Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei on Tuesday, May 26 said Gulf countries will no longer “be a shield” for the United States military bases and the Western power will no longer have a “safe haven” in the region.
Khamenei made the remarks on his Telegram channel. “The hands of time do not turn back, and the nations and territories of the region will no longer serve as a shield for American bases. America will no longer have a safe haven for evil or for establishing military bases in the region,” he said.
Israeli strike on village in eastern Lebanon kills 12
An Israeli airstrike on a village in eastern Lebanon killed 12 people, state media said on Tuesday, as an Israeli official said the military had called up more troops to Lebanon.
The strike hit the village of Mashghara in the Bekaa Valley late Monday, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.
It came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he had authorised more intensive strikes targeting the Hezbollah militant group across Lebanon. The Israeli military did not comment on this particular strike, but said Monday that it was targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in eastern Lebanon.
An Israeli security official said the military had called up an additional battalion to Lebanon. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Rescue workers say that a dozen bodies were pulled out of the rubble following an intense wave of overnight strikes targeting swaths of southern and eastern Lebanon.
Over a million people in Lebanon have been displaced in the war, which was sparked by Hezbollah firing rockets into northern Israel on March 2 in solidarity with Iran.
3,185 people in Lebanon have been killed in Israeli strikes since the start of the war, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. Over 9,600 others have been wounded.
The intensified strikes have brought fear in Lebanon of a renewed full-scale war, leaving the capital exposed to possible strikes again.
World stocks and oil prices are mixed after the US launches strikes in southern Iran
Shares were mixed Tuesday in Europe and Asia after the US military said it carried out what it called “self-defense” strikes in southern Iran, including on missile launch sites and boats placing mines.
The attacks came even as President Donald Trump said on social media that negotiations on ending the war were “proceeding nicely.”
In early European trading, Germany’s DAX lost 0.7 per cent to 25,214.08, while the CAC 40 in Paris shed 0.9 per cent to 8,187.07. In Britain, the FTSE 100 gained 0.7 per cent to 10,540.40.
The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.5 per cent.
Oil prices were mixed, with Brent crude rising but still trading below $100 a barrel while U.S. benchmark crude oil fell.
Israeli opposition leader Lapid says Trump’s emerging deal with Iran is `bad for the region’
The deal being discussed between the US and Iran fails to achieve any of Israel’s goals for the war, Israel’s opposition leader Yair Lapid said on Monday, as he accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of failing to influence a better agreement.
Lapid, who is part of an alliance attempting to unseat Netanyahu in elections this year, said details of the emerging deal are “disturbing.”
“The deal is bad for Israel, bad for the region, bad for the citizens of Iran,” Lapid told reporters in Jerusalem.
Israel and the US launched the war on Feb. 28 vowing to destroy Iran’s ballistic missile program, end its support for proxy militant groups across the region and end Iran’s ability to pursue a nuclear bomb. Both Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump also said they hoped to create conditions to topple Iran’s government.
