In latest breach, Iran’s Mahan Air hit with cyberattack

Mahan Air flies from Tehran to a few dozen destinations in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. (Shutterstock)
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Updated 03 December 2021
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In latest breach, Iran’s Mahan Air hit with cyberattack

TEHRAN: A cyberattack on Sunday disrupted access to Iran’s privately owned Mahan Air, state TV reported, marking the latest in a series of cyberattacks on Iranian infrastructure that has put the country on edge.

Mahan Air’s website displayed an error message saying the site couldn’t be reached. The carrier said in a statement that it had “thwarted” the attack and that its flight schedule was not affected, adding it has faced similar breaches in the past.

Many customers of Mahan Air across Iran received strange text messages on Sunday. A group calling itself Hoosyarane-Vatan, or Observants of Fatherland, claimed in the mass texts to have carried out the attack, citing the airline’s cooperation with Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. The self-described hacking group did not provide any evidence.

Mahan Air flies from Tehran to a few dozen destinations in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

The US Treasury Department, which polices compliance with sanctions, blacklisted the airline in 2011 for allegedly “providing financial, material and technological support” to the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force.


Syria says foiled attempt to smuggle out 4 mn captagon tablets

Updated 2 sec ago
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Syria says foiled attempt to smuggle out 4 mn captagon tablets

DAMASCUS: Syrian authorities on Monday announced that they had thwarted an attempt to smuggle out four million tablets of captagon, an amphetamine-like narcotic that has flooded the region.
The interior ministry said in a statement that authorities seized “over four million captagon tablets that were tightly hidden inside industrial equipment designed for manufacturing flour used for human consumption.”
It said they had acted on “accurate information received from our sources about a shipment of drugs hidden inside industrial equipment prepared for smuggling outside the country.”
The tablets were seized in the key port city of Latakia — the coastal heartland of deposed president Bashar Assad’s Alawite minority.
Under Assad’s rule, captagon became Syria’s largest export during the civil war that erupted in 2011 and a key source of illicit funding for his government.
Since Assad’s ouster last December, the new Islamist authorities have discovered millions of captagon pills in warehouses and on military bases.
The interior ministry said those involved in the latest operation have been “arrested, the equipment containing the drugs has been seized, and the arrested individuals have been referred for investigation based on a decision issued by the public prosecution.”
Last week, Syrian authorities announced the seizure of around nine million captagon tablets that were headed for Turkiye, after a month-long operation.
Drug smuggling has persisted in Syria despite the new rulers’ efforts, with neighboring countries occasionally seizing large quantities of captagon.
Iraqi security forces seized more than a ton of captagon smuggled from Syria via Turkiye in March, and Jordan thwarted a smuggling attempt from Syria in April, confiscating “hundreds of thousands” of captagon tablets.

Netanyahu: Israel must avert Gaza famine ‘for diplomacy’ while pressing for full territorial control

Updated 11 min 2 sec ago
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Netanyahu: Israel must avert Gaza famine ‘for diplomacy’ while pressing for full territorial control

  • Israel's blockade of Gaza since March 2 came under increasing international pressure to restore aid
  • Netanyahu vows full military control of Gaza as humanitarian crisis deepens and international warnings mount
  • The Israeli military issued an evacuation order for residents of Khan Younis

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel must prevent famine in Gaza for “diplomatic reasons,” even as he vowed to press ahead with military operations to “take control of all” of the war-torn territory.

His comments came amid mounting international concern over a deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and as Israeli forces launched what they called extensive new ground operations against Hamas.

“The fighting is intense and we are making progress. We will take control of all the territory of the Strip,” Netanyahu said Monday in a video posted to his Telegram channel.

“We will not give up. But in order to succeed, we must act in a way that cannot be stopped.”

‘Prevent Famine for Diplomacy’

Netanyahu also said it was necessary for Israel to prevent a famine in Gaza for “diplomatic reasons,” after his government announced it would allow limited food aid into the territory.

The premier’s defense of the decision to at least partially lift a more than two-month aid blockade followed criticism from far-right members of his coalition who opposed the move.

“We must not let the population (of Gaza) sink into famine, both for practical and diplomatic reasons,” Netanyahu said the Telegram video, adding that even friends of Israel would not tolerate “images of mass starvation.”

Israel has said its blockade since March 2 was aimed at forcing concessions from the Palestinian militant group.

But it came under increasing international pressure to restore aid to Gaza, where UN agencies have warned of critical shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicines.

The territory was at “critical risk of famine,” with 22 percent of the population facing an imminent humanitarian “catastrophe,” the UN- and NGO-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said this month.

Neytanyahu on Monday shrugged off criticism of the aid resumption as “natural,” calling the decision “difficult, but necessary.”

Evacuation Order

The Israeli military on Monday issued an evacuation order for residents of Gaza’s second-largest city, Khan Younis, and nearby towns.
Avichay Adraee, a military spokesperson, posted the order on his social medial accounts, saying the entire area “will be considered a dangerous combat zone.”
The evacuation order comes as Israel escalates its war in Gaza with new operations.


Iraqi FM arrives in Tehran to attend regional security forum

Updated 19 May 2025
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Iraqi FM arrives in Tehran to attend regional security forum

  • The Tehran Dialogue Forum aims to discuss ways to enhance joint cooperation

DUBAI: Iraq’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Fuad Hussein arrived in Tehran on Sunday to take part in a forum on regional security, Iraqi state news agency INA reported.

The Tehran Dialogue Forum aims to “discuss ways to enhance regional security and joint cooperation, and exchange views on the political and economic challenges facing the region,” according to the INA report.

Hussein is expected to take part in sessions at the forum, which will host ministers, senior officials, research center leaders, and international experts.

He was received by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Middle Eastern and Gulf Affairs Mohammad Ali Beyk, alongside other Iranian Foreign Ministry officials and Nasir Abdul Mohsen Abdullah, Iraq’s ambassador to Iran, at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport.

“During his visit, the minister will meet with a number of senior officials in the Islamic Republic of Iran to discuss bilateral relations between the two countries and regional and international issues of common interest,” the report added. 


Qatari PM meets Iranian president in Tehran

Updated 19 May 2025
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Qatari PM meets Iranian president in Tehran

  • The two officials discussed enhancing cooperation between their countries, particularly in economy

DUBAI: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian received Sheikh Mohammed Al-Thani, Qatar’s prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, in Tehran on Sunday for high-level talks, Qatar news agency reported. 

The two officials discussed enhancing cooperation between their countries, particularly in economy and trade.

They also reviewed the latest developments in the Gaza Strip and the occupied Palestinian territories, as well as other regional and international issues of mutual concern.


After PKK move, healing Turkiye-Kurd ties needs ‘paradigm shift’: Ocalan

Updated 19 May 2025
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After PKK move, healing Turkiye-Kurd ties needs ‘paradigm shift’: Ocalan

  • Ocalan is unlikely to be freed, as his life would likely come under threat, but the conditions of his imprisonment are likely to be “eased,” officials say

ISTANBUL: A “major” shift is needed to repair broken ties between the Turkish state and the country’s Kurdish minority following the historic decision of the Kurdistan Workers Party to disarm, its jailed founder said Sunday.
The message from Abdullah Ocalan was transmitted through a delegation of the pro-Kurdish DEM party who visited the Imrali prison island near Istanbul where Ocalan has been serving life in solitary confinement since 1999.
It was their first visit since the May 12 disarmament announcement, which sought to draw a line under conflict that began in 1984 when the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) took up arms. More than 40,000 people have died since.
“What we are doing involves a major paradigm shift,” wrote the 76-year-old former guerrilla.
“The Turkish-Kurdish relationship is like a brotherly relationship that is broken. Brothers and sisters fight, but they can’t exist without each other,” he said, calling for “a new agreement based on the concept of brotherhood.”
“We must clear away, one-by-one, all the traps and minefields that spoil this relationship, we must repair the broken roads and bridges.”
Only DEM lawmaker Pervin Buldan visited Ocalan this time, with lawyer Ozgur Erol, following the recent death of veteran Turkish peacemaker Sirri Sureyya Onder.
Onder, who was Turkiye’s deputy parliamentary speaker, died on May 3, after suffering a cardiac arrest and just days before the PKK’s historic decision.
He had spent years trying to end the conflict with Turkiye’s Kurdish minority in efforts that earned respect from across the political spectrum.
Since December, he had been part of a delegation that visited Ocalan several times, shuttling messages between him and Turkiye’s political establishment and paving the way for the PKK move.
“I had a hankering to speak to Sirri Sureyya Onder one last time,” Ocalan wrote, describing him as “a wise person for Turkiye” and saying he left behind “a cherished memory that we need to keep alive.”
The government has said it will carefully monitor the disarmament process and in turn, observers expect the government to show a new openness to the Kurds who make up about 20 percent of the 85 million population.
Ocalan is unlikely to be freed, as his life would likely come under threat, but the conditions of his imprisonment are likely to be “eased,” officials say.