G7 nations have warned that "no country stands to gain from a further escalation in the Middle East," as world leaders gathered in New York for the annual U.N. General Assembly.
Full StoryIranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Monday accused Israel of seeking a wider conflict, insisting that Tehran has been deliberately holding back in the hope of securing regional peace.
"We know more than anyone else that if a larger war were to erupt in the Middle East, it will not benefit anyone throughout the world. It is Israel that seeks to create this wider conflict," Pezeshkian told a roundtable with journalists as he attended the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
Full StoryGermany has said there is an "urgent need" for measures to calm tensions in the Middle East as Israel's war on Hamas in Gaza threatened to spread to Lebanon.
Attacks carried out by Israel or blamed on it, including air strikes and the explosions of hand-held communications devices, have killed dozens and injured thousands in Lebanon since Tuesday.
Full StoryAn Iraqi coalition of pro-Iran armed groups claimed on Sunday a drone attack against Israel, where the military said it had intercepted "multiple suspicious aerial targets" coming from Iraq overnight.
"The fighters of the Islamic Resistance of Iraq targeted on Sunday morning a strategic location in the occupied territories using drones," the Iraqi coalition said in a statement on Telegram, referring to Israel, and adding it was carried out "in support of our people in Gaza".
Full StoryIsraeli troops raided the offices of the satellite news network Al-Jazeera in the Israeli-occupied West Bank early Sunday, ordering the bureau to shut down amid a widening campaign by Israel targeting the Qatar-funded broadcaster as it covers the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
Al-Jazeera aired footage of Israeli troops live on its Arabic-language channel ordering the office to be shut for 45 days. It follows an extraordinary order issued in May that saw Israeli police raid Al-Jazeera's broadcast position in East Jerusalem, seizing equipment there, preventing its broadcasts in Israel and blocking its websites.
Full StoryAmbassador James Kariuki, UK Deputy Permanent Representative to the U.N., has said that the UK is working to de-escalate and end the cycle of violence in Middle East, during a U.N. Security Council meeting on the latest developments in the region.
"This past year has seen continuous and devastating violence across the region. Civilians have suffered on a dreadful scale on both sides of the Blue Line. The explosions in Lebanon this week and Israel’s strike in southern Beirut today are the latest in a deadly cycle of violence, and we are deeply concerned by civilian casualties resulting from those incidents. That children were among them is particularly distressing. Our condolences go to the families of the civilians killed," Kariuki said.
Full StoryThe White House on Friday described footage of an Israeli soldier pushing an apparently dead man off a rooftop in the West Bank as "deeply disturbing" and said it had demanded an explanation from Israel.
"We've seen that video, and we found it deeply disturbing. If it's proven to be authentic, it clearly would depict abhorrent and egregious behavior by professional soldiers," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
Full StoryIsraeli security officials say an Israeli citizen has been indicted for involvement in an Iranian assassination plot against top Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A statement from the Shin Bet internal security agency on Thursday said that the citizen was recruited by Iranian intelligence to “carry out terrorist activities” on Israeli soil and “promote assassination attacks” on Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the head of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar.
Full StorySenior diplomats from the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Italy will meet on Thursday in Paris to discuss the spiraling tensions in the Middle East, sources said on Wednesday.
The meeting will take place as fears grow of an all-out war engulfing the region, with conflict raging in Gaza and after two days of exploding pagers and other devices in Lebanon, an unprecedented attack Hezbollah has blamed on Israel.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday in Cairo that a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza would be the best way to stop violence from spreading in the Middle East.
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