TEHRAN: Iran will not deploy forces to Lebanon or Gaza to confront Israel, its foreign ministry said on Monday, as Israeli strikes target its allies in the region.
“There is no need to send extra or volunteer forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” said foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani, adding that Lebanon and fighters in the Palestinian territories “have the capability and strength to defend themselves against the aggression.”
Israel has in recent days been mounting heavy air strikes in Lebanon against the so-called “axis of resistance,” a network of Iran-aligned militant groups in the region, including in Syria, Yemen and Iraq.
An Israeli strike on Beirut Friday killed Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah that has been armed and financed by the Islamic republic for years.
“We have not received any request in this regard from any side, on the contrary, we are informed and are sure that they do not need the help of our forces,” Kanani told reporters in Tehran.
Kanani nonetheless vowed that Israel “will not remain without reprimand and punishment for the crimes it has committed against the Iranian people, military personnel and the resistance forces.”
Also on Monday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian visited Hezbollah’s office in Tehran “to pay tribute” to Nasrallah, according to the government’s website.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in all matters of the state, has vowed that Nasrallah’s death “will not be in vain,” and First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said it would bring about Israel’s “destruction.”
Iran has also vowed to avenge the killing of Abbas Nilforoushan, a top commander of the Quds Force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ foreign operations arm, who died alongside the Hezbollah leader.
Iran says will not send forces to confront Israel
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Iran says will not send forces to confront Israel
- “There is no need to send extra or volunteer forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” said foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani
- He added that Lebanon and fighters in the Palestinian territories “have the capability and strength to defend themselves against the aggression”
Iraqi markets a haven for pedlars escaping Iran’s economic woes
- Iran wields considerable political influence in Iraq and is a major trade partner for the country, the second-largest importer of non-oil Iranian goods
Basra: Every Friday, Alawi crosses the border from Iran into Iraq to sell his produce in the markets of Basra, which serve as a haven for Iranians grappling with economic sanctions.
He is just one of many Iranian pedlars who endure the arduous journey into southern Iraq through the Chalamja border crossing.
They bring essential goods such as chicken, eggs, cooking oil and household items to sell at low prices, hoping for a profit that would be unimaginable back home due to sharp currency depreciation and soaring inflation.
“The situation is difficult due to the embargo,” Alawi said, referring to Western sanctions against Iran.
Asking to withhold his surname for fear of repercussions back home, the 36-year-old said he had not given up easily on his country, and had tried to sell his produce in a market there.
“There were no customers, and the products would spoil, so we had to throw them away and end up losing” money, he told AFP.
Instead, for the past seven years, he has been traveling to Iraq where he sells okra in summer and dates in winter, earning between $30 and $50 a day — much more than he could make at home.
“When we exchange Iraqi money” for Iranian rials, “it’s a lot,” the father of two said.
“We can spend it in five days or even a week,” he added.
'A lifeline'
After a brief period of relief from sanctions in exchange for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program, US President Donald Trump reimposed the biting measures during his first term in 2018.
Ever since, the value of the Iranian rial has plunged, fueling high inflation and unemployment.
Prices soared last month by more than 32 percent compared to March the previous year, according to official figures.
Trump announced this week that his administration would restart negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, with talks to take place in Oman on Saturday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said his country’s chief aim is for US sanctions to be lifted.
In the meantime, Basra’s markets continue to bustle with Iranian vendors.
At the Friday market, bags of rice were stacked on plastic crates next to bottles of detergent.
While some vendors chatted with customers, others dozed off beside their shopping bags, rubbing off the weariness of a long journey.
Hayder Al-Shakeri of the London-based Chatham House think-tank’s Middle East and North Africa program said informal cross-border trade “has expanded significantly over the past decade as sanctions on Iran have increasingly impacted everyday life.”
Basra’s proximity to Iran’s Khuzestan province, where many residents speak Arabic and share cultural values with Iraq, makes it a primary target for mostly working-class Iranian vendors, Shakeri said.
Among them are women and elderly men whose livelihoods have been severely impacted by inflation, he said, calling the cross-border trade “a vital lifeline.”
“Earning in more stable currencies like the Iraqi dinar or even US dollars provides a financial buffer” against the devaluated rial, he added.
Better and cheaper
Iran wields considerable political influence in Iraq and is a major trade partner for the country, the second-largest importer of non-oil Iranian goods.
Trade between the two countries amounts to tens of billions of dollars.
Milad, 17, and his mother have been selling household essentials in Basra for the past two years. Fearing a worsening situation back home, they recently rented a small shop.
In Iran, “finding work is hard, and the currency is weak,” said curly-haired Milad, who declined to give his last name, adding that his cousin has been looking for a job since he graduated.
Iraqi maths professor Abu Ahmad, 55, strolls to the market every Friday, looking for fresh Iranian goods.
“Their geymar is better than ours,” he said, referring to the cream Iraqis have with honey for breakfast.
It is also cheaper.
“They sell it for 12,000 dinars ($8)” compared to an Iraqi price of 16,000, he added.
Shakeri from Chatham House warned that local vendors “resent the competition,” and Iraqi security forces sometimes remove Iranians, though they know they will eventually return.
Umm Mansur, a 47-year-old Iranian mother of five, has had a bitter experience since she joined other pedlars six months ago.
At the border, “they insult and mistreat us,” she said.
Other pedlars have described similar experiences, saying they were held up for hours at the crossing.
Umm Mansur said she is willing to overlook the mistreatment to earn four times what she would at home.
“In Iran, there is no way to make a living,” she said.
Sudan paramilitaries kill 57 in Darfur attacks
- RSF fighters attacked Zamzam displacement camp around El-Fasher, killing 25 civilians, including women, children and elderly residents,
- UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk warned on Friday of deeply catastrophic consequences for civilians as the conflict approaches its third year.
Port Sudan: Paramilitaries killed 57 civilians Friday in an attack on North Darfur’s besieged capital El-Fasher and a nearby famine-hit camp, activists said, as the battle to control Sudan’s west intensifies.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), at war with the army since April 2023, launched a major assault on El-Fasher using heavy artillery, sniper fire and suicide drones from the east and northeast, said the local resistance committee, a volunteer aid group.
“By 5:00 p.m. (local time), 32 people had been killed in the city, including four women and 10 children aged between one and five,” the group said, adding that at least 17 others were wounded and taken to hospital.
Earlier, RSF fighters attacked Zamzam displacement camp around El-Fasher, killing 25 civilians, including women, children and elderly residents, the local committee said.
Zamzam, along with other densely populated camps for the displaced around El-Fasher, has suffered heavily during nearly two years of fighting.
El-Fasher is the only state capital still under army control in Darfur, making it a strategic prize in the RSF’s push for full control of the west.
Witnesses described seeing RSF combat vehicles entering the Zamzam camp under cover of heavy gunfire.
’Destructive path’
Friday’s assault followed RSF shelling Thursday of Abu Shouk camp, also near El-Fasher, that left at least 15 people dead and 25 wounded, rescuers said.
Three El-Fasher residents told AFP that the RSF attacked the city on Friday from the east, south and west, after bombarding it with heavy artillery and rockets.
They spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern for their own safety.
Drones were also seen attacking central El-Fasher, witnesses said.
The paramilitaries have stepped up efforts to complete their conquest of Darfur since losing control of the capital Khartoum last month.
Zamzam was the first part of Sudan where a UN-backed assessment declared famine last year.
In December, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said famine had since spread to two nearby camps — Abu Shouk and Al Salam — as well as to parts of the country’s south.
The war between army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, erupted in April 2023.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million.
While the army recaptured Khartoum late last month, Africa’s third-largest country remains divided.
The army holds sway in the east and north, while the RSF controls most of Darfur and parts of the south.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk warned on Friday of deeply catastrophic consequences for civilians as the conflict approaches its third year.
“Two years of this brutal and senseless conflict must be a wake-up call to the parties to lay down their weapons and for the international community to act,” he said.
“Sudan must not remain on this destructive path.”
Most Hezbollah military sites ceded to army in south Lebanon: source
- Israel has continued to strike what it says are Hezbollah infrastructure or members of the group in Lebanon
- Months of cross-border exchanges with Israeli forces degenerated into full-blown war last September, leaving Hezbollah severely weakened
Beirut: Most military sites belonging to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon have been placed under Lebanese army control, a source close to the group said on Saturday.
A November 27 ceasefire that ended more than a year of conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, including two months of full-blown war, stipulated that only United Nations peacekeepers and Lebanon’s army should be deployed in the country’s south.
The deal required the Iran-backed militant group to dismantle its remaining military infrastructure in the south and move its fighters north of the Litani River, which is about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the Israeli border.
“Out of 265 Hezbollah military positions identified south of the Litani, the movement has ceded about 190 to the army,” the source said on condition of anonymity.
Under the ceasefire, Israel was to complete its troop withdrawal from Lebanon by February 18 after missing a January deadline, but it has kept troops in five places it deems strategic.
Israel has continued to strike what it says are Hezbollah infrastructure or members of the group in Lebanon.
The United States deputy special envoy for the Middle East, Morgan Ortagus, discussed disarming Hezbollah with senior Lebanese figures during her visit to the country a week ago, a Lebanese official said.
In an interview with Lebanese television channel LBCI, Ortagus said that “we continue to press on this government to fully fulfill the cessation of hostilities, and that includes disarming Hezbollah and all militias.”
She said it should happen “as soon as possible.”
The United States chairs a committee, which also includes France, tasked with overseeing the ceasefire.
Following the attack against Israel by Hamas militants from Gaza in October 2023, Hezbollah began firing into northern Israel in support of the Palestinians.
Months of cross-border exchanges with Israeli forces degenerated into full-blown war last September, leaving Hezbollah severely weakened.
According to Lebanese authorities, more than 4,000 people were killed in the hostilities.
Israel takes control of key Gaza corridor, to expand offensive
- Israel said on April 2 that troops had begun seizing an area it called the Morag Axis, a reference to a former Israeli settlement once located between the cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, in southern
Gaza City: Israel announced on Saturday that its military had completed the takeover of a new corridor in southern Gaza, advancing its efforts to seize large parts of the war-battered Palestinian territory.
The announcement from Defense Minister Israel Katz came as Hamas expected “real progress” toward a ceasefire deal to end the war in Gaza, with senior leaders from the Palestinian movement scheduled to hold talks with Egyptian mediators in Cairo on Saturday.
“The IDF (military) has now completed its takeover of the Morag axis, which crosses Gaza between Rafah and Khan Yunis, turning the entire area between the Philadelphi Route (along the border with Egypt) and Morag into part of the Israeli security zone,” Katz said in a statement addressed to residents of Gaza.
“Soon, IDF (military) operations will intensify and expand to other areas throughout most of Gaza, and you will need to evacuate the combat zones.
“In northern Gaza as well — in Beit Hanoun and other neighborhoods — residents are evacuating, the area is being taken over and the security zone is being expanded, including in the Netzarim corridor,” he added.
Hope of 'real progress'
Since a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas collapsed in mid-March, Israel’s renewed offensive in Gaza has displaced hundreds of thousands of people while the military has seized large areas of the war-battered territory.
Top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have repeatedly said that the ongoing assault aims to pressure Hamas into freeing the remaining hostages held in Gaza.
Hamas on Saturday said that the offensive not only “kills defenseless civilians but also makes the fate of the occupation’s prisoners (hostages) uncertain.”
Katz’s announcements came ahead of a meeting between Hamas and Egyptian mediators in Cairo on Saturday.
The scheduled talks also came days after US President Donald Trump suggested an agreement to secure the release of hostages was close to being finalized.
A Hamas official told AFP that the group anticipated the meeting in Cairo would yield significant progress.
“We hope the meeting will achieve real progress toward reaching an agreement to end the war, halt the aggression and ensure the full withdrawal of occupation forces from Gaza,” the official familiar with the ceasefire negotiations said on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
According to the official, Hamas has not yet received any new ceasefire proposals, despite Israeli media reports suggesting that Israel and Egypt had exchanged draft documents outlining a potential ceasefire and hostage release agreement.
“However, contacts and discussions with mediators are ongoing,” he added, accusing Israel of “continuing its aggression” in Gaza.
The Times of Israel reported that Egypt’s proposal would involve the release of eight living hostages and eight bodies, in exchange for a truce lasting between 40 and 70 days and a substantial release of Palestinian prisoners.
Projectiles fired
President Trump said during a cabinet meeting this week that “we’re getting close to getting them (hostages in Gaza) back.”
Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff was also quoted in an Israeli media report as saying “a very serious deal is taking shape, it’s a matter of days.”
Since Israel resumed its Gaza strikes, more than 1,500 people have been killed, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory to which Israel cut off aid more than a month ago.
Dozens of these strikes have killed “only women and children,” according to a report by UN human rights office.
The report also warned that expanding Israeli evacuation orders were resulting in the “forcible transfer” of people into ever-shrinking areas, raising “real concern as to the future viability of Palestinians as a group in Gaza.”
Gaza’s civil defense agency reported an Israeli air strike on a house in Gaza City on Saturday morning.
AFP footage of the aftermath of the strike showed the bodies of four men, wrapped in white shrouds, at a local hospital, while several individuals gathered to offer prayers before the funeral.
The Israeli military, meanwhile, said its air force intercepted three projectiles that were identified as crossing into Israeli territory from southern Gaza on Saturday.
The war in Gaza broke out after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. It resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Gaza’s health ministry said on Friday that at least 1,563 Palestinians had been killed since March 18 when the ceasefire collapsed, taking the overall death toll since the war began to 50,933.
Hamas expects ‘real progress’ in Cairo talks to end Gaza war
- Hamas official says delegation to reach Cairo Saturday for Gaza truce talks
- The Times of Israel reported that Egypt’s proposal would involve the release of eight living hostages and eight bodies
CAIRO: Hamas expects “real progress” toward a ceasefire deal to end the war in Gaza, an official said, as senior leaders from the Palestinian movement hold talks with Egyptian mediators in Cairo on Saturday.
The scheduled talks come days after US President Donald Trump suggested an agreement to secure the release of hostages held in Gaza was close to being finalized.
A Hamas official told AFP that the Palestinian group anticipated the meeting with Egyptian mediators would yield significant progress.
“We hope the meeting will achieve real progress toward reaching an agreement to end the war, halt the aggression and ensure the full withdrawal of occupation forces from Gaza,” the official familiar with the ceasefire negotiations said on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
The delegation will be led by the group’s chief negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya, he said.
According to the official, Hamas has not yet received any new ceasefire proposals, despite Israeli media reports suggesting that Israel and Egypt had exchanged draft documents outlining a potential ceasefire and hostage release agreement.
“However, contacts and discussions with mediators are ongoing,” he added, accusing Israel of “continuing its aggression” in Gaza.
The Times of Israel reported that Egypt’s proposal would involve the release of eight living hostages and eight bodies, in exchange for a truce lasting between 40 and 70 days and a substantial release of Palestinian prisoners.
EVACUTAIONS CONTINUE
President Trump said during a cabinet meeting this week that “we’re getting close to getting them (hostages in Gaza) back.”
Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff was also quoted in an Israeli media report as saying “a very serious deal is taking shape, it’s a matter of days.”
Israel resumed its Gaza strikes on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas.
Since then, more than 1,500 people have been killed, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory to which Israel cut off aid more than a month ago.
Dozens of these strikes have killed “only women and children,” according to a report by UN human rights office.
The report also warned that expanding Israeli evacuation orders were resulting in the “forcible transfer” of people into ever-shrinking areas, raising “real concern as to the future viability of Palestinians as a group in Gaza.”
On Saturday, Israel continued with its offensive.
Gaza’s civil defense agency reported an Israeli air strike on a house in Gaza City on Saturday morning.
AFP footage of the aftermath of the strike showed the bodies of four men, wrapped in white shrouds, at a local hospital, while several individuals gathered to offer prayers before the funeral.
The ceasefire that ended on March 17 had led to the release of 33 hostages from Gaza — eight of them deceased — and the release of around 1,800 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
The war in Gaza broke out after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. It resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, 58 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Gaza’s health ministry said on Friday that at least 1,542 Palestinians had been killed since March 18 when the ceasefire collapsed, taking the overall death toll since the war began to 50,912.
