04-03 00:01 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Members of Hassan’s La France Insoumise party condemn detention as part of effort to ‘intimidate’ Palestine supporters.
European Parliament member Rima Hassan has been detained in France on suspicion of “apology for terrorism”, French media outlets are reporting, in a move members of her left-wing La France Insoumise (LFI) party say aims to silence Palestine supporters.
Le Parisien newspaper reported on Thursday that Hassan was detained in relation to an investigation into a social media post that referenced Kozo Okamoto, who took part in a deadly attack at Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport in 1972.
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Hassan had deleted the post on X, Le Parisien said.
Jean-Luc Melenchon, the founder of LFI, said in a social media post on Thursday that Hassan’s detention related to a retweet from last month. “So there is no longer parliamentary immunity in France. Intolerable,” he wrote on X.
Le Parisien and the AFP news agency also reported that a small amount of “synthetic drugs” was found on Hassan when she was taken into police custody.
Hassan and her lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Reuters news agency on her detention.
Hassan, a French-Palestinian lawyer and activist, was elected to the European Parliament in 2024.
The 33-year-old has been a prominent critic of Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and she took part in a Gaza-bound flotilla that was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters in October 2025.
Her Palestine advocacy has drawn the ire of pro-Israel groups and figures in France and other countries.
Last week, Hassan said she was denied entry to Canada, where she was expected to take part in meetings and speaking engagements, in what she described as an act of censorship.
In late March, Matthias Renault, a French politician with the far-right Rassemblement national (National Rally) party, said he alerted the chief prosecutor in Paris about Hassan’s X post that referenced Okamoto.
Renault welcomed Hassan’s detention on Thursday, writing on social media: “Finally the beginning of the end of impunity for the LFI MP!”.
But lawmakers and officials from Hassan’s party condemned her detention.
“The French police and justice system are being used to intimidate those who support the Palestinian people,” said Sophia Chikirou, an LFI MP in the French National Assembly, the lower house of parliament.
Mathilde Panot, an MP who heads the LFI delegation in the National Assembly, said that in President Emmanuel Macron’s France, “the criminalisation of political opponents has reached a new level”.
“This relentless attack, trampling on the most fundamental rights, must end immediately,” Panot wrote on X.
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04-03 00:01 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Bondi came under fire for what critics called politically motivated prosecutions and her handling of the Epstein files.
United States President Donald Trump has announced that Pam Bondi is out as US attorney general, in his second major cabinet-level shake-up in less than a month.
Trump confirmed the decision in a post on Truth Social on Thursday, after a slate of media reports suggested he was considering removing Bondi from the top law enforcement role. Several cited his discontent over Bondi’s handling of investigative files related to financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche will temporarily replace Bondi in an interim capacity, he said.
“Pam Bondi is a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year,” Trump wrote.
The US president also praised Bondi for leading the Department of Justice during a period when violent crime decreased in the US, part of a wider downward trend in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trump did not mention his reasoning for the decision, instead writing, “We love Pam.” He added that she would be “transitioning to a much-needed and important new job in the private sector”.
In a statement, Bondi said she would be transitioning the office to Blanche over the next month, adding she was moving to “an important private sector role I am thrilled about, and where I will continue fighting for President Trump and this Administration”.
“I remain eternally grateful for the trust that President Trump placed in me to Make America Safe Again,” she said.
Bondi’s dismissal comes shortly after Trump abruptly fired Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversaw the agency amid a mass deportation campaign that led to the killing of two US citizens.
The US media has reported that Trump was considering nominating Lee Zeldin, the current administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency, to take over the Department of Justice.
Trump has not confirmed the plan. Any nomination would require Senate confirmation.
Questions over ‘politicalistation’
Bondi, the former attorney general of Florida, had been a longtime supporter of Trump and closely aligned with the president’s agenda as the country’s top law enforcement official.
That led to concerns over the independence of the Department of Justice, particularly as top prosecutors under Bondi’s command announced investigations and criminal charges against Trump’s political opponents.
In one case, last September, Trump addressed a social media post directly to Bondi, appearing to call on her to take action against three critics: Senator Adam Schiff, New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI director James Comey.
“We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” Trump wrote in the post to Bondi. “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
Indictments against James and Comey were delivered in the subsequent weeks, although separate grand juries later moved not to indict the pair.
Critics and legal groups, including the American Bar Association, have warned that such actions have chipped away at the Justice Department’s tradition of independence, leading to politically motivated prosecutions.
More recent investigations into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and the governor of Minnesota, a Democrat – as well as a pressure campaign against state election officials ahead of the midterm vote in November – have fuelled these allegations.
In a lawsuit filed in March, two former FBI agents accused Bondi of “political retribution”, saying they were fired for their role in previously investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
Handling of Epstein files
Bondi has also come under fire for her handling of the Epstein files, the contents of which have roiled governments and institutions across the world.
Shortly after being confirmed by the Senate, Bondi repeatedly vowed to review all documents related to Epstein, including a so-called “client list” of the powerful figures in his social circle. She told Fox News in February 2025 that the list was “sitting on my desk right now to review”.
She further pledged to release a tranche of previously withheld documents.
However, the tone of Bondi and several other top officials in the agency changed dramatically in the following months, culminating in an unsigned department memo released in July that said investigators found “no incriminating ‘client list'” as well as no credible evidence “that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals”.
It also said investigators found no evidence “that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties”.
Trump, a former friend of Epstein’s who repeatedly appeared in the files, also urged reporters to drop the matter. Nevertheless, the president eventually signed a bill passed by Congress that compelled the Department of Justice to release all related files.
Under Bondi, the Department of Justice has since released millions of files, but lawmakers have charged that the documents still appear incomplete.
A combative h
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04-03 00:01 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Trump says US will bomb Iran ‘back to the Stone Ages’, but Iranian military warns it will escalate retaliatory attacks.
Live updates,
Iran war updates: US, Israel step up strikes; Tehran pledges retaliation
Trump says US will bomb Iran ‘back to the stone ages’, but Iranian military warns it will escalate retaliatory attacks.
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04-02 06:04 · 中东,伊朗,核问题,谈判,中东
在欧盟协调下，伊朗核问题相关方重启谈判，讨论恢复核协议
Javier Solana, the European Union foreign policy chief and Ali Larijani, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, met for a second day of talks on Sunday.
Although Larijani reported “some progress” after the first meeting on Saturday, the Iranian foreign ministry in Tehran said on Sunday that the question of suspending enrichment work – a key demand if sanctions are to be avoided – was a “thing of the past”.
“Iran will not take a step back,” ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters.
Asefi said the Vienna talks between Solana and Larijani, had been “good” but that Iran “rejected any negotiations with preconditions”.
The talks between Solana and Larijani have widely been seen as possibly being the last chance to avert UN Security Council moves to impose sanctions against Tehran over its atomic programme.
Larijani said on Saturday: “We have had good and constructive talks and we have made some progress in some areas.“
The talks came after two days of uncertainty reflecting doubts over whether they would achieve anything.
The Solana-Larijani meeting was originally scheduled for Wednesday but postponed at the last minute.
Uranium enrichment
The reluctance of both sides to commit to the talks betrayed a war of nerves that has intensified since Iran ignored a council deadline of August 31 to stop enriching uranium, a process that could yield atomic bombs.
Neither side provided details about what had been discussed at the meeting.
Before the talks, Solana had wanted Larijani to clarify Iran‘s
21-page reply to an offer of trade and other incentives to halt its nuclear fuel programme.
Specifically, Solana was expected to home in on hints in the response that Tehran could curb the programme if engaged in negotiations to implement the benefits on offer.
Larijani meanwhile was expected to again rule out the precondition that enrichment be suspended indefinitely.
A diplomat from one of three EU states, France, Britain and Germany, in the sextet of powers who made the offers said: “We don’t think this meeting will provide a basis for negotiations.”
Diplomatic sanctions
Regardless of the Vienna talks, Nicholas Burns, the US undersecretary of state, said after a meeting of the six in Berlin on Friday that Washington expected the council to begin deliberations next week on a draft sanctions resolution.
But key EU allies as well as Russia and China voiced growing doubt about the speed with which Washington wanted to pursue financial and diplomatic sanctions against Tehran, its arch-foe but also the world’s fourth-biggest oil exporter.
To various degrees, they prefer further talks to explore a compromise that would save face on both sides.
Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, speaking after a China-EU summit in Helsinki on Saturday, urged the international community to exercise caution over sanctions and reiterated his government’s call for Iran to “take seriously” concerns over the programme.
He said: “Sanctions or pressure will not necessarily bring about the goal of solving the Iran nuclear issue.
“Our objective is to promote an ultimate peaceful resolution of the Iran nuclear issue.”
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04-02 00:00 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
The population count, which was delayed by five years, will include caste enumeration for the first time in a century.
India has begun counting its population in the world’s largest census, which will include caste enumeration for the first time in nearly a century.
This year’s census is a $1.24bn exercise during which more than three million Indian officials will spend a year surveying about 1.4 billion Indians about their household composition, living conditions and access to basic amenities.
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The last census was conducted in 2011. Another one was due in 2021, but it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving India’s data on such things as its demographics, housing conditions and welfare amenities outdated.
How will the gargantuan task of counting more than a billion people spread out across a vast country be carried out, and why is the latest census being watched particularly closely?
Here’s what we know:
How will India’s census take place?
According to the Press Information Bureau, India’s first modern census was conducted from 1865 to 1872 during the British colonial period, but it did not happen simultaneously across all regions of the country. It was only in 1881 that India conducted its first coordinated census.
After independence in 1947, India conducted its first census in 1951.
The census this year, which is the eighth since independence, will take place across the country’s 28 states and eight union territories (federally run territories), which include more than 7,000 towns and 640,000 villages.
For the first time, the census will be conducted digitally. Its 30 million enumerators will use digital tools like mobile applications on smartphones to collect and submit data by asking people 33 questions. Individuals will also have the option to self-enumerate through an online portal and then receive a unique digital ID, which can be submitted to the officials collecting data.
The census will take place in two phases.
At a news conference in India’s capital, New Delhi, on Tuesday, Registrar General and Census Commissioner Mritunjay Kumar Narayan said the first phase of the census begins on Wednesday and will continue until September.
During this phase, known as the House Listing and Housing Census, people will be asked “How many people live in your house?” “Do you own the house?” and questions linked to the household’s access to basic amenities like fuel, water, electricity, internet and transport.
The second phase, known as the population enumeration phase, will take place in February and will focus on gathering socioeconomic details and information on education, migration and fertility. Caste enumeration will take place in this phase.
The census is scheduled to conclude next year on March 31.
Why is a census important?
Dipa Sinha, a development economist who works on social policy, said that along with counting the number of people in the country, a census shows demographic trends.
“It also tells us the distribution between rural and urban areas. It gives broad demographic structure,” she told Al Jazeera, adding that details of people’s occupations and religions are also collected in census surveys.
She said such information helps governments plan policies and citizens to claim their rights. Census data also form the basis for allocations under antipoverty programmes, she noted.
Sinha added that India’s latest census is drawing particular attention because the government is planning a delimitation exercise, which is basically redrawing the boundaries of electoral constituencies based on population.
Politicians in southern India, where population growth has been stalling, have raised concerns that if delimitation is done purely based on population size, then northern India, where most of India’s population is located, will get outsized political representation. The bulk of representation in the Indian Parliament already comes from the north, which has been a source of north-south tensions.
“So given that the population has grown at very different places in different parts of the country, the information from this census could become highly politically relevant,” Sinha said.
In addition, “the government has passed a women’s reservation bill last year, which says that once the new census is in place and the delimitation is done, the country would have one-third reservation for women in the parliament. So all of this makes the census something that has an impact,” she added.
How has India’s census evolved?
When India’s census was carried out under British rule, questions mainly focused on registering household data, such as the number, age and gender of residents, their caste and religion. How proficient a person was in the English language was also part of the data collected in the census then.
Postcolonial India’s census has evolved to include question
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04-02 00:00 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Celebrations in the Israeli parliament mark the passing of legislation intended to apply to Palestinians only.
When Israel passed a death penalty law that solely targets Palestinians, it was to be expected that the country’s far right would celebrate. Even as much of the international community roundly condemns Israel for the law – with the United Nations human rights chief calling it a possible “war crime” – there has been little pushback inside Israel.
According to Israeli rights groups and analysts, the introduction of a death penalty targeting people by their ethnicity is just the latest iteration in a long line of legal measures described as having normalised an “apartheid” legal system under which Palestinians are subject to codified discrimination to the benefit of their Israeli neighbours and occupiers.
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The new law means that military courts in the occupied West Bank, which solely try Palestinians, will, by default, impose the death sentence on anyone found guilty by Israel’s legal system of carrying out an unlawful killing of Israelis when the act is defined by the court as “terrorism”.
Conversely, any Israeli citizen charged with an unlawful killing in the occupied West Bank – such as the seven Palestinians killed during a spike in settler violence that has followed the start of the Israel-United States war on Iran – are tried in Israel’s civilian courts.
Conviction rates for Palestinians tried in military courts run to 99.74 percent. In contrast, the conviction rate from 2005 to 2024 for Israelis tried for crimes committed in the West Bank is about 3 percent.
Hardwired discrimination
“I wasn’t surprised,” Arab lawmaker Aida Touma-Suleiman of the left-wing Hadash party said. She responded to the voting results by leaving the parliamentary chamber in disgust.
“I knew there’d be scenes of happiness once it passed, and I just didn’t want to be there to see it,” she continued. “I’d already seen enough through three weeks of deliberations. I couldn’t see any more.”
Touma-Suleiman said that while she expected celebrations from far-right anti-Palestinian figures, such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, it was particularly “painful” seeing “the public feel exactly the same way”.
Laws passed since Israel’s inception in 1948 at the expense of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians forced to flee from their homes have entrenched inequality between Palestinians and Israelis.
Some of these include the Absentees’ Property Law of 1950, which enabled the seizure of land and homes belonging to Palestinians displaced in 1948, and 2003’s Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law, which in effect blocks reunifications for Palestinian families divided by Israel’s occupation.
In 2018, the Nation-State Law championed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu codified Jewish legal supremacy in matters of identity, settlement and collective rights; downgraded the Arabic language; and asserted a constitutional preference for Jewish self-determination.
“Fundamentally, this is an apartheid regime,” Yair Dvir from the Israeli rights group B’Tselem, told Al Jazeera.
“There are entire sets of laws that differentiate between Jews and Palestinians. There’s nothing new in this. It goes back to Israel’s foundation in 1948 and the beginning of the occupation of the West Bank in 1967,” he said.
In this light, Dvir said, the new death penalty law was not the exception as much as it was the rule.
“It’s part of the system and what makes up daily life for people here,” he said. “It shapes how people see reality. This is not an extraordinary incident. It’s just an extreme example – denying Palestinians the right to life – of what most people in Israel accept as normal.”
According to Dvir and other Israeli analysts who spoke to Al Jazeera, the dehumanisation of Palestinians has deepened to the point where capital punishment not only can pass with little dissent but is also openly celebrated by parliament members.
Fast-tracked oppression
“This is just the latest example in a series of blatant violations of international law and Israel’s own basic laws, which provide at least the fig leaf of democracy and equality,” Tirza Leibowitz, the deputy director of projects at Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, told Al Jazeera.
“It’s not just the prison conditions,” under which thousands of Palestinians are subject to inhumane conditions while often being held without charge, she said. “It’s a legal system that either refuses to investigate crimes against Palestinians or actively shields the abuse, torture and medical neglect of them.”
There are currently more than 100 Palestinians whose killings in the West Bank since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023 have yet to be
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04-02 00:00 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
The US has deployed thousands of additional Marines and airborne troops to the Middle East since the Iran war began.
The United States is continuing to build its military presence in the Gulf as its war with Iran enters its second month.
The February 28 launch of “Operation Epic Fury”, the joint US-Israeli air campaign targeting Iranian military and nuclear infrastructure, has continued for more than four weeks with strikes across Iran, killing thousands.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced on Tuesday that the US had deployed a third aircraft carrier, the USS George HW Bush, to join two carrier groups already in the region – the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea, and the USS Gerald Ford, which is currently undergoing maintenance and repairs in Croatia.
On board these carriers and their accompanying warships are thousands of sailors, Marines and specialised support personnel.
Al Jazeera explains what the various forces sent to the Middle East are and their combat capabilities.
What is a Carrier Strike Group (CSG)?
The military doesn’t deploy an aircraft carrier by itself. A Carrier Strike Group (CSG) is the aircraft carrier plus its escort ships and support units that act as a floating base. As of April 1, the USS Abraham Lincoln is the only carrier currently launching daily combat sorties against Iranian targets. The USS George HW Bush is currently in transit and is expected to eventually replace the Ford, which has been on an extended deployment in the Mediterranean.
A CSG typically includes:
- An aircraft carrier.
- Approximately 60-75 fighter jets and helicopters.
- Usually 2-4 Burke-class destroyers.
- A guided-missile cruiser.
- Typically, a submarine for underwater protection.
- Supply ships.
What is an Amphibious Ready Group (ARG)?
An Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) acts as a mini aircraft carrier and carries US Marines and equipment for landing operations. The main feature of an ARG is that it can launch sea-to-land invasions. The USS Tripoli ARG is currently active and stationed, having arrived in the Middle East on March 27, while the USS Boxer ARG is en route and expected to arrive in mid-April.
An ARG typically includes:
- Three specialised ships.
- Approximately 2,200 Marines, known as a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU).
- Short-takeoff aircraft.
- Landing craft for beach assaults.
The main difference between an Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) and a Carrier Strike Group (CSG) is their mission. An ARG is built to put troops on land, while a CSG is built to project air power and fight major wars at sea.
What is a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU)?
A Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) is a self-contained, rapid-response force typically consisting of 2,200 to 2,500 personnel from the United States Marine Corps, capable of conducting sea-based combat and humanitarian missions.
On Friday, US Central Command confirmed that 2,200 Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) had arrived in Middle Eastern waters after being ordered to depart Sasebo, Japan, where they are normally stationed, on March 13.
A second Marine Expeditionary Unit, carrying roughly 2,500 Marines from the 11th MEU, is also inbound after leaving San Diego on March 18.
Additionally, the Pentagon ordered approximately 2,000 soldiers from the US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division to begin moving to the Middle East.
The additional deployments will add to the 50,000 US troops already stationed in the Middle East.
Which units make up an MEU?
The 2,200 Marines and Sailors within an MEU are divided into four specific roles, including:
- Command Element (approximately 200 troops): For planning, coordination, and command-and-control.
- Ground Combat Element (approximately 1,200 troops): Built around an infantry battalion with artillery and armoured vehicles.
- Aviation Combat Element (approximately 500 troops): Composite squadron with transport helicopters and attack aircraft.
- Logistics Combat Element (approximately 300 troops): Provides up to 15 days of self-sustainment, including medical, engineering and maintenance.
How are they deployed?
MEUs are almost always deployed by sea, on board a three-ship Amphibious Ready Group (ARG), which essentially acts as a floating base.
These ships typically include:
- A Landing Helicopter Assault/Dock – Essentially a small aircraft carrier that carries short-takeoff aircraft, including Ospreys, F-35Bs, Harriers, and Attack Helicopters.
- An Amphibious Transport Dock – A mid-sized ship that carries a mix of troops and heavy vehicles.
- A Dock Landing Ship – Focuses mostly on carrying cargo and heavy gear.
When are MEUs deployed?
MEUs can carry out sea-to-land assaults, raids, evacuations, humanitarian aid, disaster relief and other military operations. They are usually the first at the scene of a conflict.
How many MEUs does the US have?
The United States Marine Corps maintains seven active Marine Expeditionary Units, two of which – the 31st MEU and the 11th MEU – are assigned to the Iran war.
The MEUs are divided between the East Coast, the West Coast and the Asia Pacific. They include:
- East Coast: 22nd MEU, 2
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04-02 00:00 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
The mission is a major step in NASA’s plan to return humans to the moon and eventually send astronauts to Mars.
The Artemis II space mission has blasted off from the US state of Florida, sending four astronauts on a historic journey around the moon and marking the first time humans have travelled beyond low-Earth orbit in more than 50 years.
The mission, which launched on Wednesday, is a major step in the United States space agency NASA’s plan to return humans to the moon and eventually send astronauts to Mars.
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list of 1 itemend of listThe 32-storey rocket rose from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, where tens of thousands gathered to witness the liftoff.
The Artemis II crew – NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen – are set for a nearly 10-day journey around the moon and back, taking them farther into space than humans have travelled in decades.
“On this historic mission, you take with you the heart of this Artemis team, the daring spirit of the American people and our partners across the globe, and the hopes and dreams of a new generation,” said Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, the launch director. “Good luck, Godspeed Artemis II. Let’s go.”
Five minutes into the flight, Wiseman, the commander, saw the team’s target: “We have a beautiful moonrise, we’re headed right at it,” he said from the capsule.
Tensions high in the hours leading up to launch
Tensions were high in the hours leading up to the launch as hydrogen fuel began flowing into the rocket, a critical phase that had caused a dangerous leak during a countdown test earlier this year and forced a lengthy delay.
To NASA’s relief, no significant hydrogen leaks were detected this time. The launch team successfully loaded more than 700,000 gallons (2.6 million litres) of fuel into the Space Launch System rocket on the pad, a smooth operation that set the stage for the Artemis II crew to board.
NASA also had to resolve several technical issues ahead of liftoff, but was able to clear them without delaying the launch. One issue involved commands not getting through to the rocket’s flight-termination system, which is designed to send a self-destruct signal if the rocket veers off course and threatens populated areas.
That issue was quickly resolved, according to NASA. Engineers also troubleshot a battery in the Orion capsule’s launch-abort system after its temperature readings fell outside the expected range, but the problem was fixed and did not prevent the launch from going ahead.
What happens next?
The astronauts will spend the first one to two days in high Earth orbit carrying out extensive systems checks, including testing Orion’s life-support, propulsion, navigation and communications systems to make sure the spacecraft is ready for deep space.
Once those checks are complete, Orion will perform a critical engine burn known as translunar injection, which will send the spacecraft out of Earth’s orbit and onto a trajectory towards the moon.
The journey will take several days, during which the crew will continue monitoring spacecraft systems as they travel farther from Earth.
Orion will then fly behind the moon on a free-return trajectory, a path that naturally swings the spacecraft back towards Earth using the gravity of both the moon and Earth, with minimal fuel required. During this phase, the spacecraft will reach its greatest distance from Earth.
After the lunar flyby, the crew will spend several days travelling back to Earth while carrying out additional deep-space tests on power systems, thermal controls and crew operations.
As Orion approaches Earth, the capsule will re-enter the atmosphere at speeds of about 40,233km per hour (25,000 miles per hour), before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, where recovery teams will retrieve the crew.
With half the world’s population not yet born when NASA’s Apollo astronauts last walked on the moon, Artemis is being presented as a new generation’s moon mission.
“There are a lot of people who don’t remember Apollo. There are generations who weren’t alive when Apollo launched. This is their Apollo,” NASA science mission chief Nicky Fox said earlier this week.
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04-02 00:00 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Before talks with 35 countries, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer says reopening strait ‘will not be easy’.
The United Kingdom will convene talks with dozens of countries on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced, as the US-Israeli war on Iran has effectively shuttered the critical Gulf waterway.
Speaking during a news conference on Wednesday, Starmer said UK Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper would host a virtual meeting of 35 countries on Thursday to assess measures to reopen the strait “after the fighting has stopped”.
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The meeting will “assess all viable diplomatic and political measures that we can take to restore freedom of navigation, guarantee the safety of trapped ships and seafarers and resume the movement of vital commodities”, the UK prime minister said.
“Following that meeting, we will also convene our military planners to look at how we can marshal our capabilities and make the strait accessible and safe after the fighting has stopped,” Starmer added.
Countries around the world have raised serious concerns about Iran’s effective closure of the strait, through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquified natural gas supplies transit, amid US-Israeli attacks on Iran and Iranian attacks on targets across the Middle East.
The closure has sent global energy prices soaring and pushed nations to announce that they would release some of their strategic oil and gas reserves in an effort to lessen the crisis.
Starmer said on Wednesday that countries that recently signed a statement saying they were ready “to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz” would take part in this week’s talks.
In addition to the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the Netherlands are among the countries to have signed it.
“I do have to level with people on this. This [reopening] will not be easy,” Starmer said.
The UK and other European countries have faced condemnation from US President Donald Trump, who has accused them of both failing to take action to reopen the strait and not providing sufficient support to Washington in its war effort.
On Tuesday, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that “all those countries that can’t get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom” should either buy from the US or “build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT”.
“You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us. Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!” Trump said.
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04-02 00:00 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Officials, government supporters take to streets to mark Islamic Republic Day, even as US, Israel continue bombing.
Tehran, Iran – Government supporters have taken to the streets in Iran to celebrate the anniversary of a referendum nearly half a century ago that solidified the Islamic Republic’s hold on power, even as the United States and Israel continued their attacks on the country.
President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi were among officials who joined pro-establishment rallies on the streets of Tehran on Tuesday night to mark Islamic Republic Day, when the nascent theocratic system in 1979 announced it had garnered 98.2 percent of the popular vote shortly after an Islamic revolution.
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Shortly after and in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Washington bombed the site of the former US embassy in Tehran, in an apparent move tied to the symbolism of Islamic Republic Day. Footage from state media showed destruction and debris and smoke in the area, which is guarded by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
On Wednesday afternoon, authorities hoisted what they said was Iran’s tallest and heaviest flag at 150 metres (492 feet) and 300kg (660 pounds) in an area of downtown Tehran.
Festivities began on Tuesday night, and more gatherings are expected on Wednesday night, as political, military and religious leaders say followers must ensure security on the streets, backed by armed forces, to fend off any local dissent and incitement towards regime change from opponents.
Araghchi, Tehran’s top diplomat, who told Al Jazeera in an interview on Tuesday that he has been exchanging messages with Washington but has not responded to requests for negotiations, told state television that he joined supporters to “gain spirit” and encouragement. The president was seen taking selfie photos with people on the streets while flanked by masked bodyguards.
Hassan Khomeini, the son of Ruhollah Khomeini, who led the 1979 revolution and became the first supreme leader before his death in 1989, said it was incumbent upon them from an Islamic standpoint to remain on the streets every night until the war is over, no matter how long it takes.
“The enemy might make a thousand plots in order to cut off our communication, but our trenches are the mosques, alleys, squares and streets,” he said.
People shown by state media in various cities chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” in addition to a series of religious slogans.
The authorities issued calls to action for people to participate in group marches while waving flags. Religious singers and eulogists also performed religious songs that drew on the influence of revered figures in Shia Islam.
The paramilitary Basij forces of the IRGC, as well as other armed forces, patrolled the streets and set up checkpoints and roadblocks across the city.
But they were not the only forces present.
Hamid al-Hosseini, a senior clerical and paramilitary figure affiliated with the IRGC and Iraq’s Hashd al-Shaabi, also known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) of Iran-aligned fighters, confirmed that Iraqi nationals were widely situated on the streets of the Iranian capital.
While surrounded by those attending state-run festivities in downtown Tehran, he told the IRGC-linked Tasnim news agency that Iraqi “mokebs” or religious food and services stations are now located around “various squares” in order to “offer a little help to the Iranian people and learn resilience from them”.
This comes days after Hashd al-Shaabi fighters, while wearing military attire and in some cases, clerical turbans, proudly marched the streets of cities in southwestern Iran’s Khuzestan in dozens of pick-up trucks while delivering what they called “humanitarian assistance”. Pezeshkian later thanked them in a post online.
There were reports that they had already been spotted in Tehran, but there was no official confirmation from Iranian authorities. Opponents and human rights organisations have for years accused the Islamic Republic of systematically using fighters from Iraq and other aligned armed forces to crack down against local dissent, a claim the authorities have rejected.
‘We are waiting for you’
The Iranian state has remained defiant as Washington signals that it may soon deploy thousands of soldiers to the country.
Amid speculation that a ground fight could be aimed at occupying parts of Iran’s southern islands on the Strait of Hormuz, taking over oil and gas facilities, or even extracting highly enriched uranium from bombed nuclear facilities, Tehran says its defences are prepared.
Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, the head of the Iranian army’s research centre, said the armed forces have been drilling for the scenario of a US invasion since 2001, so any aggression will be met with “heavy casualties”.
The general staff of th
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