WASHINGTON: The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on a money exchanger and a group of firms across six countries involved in commodity shipments and business transactions that benefit Iran’s military and the Houthi militant group in Yemen and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned six firms, two tankers and a money exchanger, all either based or registered in Liberia, India, Vietnam, Lebanon or Kuwait. They are accused of materially benefiting Iran, the Houthis and Hezbollah.
Hezbollah and the Houthis have been launching regular attacks since the onset of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, and they have sparked international concern that the war in the Palestinian enclave could spill over into the rest of the Middle East.
Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops exchange fire on a near-daily basis along Lebanon’s southern border, which has led to the displacement of tens of thousands of people on both sides. Despite losing more than 200 combatants and Israel striking deeper into the tiny country, Hezbollah maintains that it will stop launching rockets into northern Israel only when there is a ceasefire in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Yemen’s Houthls, who control much of Yemen’s north and west, have been launching drones and missiles on ships in the Red Sea, which they say is an effort to pressure Israel to end its war. Despite US-led airstrikes over the past two months, they have carried on with their campaign.
In a separate announcement Tuesday, Treasury slapped sanctions on 11 people and entities accused of facilitating financial transfers to the Syrian government to help it duck sanctions and being involved in the trafficking of a highly addictive amphetamine called Captagon that has become a booming industry in the war-torn country.
Treasury sanctioned a Syrian identified as Taher Al-Kayali and his company Neptunus LLC, accused of purchasing cargo ships to smuggle Captagon to Europe. One of his ships was intercepted by Greek authorities in 2018. Mahmoud Abulilah Al-Dj and his companies Al-Ta’ir Company and FreeBird Travel and Tourism were also sanctioned. He has had several of his drug shipments seized in Libya, and has cooperated with Abulilah. Al-Dj is also the “exclusive agent” of sanctioned Syrian airliner Cham Wings in Libya, Treasury said.
Experts say Captagon is primarily produced in Syria and Lebanon, where packages containing millions of pills are smuggled into Gulf countries, Europe and elsewhere. The trade allegedly has strong ties to Syrian President Bashar Assad and his associates, as well as the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in neighboring Lebanon.
Western governments estimate that the industry has generated billions of dollars in revenue for Syria. Syria’s Arab neighbors, notably Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf states, have been desperate to halt the trade, as millions of pills have been smuggled in.
Meanwhile, Treasury slapped sanctions on Syria-based Maya Exchange Company, as well as Aleksey Makarov, the vice president of the listed Russian Financial Cooperation Bank, and Muhammad ‘Ali Al-Minala of the Syrian central bank, who used the exchange company to make payments to “a Jordanian beneficiary”.
Treasury also slapped sanctions on STF Logistic which it claims has generated tens of millions of revenue for the Syrian government and through a 50-year contract with Damascus has been granted the right to almost three-quarters of sales revenue from Syrian mines near Palmyra. Grains Middle East Trading, and its chief executive officer Yafi David were sanctioned for serving as an intermediary for STF Logistic. The company is based in Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.
Assad’s crackdown on protests in 2011 led to his global isolation, and his forces were accused of torture, bombing civilian infrastructure, and using chemical weapons with support of key allies Russia and Iran.
US imposes more Iran sanctions and hits Syrian regime with penalties for drug trafficking
https://arab.news/g2w6p
US imposes more Iran sanctions and hits Syrian regime with penalties for drug trafficking
- The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned six firms, two tankers and a money exchanger
- Treasury sanctioned a Syrian identified as Taher Al-Kayali and his company Neptunus LLC, accused of purchasing cargo ships to smuggle Captagon to Europe
Israeli fire and airstrikes kill 35 in Gaza
- Hamas, which denies Israeli charges that it steals aid, accused Israel of “employing hunger as a weapon of war and turning aid distribution sites into traps of mass deaths of innocent civilians”
GAZA: Israeli fire and airstrikes killed at least 35 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, most of them near an aid distribution site operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, local health authorities said.
Medics at Al-Awda and Al-Aqsa hospitals in central Gaza areas, where most of the casualties were moved to, said at least 15 people were killed as they tried to approach the GHF aid distribution site near the Netzarim corridor.
The rest were killed in separate attacks across the enclave, they added.
BACKGROUND
The Gaza Health Ministry said in a statement on Saturday that at least 274 people have so far been killed, and more than 2,000 wounded, near aid distribution sites since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began operations.
There has been no immediate comment by the Israeli military or the GHF on Saturday’s incidents.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the UN says is neither impartial nor neutral.
The Gaza Health Ministry said in a statement on Saturday that at least 274 people have so far been killed, and more than 2,000 wounded, near aid distribution sites since the GHF began operations in Gaza.
Hamas, which denies Israeli charges that it steals aid, accused Israel of “employing hunger as a weapon of war and turning aid distribution sites into traps of mass deaths of innocent civilians.”
Later on Saturday, health officials at Shifa Hospital in Gaza said Israeli fire killed at least 12 Palestinians, who gathered to wait for aid trucks along the coastal road north of the strip, taking Saturday’s death toll to at least 35.
The Israeli military ordered residents of Khan Younis and the nearby towns of Abassan and Bani Suhaila in the southern Gaza Strip to leave their homes and head west toward the so-called humanitarian zone, saying it would forcefully work against “terror organizations” in the area.
The war in Gaza erupted 20 months ago after militants raided Israel and took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel’s single deadliest day.
Israel’s military campaign has killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health authorities in Gaza, and flattened much of the densely populated strip, which is home to more than 2 million people.
Most of the population is displaced, and malnutrition is widespread.
Despite efforts by the US, Egypt, and Qatar to restore a ceasefire in Gaza, neither Israel nor Hamas has shown willingness to back down on core demands, with each side blaming the other for the failure to reach a deal.
Egypt delays opening of massive new museum
- Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly told a press conference on Saturday that the grand opening would be delayed until the last quarter of this year
CAIRO: Egyptian authorities announced on Saturday that the long-awaited inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum, known as GEM, would once again be delayed as a result of escalating regional tensions.
“In view of the ongoing regional developments, it was decided to postpone the official inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum, which was scheduled for July 3,” the Tourism and Antiquities Ministry said in a statement.
Spanning 50 hectares, the GEM is twice the size of both Paris’ Louvre and New York’s Metropolitan, and two-and-a-half times that of the British Museum, according to its director.
Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly told a press conference on Saturday that the grand opening would be delayed until the last quarter of this year.
In view of current events, “we believed it would be appropriate to delay this big event so that it can maintain the appropriate global momentum,” he added.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has previously described the GEM as “the largest archeological museum in the world dedicated to one civilization.”
The opening of the massive, ultra-modern museum situated near the Giza Pyramids has been repeatedly delayed over the years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other reasons.
Latest: Israel and Iran strike at each other in new wave of attacks
- Projectiles visible in night sky over Jerusalem
- Apparent Israeli strike hit South Pars gas field
TEL AVIV/DUBAI: Israel and Iran launched fresh attacks on each other overnight into Sunday, stoking fears of a wider conflict after Israel expanded its surprise campaign against its main rival with a strike on the world’s biggest gas field.
Tehran called off nuclear talks that Washington had said were the only way to halt Israel’s bombing, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacks were nothing compared with what Iran would see in the coming days.
The latest wave of Iranian attacks began shortly after 11:00 p.m. on Saturday (2000 GMT), when air raid sirens blared in Jerusalem and Haifa, sending around a million people into bomb shelters.
Around 2:30 a.m. local time (2330 GMT Saturday), the Israeli military warned of another incoming missile barrage and urged residents to seek shelter. Explosions echoed through Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as missiles streaked across the skies as interceptor rockets were launched in response. The military lifted its shelter-in-place advisory nearly an hour after issuing the warning.
The ambulance service said at least seven people were killed overnight, including a 10-year-old boy and a woman in her 20s, and more than 140 injured in multiple attacks.
Search and rescue worked combed through the rubble of residential buildings destroyed in multiple strikes, using flashlights and dogs to look for survivors.
Israeli media said at least 35 people were missing after a strike hit Bat Yam, a city south of Tel Aviv. A spokesperson for the emergency services said a missile hit an 8-story building there and while many people were rescued, there were fatalities.
It was unclear how many buildings were hit overnight.
So far, at least nine people in Israel have been killed and over 300 others injured since Iran launched its retaliatory attacks on Friday.
Iran has said 78 people were killed there on the first day of Israel’s campaign, and scores more on the second, including 60 when a missile brought down a 14-story apartment block in Tehran, where 29 of the dead were children.
The Shahran oil depot in Tehran was targeted in an Israeli attack, Iran said, but added the situation was under control. A fire had erupted after an Israeli attack on an oil refinery near the capital while Israeli strikes also targeted Iran’s defense ministry building, causing minor damage, the semi-official Tasnim news agency said on Sunday.
US President Donald Trump had warned Iran of worse to come, but said it was not too late to halt the Israeli campaign if Tehran accepted a sharp downgrading of its nuclear program.
A round of US-Iran nuclear talks that was due to be held in Oman on Sunday was canceled, with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi saying the discussions could not take place while Iran was being subjected to Israel’s “barbarous” attacks.
Gas field attack
In the first apparent attack to hit Iran’s energy infrastructure, Tasnim news agency said Iran partially suspended production at South Pars, the world’s biggest gas field, after an Israeli strike caused a fire there on Saturday.
The South Pars field, offshore in Iran’s southern Bushehr province, is the source of most of the gas produced in Iran.
Fears about potential disruption to the region’s oil exports had already driven up oil prices 9 percent on Friday even though Israel spared Iran’s oil and gas on the first day of its attacks.
An Iranian general, Esmail Kosari, said on Saturday that Tehran was reviewing whether to close the Strait of Hormuz controlling access to the Gulf for tankers.
With Israel saying its operation could last weeks, and Netanyahu urging Iran’s people to rise up against their Islamic clerical rulers, fears have grown of a regional conflagration dragging in outside powers.
B’Tselem, a leading Israeli human rights organization, said on Saturday that instead of exhausting all possibilities for a diplomatic resolution, Israel’s government had chosen to start a war that puts the entire region in danger.
Tehran has warned Israel’s allies that their military bases in the region would come under fire too if they helped shoot down Iranian missiles.
However, 20 months of war in Gaza and a conflict in Lebanon last year have decimated Tehran’s strongest regional proxies, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, reducing its options for retaliation.
Israel sees Iran’s nuclear program as a threat to its existence, and said the bombardment was designed to avert the last steps to production of a nuclear weapon.
Tehran insists the program is entirely civilian and that it does not seek an atomic bomb. The UN nuclear watchdog, however, reported Iran this week as violating obligations under the global non-proliferation treaty.
Iran says scores killed
Iran said 78 people were killed on the first day of Israel’s campaign, and scores more on the second, including 60 when a missile brought down a 14-story apartment block in Tehran, where 29 of the dead were children.
Iran had launched its own retaliatory missile volley on Friday night, killing at least three people in Israel.
With Israel saying its operation could last weeks, and Netanyahu urging Iran’s people to rise up against their Islamic clerical rulers, fears have grown of a regional conflagration dragging in outside powers.
B’Tselem, a leading Israeli human rights organization, said on Saturday that instead of exhausting all possibilities for a diplomatic resolution, Israel’s government had chosen to start a war that puts the entire region in danger.
Tehran has warned Israel’s allies that their military bases in the region would come under fire too if they helped shoot down Iranian missiles.
However, 20 months of war in Gaza and a conflict in Lebanon last year have decimated Tehran’s strongest regional proxies, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, reducing its options for retaliation.
Israel sees Iran’s nuclear program as a threat to its existence, and said the bombardment was designed to avert the last steps to production of a nuclear weapon.
Tehran insists the program is entirely civilian and that it does not seek an atomic bomb. However the UN nuclear watchdog reported it this week as violating obligations under the global non-proliferation treaty.
‘We will hit every site’
Israel said three people were killed and 76 wounded by Iran’s retaliatory drone and missile barrage overnight, which lit up the skies over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Netanyahu vowed to keep up Israel’s campaign.
“We will hit every site, every target of the ayatollah regime,” he said in a video statement, threatening greater action “in the coming days.”
He added that the Israeli campaign had dealt a “real blow” to Iran’s nuclear program and maintained it had the “clear support” of US President Donald Trump.
Netanyahu’s defense minister, Israel Katz, warned “Tehran will burn” if it kept targeting Israeli civilians.
Israel’s fire service reported residential buildings were hit following the latest launches.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian fired back that “the continuation of the Zionist aggression will be met with a more severe and powerful response from the Iranian armed forces.”
According to a statement from his office, Pezeshkian also condemned Washington’s “dishonesty” for supporting Israel while engaged in nuclear talks with Iran — which mediator Oman said would no longer take place on Sunday.
Western governments have repeatedly accused Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, which it denies.
Amid the continued conflict, planned negotiations between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s nuclear program were canceled, throwing into question when and how an end to the fighting could come.
Urgent calls to deescalate
World leaders made urgent calls to deescalate and avoid all-out war. The attack on nuclear sites set a “dangerous precedent,” China’s foreign minister said.
The region is already on edge as Israel makes a new push to eliminate the Iranian-backed militant group Hamas in Gaza after 20 months of fighting.
After decades of enmity and conflict by proxy, it is the first time the arch-enemies have traded fire with such intensity, triggering fears of a prolonged conflict that could engulf the Middle East.
Highlighting the unease, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned against a “devastating war” with regional consequences in a call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Ankara said.
Israel — widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East — said its hundreds of strikes on Iran over the past two days have killed a number of top generals, nine senior scientists and experts involved in Iran’s nuclear program. Iran’s UN ambassador has said 78 people were killed and more than 320 wounded.
Jordan announced the closure of its airspace late Saturday for a second time since the start of the most intense direct confrontation between arch-foes Israel and Iran.
The civil aviation authority in Jordan, which borders Israel, announced in a statement the closure until further notice of the country’s airspace, as well as the suspension of all takeoffs, landings and transit.
Turkiye denies sharing information with Israel
At the United Nations, the Turkish mission dismissed as "black propaganda" reports that “information was shared with Israel from the radar base in Kürecik.”
In a statement, the mission said the Kürecik Radar Station, a NATO installation, was established in line with Türkiye's national security and interests and is intended to ensure the protection of the NATO allies.
"The data obtained from the Kürecik radar base is exclusively shared with NATO allies within a specific framework, in accordance with NATO procedures," said the statement. "Sharing radar base data with non-NATO allies, such as Israel, is absolutely out of the question."
It maintained that "Türkiye stands against Israel's operations to destabilize the Middle East and will never support Israel's actions in this regard."
Reports of alleged data transmission came a day after Israel, without any provocation, bombarded Iran's capital on Friday.
Iran calls nuclear talks ‘unjustifiable’
The sixth round of US-Iran indirect talks on Sunday over Iran ‘s nuclear program will not take place, mediator Oman said. “We remain committed to talks and hope the Iranians will come to the table soon,” said a senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss diplomacy.
Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, and US intelligence agencies have assessed that Tehran was not actively pursuing the bomb. But its uranium enrichment has reached near weapons-grade levels, and on Thursday, the UN’s atomic watchdog censured Iran for not complying with obligations meant to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran’s top diplomat said Saturday the nuclear talks were “unjustifiable” after Israel’s strikes. Abbas Araghchi’s comments came during a call with Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat.
The Israeli airstrikes were the “result of the direct support by Washington,” Araghchi said in a statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency. The US has said it isn’t part of the strikes.
On Friday, US President Donald Trump urged Iran to reach a deal with the US on its nuclear program, adding that “Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left.”
‘More than a few weeks’ to repair nuclear facilities
Israel attacked Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz. Satellite photos analyzed by AP show extensive damage there. The images shot Saturday by Planet Labs PBC show multiple buildings damaged or destroyed. The structures hit include buildings identified by experts as supplying power to the facility.
UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that the above-ground section of the Natanz facility was destroyed. The main centrifuge facility underground did not appear to have been hit, but the loss of power could have damaged infrastructure there, he said.
Israel said it also struck a nuclear research facility in Isfahan, including “infrastructure for enriched uranium conversion,” and said it destroyed dozens of radar installations and surface-to-air missile launchers in western Iran. Iran confirmed the strike at Isfahan.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said four “critical buildings” at the Isfahan site were damaged, including its uranium conversion facility. “As in Natanz, no increase in off-site radiation expected,” it added.
An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with official procedures, said that according to the army’s initial assessment “it will take much more than a few weeks” for Iran to repair the damage to the Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites. The official said the army had “concrete intelligence that production in Isfahan was for military purposes.”
Israel denied it had struck the nuclear enrichment facility in Fordo, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of Tehran.
Among those killed were three of Iran’s top military leaders: one who oversaw the entire armed forces, Gen. Mohammad Bagheri; one who led the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Hossein Salami; and the head of the Guard’s aerospace division, which oversees its arsenal of ballistic missile program, Gen. Amir Ali Hajjizadeh. On Saturday, Khamenei named a new leader for the Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace division: Gen. Majid Mousavi.
Iran rallies citizens to unite, ‘rise up’ says Netanyahu
Iran called on its citizens to unite in the country’s defense, while Netanyahu urged them to rise up against against the government.
Iran’s Mehr news agency said Tehran had warned Britain, France and the United States it could retaliate if they came to Israel’s defense.
AFP images from the city of Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv showed blown-out buildings, destroyed vehicles and streets strewn with debris after Iran’s first wave of attacks.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had struck dozens of targets in Israel. One Iranian missile wounded seven Israeli soldiers, the military said.
Firefighters had worked for hours to free people trapped in a Tel Aviv high-rise building on Friday.
Chen Gabizon, a resident, said he ran to an underground shelter after receiving an alert.
“We just heard a very big explosion, everything was shaking, smoke, dust, everything was all over the place,” he said.
In Tehran, fire and heavy smoke billowed over Mehrabad airport on Saturday, an AFP journalist said.
The Israeli army said it had struck an underground military facility Saturday in western Iran’s Khorramabad that contained surface-to-surface and cruise missiles.
Iranian media also reported a “massive explosion” following an Israeli drone strike on an oil refinery in the southern city of Kangan.
The attacks prompted several countries to temporarily ground air traffic, though on Saturday Jordan, Lebanon and Syria reopened their airspace.
Iran’s airspace was closed until further notice, state media reported, as was Israel’s, according to authorities.
We will recognize the State of Palestine soon, Macron tells Asharq News
- French president: ‘I have agreed with the Saudi crown prince to postpone the New York conference to a date in the near future’
PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron pledged, in statements to Asharq News on the sidelines of a meeting with journalists and representatives of Palestinian and Israeli civil society institutions, that his country will recognize the State of Palestine at an upcoming conference that France will organize with Saudi Arabia in New York.
In response to a question about whether there are conditions for recognizing the Palestinian state, Macron said: “There are no conditions. Recognition will take place through a process that includes stopping the war on Gaza, restoring humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip, releasing Israeli hostages, and disarming Hamas.”
He stressed: “This is one package.”
Macron indicated that France and Saudi Arabia have agreed to postpone the UN conference they are co-organizing, which was originally scheduled to take place in New York next week. He noted that current developments have prevented Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas from traveling to New York.
Macron explained that he had spoken several times with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Friday and Palestinian President Abbas, and it was agreed to “postpone the meeting to a date in the near future.”
He also claimed that the president of Indonesia, which currently does not officially recognize Israel, had pledged to do so if France recognizes the State of Palestine. Macron emphasized “the need for maintaining this dynamic.”
The International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine, scheduled to be held in New York from June 17-20 and co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France, outlined in its paper a commitment to the “two-state solution” as the foundational reference. The paper defines a timeline for implementation, outlines the practical obligations of all parties involved, and calls for the establishment of international mechanisms to ensure the continuity of the process.
Asharq News obtained a copy of the paper, which asserts that the implementation of the two-state solution must proceed regardless of local or regional developments. It ensures the full recognition of a Palestinian state as part of a political solution that upholds people’s rights and responds to their aspirations for peace and security.
The paper highlights that the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and the war on Gaza have led to an unprecedented escalation in violence and casualties, resulting in the most severe humanitarian crisis to date, widespread destruction, and immense suffering for civilians on both sides, including detainees, their families, and residents of Gaza.
It further confirms that settlement activities pose a threat to the two-state solution, which it states is the only path to achieving a just, lasting, and comprehensive peace in the region. The paper notes that the settlement activities undermine regional and international peace, security, and prosperity.
According to the paper, the conference aims to alter the current course by building on national, regional, and international initiatives and adopting concrete measures to uphold international law. The conference will also focus on advancing a just, lasting, and comprehensive peace that ensures security for all the people of the region and fosters regional integration.
The conference reaffirms the international community’s unwavering commitment to a peaceful resolution of the Palestinian cause and the two-state solution, highlighting the urgent need to act in pursuit of these objectives.
Iranian media claims Israeli pilots captured, IDF denies
DUBAI: The Iranian army has claimed they have downed a third Israeli F-35 fighter jet since Israel’s attacks began on Friday.
State Iranian media, Tehran Times, reported that one pilot is believed to have been liquidated and another captured by Iranian forces.
However, the Israeli Defense Forces denied the claims dubbing the news “fake”.
“This news being spread by Iranian media is completely baseless” the IDF’s Arabic spokesperson Col. Avichay Adraee said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Friday the launch of “Operation Rising Lion” against Iran in an effort to deter the Iranian threat of nuclear weapons to Israel. Netanyahu confirmed the operation will continue until the mission is accomplished.
