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Hamas rejects talk of new negotiations with Israel over Gaza war

By
IFP Media Wire
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Israel Hostages

In a phone interview with Al Jazeera Arabic on Saturday, Hamdan said that the immediate requirement is for Israel to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and for all aggression to stop.

“We do not need new negotiations,” he stated, adding that Hamas has already agreed to a ceasefire proposal that Israel has rejected.

“There is no guarantee that it [Israel] will accept new proposals to go to negotiations … If there are no serious guarantees, this means giving Israel more time to continue the aggression,” he continued.

Earlier this month, Hamas approved a proposal for a ceasefire in the seven-month Gaza war put forward by mediators Qatar and Egypt although Israel said the proposal falls short of its demands.

On Saturday, according to Israeli media, officials involved in the negotiations said the Israeli government intended to renew talks for a Gaza captive release deal the in coming days, after a meeting with mediators in Paris.

According to the reports, Israeli intelligence chief David Barnea had agreed to a new framework for the stalled negotiations with mediators — CIA Director Bill Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

The new offer was drafted by the Israeli negotiating team and contains possible solutions to points of disagreement in previous discussions. But defence ministry officials believe that even if Israel agrees to a temporary ceasefire, it will be able to return to war again when needed after months.

Hamas has insisted that it is not willing to accept only a temporary ceasefire, but that an end to the fighting has to be permanent.

Israel has insisted that the war will not end before its goals are met, including the total defeat of Hamas. However, Israel is coming under growing international pressure to stop and is increasingly isolated. Among recent blows for Israel are an International Court of Justice order for it to stop its Rafah offensive, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court seeking arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and a decision by Ireland, Norway and Spain to recognise Palestine.

Meanwhile, Washington announced top diplomat Antony Blinken had also spoken with Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz about new efforts to achieve a ceasefire and reopen the border crossing in Gaza’s far-southern city of Rafah.

Al-Qahera News said Cairo was also continuing “its efforts to reactivate ceasefire negotiations and exchange prisoners and detainees”.

It added that Egypt was exerting “all kinds of pressure on Israel to urgently let in the aid and fuel” stranded at the Rafah crossing after its closure by Israel earlier this month.

But a Hamas official denied Israeli media reports that Gaza ceasefire talks would resume in Cairo on Tuesday.

“There is no date,” the unnamed Hamas official told the Reuters news agency when asked about the reports.

Talks aimed at reaching a hostage release and truce deal for Gaza ground to a halt this month after Israel launched a military operation in Rafah.

At least 35,900 people have been killed and 80,400 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7.

The death toll in Israel from Hamas’s attack stands at 1,200, with dozens still held captive.

On Saturday, thousands of Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv to demand urgent government action to bring home captives held in Gaza, after the bodies of several were retrieved.

Another protest, calling for the resignation of Netanyahu and an early election, was also held nearby.

Despite the immense pressure, Netanyahu and his government have so far failed to strike a deal with Hamas, with many critics doubting their desire to reach a deal.

Acting president: Iran will continue late president Raisi’s policy toward Iraq 

By
IFP Editorial Staff
-

The Iraqi delegation is in Tehran to offer condolences to Iranian officials and people over the passing of president Raisi and late foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in an air accident last week.

In the meeting, Mokhber welcomed the Iraqi officials and thanked them for their sympathy with the government and people of Iran.

He stressed that the people of Iran have lost two great, caring and hardworking officials in the incident but the nation will overcome this tragedy.

Further, the acting president enumerated the important personality traits, actions and achievements of president Raisi, saying one of his most outstanding actions was to improve the level of Iran’s relations with neighboring and Muslim countries.

The acting president then spoke about the role of Raisi in strengthening the axis of resistance, disrupting power equations in the world and defeating the hegemony of the US and the Zionist regime, especially during Israel’s crimes in Gaza.

Mokhber said the deep regret of the leaders of the resistance axis for his loss was a good indication of Raisi’s role in supporting the axis.

The Iraqi president, in turn, expressed his deep regret for the passing of Raisi and his companions and offered condolences to the government and people of Iran over this tragic loss.

He praised Raisi’s support for the Iraqi people, calling his demise a great and irreparable tragedy not only for the people of Iran but also for the people of Iraq and the entire region.

The Iraqi president said his country is determined to continue cooperation and its strong bonds with Iran.

Iran snatches Men’s Indoor Hockey Asia Cup for 9th time

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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In previous matches, the Iranian team beat Singapore (8-0), Thailand (10-4), Tajikistan (37-0), Kazakhstan (5-3) and drew with Malaysia (3-3).

Meanwhile, Iranian hockey player Amirmahdi Mirzakhani was named as the tournament’s top goal scorer with 24 goals.

Host Kazakhstan came third, beating Thailand 7-2 earlier in the day.

The tournament happened from May 21 to 25 in Taldykorgan, Kazakhstan.

Iran and Malaysia also secured their spot in the 2025 Indoor Hockey World Cup in Porec, Croatia.

The competitions are slated for February 3 to 9, 2025.

Iran has the most decorated team in the tournament as they have won nine out of 10 tournaments.

Iranian translator dies aged 34

By
IFP Editorial Staff
-

Amraei has translated many books for children and young people including “Ms. Cherry’s Kitchen”, What Can Be Done with a New Idea”, and “Learning at Home”.

Amraei was a famous translator of English literary works.

She was the daughter of Asadollah Amraei a renowned Iranian translator.

Iran’s acting FM: Iran-Russia cooperation on the rise 

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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Iran and Russia Flags

He made the remark after a telephone conversation with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Bagheri added that his conversation with Lavrov that was initiated by the Russian side, was part of diplomatic meetings and contacts.

“We reviewed bilateral and multilateral plans together”, he noted.

The acting foreign minister added that Iran’s bilateral, regional and international cooperation with Russia is increasing and that the two countries have opted for multilateralism as a strategic choice in order to shape a fair world in which each actor gets a chance to play a role based on his capacity.

Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement, offering condolences over the passing of president Ebrahim Raisi and foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in a copter crash in Iran’s northwest last week.

WHO says Covid-19 killed nearly 13mn in two years

By
IFP Media Wire
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COVID in US

The deadly disease was the third highest cause of mortality globally in 2020 and moved up to second place in 2021. Covid-19 was among the top five causes of death in all regions of the world except Africa and the Western Pacific.

According to the WHO, the pandemic “wiped out nearly a decade of progress” in improving life expectancy in just two years. The report highlighted that between 2019 and 2021, global life expectancy dropped by 1.8 years to 71.4, the same level as in 2012. Similarly, global healthy life expectancy dropped in 2021 back to the 2012 level of 61.9 years.

The WHO report said the Americas and Southeast Asia were hit the hardest, with life expectancy in the regions dropping by approximately 3 years and healthy life expectancy by 2.5 years between 2019 and 2021. Meanwhile, the Western Pacific region was “minimally affected” during the first two years of the pandemic, it said.

“We must remember how fragile progress can be,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated, adding that “in just two years, the Covid-19 pandemic erased a decade of gains in life expectancy.”

Covid-19 initially emerged in late 2019 and developed into the largest epidemic in nearly a century. The medical journal Lancet previously suggested that the number of Covid-related deaths may be as high as 18 million.

The WHO report mentioned that noncommunicable diseases such as ischemic heart disease and stroke, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, and diabetes, which were the biggest killers before the pandemic, accounted for 78% of non-Covid deaths in 2020-2021.

Ayatollah Khamenei says mass participation in funeral of late president proved Iranians loyalty to Islamic Revolution

By
IFP Media Wire
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Ayatollah Khamenei made the remarks in a Saturday meeting held in the capital Tehran with the families of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and six of their companions who lost their lives in a helicopter crash in the northwestern Iranian province of East Azarbaijan last week.

Pointing to the enemy’s propaganda and claims regarding the estrangement of Iranian people from the Islamic Republic, the Leader said, “This incident, before the very eyes of the world and in practice, proved the attachment and loyalty of the Iranian nation to the president and those who embodied the mottoes of the Revolution.”

Iran’s Islamic Revolution against the Western-backed Pahlavi dynasty was spearheaded by the late Imam Khomeini in 1979 and led to the establishment of the Islamic Republic.

Praising President Raisi as a manifestation of the mottoes of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Khamenei stated, “Mr. Raisi relied on the slogans of the Revolution and the words of the Imam from the very beginning when he ran for the elections, and the whole world knew him as the president of the Revolution.”

“When people support and honor this man in such a great way, it means supporting the slogans of the Revolution,” he stressed.

Ayatollah Khamenei noted that working for the people and serving the public was the most prominent feature of the martyrs of the incident.

“Martyr Raisi worked tirelessly day and night and was literally indefatigable,” the Leader added.

He touched on the epic funeral processions in the cities of Tabriz, Qom, Tehran, Shahr-e-Rey, Birjand, Mashhad, Maragheh, Zanjan and Najafabad, noting, “This glorious funeral showed that the Iranian nation is alive.”

Expressing his condolences to the families of the martyred individuals, Ayatollah Khamenei said, “Recounting the services and efforts of Mr. Raisi and Mr. Amirabdullahian in the domestic and foreign front is a long and detailed story.”

Iranians in their millions gathered in various cities across the country to commemorate the martyrdom of the late president and his companions as part of ceremonies held following the Leader’s declaration of five-day national mourning over the tragic loss.

Dozens of world leaders, presidents, ambassadors and international personalities as well as high-profile figures of the Axis of Resistance have over the past days participated in ceremonies across Iran to pay homage to the martyrs.

On Sunday, the helicopter carrying Raisi and his entourage crashed as it was on its way to Tabriz, the capital of Iran’s East Azarbaijan province, from a location on the border with the Republic of Azerbaijan where the Iranian president had opened a major dam project.

Let Ukraine freely strike Russia with western weapons: NATO head

By
IFP Media Wire
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Russia Ukraine War

“The time has come for allies to consider whether they should lift some of the restrictions they have put on the use of weapons they have donated to Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said on Friday in an interview with The Economist. “Especially now when a lot of the fighting is going on in Kharkov, close to the border, to deny Ukraine the possibility of using these weapons against legitimate military targets on Russian territory makes it very hard for them to defend themselves.”

Stoltenberg noted that some NATO members have already lifted restrictions on using their weapons to attack targets in Russian territory. Asked whether he was referring to the US as the one major holdout, he said, “I think what we see now demonstrates the need to reconsider those restrictions, not least because we have fighting going on along the border between Russia and Ukraine.”

However, according to Moscow such rhetoric about alleged restrictions on the use of US munitions are false and designed to maintain the illusion that the West is not part of the conflict. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that US weapons, such as ATACMS missiles armed with cluster warheads, have already been used on attacks inside Russia, including strikes against civilian targets.

“We proceed from the fact that American and other Western weaponry strikes targets on the territory of Russia, primarily civilian infrastructure and residential areas,” he told reporters on Friday.

The NATO chief’s comments come at a time when Western leaders are making increasingly bold statements about attacks on Russian territory. US President Joe Biden held back on sending long-range weapons to Ukraine in the early days of the conflict with Russia, citing concern over the possibility of triggering a wider conflict. When more advanced weaponry was later approved, it came with strings attached, including a prohibition on hitting Russian territory. However, as the New York Times reported on Thursday, views on those restrictions have shifted as Russian forces make battlefield gains.

After making a “sobering” visit to Kiev earlier this month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly began urging the administration to let the former Soviet republic use American weapons as it sees fit. A group of US lawmakers sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin earlier this week, pressing him to give the Ukrainians the permissions they have requested.

Stoltenberg said he believes NATO members can thread the geopolitical needle by supporting Ukraine’s defense without becoming direct parties to the conflict. “We provide training, we provide weapons, ammunition to Ukraine, but we will not be directly involved from NATO territory in combat operations over or in Ukraine,” he said. “So, that’s a different thing.”

Former officials, disqualified candidates among likely candidates in Iran’s presidential elections

By
IFP Editorial Staff
-

Fresh from the funeral and burial ceremonies for the late president and his companions, the country is speculating on the likely candidates who will run for the chief executive’s office.

Tasnim news agency, close to the principlists’ camp, have cited anonymous sources that Abdolnaser Hemmati former governor of the Central Bank under former president Hassan Rouhani and Mohammad Reza Aref, former vice president during Mohammad Khatami’s presidency, are the likely candidates of the reformists.

The news agency also reported that veteran politician and former parliament speaker Ali Larijani has not ruled out filing for candidacy in the election, a claim not dismissed by Larijani’s advisor Mansour Haghighatpour.

Haghighatpour told Entekhan news outlet that Larijani is weighing the situation “so that he would not be bitten for the second time,” referring to his disqualification in the 2021 presidential election by the Guardian Council.

“Ali Larijani is not unwilling to participate in the elections, but in a meeting he had with the officials of one of the parties, he has apparently made his candidacy conditional on fulfillment of certain demands,” he explained.

Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was also disqualified by Iran’s vetting body in 2017, has hinted he might step on board as a candidate.

Following the demise of President Raisi last Sunday, Leader of the Islamic revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, under the constitution, designated vice president Mohammad Mokhber as the caretaker chief executive ordering him to hold a new round of the presidential vote withing 50 days.

Yemen’s Houthis say targeted three Israeli-linked ships

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Yemen Houthis

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree made the announcement in the capital Sana’a on Friday. He was addressing a thousands-strong rally held in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, who are enduring a genocidal Israeli war.

“The first operation targeted the Israeli ship MSC Alexandra in the Arabian Sea with a number of ballistic missiles,” he said.

“The second operation was carried out by the Navy, the Air Force, and the Missile Force, targeting the ship Yannis as it was passing through the Red Sea” towards the occupied territories, he added.

“The third operation was carried out by the Missile Force, targeting the Israeli ship Essex in the Mediterranean Sea,” Saree stated.

Yemen began the strikes after October 7, when the Israeli regime launched the war against Gaza that has so far killed at least 35,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 80,200 more.

The Yemeni forces began the operations by hitting the Israeli vessels or those heading towards the ports of the occupied Palestinian territories that could pass through Yemen’s maritime areas.

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