Will rising tensions between US-Israel and Iran threaten crude oil supply through the Strait of Hormuz, putting India's fuel prices, imports, and economic stability at risk?
What we are watching is something different: A fog manufactured and maintained by the people who started the war, so that the question of why it was started never has to be answered, observes Prem Panicker in his must read blog on the war in the Middle East.
Fight on toward goals that keep receding, or exit with most objectives unmet. Trump is agitated, his poll numbers falling below the Plimsoll line, his base fractured between those who back the war and those who remember that he campaigned on ending them.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Wednesday warned Israel and said that the "Zionist regime made a grave mistake" and "will face the consequences of its actions".
Iran is set to witness more brutality as the administration has decided to execute its first protester on Wednesday amid mass arrests of anti-regime protesters, New York Post reported, citing human rights groups.
Anti-government protests in Iran have continued for the fourteenth consecutive day on Saturday, with authorities tightening security measures as demonstrations spread across multiple cities.
Over the weekend, one senior US official told CNN, the Israelis had an opportunity to kill Iran's supreme leader.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, led the prayers at assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh's funeral in Tehran, on August 1, 2024, a rare honour for someone who is not Iranian.
Israel's ongoing airstrikes and Iran's retaliation raised concerns about all-out war between the countries and propelled the region, already on edge, into even greater upheaval.
The IRGC said that Ismail Haniyeh and one of his bodyguards were killed after their residence was targeted in Tehran.
Khamenei, who has the last word on all state matters and is also the commander in chief of the armed forces, instructed military commanders from the Revolutionary Guards and the army to prepare plans for both an attack and a defence in case the war expands and Israel or the US strike Iran, the officials said.
The IDF said that all of its bases, including air bases, are operating as usual with no harm to their functionality.
The statement by IRGC which was televised on the country's state media, came, three days after Haniyeh was killed at his accommodation in northern Tehran following his attendance at the inaugural ceremony of Iran's new president Masoud Pezeshkian.
Trump has a major decision to take in coming days -- specifically, how to rescue Israel from the attritional war that lies ahead, points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Will Russia's entry deter Trump on his warpath?, asks Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Nine people were on the helicopter that crashed in northwest Iran on Sunday, including three officials, an imam, and flight and security team members, as reported by Tasnim news.
General Soleimani headed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps's Quds Force and also served as Iran's pointman on Iraq.
As per the Israeli Air Force, the fighter jets attacked a number of terrorist targets of the terrorist organization Hamas throughout the Gaza Strip. Among other things, the planes attacked a military compound and a weapons warehouse.
The direction comes hours after Iran fired over a dozen ballistic missiles targeting at least two American bases in response to the killing of its General Qasem Soleimani in a drone strike.
United States President Donald Trump has warned Iran of "major retaliation" if Tehran carries out any attack against America to avenge the killing of top military commander Qasem Soleimani and hinted at striking its cultural sites. His statement came hours after Iran announced it will no longer abide by the limits contained in the 2015 landmark nuclear deal.
The President, in a tweet, said that the 52 sites include some 'very important to Iran and Iranian culture'. The tension between US and Iran has escalated since the killing of powerful General of pro-Iran militia in Iraq.
The United States and Iran severed formal relations in 1980 after the Revolution and ties were hostile when their soccer teams clashed in the 1998 World Cup.
After the match, jubilant Iranians danced and cheered as they streamed out of the ground.
Iranian state television on Wednesday claimed that at least 80 "American terrorists" were killed after Teheran launched 15 missiles on US targets in Iraq.
Hundreds of protesters, mostly women, took to the streets following the death of Mahsa Amini -- a Kurd native, chanting anti-government slogans that target the core of the Islamic regime and its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Thousands of mourners on Saturday joined the formal funeral procession for Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, the head of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, who was killed a day before near Baghdad's international airport in an air strike ordered by United States President Donald Trump.
'In some areas, overwhelming will mean obliteration. No more John Kerry & Obama!' he said, rejecting the policies of his predecessor Barack Obama and his Secretary of State John Kerry.
Pompeo defended the killing of Soleimani saying he was making efforts for an attack on Americans in the region.
Saudi Arabia on Sunday came under attack globally a day after it carried out mass execution of 47 people, including Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr who was a vocal critic of the government and the Saudi monarchy.
In a war situation, the policy of 'what is not mine is enemy' tends to hold sway. It is high time professional militaries took air defence seriously, notes Group Captain Murli Menon (retd).somewhat, it is high time professional militaries took Air Defence seriously, suggests Group Captain Murli Menon (retd).
Shocks were also felt in Pakistan, Lebanon, Kuwait and Turkey, news agencies in those countries reported.
But why should India be talking to the Taliban in the first place? There is no love lost there. India will never forget or forgive the humiliation to which the Taliban subjected it in the IC-814 hijack, notes Shekhar Gupta.
'The bigger challenge and dilemma for Pakistan would be if the US and Saudi Arabia go full throttle against Iran and enforce regime change in Tehran.' 'That would be bad news for Pakistan, especially with the current instability in Balochistan,' notes Brigadier Narender Kumar (retd).
The White House said it has 'a large body' of evidence indicating that the Assad regime was responsible for the April 7 chemical attack in Duma.
Negotiating a sustainable compromise with Iran is not getting any easier, and this delay might not yield the desired result of bringing Tehran's nuclear programme under stringent limits, says Claude Smadja
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