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Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi condemned in the strongest possible terms the treacherous Iranian aggression that targeted buildings in the Kingdom of Bahrain. These facilities house personnel from the Qatari Amiri Naval Forces participating in the Unified Naval Operations Center, which operates under the GCC Unified Military Command.Albudaiwi emphasized that targeting facilities housing naval personnel from GCC states who are part of the Unified Naval Operations Center is an unacceptable hostile act. He pointed out that such actions contradict all international laws and norms and once again reveal Iran’s escalatory approach toward the GCC states.He also stressed that the GCC states stand as one rank in the face of any threat targeting their security or the safety of their forces and vital facilities, affirming the Council’s full solidarity with the Kingdom of Bahrain and the State of Qatar, supporting all measures they take to protect their security and sovereignty.Albudaiwi reiterated that the security of the GCC states is indivisible and that any attack on a member state or its joint forces is considered an attack on all. Source link
A woman in a wheelchair and other people, displaced from the southern suburbs of Beirut after the Israeli army’s warning prompted residents to evacuate, gather at…
When blasts rolled across Dubai as air defences intercepted Iranian missiles overhead, Marion Kuria froze as a tremor ran through her building.Then, like countless African migrants in the Gulf, she went back to work, driven by a need for income and with few alternatives to turn to.The 36-year-old Kenyan, who has spent seven years in the city’s retail sector, told AFP she felt the shock “in her spine”.”The anxiety was extremely high,” she said.She is one of thousands of Africans across the Middle East hunkering down as the Gulf fends off Iran’s retaliatory drone and missile attacks since US-Israeli strikes sparked war last Saturday.Explosions have rocked cities including Kuwait’s capital, Manama, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, as Tehran targets US assets and hits civilian infrastructure across the region.At least 13 people, including seven civilians, have been killed.Yet for many African workers like Kuria, who has little chance of finding work at home, leaving is hardly an option.Arnold Keumoe Tchimmoe, a 34-year-old Cameroonian restaurant supervisor has spent 11 years in Dubai.The first blast caught him just as he arrived at work — a bang so sharp he thought someone had hit his car — before he stepped out and saw debris falling from the sky.Even then, he said he felt calm, convinced that his wife, four-year-old son and mother remained better off in the United Arab Emirates than in Cameroon.”I am more safer here,” he told AFP, bluntly dismissing any thought of returning home: “Never.”For years, the Gulf states have pulled in workers from across Africa, offering salaries that far outstrip what many could earn at home.Many take jobs in hotels, restaurants and the security sector, or as cleaners and domestic workers in private homes.Around 715,000 sub-Saharan Africans are in Saudi Arabia alone, making up more than 5% of the kingdom’s foreign population, according to a 2022 census.Little is known about the true scale of sub-Saharan migration to the Gulf, a 2024 study by the Gulf Research Center said, though growing African communities are now visible in the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain.Kenya’s foreign ministry said yesterday more than 500,000 of its nationals live and work across the Middle East, many sending home vital remittances.For now, Nairobi says most are remaining.They are continuing “with their daily activities, whether for work, study, or personal matters, either in person or remotely, depending on prevailing local circumstances,” Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi said in a statement.Unlike European governments, which have chartered evacuation flights, African workers say the decision to stay or leave has been left to them.While job opportunities are good for some, leaving for others may be more theoretical than real under the long-criticised sponsorship system common in the Gulf. Human rights groups have said employers often hold workers’ passports and control their ability to change jobs.”As much as we are safe now, we did not sign up for this,” Kuria said of the bombardments.BALANCE SAFETY AND LIVELIHOODMany have weighed the dangers against the very reason they went to the Gulf.Ghanaian Samuel Kwesi Appiah, 29, arrived in Dubai three years ago with help from an uncle who sponsored his move. He now works for a logistics firm.”I came to work and support my family back home. If I leave suddenly, it will affect my income and the people depending on me,” he said, vowing to pack up only if “the situation becomes very dangerous.”In another Gulf state, a Zimbabwean woman working in the hospitality industry, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described the fragile balance between safety and livelihood.”We are worried and our relatives back home are also worried about us. They think that we are not telling them the truth about the real situation,” she said.Zimbabwean missions in Kuwait and the UAE have only urged Zimbabweans in the Gulf to remain vigilant — guidance that, for now, aligns with her own decision to stay.”People want to maintain their jobs,” said Peter, a Kenyan employed in a UAE restaurant, adding that many were wary of speaking openly, fearing fines if they are accused of spreading rumours about events. Source link
People run as smoke rises following an explosion in Tehran Thursday. Reuters The US-Israeli campaign against Iran entered its sixth day Thursday with what residents described as even more intensive bombing, while Iran vowed to retaliate anywhere following a US attack on a ship thousands of miles from the battle zone.Iran’s state-run Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs said Thursday that the death toll from US and Israeli strikes on the Islamic republic has risen to 1,230.”The number of martyrs from the aggressive military attack carried out by criminal America and the usurping Israeli regime against the Islamic homeland had reached 1,230 as of March 5,” the foundation said, according to Iran’s official IRNA news agency.Inside Iran, the abrupt postponement of a planned three days of mourning for slain supreme leader Ali Khamenei interrupted apparent plans to swiftly anoint Khamenei’s hardliner son as his successor.”Today is worse than yesterday. They are striking northern Tehran. We have nowhere to go. It is like a war zone. Help us,” said Mohammadreza, 36, by phone from Tehran, with a shaky voice as explosions rang out from what Israel described as its latest wave of strikes on Iranian government targets.Although some international financial markets recovered from falls earlier in the week, the economic impact of the campaign intensified, with countries around the world cut off from a fifth of global supplies of oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG).Iran meanwhile vowed to take revenge for a US torpedo attack on an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka on Wednesday, which killed more than 80 sailors.Iran’s foreign minister said that Washington would “bitterly regret” the precedent it had set by sinking a ship in international waters without warning.A commander of the Revolutionary Guards, General Kioumars Heydari, told state TV: “We have decided to fight Americans wherever they are.”The body of Ayatollah Khamenei, killed in the first hours of the US-Israeli air campaign in the first assassination of a country’s top ruler by an airstrike, had been due to lie in state in a Tehran prayer hall from Wednesday evening to launch three days of mourning.However, the memorial, expected to draw many thousands of mourners to the streets, was abruptly and indefinitely postponed shortly before it was due to begin.In the hours before announcing the delay, Iranian officials had said that they were close to naming Khamenei’s successor, and that the leading candidate was his son Mojtaba, a powerful hardliner whose selection would be a strong gesture of defiance.Iranian officials gave no reason for the postponement of the memorial, but a source told Reuters that it was motivated in part by fear of assassination of those attending while Israeli and US warplanes remain in the skies.Israel has said it would consider any replacement for Khamenei who continued hostile policies an immediate target to be killed.Two sources familiar with Israel’s battle plans said that having killed many Iranian leaders during nearly a week of strikes, Israel was now planning to enter a second phase when it would target underground bunkers where Iran stores its missiles.Israel has said its aim is to overthrow Iran’s clerical rulers.Washington says its goal is to prevent Tehran from being able to project force beyond its borders, but it has also called on Iranians to rise up and seize power.The war has had global economic impact, above all from the interruption to tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of global oil and LPG flows along Iran’s coast.Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had hit a US tanker in the northern part of the Gulf and the vessel was on fire, the latest of numerous reports of such attacks.Passage through the strait would be under Iranian control, the Guards said.Azerbaijan said four Iranian drones had crossed its border and wounded four people, and it was preparing a response.Iran, which has launched drones and missiles against US allies in the region, denied blame for the incident. Related Story Source link
Five people were killed and seven others wounded on Friday in an Israeli airstrike targeting the city of Sidon in southern Lebanon.In a statement, Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health said the strike resulted, according to an initial toll, in five fatalities and seven injuries.Israeli forces also launched a series of airstrikes since dawn on several towns and villages in southern and eastern Lebanon, killing four people, according to Lebanese sources. Source link
File photo shows Mojtaba Khamenei. Mojtaba Khamenei, the powerful son of Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, is alive and favoured to emerge as his father’s successor, two Iranian sources told Reuters Wednesday.As new explosions rang out in Tehran, plans were in doubt for a funeral for the elder Khamenei, 86, killed by Israeli forces on Saturday in the first assassination of a nation’s top ruler by airstrike. His body had been scheduled to lie in state in a vast Tehran mosque from Wednesday evening but state media reported the farewell ceremony was postponed.The United States and Israel pressed on with their round-the-clock assaults on Iran on Wednesday in a campaign that the top U.S. commander said was “ahead of the game plan”.A fall in global markets turned into a rout in Asia, including a record-breaking crash in Seoul, as some investors were unconvinced by U.S. President Donald Trump’s assurances he would quickly reopen the world’s most important shipping corridor and release blockaded Middle East oil and gas.European markets later stabilised and turned higher after two days of sharp losses, on hopes that the war might end soon. Some traders said the improved sentiment followed a New York Times report that Iranian intelligence had reached out to the CIA early in the war about a path towards ending it.The report said officials in Washington were sceptical of an “off-ramp” for now, while Trump said on Tuesday that Iranians wanted talks but it was “too late”.The two Iranian sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, was not in Tehran during the strike that destroyed the leader’s compound and also killed the elder Khamenei’s wife, another son and a number of senior military and leadership figures.Iran said the Assembly of Experts that will select the new leader will announce its decision soon, only the second time it has done so since the Islamic Republic’s founding in 1979.Assembly member Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami told state TV the candidates had already been identified but did not name them.Israel said it would hunt down whoever was chosen.”Every leader appointed by the Iranian regime to continue and lead the plan to destroy Israel, to threaten the United States and the free world and the countries of the region, and to suppress the Iranian people – will be an unequivocal target for elimination,” Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement. “It does not matter what his name is or the place where he hides.”Other candidates for supreme leader include Hassan Khomeini, grandson of Islamic Republic’s founder and a champion of the reformist faction sidelined in recent decades.But the clear favourite appears to be Mojtaba Khamenei, who amassed power under his father as a senior figure in the security forces and the vast business empire they control. Choosing him would send a signal that conservatives were still firmly in charge.Some Iranians have openly celebrated the death of the supreme leader, whose security forces killed thousands of anti-government demonstrators only weeks ago in the biggest domestic unrest since the era of the revolution.But Iranians angry with the government said there was unlikely to be much sign of protest while bombs are falling.”We have nowhere to go to protect ourselves from strikes, how can we protest?” Farah, 45, said by phone from Tehran, adding that the security forces “are everywhere. They will kill us. I hate this regime, but first I have to think about the safety of my two children.”The US says it has effectively sunk the entire Iranian navy. Sri Lanka said it rescued 32 people Wednesday from an Iranian warship that sank off its coast, with some bodies recovered at sea.Admiral Brad Cooper, the overall commander of the US campaign as head of the military’s Central Command, said 50,000 troops, 200 jets and two aircraft carriers were engaged in “24/7 strikes into Iran from seabed to space and cyberspace,” with more assets on the way. Related Story Source link
People who were stranded in Dubai amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, arrive at Varna Airport, in Bulgaria, Wednesday. Dubai’s super-rich have started fleeing the glitzy business hub by any means necessary, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to escape a regional war they fear has no end in sight.The city in the United Arab Emirates has long welcomed the wealthy, who have been drawn to its low taxes, safety, luxury and business-friendly government.But with that reputation on the line as Iranian missiles fly overhead, some are stumping up huge sums to secure a way out, with airspace in the UAE partially closed.”When we saw the fire, we said OK, it’s time to go,” said Evrim, a mother of two from Turkiye, referring to a blaze that broke out after missile debris hit a luxury hotel near her home on the Palm Jumeirah, Dubai’s archipelago of man-made islands that have come to represent the city’s ostentatiousness.She, her husband and her two young children are paying $200,000 to fly out of neighbouring Oman bound for Geneva, where they plan to wait out the war. To reach Oman’s capital Muscat, they had to drive six hours through the desert.”We were feeling really anxious… mainly because of the kids — when they heard that bang sound they were scared,” she said, referring to missile interceptions overhead.She felt it would only become harder to leave if the conflict dragged on, fearing that Saudi Arabia, which accounts for much of the region’s airspace, may join the war.Dubai has built a reputation as a playground for the rich and famous, with the city home to the world’s tallest building, an enormous mall with an indoor ski slope, huge theme parks and luxury hotels.But its status as a safe and secure hub in a volatile region is now under threat.Targeted by more than 800 drones and 200 missiles since Saturday, with three people killed, the UAE is bearing the brunt of Iran’s retaliatory campaign across the Gulf. Airports and oil facilities are among the targets hit.Several foreign governments, including Britain and Germany, are sending planes to Oman to evacuate their nationals, as a reduced number of commercial flights are operating out of UAE airports.But many of the wealthy are finding their own way out.”Demand is definitely increasing,” said Glenn Phillips, PR and advertising manager for Air Charter Service, a broker that organises private jets worldwide.”We have arranged a number of evacuation flights already, and have more scheduled today and tomorrow, mainly out of Muscat in Oman for people looking to get out of Dubai.”He said prices were spiking due to a lack of airplanes as many were grounded at closed airports. Private jet operators are also reluctant to fly due to security concerns.The Oman route was the most popular, Phillips added, but congestion at the border with the UAE meant people were waiting three or four hours to cross.Available aircraft will become even more scarce if the war is prolonged, he said.Mike D’Souza, operations co-ordinator at Indus Chauffeur in Dubai, said demand for private cars out of the UAE had spiked among wealthy individuals from Western nations.Many were heading out via Saudi Arabia, where airports are still operating, though obtaining visas for the kingdom is a challenge for some evacuees.For those stranded on more modest incomes, the journey to safety is harder.One British expat, who declined to be named, told AFP that securing a commercial flight out of Muscat had been extremely difficult for himself, his pregnant wife and three-year-old son.”Prices are extremely high and seats are disappearing quickly while you are trying to book,” he said.They eventually managed to nail down a flight to the Indian city of Hyderabad, from where they will fly on to Thailand.”While my son doesn’t understand what is happening, it has clearly unsettled him, and my wife has also been anxious.”That said, we absolutely love Dubai and consider it our home. We fully intend to return once our baby is born and things settle down.” Related Story Source link
A man uses his phone to take pictures outside a cordoned off area at the site of damage caused by strikes, following an escalation between Hezbollah…
The State of Kuwait has submitted two identical letters to both Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) Antonio Guterres and Permanent Representative of the United States of America to the UN and President of the UN Security Council (UNSC) for the month of March Michael Waltz regarding the Iranian heinous attacks against the country.According to a statement issued by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, these attacks indiscriminately targeted several civilian facilities, in flagrant violation of the country's sovereignty and airspace. The letters also described the Iranian assaults as a blatant breach of the fundamental principles of international law, the Charter of the United Nations, and the rules of international humanitarian law. The letters detailed that the Iranian aggression resulted in multiple fatalities, including two martyrs from the Kuwaiti Armed Forces, and left dozens of others wounded.Kuwait also expressed its strongest condemnation of the Iranian assault targeting its territory and neighboring countries. It underscored its inherent right to self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter, affirming its prerogative to take all necessary measures to safeguard its territory, airspace, and the safety of its citizens and residents.Furthermore, Kuwait emphasized that the security of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states is indivisible, asserting that any threat or aggression against one member constitutes an attack or threat to collective regional security.Kuwait called upon the international community, specifically the UN Security Council, to issue a clear and unequivocal condemnation of the unjustified Iranian hostilities. It urged the Council to take measures to end these violations, which continue to undermine regional and international peace and security. Source link
The Iraqi Ministry of Electricity announced Wednesday evening a complete power outage across all Iraqi provinces. The ministry said in a statement carried by the Iraqi News Agency that the electrical grid has completely shut down across all Iraqi provinces.It added that an investigation is underway to determine the causes and is working to restore power to the affected stations and lines.In a related development, the Salah Al Din police in Iraq confirmed that a technical malfunction caused the Baiji power station to shut down, and that reports circulating about it being targeted are false.The provincial police command said in a statement carried by the Iraqi News Agency that reports circulating about the Baiji power station being targeted are completely unfounded. It clarified that what occurred was a technical shutdown at the station due to a technical malfunction, and it is not related to any hostile act. Source link