Category World News

On Monday, June 17, 2018, this is how things are going.

Fighting

• As Israel increased its bombardment, several explosions shook locations across Iran, including its central and western provinces and Tehran’s densely populated capital.
• According to the Israeli military, “12 missile launch and storage sites” were struck.
• Isfahan province and Tabriz city are two of the areas targeted by Israel, while Tehran’s attacks were “continued and intense,” according to Iranian state media IRNA.
• Iranian armed forces chief Ali Shadmani was killed in one of Israel’s military strikes in Tehran, according to the Israeli military.
• Iranian missile attacks on a military intelligence center and a Mossad operations planning center were reportedly carried out by Iran in retaliatory strikes on parts of northern Israel and Tel Aviv.
• Iranian air bases, which were the target of Iranian attacks, are being targeted by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, according to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
• In addition, Iran’s army claimed to have intercepted and tracked 28 “hostile aircraft” within the last 24 hours, with one of them allegedly being a spy drone attempting to gather information from “sensitive” websites.
• The Iranian Armed Forces’ chief of staff, Abdolrahim Mousavi, said the attacks had been “warning for deterrence” and that “the punitive operation will be executed soon”

Accidents and turbulence

• Three people died in the strikes on Kashan, the capital city, on Monday, according to Iran, including three who were killed in Israel’s attack on a State television building.
• On Tuesday, Israel did not report any fatalities.
• The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced that it had analyzed more satellite imagery for Israel’s recent attacks on Iranian nuclear sites and that it had found additional “direct impacts” on the “underground enrichment halls” in the Natanz facility.
• The IAEA added that its analysis did not show any change at the two other significant nuclear installations that Israel had targeted in its wake, Isfahan and Fordow.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed concern about the potential health risks and devastating effects on civilians caused by Israel’s nuclear-site attacks on Iran.
• In recent days, over 600 foreign nationals have flown from Iran into neighboring Azerbaijan, including Americans from Russia, Germany, Spain, Italy, Romania, and the United States, among others.
• The latest nations to advise their citizens to leave Israel and Iran, invoking “significant deterioration of the security situation” in the region, are China, South Korea, and Ukraine.

Diplomacy

• After leaving the G7 summit early, US President Donald Trump stated that he wants a “real end” with Iran “giving up entirely” on nuclear weapons but is not pushing for an Israeli-Iran ceasefire.
• Without further clarification, he also threatened to assassinate Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a thinly veiled threat to “we now have complete and control over the skies over Iran”.
• Trump may take “further action to end Iranian enrichment,” according to US Vice President JD Vance.
• Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, stated that Russia is willing to play the role of a mediator, but that Israel is “reluctant” to engage in dialogue.
• The Russian government’s foreign ministry criticized Israel’s continued attacks as unlawful.
• King Abdullah II of Jordan warned that Israel’s “attacks” on Iran “could threaten to seriously upend tensions and pose a threat to people everywhere.”
• Qatar also criticized Israel’s attacks, calling them “an uncalculated measure that will have very dire repercussions.”
• Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, vowed to oppose military action against Iran that might lead to a possible “chaos” and regime change.
• Yemen’s political bureau, led by Houthi activist Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, said the organization would “intervene in support of Tehran against Zionist aggressions” and that it would support any Arab or Muslim nation under attack.

Donald Trump and J.D. Vance both posted tweets suggesting that the US might be involved in the Iran-Israel conflict, with Trump even suggesting that violence might be waged against the Iranian leadership.

Vance, who defended Trump’s handling of the conflict and blamed Iran for continuing its nuclear enrichment program, wrote the first of Tuesday’s posts.

Iran cannot be enriched with uranium, according to the president. And he repeatedly claimed that this would take place in either the “other” way or the “easy way,” according to Vance.

The vice president then proceeded to describe the potential “other way.”

According to Vance, “the president has shown remarkable restraint in keeping our military’s attention on our troops and our citizens.” He may decide to stop Iranian enrichment by taking additional measures. The president ultimately has the authority to make that choice.

Less than an hour later, Trump himself raised the bar. The president appeared to threaten Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on his Truth Social platform and demanded that the nation’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” be made.

Trump wrote that “we are aware of where the so-called ” Supreme Leader” is hiding.

“We are not going to take him out (kill! ),” but he is an easy target. for the time being, at least not yet. However, we oppose firing missiles at American soldiers or civilians. Our patience is waning.

Iran and Israel continue to fire missiles, prompting experts to warn of a regional war.

Concerning whether and how the US might get involved has been raised by that possibility.

Trump has already stated that he was aware of Israel’s initial attack on June 13 and that the Israeli Prime Minister’s government has petitioned him to join its military action against Iran.

The Trump administration has maintained a distance between itself and Israel, a steadfast ally.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that the US was “not involved in]the] strikes against Iran on the night the first attacks were launched by Israel.

shifting sound

However, some critics speculated that Trump may be gradually making a case for US military intervention in the conflict.

Prior to the bombing, negotiations between the US and Iran had lasted for months trying to restrain Iran’s nuclear program. Due to the escalating violence, a second round of negotiations was scheduled for the weekend.

In the name of “protecting US forces,” the US has since relocated military installations and warships in the area.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated in a statement that “these deployments are intended to enhance our defensive posture in the region.”

Trump, in contrast, claims that Iran’s inability to reduce its nuclear program is to blame for the conflict. He once more stressed that Iran had missed an opportunity to avoid conflict as he returned from the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Canada overnight.

They ought to have concluded the transaction. Trump told reporters, “Do the deal,” and I said that. “So I’m not sure,” I’m not at all willing to negotiate.

Iran has long refuted its desire to possess nuclear weapons. However, worries that it might develop one continue to rage against Israel, the United States, and other nations for decades.

Iran agreed to reduce its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief in 2015 by signing a deal with the US, China, Russia, France, Germany, the UK, and the European Union. However, Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the pact in 2018, causing it to fall apart during his first term in office.

Since then, he has continued his campaign of “maximum pressure” on Iran and other US allies during his second term.

Trump attributed Iran to Houthi rebels’ attacks in March, saying that “IRAN will be held accountable, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire”!

Nuclear-related inquiry

Even among Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) supporters, those threats have heightened concerns that the US might once more engage in a costly foreign war.

For instance, the Tucker Carlson Network, which is led by the eponymous conservative commentator, published a morning newsletter to lobby against US involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict on Friday.

Israel has every right to declare, “If it wants to start this war, it has no excuse.” It has complete independence and is free to do whatever it pleases. However, the newsletter stated that it did not have America’s support.

Lawmakers have also taken steps to avert any potential US involvement in the conflict.

Republican US Representative Thomas Massie and Democratic colleague Ro Khanna of California announced on Tuesday that the Iran War Powers Resolution would require the president to obtain congressional approval before engaging in the conflict.

Democratic Senator Tim Kaine unveiled a bill that sounded similar just a day earlier. The president would have been instructed to “terminate the use of US armed forces for hostilities against Iran.”

However, the Trump administration has argued that Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons is a dangerous line to cross. Trump “has never wavered” in his position, according to a statement released on Tuesday, which included references to dozens of his prior statements.

However, critics have criticized Trump for dissensing with some of his own inner circle members, who have doubted Iran’s ability to possess nuclear weapons.

For instance, Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, claimed that the US “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and that Khamenei, the president’s suspended nuclear weapons program, has not authorized.”

Trump, however, refrained from Gabbard’s assessment during his overnight flight back to the US. She said, “I don’t care what she said. They’re “very close to having it,” he told reporters.

Since then, Gabbard herself has since stated that her remarks were in line with the president’s position.

However, the Trump administration’s contradictory statements have posed questions about how Iran’s position on military ties to the Middle East might change over time.

The advocacy group MPower Change Action Fund, led by Yasmine Taeb, is the legislative and political director of Gabbard’s congressional testimony, which is consistent with the findings of the US intelligence community as a whole.

Trump’s refusal to even rely on the advice of his own intelligence is just reprehensible and reckless, she told Al Jazeera.

According to Jamal Abdi, president of the think-tank and political organization National Iranian American Council (NIAC), Trump’s comments raise questions about the sources of information he relies on.

He told Al Jazeera, “This makes really clear that this is a war of choice.” Who is he listening to if he doesn’t listen to the intelligence community in which he lives? Is Netanyahu speaking?

According to Abdi, “at least when] former US President] George W. Bush launched his endless war, he had the right to tell us lies about WMDs and [weapons of mass destruction],” he continued, citing the claim that contributed to the US’s invasion of Iraq in 2003.

When Israel’s military fired tank shells, machine guns, and drones at a crowd of Palestinians seeking aid in Gaza, it was the deadliest day so far around the sites of the Israel- and US-backed aid organization GHF.