Israel rejects Gaza peace plan as Netanyahu, facing elections, digs in for continued war

Gazans now feel more uncertain as nobody talks about Justice for Palestinians

As Netanyahu demands ‘genuine’ Hamas disarmament before considering pull-out from Gaza, a look at what happens next.

By staff writer

Yemeni forces attack Saudi Aramco oil facility

TEHRAN – The Yemeni Armed Forces have announced that they targeted a Saudi oil refinery in response to the violation of Yemeni airspace.

By Garsha Vazirian

The sealed watermelon of the Mecca Agreement

TEHRAN — Three leaders signed a promise inside Al-Safa Palace on Friday: an armed attack on Saudi Arabia, Turkey or Pakistan will be treated as an attack on all three. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan compared the clause to NATO’s Article 5. The full text stays sealed, unread outside the rooms where it was drafted. Persian has a phrase for exactly this situation: a watermelon still in its rind, “Hendevaneh-ye dar basteh.”

By Garsha Vazirian

A beat written in blood across Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iran

TEHRAN — 28 years ago today, Iranian reporter Mahmoud Saremi radioed his newsroom from the Iranian consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif as Taliban fighters came through the gate. He identified himself, reported that the city had fallen, and asked what he should do next. Hours later he was dead, along with eight Iranian diplomats.

By staff writer

America’s ‘supercarrier’ is a floating nightmare as food and hope run out

TEHRAN — The facade of American military omnipotence is rotting from the inside out. In a tear-filled banquet room in San Diego on Thursday, the families of sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln shattered the silence surrounding Washington and Tel Aviv’s disastrous war against Iran.

By Staff Writer

Why is Trump suddenly reviving his Gaza plan?

TEHRAN – Trump’s statement about an agreement to disarm Hamas raises questions about his real objectives and reflects the continuing U.S. bias toward Israel, casting doubt on the prospects of achieving lasting peace.

‘It is time for the US military to leave Mideast,’ says special assistant to Biden

Michael Fuchs calls the Iran war ‘epic disaster’, says US support for Tel Aviv has morphed into a ‘blank check’ for Israel

TEHRAN – Michael Fuchs, a director at the Open Society Foundations, says “it is time for the United States military to leave” the Middle East, noting that the stationing of the U.S. military in the region “has contributed to instability and destruction.”

By Garsha Vazirian

Yemen flips the battlefield on Saudi Arabia

Sanaa’s shifting military doctrine traps Riyadh as the kingdom seeks external shields

TEHRAN — The video clips from August 6 were unmistakable. Flames consumed a desert encampment. A row of armored vehicles sat reduced to twisted metal. The Yemeni Armed Forces struck first.

Saudi ⁠Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey sign ⁠joint defense pact

TEHRAN - Saudi ⁠Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey signed a ⁠joint defense agreement, officially known as the Mecca Defense Pact, on Friday, deepening ‌security cooperation.

By Garsha Vazirian

The Board of Peace is bored of peace and hungry for conquest

The US sells illusions while Israel kills Gazans, expands occupation lines

TEHRAN — On July 30, Donald Trump announced that the Board of Peace had reached "a historic agreement" for "the complete disarmament of Hamas." The White House called it a monumental step, even as neither Israel nor Hamas had given an immediate indication of full alignment.

By staff writer

Surveillance of Sciences Po students critical of Israel shows free speech rings hollow in France

TEHRAN - Rightly or wrongly, common people once praised France as the most democratic county in the West. They claimed it valued the right to protest and was tolerant of freedom of speech or opinion. However, that designation, has proven hollow. 

Yemen strikes Saudi oil tanker in Red Sea

Yemen’s Ansarullah movement announced on Wednesday that it struck the Saudi oil tanker Wafaa with several ballistic missiles in the northern Red Sea off the coast of Yanbu.

Abdul El-Sayed defeats AIPAC-backed rival in Michigan Democratic Senate primary

Progressive advocate Abdul El-Sayed won the Democratic nomination for the US Senate in Michigan on Wednesday, defeating Congresswoman Haley Stevens in a race that became one of the most expensive and closely watched primaries in US history.

By Garsha Vazirian

The Biggest Red Banner of Vengeance Rises in Karbala

Up to 22 million pilgrims from tens of nations took part in the Arbaeen pilgrimage, transforming the sacred plaza into a unified demand for justice

TEHRAN — Karbala awoke Tuesday beneath a sweltering August sky and a horizon ablaze with the crimson of vengeance. As millions of black-clad pilgrims converged for the climax of this year’s Arbaeen pilgrimage, the space between the twin shrines of Imam Hussein (AS) and his brother Abbas (AS) became the epicenter of a ritual fusing grief with geopolitical defiance.

Families bury 112 recovered three years after Israeli strikes on Gaza

Palestinians on Tuesday buried 112 members of a single clan martyred in Israeli air strikes in November 2023, after their remains were recovered from beneath the rubble last month.

By staff writer

No panacea but acknowledging Iran’s power, respecting its legal rights

TEHRAN – CENTCOM’s appeal to military analysts for fresh proposals to extricate the United States from the crisis triggered by its war against Iran suggests that the Pentagon has exhausted its options for dealing with the conflict.

By Garsha Vazirian

For many Arbaeen pilgrims, every step honors martyred Ayatollah Khamenei

He described the ‘magnetic attraction’ that drew the first pilgrim to visit Karbala on Arbaeen; now his own martyrdom has fused with that gravity

TEHRAN — The architects of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran expected paralysis. They calculated that assassinating the Leader of the Islamic Revolution would fracture the Resistance. They were fluent in the sterile language of decapitation. They were blind to the mechanics of martyrdom. Look at the road from Najaf to Karbala. This is the first Arbaeen since American and Israeli warplanes ignited the current war. The pilgrims did not scatter.

By M.A. Saki

Israel intensifies Gaza killings to quash Hamas’s disarmament plan

Extremists’ ultimate purpose is to exterminate the Palestinian population

TEHRAN - Though the Palestinian Hamas declared on Friday that it has agreed to disarmament and transfer power to a team of Palestinian technocrats, Israeli forces killed at least 11 Palestinians on Sunday.

By Garsha Vazirian

Another coalition meets its grave in the Red Sea

Saudi Arabia’s new coalition against Yemen is doomed to failure because Riyadh does not learn from past experiences

TEHRAN — On a stifling afternoon, the Saudi defense ministry rolled out the red carpet for delegates from 43 nations, eager to announce a grand diplomatic and military recovery. Merely 13 governments and the Saudi-backed regime in Aden signed on the dotted line to back the newly minted “multinational maritime defense coalition.”

Spain's PM blames traffickers for massive migrant influx

Ceuta: 60,000 migrants cross the Spanish border

France and Italy bolstered border controls on Saturday after about 60,000 people crossed into Spain's enclave in North Africa, sparking one of the largest migrant crises for the European Union in recent years.

By staff writer

Ansarullah leader ties Riyadh to Epstein as Yemen locks in naval blockade

TEHRAN — Hundreds of thousands of residents of Sana’a and surrounding areas gathered in Sab’een Square on Friday amid heavy rainfall, chanting in defense of the resistance and the Yemeni armed forces.