Tel Aviv, May 7 (IANS) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed reports that Israel was caught off guard by Washington’s diplomatic moves toward Iran, saying that he is in near-daily contact with US President Donald Trump to ensure full coordination. “We are in continuous contact with our friends in the United States,” Netanyahu said on Wednesday (local time). “I speak with President Trump on an almost daily basis. My people and his people speak daily, including today,” he said.He…
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Paris, May 7 (IANS) French President Emmanuel Macron has called for “all parties” to lift the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz “without delay and without conditions,” after a telephone talk with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. “We must return permanently to the regime of full freedom of navigation that prevailed before the conflict,” Macron said on social media platform X on Wednesday evening (local time), adding that the future multinational escort mission launched by France and Britain wi…
New York, May 6 (IANS) The Strait of Hormuz appeared on Wednesday to be set for opening following announcements by the US and Iran that the blockades on the waterway crucial to the global economy was being lifted.After US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday evening he was pausing the blockade to see if an agreement with Iran can be reached, Iran’s military, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said on Wednesday that it would allow ships to pass the Strait of Hormuz.It claimed that …
Bucharest, May 5 (IANS) Romania’s bicameral parliament passed a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan’s government on Tuesday, with 281 votes in favour and four against, bringing down the government, according to the parliament’s live broadcast of the vote.Under the constitution, the Bolojan government will become an interim administration from the moment the vote passes, limited to handling routine administrative affairs. It will not be allowed to issue emergency ordinances o…
Gaza, May 5 (IANS) Humanitarians are warning of the lack of prosthetic and rehabilitation care in Gaza for amputees, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said. The OCHA on Monday (local time) said its partners reported that more than 6,600 amputees, one in five a child, need prosthetic and rehabilitation care, including thousands newly amputated since October 2023. Yet only eight prosthetic technicians are available to respond.”With severe shortages of specialist…
Tehran, May 5 (IANS) Five civilians were killed in US attacks on cargo boats, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Tuesday. Following the claim by the US military that it had targeted six Iranian speedboats, and given that none of Iran’s combat vessels was hit, local sources were consulted to verify the nature of the incident, according to Xinhua, which quoted the report.It was determined that US forces had attacked two small civilian cargo boats, which were travelling from Khasab…
New York, May 5 (IANS) International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva warned that the global economy would face a “much worse outcome” if the Middle East war drags on into 2027, with oil prices hitting around 125 dollars per barrel. “We are going to see inflation climbing up, and then inevitably, inflation expectations would start de-anchoring,” she said at a conference hosted by the Milken Institute in Washington, D.C., on Monday (local time).She noted that current con…
Pyongyang, May 3 (IANS) North Korea on Monday criticised Japan over its move to overhaul key security legislation, calling it “a brazen challenge to global peace and humanity.”The North’s criticism came as Japan has been seeking to revise its three key security documents — the National Security Strategy, National Defence Strategy and Defence Buildup Program — within this year.The effort is widely seen as a response to China’s growing military presence in the region and other regional security …
Tehran, May 3 (IANS) Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei condemned US President Donald Trump’s remarks that called the US seizure of Iranian vessels “piracy.””The president of the United States has openly described the unlawful seizure of Iranian vessels as ‘piracy,’ brazenly boasting that ‘we act like pirates,'” Baghaei said in an X post.”This was no verbal slip. It was a direct and damning admission of the criminal nature of their actions against international maritime navigation…
Washington, May 2 (IANS) The Pentagon has estimated that Iran has suffered losses of around $4.8 billion in oil revenue due to a blockade imposed by the United States Navy on its ports, according to a report by Axios, which cited unnamed officials. The report noted that two tankers have been seized during the course of the blockade. In addition, officials said that as many as 31 tankers carrying approximately 53 million barrels of oil are currently “stuck in the Gulf,” highlighting the scale of …