TEHRAN, Iran: Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard conducted a drill Saturday launching anti-warship ballistic missiles at a simulated target in the Indian Ocean, state television reported, amid heightened tensions over Tehran’s nuclear program and a US pressure campaign against the Islamic Republic.
Footage showed two missiles smash into a target that Iranian state television described as “hypothetical hostile enemy ships” at a distance of 1,800 kilometers (1,120 miles). The report did not specify the type of missiles used.
In the first phase of the drill Friday, the Guard’s aerospace division launched surface-to-surface ballistic missiles and drones against “hypothetical enemy bases.” Iranian state television described the drill as taking place in the country’s vast central desert, the latest in a series of snap exercises called amid the escalating tensions over its nuclear program. Footage also showed four unmanned, triangle-shaped drones flying in a tight formation, smashing into targets and exploding.
Tensions between Washington and Tehran have increased amid a series of incidents stemming from President Donald Trump’s unilateral withdrawal from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers. Amid Trump’s final days as president, Tehran has recently seized a South Korean oil tanker and begun enriching uranium closer to weapons-grade levels, while the US has sent B-52 bombers, the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and a nuclear submarine into the region.
In recent weeks, Iran has increased its military drills as the country tries to pressure President-elect Joe Biden over the nuclear accord, which he has said America could reenter.
Iran fired cruise missiles Thursday as part of a naval drill in the Gulf of Oman, state media reported, under surveillance of what appeared to be a US nuclear submarine. Iran’s navy did not identify the submarine at the time, but on Saturday, a news website affiliated with state television said the vessel was American. Helicopter footage of the exercise released Thursday by Iran’s navy showed what resembled an Ohio-class guided-missile submarine, the USS Georgia, which the US Navy last month said had been sent to the Arabian Gulf.
Iran has missile capability of up to 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles), far enough to reach archenemy Israel and US military bases in the region. Last January, after the US killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad, Tehran retaliated by firing a barrage of ballistic missiles at two Iraqi bases housing US troops, resulting in brain concussion injuries to dozens of them.
Trump in 2018 unilaterally withdrew the US from Iran’s nuclear deal, in which Tehran had agreed to limit its uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Trump cited Iran’s ballistic missile program among other issues in withdrawing from the accord.
When the US then increased sanctions, Iran gradually and publicly abandoned the deal’s limits on its nuclear development.
Iranian Guard holds anti-warship ballistic missile drill
https://arab.news/ybkkq
Iranian Guard holds anti-warship ballistic missile drill
- Footage showed two missiles smash into a target that Iranian state television described as “hypothetical hostile enemy ships”
- In recent weeks, Iran has increased its military drills as the country tries to pressure President-elect Joe Biden over the nuclear accord
South Sudan security forces release peacebuilding minister, vice presidency says
The arrests followed heavy clashes in recent weeks in the strategic northern town of Nasir
NAIROBI: South Sudanese forces loyal to President Salva Kiir have released the peacebuilding minister, a key ally of First Vice President Riek Machar, a spokesman for Machar said on Friday, after the arrests of senior officials escalated tensions.
Between Tuesday and Thursday, security forces arrested or put under house arrest several allies of Machar, including the petroleum minister, the peacebuilding minister and a deputy head of the military, jeopardizing a peace deal that ended a civil war between fighters loyal to Kiir and Machar.
“(Peacebuilding minister) Stephen Par Kuol ... who was unlawfully detained yesterday along with three staff members from his office by the National Security, was released this morning at 05:00 a.m.,” Machar’s spokesman Puok Both Baluang said on X.
The petroleum minister and the deputy head of military were still in custody on Friday, Baluang told Reuters.
Security forces were also deployed around Machar’s residence, though he was able to travel to his office, Baluang said earlier this week.
The arrests followed heavy clashes in recent weeks in the strategic northern town of Nasir between national forces and the White Army militia, a loosely-organized group mostly from the Nuer, Machar’s ethnic group.
The White Army fought alongside Machar’s forces in the 2013-2018 civil war that pitted them against predominantly ethnic Dinka troops loyal to Kiir.
The government has not commented on the detentions. Information Minister Michael Makuei accused forces loyal to Machar of collaborating with the White Army and attacking a military garrison near Nasir on Tuesday.
Machar’s party has denied involvement in the fighting.
South Sudan has formally been at peace since the 2018 agreement ended the five-year conflict that killed hundreds of thousands of people, but violence between rival communities flares up frequently.
On Thursday, officials from regional bloc IGAD, the United Nations, the African Union and RJMEC — the body overseeing the peace deal — met Machar and urged all parties to restore calm in Upper Nile State, where Nasir is located.
World Bank estimates $11 billion needed for reconstruction of Lebanon after Israel-Hezbollah war
- Of the $11 billion in reconstruction and recovery needs, $3 to $5 billion will need to be publicly financed
- Housing has been the hardest-hit sector with damages estimated at $4.6 billion
BEIRUT: The cost of reconstruction and recovery for Lebanon following the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war is estimated at $11 billion, the World Bank said in a new report Friday.
The war killed over 4,000 people in Lebanon, displaced hundreds of thousands and caused widespread destruction in the nation.
The report by the World Bank’s Lebanon Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment covered damage and losses in ten sectors across the country from Oct. 8, 2023 until Dec. 20, 2024.
Hezbollah began firing rockets across the border on Oct. 8, 2023, one day after a deadly Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza. Israel responded with shelling and airstrikes in Lebanon, and the two sides became locked in an escalating conflict that became a full-blown war in late September. A US-brokered ceasefire went into effect in late November.
The World Bank report estimated that of the $11 billion in reconstruction and recovery needs, $3 to $5 billion will need to be publicly financed, including for infrastructure sectors. It added that private financing is required for about $6 to $8 billion of the costs, mostly in the housing, commerce, industry, and tourism sectors.
The report said the economic cost of the conflict on Lebanon totals $14 billion, with damage to physical structures amounting to $6.8 billion and economic losses from reduced productivity, foregone revenues, and operating costs reaching $7.2 billion.
Housing has been the hardest-hit sector with damages estimated at $4.6 billion.
The report found that the conflict resulted in Lebanon’s real gross domestic product contracting by 7.1 percent in 2024, a significant setback compared to a projected growth of 0.9 percent had the war not happened.
By the end of 2024, Lebanon’s cumulative GDP decline since 2019 had approached 40 percent.
Hamas officials say delegation in Cairo for Gaza truce talks
- ‘Delegation will meet with Egyptian officials on Saturday to discuss the latest developments’
- They will also assess progress in implementing the ceasefire agreement, and address matters related to launching the second phase of the deal
CAIRO: A high-level Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo to advance efforts on a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, which has largely paused hostilities with Israel, two senior Hamas officials said Friday.
“The delegation will meet with Egyptian officials on Saturday to discuss the latest developments, assess progress in implementing the ceasefire agreement, and address matters related to launching the second phase of the deal,” one official said.
Migrant boats capsize off Yemen and Djibouti, leaving at least 2 dead and 186 missing
- Two of the boats capsized off Yemen on Thursday, said Tamim Eleian, a spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration
CAIRO: The United Nations migration agency says four migrant boats have capsized in waters off Yemen and Djibouti, leaving two people dead and 186 missing.
Two of the boats capsized off Yemen on Thursday, said Tamim Eleian, a spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration. Two crewmembers were rescued, but 181 migrants and five Yemeni crewmembers remain missing, he told The Associated Press.
Two other boats capsized off the tiny African nation of Djibouti around the same time, he said. Two bodies of migrants were recovered, and all others on board were rescued.
According to the IOM, 558 people died in 2024 along the route used by many migrants leading from the Horn of Africa to Yemen, crossing the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Hamas urges Trump to meet and ‘respect’ freed Palestinian prisoners
- More than 9,500 Palestinian prisoners were currently being held in Israeli prisons
Gaza City: Hamas on Friday urged US President Donald Trump to meet with Palestinian prisoners freed during the ongoing truce in Gaza, following his meeting with released Israeli hostages the day before.
Just as he spoke of the “unbearable suffering” of Israeli hostages, the US president should “show the same level of respect to freed Palestinian political prisoners and allocate time to meet and listen to their stories,” senior Hamas leader Basem Naim wrote in an open letter addressed to Trump.
More than 9,500 Palestinian prisoners were currently being held in Israeli prisons, he said.
On Thursday, Trump met in the Oval Office with eight former Israeli hostages who were released as part of the truce agreement that took effect on January 19.
The first phase of the agreement led to the release of 33 hostages, including eight who were deceased, in exchange for about 1,800 Palestinian detainees.
In late November 2023, 105 hostages had already been freed during a one-week truce in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
Of the 251 people abducted during Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, 58 are still being held in Gaza, 34 of whom have been declared dead by the Israeli military.
Hamas’s attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 48,446 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers these figures reliable.
