Author: Daily Sabah With Reuters
The Israeli military said on Monday that it attacked dozens of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, but said Israel “remains obligated to the fulfillment of the conditions of the ceasefire agreement”.
The foreign ministers of Iran, Türkiye and Russia are likely to meet in the framework of the Astana process on Dec. 7 and 8 to discuss Syria on the sidelines of the Doha Forum, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Monday, according to state media.
Israeli leaders hailed on Tuesday a pledge by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump that there would be “hell to pay” in the Middle East unless hostages held in the Gaza Strip were released ahead of his Jan. 20 inauguration. The reaction in Gaza was less enthusiastic. Writing on Truth Social, and without naming any group, Trump said the hostages had to be freed by the time he was sworn in. If his demand was not met, he said: “Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America.”…
Russian drones struck critical infrastructure in Ukraine’s western Ternopil and Rivne regions overnight, the Ukrainian air force said on Tuesday. The attack left part of the city of Ternopil without electricity, its mayor said, a week after Moscow’s strikes cut power to much of the city and its surrounding region. “Energy workers and rescuers are eliminating the consequences of the attack. Stock up on water, charge your phones,” mayor Serhiy Nadal said on his Telegram messaging channel. Ternopil lies about 220 km (135 miles) east of NATO-member Poland. Russia mounted two big attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in November, triggering…
Prince William and his wife Kate will greet Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and his wife on Tuesday as they begin a two-day state visit to Britain. The visit marks the return of Kate to formal welcoming duties after she missed the Japanese emperor and his wife in June while she was undergoing preventative chemotherapy for cancer. A royal salute and a carriage procession kick off a morning of pageantry, before the emir heads to the Houses of Parliament to address both chambers. A state banquet at Buckingham Palace will follow in the evening. Britain is seeking…
France is at a turning point due to uncertainty over the country’s budget and the future of the government, said Finance Minister Antoine Armand on Tuesday. “The country is at a turning point,” Armand told France 2 TV, adding that politicians had a responsibility “not to plunge the country into uncertainty.” Prime Minister Michel Barnier, who is facing no-confidence motions, is due to address TV news programmes on Tuesday evening.
A visit to Russia by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is being prepared, but there is no clarity yet on when it will take place, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday. Peskov said it was unclear whether the visit would happen this year, but that a date for the trip could be agreed very quickly if necessary. “Such a visit is being prepared, preparations are underway,” Peskov told reporters at a daily briefing when asked about the matter. Moscow is preparing to sign a new bilateral treaty with Tehran that will include closer defence cooperation, the kind of treaty that…
Russian Navy frigates equipped with new generation hypersonic cruise missiles have conducted drills in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Tuesday. The crews of the frigates fired Zircon (Tsirkon) hypersonic anti-ship missiles, while a Russian submarine launched a Kalibr cruise missile, another weapon capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, the ministry said. On the coast nearby, a missile system carried out a live launch of an Onyx anti-ship missile, it said.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television. Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis. “I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel was committed to its ceasefire deal with Hezbollah, but warned that it did not mean the war was over. Speaking at the start of a cabinet meeting in the northern border city of Nahariya, Netanyahu said Hezbollah had seriously violated the accord on Monday and that Israel had subsequently attacked more than 20 targets across Lebanon in retaliation. “We are currently in a ceasefire, I note, a ceasefire, not the end of the war,” he said. “We have a clear goal to return the residents, to rehabilitate the north. We…