Wednesday, December 31, 2025
type here...
Home Blog Page 867

US considering unilateral agreement with Hamas to free American captives: Report

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Israel Hostages

Such negotiations would exclude Israel and would be mediated by Qatari interlocutors, as has been the case with the ongoing discussions, according to NBC News on Monday, citing two current and two former US officials.

The Joe Biden administration believes that Hamas is holding five American hostages who were kidnapped during the Oct. 7 attack.

The officials also seek to retrieve the remains of three additional US citizens who are believed to have been killed on the same day by Hamas, which then transported their bodies into Gaza.

The officials were uncertain about what the US might give Hamas in return for the release of American captives, the report added.

“But, the officials said, Hamas could have an incentive to cut a unilateral deal with the US because doing so would likely further strain relations between the US and Israel and put additional domestic political pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” it said.

One of the former officials said the internal discussions have also taken place in the context of whether the possibility of the US cutting a unilateral deal with Hamas might pressure Netanyahu to agree to a version of the current cease-fire proposal, according to the report.

On Saturday, the Israeli army freed four hostages during a military operation in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

During the operation, at least 274 Palestinians were killed and 700 others injured in a bombardment of the camp, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The Israeli operation will likely make even more difficult US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s endeavors to secure an agreement and release the remaining hostages, a senior administration official told NBC News.

Securing the release of the Israeli hostages has only bolstered Netanyahu’s resolve to persist with military operations in Gaza, rather than committing to cease the conflict, according to the official.

“The current senior US official, though, said the idea of a trying to negotiate a deal between the Biden administration and Hamas remained a ‘very real option’ if the current proposed ceasefire deal fails to advance,” the report noted.

More than 37,100 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and nearly 84,700 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Iran says not to allow disruption of regional stability, security by Israel

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Ali Bagheri Kani

Addressing the ministerial meeting of BRICS, the group of the world major economies, in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod on Monday, Bagheri said the Islamic Republic of Iran acts seriously in the path to beefing up regional stability, and the recent anti-Israeli operation True Promise carried out by the Iranian Armed Forces, proved Tehran is serious to that end.

BRICS is an intergovernmental organization comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Bagheri Kani stated as a new member state of BRICS, Iran will act responsibly in all political, security, economic, financial, cultural, and public domains.

He referred to the months-long Israeli onslaught against Gaza, adding the developments in the Gaza Strip, including Rafah, are a manifestation of the West’s unjust world order. The Iranian caretaker foreign minister warned the continuation of the current status will undoubtedly put the international peace and stability in jeopardy.

The diplomat added a complete end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the nuclear disarmament of the Israeli regime will lead to the real and all-out peace, stability and security in the Middle East.

BRICS meeting kicks off with minute’s silence for late Iran president, FM

By
IFP Media Wire
-
BRICS

The summit begun on Monday, with the participants observing a minute’s silence in memory of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, who lost their lives in a tragic helicopter accident last month.

It continued with an address by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated the participants at the meeting will discuss “international relations, improvement of the global governance system with emphasis on strengthening the role of developing countries, conflict resolution, and interaction in leading multilateral platforms”.

The BRICS group of fast-developing economies initially consisted of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

This year, the group was expanded to include Iran, Egypt, the UAE and Ethiopia as new members.

The bloc, which is often seen as an alternative to the Western economic and political hegemony, comprises almost 46 percent of the global population, 36 percent of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) and 25 percent of the global trade measured in terms of exports.

Iran’s interim Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani arrived in Nizhny Novgorod early Monday to attend the BRICS ministerial meeting.

Speaking to reporters, he said, “BRICS is the biggest international economic and trade organization that operates outside the framework of Western unilateralism.”

“The presence of the Islamic Republic of Iran in this organization is indicative of the position and importance of our country in the multilateral [world] system,” he added.

Iran says US not serious about Gaza ceasefire

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Nasser Kanaani

Speaking at a weekly press conference on Monday, Kanaani derided the US president’s proposal for Gaza truce.

“The US has sided with the Zionist regime in all crimes that have been committed (against Palestine). There is no clue to the US being serious about the establishment of ceasefire (in Gaza).”

If the US had had the slightest sincerity in creating a ceasefire in Gaza, it would have refrained from delivering arms to the Zionist regime and equipping its arsenals in the first place, he added.

The Iranian spokesman also described the resignations of Israeli cabinet ministers as a testimony to the “internal collapse” of the Zionist regime, its failure to achieve its objectives in Gaza, and its strategic defeat.

His comments came after Israeli minister Benny Gantz announced his resignation from the Zionist regime’s emergency government amid a months-long assault on Gaza.

At least 37,000 people have been killed and 84,494 injured in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7, 2023.

China stresses adherence to Iran’s territorial integrity, sovereignty

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Wang Yi and Ali Bagheri Kani

Wang made the remarks in the western Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod on Monday as he met with Iran’s interim Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting of the BRICS group of emerging economies.

The remarks came a few days after the Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned China’s ambassador to Tehran to protest Beijing’s support for “baseless claims” regarding three Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf.

Earlier, the Chinese government had expressed support for the United Arab Emirates’ claim about the triple islands, which have historically been part of Iran.

Wang went on to assert that “China is resolved to expand [its] strategic relations with the Islamic Republic in all areas”.

For his part, Bagheri Kani described the Sino-Iranian relations as historical, deep-rooted, and undergoing enhancement in all areas.

Hamas video depicts three captives killed by Israel in Gaza

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Israeli Army

The group did not release the names of those said to be killed, but the video showed what appeared to be three unidentifiable corpses using censor bars over their faces.

“Your captives will not be released unless our prisoners are freed,” the video added.

Israel rescued four captives held by Hamas in a deadly operation in central Gaza’s al-Nuseirat refugee camp.

Shortly after Hamas initially stated Israeli forces had killed some of the captives on Saturday, an Israeli military spokesman claimed the news was a “blatant lie”.

The Palestinian death toll from the operation was worst of any other 24-hour period of the Gaza war for months and included many women and children, Palestinian medics confirmed.

US says ‘innocent people killed’ in Israeli rescue operation in Gaza

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Gaza War

The Israeli military said it rescued four hostages in a special operation in central Gaza on Saturday. CNN’s Dana Bash asked Sullivan on “State of the Union” whether the U.S. can confirm how many people were killed in the operation, noting that two separate hospitals in the area said at least 236 people were reportedly killed.

Sullivan explained that the Gaza Health Ministry and the Israeli military have put out differing numbers and that the U.S. could not confirm how many casualties there were.

“We, the United States, are not in a position today to make a definitive statement about that. The Israeli defense forces have put out one number. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry has put out another number,” he stated.

“But we do know this, Dana. Innocent people were tragically killed in this operation. The exact number we don’t know, but innocent people were killed. And that is heartbreaking. That is tragic,” he added.

He noted that the Joe Biden administration would prefer a cease-fire deal to get hostages home instead of military operations, adding Biden “thinks the best way to get all of the hostages home is in a deal where they’re brought out diplomatically, where there’s no need for military operations to get every last hostage out”.

“In the absence of that, without Hamas saying yes to the deal, unfortunately, we are going to continue to see ongoing conflict and military operations in which Israel makes efforts to recover its citizens and, frankly, to recover American citizens. What we would much prefer to see is a cease-fire where the hostages come out peacefully.”

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Sunday that at least 274 Palestinians were killed in the operation, and another 700 were wounded. The ministry also announced that at least 37,000 have been killed in the ongoing fighting since the war began after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Sullivan also stated Sunday that the U.S. was not militarily involved in the Israeli hostage rescue mission.

“Well, the one thing I can say is that there were no U.S. forces, no U.S. boots on the ground involved in this operation. We did not participate militarily in this operation,” he added.

Hamas: Israeli ministers resignations demonstrate collapse of Israel’s political system

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot

Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for the Gaza-based resistance movement, said Gantz and Eisenkot made the decision to leave the incumbent Israeli administration before its eventual breakdown.

“There is no end in sight to the resignation of the Zionist regime’s political and military figures. This points to the downfall of the regime’s political system,” the senior Hamas official stated.

He stressed that it makes no difference whether Gantz or Netanyahu is in office as they are both bloody brutes, and that the Zionist society seeks bloodshed and atrocities in general.

Gantz and Eisenkot stepped out of Israel’s war cabinet on Sunday.

They joined Netanyahu’s administration after Israel launched its onslaught against the Gaza Strip in early October last year, leading to the formation of the emergency coalition, which then established the war cabinet.

Addressing a press conference in Tel Aviv, Gantz called on Netanyahu to hold early elections “as soon as possible”.

“Months after the October tragedy, the situation in Israel and in the room of the decision-makers has changed. Netanyahu and his partners have turned unity into a moving call without real-world action. Fateful strategic decisions are met with hesitancy and procrastination due to political considerations,” Gantz said.

“Unfortunately, Netanyahu prevents us from reaching true victory. Therefore, today, we are leaving the emergency coalition with a heavy heart, but with a full heart.”

In a resignation letter sent to Netanyahu, former Army Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot (2015-2019) said “despite the efforts of many…the cabinet you headed was prevented for a long while from making determining decisions, which were needed to realize the war’s goals and improve Israel’s strategic position”.

Last month, Gantz set June 8 as a deadline for Netanyahu to draft a post-war plan for Gaza or he would leave the coalition.

Israel waged the genocidal war against the Gaza Strip, targeting hospitals, residences, and houses of worship after Palestinian resistance movements launched a surprise attack, dubbed Operation al-Aqsa Storm, against the usurping regime on October 7.

At least 37,084 Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children, and another 84,494 individuals have sustained injuries. More than 1.7 million people have been internally displaced during the war as well.

Data: 1.4 million foreign tourists visited Iran in past 3 months

By
IFP Editorial Staff
-
Takht-e-Jamshid

The figures show a 60 percent growth compared to the same period last year.

Welcoming 5.9 million tourists in 2023, Iran experienced a significant surge of 43 percent in attracting foreign tourists.

According to the figures released by United Nations tourism agency (UNWTO), the upsurge in tourist arrivals has catapulted Iran to the club of top ten countries in the world in terms of tourist attractions.

The variety in Iran’s geography and climate from the lush green northern provinces to the deserts in central Iran, the historical monuments in the several-thousand-year-old country, as well as the plethora of ethnicities and cultural items have been luring tourists from across the world.

Besides recreational tourism, the country has an outstanding place in medical and religious tourism thanks to the holy shrines and medical facilities and expertise in the country.

Iranian presidential candidates show mixed reaction to disqualifications

By
IFP Editorial Staff
-
Eshagh Jahangiri

Reformist candidate, former Iranian vice president Eshaq Jahangiri, in a message on X social media platform on Sunday wrote, “Our promise; never get tired of trying and being hopeful about Iran. While demanding the release of the reasons for my disqualification, I will not hesitate to make any efforts to improve the livelihood of the people and the progress of dear Iran.”

Jahangiri also threw his weight behind the approved reformist candidate Massoud Pezeskhian.

Former parliament speaker Ali Larijani slammed the vetting body for rejecting his candidacy, saying, “a minority group abruptly” blocked his efforts to serve the nation.

“Undoubtedly, the unacceptable move will incur a lot of costs for the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he warned, adding “I will review my policies,” without explaining further.

Former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also protested against his disqualification, fuming, “They should answer on TV with documents and evidence, in my presence, why they rejected me so the nation can judge.”

“You made a decision instead of the nation. This is a great injustice to the nation,” an angry Ahmadinejad said in a video released on Sunday.

Vahid Haghanian, a former close aide to the Iranian Leader, also released his own picture shaking hands with a man from Arab Iranian ethnicity on X before his disqualification, writing he is well-versed with the various tribes, ethnicities, sects, and beliefs in Iran thanks to his career spanning 45 years.

Culture Minister Mohammad Mehdi Esmaeili in the late President Ebrahi Raisi’s administration released a statement after he was barred by the Guardian Council.

He showed no remorse over the denial, stressing on “protecting the lofty ideals of the martyred president.”

1...866867868...5,133Page 867 of 5,133

© All Content by IFP News ( Iran Front Page ) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

About Us

Popular Articles

Editor Picks