” the ECB said.

Brussels is now reportedly working on alternative ways to provide temporary liquidity to backstop the €140 billion loan.

“Ensuring the necessary liquidity for possible obligations to return the assets to the Russian central bank is an important part of a possible reparations loan,” the FT quoted an EC spokesperson as saying.

Euroclear CEO Valerie Urbain warned last week the move would be seen globally as “confiscation of central bank reserves, undermining the rule of law.” Moscow has repeatedly warned it would view any use of its sovereign assets as “theft” and respond with countermeasures.

The push comes as the cash-strapped EU faces pressure to finance Ukraine for the next two years amid Kiev’s cash crunch, with efforts to tap Russia’s assets intensifying as the US promotes a new initiative to settle the conflict. Economists estimate Ukraine is facing a budget gap of about $53 billion a year in 2025-2028, excluding additional military funding.

The country’s public and government-guaranteed debt ballooned to unseen levels of over $191 billion as of September, the Finance Ministry said. The IMF last month raised its debt forecasts for Ukraine, now predicting public debt at 108.6% of GDP.

 

Iranian court orders US to pay over $22 billion for role in 2022 unrest

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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Iran Protests

Judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir said an Iranian court issued the ruling after extensive hearings on a lawsuit filed by 607 families of those identified by Iran as martyrs and injured victims of the 2022 disturbances.
The plaintiffs demanded material, moral and punitive damages.

According to the verdict, the court found that deliberate US financial, material and moral support for “rioters” constituted a violation of Iranian sovereignty and international law.

The ruling referenced multiple domestic statutes, including Iran’s civil code, counter-terrorism and counter-sanctions laws, and legislation authorizing Iranian courts to hear civil claims against foreign governments.

The court ordered compensation across several categories, including billions in material and moral damages for families of the deceased, payments for 25 individuals with serious injuries, and punitive damages exceeding $30 billion. The ruling also includes interest until full enforcement, as well as all legal costs.

Protests broke out in September 2022 in Iran following the death in custody of Iranian girl Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for violating the Islamic republic’s dress code for women.

Hundreds of people, including security personnel, were killed during the foreign-backed unrest.

Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, stressed: “I state explicitly that these riots and acts of insecurity were orchestrated by the United States and the usurping, fake Zionist regime, with their paid agents and some treacherous Iranians abroad assisting them.”

Fifteen EU states to dispatch weapons worth billions of euros to Kiev under SAFE plan: EC

By
IFP Media Wire
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Western Weapons

The national plans of the 15 EU states include support for Ukraine, he said at a briefing.

He could not provide the exact amount, but said it was in billions, not millions of euros.

Earlier, the European Commission said that 19 out of 27 EU countries intend to participate in a 150 billion euro militarization program. Fifteen of the countries that joined the program agreed to send weapons to Ukraine. Regnier declined to say which countries refused to support Kiev.

The EU SAFE militarization program, created in January, finances joint military projects with the funds raised by the European Commission. Under this program, EU countries can send some of the purchased weapons to Ukraine, and involve Ukraine as a subcontractor for the production of some weapons or their components. Besides, Kiev intends to provide conditions for testing prototypes on the battlefield.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that the presence of third-country capital in the enterprises producing weapons in Ukraine does not give them immunity from Russian strikes. He has also repeatedly stated that any Western arms supplies to Kiev “are a legitimate target” for Russia.

 

Iranian film director Asghar Nasiri dies at 63

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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He had been hospitalized prior to his passing.

Nasiri, who was also active as an editor and production designer, began his professional career in the early 1990s.

His directorial debut came in 1998 with The War Wounded. Over the following decades, he worked across various genres and produced several films that became known within Iran’s independent cinema scene.

His filmography includes titles such as Slaughterhouse, The Train Driver, Inner Struggle, The Jackal, Minus Eighteen, and Tear and Silence.

Colleagues described him as a versatile filmmaker who contributed to multiple aspects of production.

The House of Cinema, Iran’s main film guild association, issued a statement expressing condolences to the artistic community and extending sympathy to Nasiri’s family and colleagues.

Trump says he’s ‘very satisfied’ with Syrian president

By
IFP Media Wire
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A coalition led by militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a regional offshoot of Al-Qaeda, captured Damascus and displaced long-time president Bashar Assad late last year.

”The United States is very satisfied with the results displayed” since the takeover, Trump said on Truth Social on Monday.

The new Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who once led HTS, is “working diligently to make sure good things happen, and that both Syria and Israel will have a long and prosperous relationship,” he continued.

It is important that Tel Aviv not “interfere with Syria’s evolution into a prosperous State,” Trump added.

Just days earlier, Israeli media reported that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) sustained casualties after a clash with gunmen in the south of Syria, where Tel Aviv annexed a strip of land near the occupied Golan Heights last year.

The area was also recently the target of joint US-Syrian operations.

US forces and the Syrian Interior Ministry destroyed more than 15 caches of weapons and drugs belonging to the Islamic State (IS) in the south of the country over last week, CENTCOM reported on Sunday.

Al-Sharaa promised his support against IS, during his visit to Washington earlier this month.

The new Syrian government has struggled to rein in sectarian violence since taking over, with thousands of people from Druze, Alawite, and Christian communities reportedly killed in the sporadic outbursts.

 

Russia claims captured key logistics hub in eastern Ukraine

By
IFP Media Wire
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The Kremlin announced the news in a Telegram post on Monday, citing Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov. The post said the eastern Ukrainian city of Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region had also been captured by Russian forces.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Gerasimov reported news of the “liberation” to Russian President Vladimir Putin late on Sunday as the leader visited a front-line command centre, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.

Pokrovsk is a major transportation hub in the Donetsk region, one of the four regions of eastern Ukraine that Russia claims to have annexed.

The city, once home to 60,000 people, has been heavily bombarded in recent weeks by Russian drones, artillery and bombs, with many buildings reduced to rubble.

Ukraine has yet to confirm Russia’s takeover of the city, but Reuters reported that Moscow is circulating a video of soldiers marching through the streets of Pokrovsk and flying a Russian flag.

Putin later congratulated Russian forces on their victory, according to the TASS news agency.

“I want to thank you for the results of your work regarding Krasnoarmeysk, both you and the entire command and personnel of the battlegroup,” Putin said, using the Russian name for Pokrovsk.

“Of course, the fighters, our guys, who are carrying out these combat missions,” he added, according to TASS.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is meeting with US and European leaders this week to discuss how to negotiate an end to the war.

He stated on Monday that one of his top priorities is to avoid granting Moscow territorial concessions that would legitimise Russia’s occupation of swaths of Ukrainian territory.

 

Russia responds to NATO pre-emptive attack threat

By
IFP Media Wire
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Zakharova was responding to an interview Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chair of the NATO Military Committee, gave to the Financial Times over the weekend. According to the general, the bloc should become “more aggressive” and “proactive” in its dealings with Moscow. He also claimed that a “pre-emptive strike” could be considered a “defensive action,” although it would be “further away from our normal way of thinking and behavior.”

In a statement published by the Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday, Zakharova described Dragone’s words as “an absolutely irresponsible move indicating the bloc’s readiness to further move towards escalation.”

“Anti-Russian hysteria” whipped up by NATO members is only stirring up the ongoing confrontation even further, she warned.

The general’s statement also debunks a myth about the “purely defensive” nature of the military bloc, Zakharova said, adding that NATO “has not been hiding its goals and intentions for a long time.”

The spokeswoman further accused the bloc of “deliberately seeking to disrupt efforts aimed at finding a way out of the Ukraine crisis.”

“People making these statements should understand the corresponding risks and potential consequences, including for the bloc members.”

The EU has increasingly used anti-Russian rhetoric to justify massive military expenditures. The ReArm Europe package, presented in March, aims to mobilize up to €800 billion ($933 billion) to expand EU nations’ militaries under the pretext of countering an alleged “Russian threat.” NATO also pushed its members commit to spending a total of 5% of their GDPs on the military this summer.

Moscow has repeatedly stated that it has no intention to attack any NATO member, but has warned of a harsh response if attacked.

 

British special forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan: Report

By
IFP Media Wire
-

The testimony transcript was one of four interviews released on Monday as part of a years-long investigation into the conduct of the UK special forces (UKSF), including the SAS, in Helmand province from 2010 to 2013.

The officer, who was formerly assistant chief of staff for operations in the UKSF HQ and was identified only as N1466, described serious allegations reported within the force. These included claims that officers had confessed to one unit’s policy “of killing fighting aged males on target regardless of threat,” he said.

The whisleblower added that raid reports often listed more Afghans killed than weapons recovered, and stated that claims of detainees grabbing guns or grenades after capture did not seem credible.

“We are talking about war crimes… we are talking about taking detainees back on target and executing them… the pretense being that they conducted violence against the forces.”

According to N1466, more than one special forces director had known about the issue, and tried to “suppress” it.

“Other directors… clearly knew there was a problem,” the officer claimed.

The issue was brushed aside as inter-unit rivalry, which “just didn’t chime with the evidence,” he added.

“We didn’t join UKSF for this sort of behavior, you know, [for] toddlers to get shot in their beds or random killing. It’s not special, it’s not elite, it’s not what we stand for,” he said.

According to another officer questioned, Western-trained Afghan forces refused to deploy alongside the British unit in question on multiple occasions, which he described as “indicative of a problem, a real problem.”

A third officer stated that the emerging evidence was likely “just the tip of the iceberg,” arguing that the “very kinetic” and violent NATO and UK operations did nothing to win Afghan “hearts and minds.”

The UK deployed forces alongside the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and withdrew along with other NATO troops in 2021.

 

Iran FM: U.S. “excessive demands” blamed for stalled Tehran–Washington talks

By
IFP Media Wire
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Abbas Araghchi

In an interview, Araqchi said the main obstacle in Iran–US relations today — and the reason negotiations have not resumed — is Washington’s approach rooted in imposing its will and pursuing maximalist demands.

“Unfortunately, we have repeatedly witnessed this behavior in our interactions with them,” he noted.

Araqchi emphasized that if the US side demonstrates readiness for a “fair and balanced agreement based on mutual interests,” Iran would certainly consider it.

He said the Americans entered the talks with a “zero-enrichment policy.” “From the outset, we made clear that such a thing is impossible and that a middle-ground solution must be found,” he stated.

Araqchi stressed that the door to negotiations and mediation is always open, provided that the rules are respected.

“We have never left the negotiating table, because diplomacy is an integral part of our principles and approach,” he added.

“No country can be deprived of its legitimate rights,” he continued.

“Transparency and confidence-building can be demanded, and we are ready for that. But abandoning our fundamental rights is never an option.”

“The only way forward is a balanced solution that considers the interests of all parties,” Araqchi said.

Commenting on the US position, he added: “If you want zero enrichment, there will be no agreement between us. But if you want zero bombs, then we can reach an agreement – it is entirely achievable.”

Araqchi said the two sides had come “very close to an agreement,” and that five rounds of negotiations mediated by Oman had produced “multiple solutions” capable of resolving the issues. “But these solutions were rejected in Washington, and ultimately the pro-war forces prevailed, pushing the country and the region onto a regrettable path,” he said.

Referring to the 12-day June war, Araqchi acknowledged that it inflicted heavy losses and significant costs on Iran, but also brought strategic benefits.

“Most importantly, our missiles and weapons were tested for the first time in an actual war. We used these capabilities fully, and all strengths and weaknesses became clear to us.”

He stressed that Iran’s defensive posture is now stronger than before the June conflict, “both in terms of the quantity and quality of our weapons and missile capabilities.”

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