Category World News

Turkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has warned that a United States attack on Iran would be “wrong”, calling on Washington and Tehran to resolve their issues diplomatically and gradually.

In an interview with Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar Atas, segments of which aired on Wednesday, Fidan called for regional cooperation as the US amasses military assets in the Middle East amid a spike in tensions with Iran.

“It’s wrong to start the war again,” Fidan said.

The US has sent an aircraft carrier strike group to the Gulf as Trump continues to threaten to launch renewed attacks against Iran after last June’s 12-day conflict.

For their part, Iranian officials have promised to launch a “comprehensive and regret-inducing response” if attacked again.

Diplomacy still possible

Earlier this month, Trump told Iranian antigovernment protesters that “help is on the way”, urging them to take over state institutions.

On Tuesday, Trump highlighted the growing US military force in the region while keeping the door open for diplomacy.

“By the way, there’s another beautiful armada floating beautifully toward Iran right now. So we’ll see. I hope they make a deal,” he told supporters at a rally.

Despite the escalating rhetoric, Fidan suggested that a diplomatic resolution is still possible.

“Iran is ready to negotiate a nuclear file again,” the top Turkish diplomat said.

After Israel started the war by bombing Iran in June, the US struck Iran’s three main nuclear facilities. Trump has repeatedly claimed that the attack “obliterated” the Iranian nuclear programme.

But Tehran has insisted on its right to nuclear enrichment, and the whereabouts of the country’s highly enriched uranium remain unknown.

One issue at a time

Beyond the nuclear programme, US officials have also said Iran should scale back its missile arsenal and end support to allied non-state actors in the region, like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.

“My advice always to the American friends, close the files one by one with Iran. Start with nuclear, close it, then the others,” Fidan said.

“If you put them as a package, all of them, it will be very difficult for our Iranian friends to digest and to really process it and to go through this. And sometimes, it might seem humiliating for them. It will be very difficult to explain to not only themselves, but with the leadership.”

Fidan said Iran can fit in a “perfect place” in the regional order.

“They need to create trust in the region,” Fidan said of the Iranians. “They need to have attention to how they are perceived by the regional countries, because they are not going anywhere; we are not going anywhere.”

The top Turkish diplomat added that despite different ideologies, leanings and sects, countries in the region have to cooperate and work together within the nation-state system.

A South Korean court has sentenced former First Lady Kim Keon Hee to one year and eight months in prison after finding her guilty of accepting bribes from the Unification Church, according to South Korea’s official Yonhap news agency.

The Seoul Central District Court on Wednesday cleared Kim, the wife of disgraced ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol, of additional charges of stock price manipulation and violating the political funds act.

Kim was accused of receiving bribes and lavish gifts from businesses and politicians, as well as the Unification Church, totalling at least $200,000.

The prosecution team had also indicted Unification Church leader Han Hak-ja, now on ‌trial, after the religious group was suspected of giving Kim valuables, including two Chanel handbags and a diamond necklace, as part ‌of its efforts to win influence with the president’s wife.

Prosecutors in December said Kim had “stood above the law” and colluded with the religious sect to undermine “the constitutionally mandated separation of religion and state”.

Prosecutor Min Joong-ki also said South Korea’s institutions were “severely undermined by abuses of power” committed by Kim.

The former first lady had denied all the charges, claiming the allegations against her were “deeply unjust” in her final testimony last month.

But she has also apologised for “causing trouble despite being a person of no importance”.

“When I consider my role and the responsibilities entrusted to me, it seems clear that I have made many mistakes,” she said in December.

Kim’s husband, the country’s former President Yoon, was ousted from office last year and has been sentenced to five years in prison for actions related to his short and disastrous declaration of martial law in December 2024.

Yoon could still be facing the death penalty in a separate case.

In 2023, hidden camera footage appeared to show Kim accepting a $2,200 luxury handbag in what was later dubbed the “Dior bag scandal”, further dragging down then-President Yoon’s already dismal approval ratings.

The scandal contributed to a stinging defeat for Yoon’s party in general elections in April 2024, as it failed to win back a parliamentary majority.

Yoon vetoed three opposition-backed bills to investigate allegations against Kim, including the Dior bag case, with the last veto in November 2024.

A week later, he declared martial law.

Sanaa, Yemen — Until a few years ago, Mehdi Galeb Nasr earned a living pushing an ice cream cart through the streets of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, moving between neighbourhoods to support his family.

His livelihood became impossible after his eyesight began to deteriorate rapidly. “Selling ice cream was my main source of income,” Nasr told Al Jazeera. “I pushed my cart, selling ice cream to children across the capital. Blindness in one of my eyes began to take its toll on me.”

As his vision worsened, he would get lost and was unable to find his way at night. “I couldn’t see. Sometimes I had  to sleep outside until the sun came up so I could see my way home.”

Now 52, Nasr lives with his wife and five daughters in Sanaa. With no steady employment and limited options due to a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in one of the world’s most impoverished and conflict-ridden nations, he has no choice but to find other ways to make ends meet.

His plight, and worse, is shared by many in Yemen.

The country is entering a perilous new phase of food shortages with more than half the population – about 18 million people – expected to face worsening hunger in early 2026, according to the International Rescue Committee (IRC).

The warning follows new projections under the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification hunger-monitoring system that were released earlier this month and show an additional million people at risk of life-threatening hunger.

It also comes as Yemen is experiencing its latest internal conflict with external regional actors involved in fighting in the nation’s south. Years of war and mass displacement have shattered livelihoods and limited access to basic health and nutrition services. Declining humanitarian funding, unpaid salaries, inflation and international sanctions on Yemen have exacerbated the crisis.

Yemen ⁠has been a source of heightened tensions in recent months between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The main southern Yemeni separatist group, the Southern Transitional Council (STC)  – which Saudi Arabia says is backed by the UAE – gained control of areas across southern and ​eastern Yemen in December, advancing ‌to within reach of the Saudi border, which the kingdom considered a threat to its national security, prompting it to carry out air strikes there.

Saudi-backed fighters in Yemen have ‌since largely retaken those areas.

Going to bed hungry

Nasr now collects plastic bottles in the streets where he once sold ice cream. His wife and children accompany him so he does not get lost.

His work now is a last resort of informal labour that brings in a small amount of money, barely enough to cover a basic meal for a family of seven. On the day he spoke to Al Jazeera, Nasr said he earned just 600 Yemeni riyals — a little more than $1. “It’s not enough to cover what we need to eat for dinner before we go to bed,” Mehdi added.

Despite this, such work has become the only option for many Yemenis these days, as they struggle to ensure a daily food supply.

For Nasr and his family, putting food on the table has become a daily struggle. “Currently, we do not even have gas to cook anything,” he said.

“When we have gas, the only thing we can afford to cook is rice.” Even that is not always possible.

“Last night, me, my wife and five daughters went to bed without eating dinner,” he added.

Nasr links his family’s dire situation to the wider conflict and economic collapse that have shaped life in Yemen.

“Due to the foreign aggression against us that began back in 2015, life became more difficult for all Yemenis,” he said.

Informal work, reducing meals, and enduring nights without food will continue to be the reality for half the population.