Iran’s supreme leader yesterday vowed in a rare address that his allies around the region would keep fighting Israel, as he defended his nation’s missile strike on its archfoe.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s address in Tehran was the first since Iran launched its second-ever attack on Israel, and also the first since exchanges of fire pitting Hezbollah fighters against Israeli troops escalated into full-blown war in Lebanon.
Nearly a year after Palestinian militant group Hamas launched the deadliest attack on Israel in its history on Oct. 7 last year, Israel announced it was shifting its focus to securing its border with Lebanon.
Photo: Reuters
Israel says its objective is to allow 60,000 Israelis displaced by a year of cross-border rocket attacks launched by Hezbollah to return to their homes.
Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon have killed more than 1,000 people since Monday last week, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health, and forced hundreds of thousands more to flee their homes in a nation already mired in economic crisis.
They have also killed an Iranian general, a host of Hezbollah commanders and, in their biggest blow to the group in decades, assassinated its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
Speaking to a crowd of thousands in Farsi-speaking Iran, Khamenei said in Arabic: “The resistance in the region will not back down with these martyrdoms, and will win.”
The address came as Israel weighs retaliation for Hezbollah backer Iran’s missile attack which Tehran said was revenge for the killing of Nasrallah and other top figures.
Khamenei praised Hezbollah, saying that it was providing “a vital service to the entire region and the entire Islamic world.”
The escalation has left people in Lebanon fearful that there would be no swift end to the violence engulfing their nation.
In Beirut, 35-year-old displaced nurse Fatima Salah said people were “scared for our children, and this war is going to be long.”
Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant warned that “those who attack the state of Israel pay a heavy price.”
Iran said it would step up its response if Israel counterattacked.
Israel intercepted most of the 200 missiles launched by Iran, although the attack has sparked fear in Israel of more violence to come. In the West Bank, a Palestinian was killed by shrapnel.
Rony Eli-Ya, 37, an Israeli on a pilgrimage to Ukraine’s Uman, said it was “a miracle, not a single rocket killed a single Jew” in the attack.
US President Joe Biden said that Washington was “discussing” possible Israeli strikes on Iranian oil facilities.
Lebanon said an Israeli strike yesterday cut off the main international road to Syria, after Israel said Hezbollah was transporting weapons through the Mediterranean nation’s principal land border crossing.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets struck Hezbollah targets near the border crossing overnight.
It said they included a 3.5km tunnel that “enables the transfer and storage of large quantities of weapons underground.”
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS