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Tag: Iran

  • Iran proposes visa-free travel for Chinese tourists

    Iran proposes visa-free travel for Chinese tourists

    Iran has called on China to cancel tourist visa requirements for Iranian citizens, following its unilateral move to lift visa restrictions for Chinese travellers.

    This development is according to Mehr News Agency, a partner of  TV BRICS.

    The request was made by Hojjatollah Ayoubi, Head of the Ministry’s International Affairs Centre, during an official meeting with Gao Zheng, China’s Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism, on the sidelines of the SCO Ministers’ Meeting on Culture and Tourism in Qingdao.

    During the talks, Ayoubi emphasised the deep-rooted cultural ties between Iran and China, describing both nations as heirs to ancient civilisations.

    He proposed a series of bilateral initiatives, including joint exhibitions, cultural exchanges, co-production of documentaries, and academic cooperation in fields like museology and traditional medicine.

    Ayoubi also stressed the importance of tourism as a bridge between people in an era of misinformation and encouraged China to take reciprocal steps to facilitate people-to-people engagement.

    Vice Minister Gao welcomed Iran’s proposals, highlighting strong public interest in Iranian culture, including an ongoing exhibition in Beijing drawing over 70,000 visitors daily and expressed readiness to expand cooperation through joint programmes and a proposed cultural coordination committee.

  • Should Christians support Israel against Iran? (3) – By Femi Aribisala

    Should Christians support Israel against Iran? (3) – By Femi Aribisala

    “Believers in Christ are the true Jews”.

    Biblical Israel wandered through the desert for 40 years in rebellion against God. The wilderness was their graveyard. They all died there. But Jesus spent only 40 days in the wilderness during which He prevailed against the temptations of the devil. Jesus passed all the tests that biblical Israel failed.

     Israel was told to serve only God:

    “Fear the Lord your God, serve Him only.” (Deuteronomy 6:13).

     But Israel served other gods.

    “All the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a moulded calf. Then they said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’ So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, ‘Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.’ Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” (Exodus 32:3-6).

    But Jesus served only God.

    “The devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. ‘All this I will give you,’ he said, ‘if you will bow down and worship me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’” (Matthew 4:8-10).

    Biblical Israel was warned not to put God to the test:

    “Do not test the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 6:16).

    But Israel disobeyed and tested God:

    “The people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, ‘Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?’ Then Moses cried out to the Lord, ‘What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.’ The Lord answered Moses, ‘Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.’ So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarrelled and because they tested the Lord, saying, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’” (Exodus 17:3-7).

    Jesus, on the other hand,  refused to test God:

    “The devil took (Jesus) to the holy city and had Him stand on the highest point of the temple. ‘If You are the Son of God,’ he said, ‘throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command His angels concerning You, and they will lift You up in their hands, so that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (Matthew 4:5-7).

    The Israelites insisted on living by bread alone. Moses said to them:

    “(God) humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.” (Deuteronomy 8:3-4).

    But the Israelites rejected manna and despised it.

    “The mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said:”Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!” (Numbers 11:4-6).

    Jesus, on the other hand, agreed to live by the word of God:

    “When the tempter came to (Jesus), he said, ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.’ But He answered and said, ‘It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 3-4).

    True and false bread

    The manna that Moses gave the Israelites in the wilderness was not the true bread. Jesus is the true bread from heaven. As He said to the Jews:

    “Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.” And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” (John 6:31-35). 

    Rejection of the gospel

    Biblical Israel rejected the gospel of the kingdom of God:       

    “Although (Jesus) had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him, that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: ‘Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’ Therefore, they could not believe, because Isaiah said again: ‘He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they should see with their eyes, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.’” (John 12:37-40).

    As a result, God created a new Israel, the Israel of God and faith. This fulfilled the kingdom principle whereby the last became first and the first last. So Jesus said to the Jews of biblical Israel:

    “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? ‘Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.’” (Matthew 21:42-43).

    Believers in Christ are now God’s Chosen People. Peter proclaimed this to New Testament followers of Christ:

    “To you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone’ and ‘a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence.’ They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.’” (1 Peter 2:7-10).

    Paul also confirmed it:

    “If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:29).

    The Israelites of today are not Abraham’s children. Instead, naturally-borm Israelites who reject Christ belong to the synagogue of Satan:

    “They answered and said to (Jesus), “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, ‘If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father.’ Then they said to Him, ‘We were not born of fornication; we have one Father — God.’ Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.  Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” (John 8:39-44).

    Jesus reiterated this in a letter to the church in Smyrna:

    “I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.” (Revelation 2:9).

    Paul also confirmed that believers in Christ are the true Jews. We are the Israel of God for whom God made the promise to Abraham:

    “It is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, ‘In Isaac your seed shall be called.’ That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.’” (Romans 9:6-8).

    So, when Paul says, “All Israel shall be saved” (Romans 11:26), he is not referring to physical Israel, nor biblical Israel, nor the nation of Israel. He is only referring to the believers who are in Christ Jesus.

    “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.” (Romans 2:28-29).

    CONCLUDED.

  • The crumbling dome: Iran-Israel ceasefire, BRICS, and the end of Western illusions – By Umar Osabo

    The crumbling dome: Iran-Israel ceasefire, BRICS, and the end of Western illusions – By Umar Osabo

    By Umar Osabo PhD

    Introduction: A Ceasefire on Shaky Grounds

    When Iran and Israel agreed to an abrupt ceasefire last week, global media rushed to frame it as a diplomatic victory for Washington and European allies. But deeper investigation reveals a far more complex and troubling reality — one that not only redefines the security landscape of the Middle East but also signals the unraveling of the world order as we’ve known it since World War II.

    Beneath the headlines, this ceasefire is less a testament to successful diplomacy and more a symptom of military vulnerability, shifting global alliances, and the accelerating decline of Western hegemony, US, Europe in particular.

    Who Really Blinked First?

    Public narratives suggest that both Iran and Israel chose diplomacy over further escalation. Yet, leaked diplomatic cables obtained by Der Spiegel and corroborated by Stratfor and the International Crisis Group paint a different picture: it was Israel that first signaled the need for de-escalation after suffering significant military setbacks.

    A NATO intelligence assessment, leaked to The Guardian, revealed that Iran’s coordinated missile and drone assault overwhelmed key Israeli air defenses, rendering major airbases temporarily inoperable. For the first time in decades, Israel faced a direct military vulnerability it could neither deny nor swiftly remedy.

    The Myth of Israel’s Impenetrable Air Defense

    For years, Israel’s defense triad — Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow-3 — was celebrated as the world’s most sophisticated shield against aerial threats. But the June 2025 conflict revealed a shocking truth!

    According to Jane’s Defence Weekly and SIPRI, Iran’s use of drone swarms, radar-blinding loitering munitions, and precision-guided ballistic missiles exposed critical flaws. A confidential IDF report, leaked to Haaretz, admitted that interception rates dropped to 62%, far below the publicly claimed 90%.

    Iran’s engineers, likely aided by Russian and Chinese cyber-warfare expertise, jammed Israeli radar and overwhelmed its tracking systems. This unprecedented breach debunked decades of faith in Israel’s air defense superiority.

    America’s Dilemma, Europe’s Irrelevance

    Caught between its commitment to Israel and the global economic risks of further escalation, the U.S. found itself cornered. A classified CENTCOM advisory, published in Foreign Policy, recommended urgent de-escalation to prevent a broader conflict that could destabilize global energy markets and accelerate BRICS-led efforts to bypass the dollar.

    Meanwhile, Europe, fractured and increasingly powerless, struggled to assert relevance. Germany balked at military involvement, while France initiated backchannel diplomacy with Iran via Oman — a telling sign of Europe’s diminishing alignment with U.S. policy in the region.

    BRICS: The Real Winner Behind the Ceasefire

    Far from the negotiating table, BRICS nations watched — and benefited. A white paper leaked from the BRICS Security Council reveals a coordinated strategy to capitalize on U.S. overextension.

    Economically, the BRICS Pay system experienced a surge, bypassing SWIFT and reducing dependence on the dollar.

    Militarily, Iran’s success validated asymmetric warfare models now being adopted in BRICS defense cooperation talks.

    Geopolitically, energy diplomacy shifted. Saudi Arabia and Iran, now BRICS members, rerouted energy flows eastward, undermining U.S. and EU leverage.

    Will the Ceasefire Hold?

    Inside Israel, hardliners are furious. Leaked Mossad briefings warn that Netanyahu’s fragile coalition could collapse if perceived as weak. The political calculus leans toward breaking the ceasefire should Iran appear to rearm or escalate.

    For Iran, the ceasefire serves tactical purposes, not strategic concession. Bolstered by military success and growing BRICS support, Tehran is unlikely to capitulate on key issues like its nuclear program or regional influence.

    A CIA risk assessment, leaked to The Washington Post, bluntly states: “U.S. influence over both parties is rapidly eroding due to expanding Russian and Chinese leverage.”

    A Crumbling Western Hegemony

    This conflict exposed an uncomfortable truth: the post-WWII order, underpinned by U.S. military supremacy and economic dominance, is faltering.

    Sanctions fatigue is real. Over 60% of global energy transactions are now conducted outside the dollar system, as confirmed by a joint Chatham House–PetroChina report.

    Energy politics have shifted, with BRICS nations tightening intra-bloc energy security at the expense of Western importers.

    Deterrence models, once based on superior air power and technological advantage, are now outdated in an era where drone swarms and cyber warfare democratize conflict.

    A World at a Crossroads

    The Iran-Israel ceasefire is not a peace treaty; it’s a pause dictated by mutual exhaustion and shifting power dynamics. The deeper reality is the collapse of old assumptions: that Western-led security, sanctions, and military technology can unilaterally dictate global outcomes.

    BRICS is poised to formalize an alternative security framework, potentially challenging NATO’s monopoly on international security guarantees. Meanwhile, U.S. influence is weakening, constrained by internal divisions, military overstretch, and the crumbling power of the dollar.

    Unless the West fundamentally recalibrates its global approach — embracing true multipolar cooperation rather than resisting it — the decline of Pax Americana is not just likely; it is inevitable.

    Conclusion: Beyond Missiles — The End of an Era

    This is not merely a Middle East story. It is the unraveling of an entire world order. The ordinary reader must understand: the myths of military invincibility, the power of sanctions, and the dominance of Western diplomacy are rapidly fading.

    What comes next is a world increasingly shaped not by who controls the skies, but by who adapts fastest sweet  to a reality where power is diffuse, alliances are shifting, and no empire — however mighty — remains unchallenged forever.

     

    Umar Osabo PhD is a political, economy and security analyst with bias in Middle East Politics and Sahel. He can be reached on: umarmosabo@gmail.com

  • Ruffled feathers: Rejoinders to my article on Israel-Iran war – By Azu Ishiekwene

    Ruffled feathers: Rejoinders to my article on Israel-Iran war – By Azu Ishiekwene

    The proper thing to do when readers respond to a newspaper article is to respect their right of reply. There were two irate responses to my article last week, “Not the Iran We Thought It Was: What Has Changed in the Persian Gulf.”

    One, entitled “Not the Azu We Thought He Was,” by Yakubu Musa, a guest author for 21st Century Chronicle, an online newspaper, and the other, “Basking in the Euphoria of Narrative Origami,” by Mahfuz Mundadu, a friend of one Hassan Karofi, who claimed he is a journalist.

    Both articles could have been from the spiteful fingers of one hand. Of particular interest, however, was the second article. It was WhatsApped to me by Karofi on behalf of his friend, a certain Mundadu, whose photo he refused to provide and whose name he faked. He also faked a Kaduna address for his fake friend. Despite the layers of disingenuity, “Mundadu” deserves, if not a right of reply, the courtesy of his or her opinion:

    “To read Mr. Azu Ishiekwene’s article ‘Not the Iran We Thought It Was’ is to witness a masterclass in doublethink. That Orwellian art of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind and believing both. To know that Israel is a nuclear power armed to the teeth and yet present it as a trembling David before an Iranian Goliath.

    “To remember decades of pre-emptive strikes, assassinations, and occupation, and yet narrate them as self-defence. To bend history into a shape so unfamiliar, it must be admired. We call it narrative origami, and then we present the resulting illusion with a straight face beneath a yam cap.

    “Nothing completes the theatre of intellectual mimicry like cultural fabric draped over borrowed imperial scripts. Mr. Azu doesn’t merely distort reality; he stages its semblance. Armed with metaphors, blindfolded by bias, and conducted by the invisible hand of Western hegemony.

    “Azu’s article, ‘Not the Iran We Thought It Was,’ reads like a desperate telegram from the last surviving bureaucrat of Orwell’s Ministry of Truth. Only this time, instead of “Oceania is at war with Eastasia (sic),” we are told “Iran is David (sic); Israel is Goliath,” while the United States, ever the omniscient puppet master, is left conveniently backstage, sipping its habitual cocktail of oil, contracts, and self-righteousness.

    “Let us begin with the metaphor. Mr. Azu, in a stroke of Biblical theatre, casts Iran as a Goliath of sorts, towering, terrifying, menacing, and poor little Israel as the shepherd boy of peace with nothing but a sling and a smile. Never mind that this “David” owns an arsenal of nuclear warheads and is bankrolled by the world’s most militarised empire.

    “Never mind that this Goliath-sized David has, since 1948, bulldozed villages, murdered children, and claimed the role of eternal victim while hoarding some of the world’s most advanced weapons. It seems Mr. Azu mistook his ‘Testament’ for a press release from the Israeli Ministry of Defence.

    “Had I not read the name, I might have thought this piece was penned by a clever intern at Lockheed Martin, fresh off a propaganda boot camp and eager to impress his line manager. But alas, it bears the name of a seasoned editor.

    Even though I am not a philosopher, I’ve heard somewhere that lies can be mistaken for wisdom when repeated with sufficient polish, frequency, and decibels. Mr. Azu’s article does not merely repeat lies. It baptises them in footnotes and anecdotes and then dresses them in history. Thereafter, he sends them out to war on behalf of the criminal enterprise of Zionism.

    “Now, let us speak of memory, the selective kind. Azu writes of October 7, 2023, as though history were born that morning. He forgets, or pretends to forget, that Netanyahu has been threatening Iran since ‘Fantalo, Garmaho and Sakadali’ were fashionable. He forgets the years of assassinations, sabotage, cyber-attacks, and open incitement. He forgets, like an old man with convenient amnesia, that this conflict was manufactured in laboratories of paranoia long before Hamas fired a single rocket.

    “Azu wants us to believe that Hamas is a remote-controlled invention of Tehran, programmed to harass ‘innocent’ settlers. What he fails to mention, or perhaps deliberately buries under rhetorical debris, is that Israel itself initially nurtured Hamas to fracture Palestinian resistance. Yes, Israel midwifed its own Frankenstein, then turned to the world and screamed ‘monster’!”

    “Let us not waste too much ink debating whether Iran is a saint or a sinner. That is not the point. The point is that Azu’s article presents a caricature, a reduction, a fairy tale where the villain wears a turban, and the hero rides an F-35. It is not a critique of policy. It is a bedtime story for geopolitical infants.

    “And yet, Mr. Azu expects his readers to clap like trained seals. To swallow each sentence like sugar-coated arsenic. To believe, in 2025, that the same old tricks still fool the world. But alas, the internet has arrived. The children of this generation carry in their palms a library of resistance. The age of monopoly over meaning is over. The age in which we carry our transistor radios around, waiting for Western media outlets to dish out imperialist propaganda as world news, is over.

    “It would serve Mr. Azu well to recall that journalism, like history, is not a mirror but a lamp. Its duty is not to reflect the faces but faeces of the powerful and illuminate the oppressed’s footprints. Right now, the footprints are red, the trail is long, and the truth bleeds through the white noise of mainstream punditry.

    “Let Mr. Azu, if he is so fond of metaphor, visit Gaza and bring back a sling. Let him visit Tel Aviv and count the silos. Let him read the nuclear declarations of Israel, if he can find them, for they are kept like family secrets in dynasties of denial.

    “Until then, we the readers, armed with logic, reasoning, and the inquiry of philosophers, shall continue to ask uncomfortable questions, to deflate inflated narratives, and to demand that those who write for the public do so not with fear of favour, but with favour for the truth.

    “Mr. Azu, you are not the journalist we thought you were.”

    ….. Laws of Human Stupidity

    In a post on Premium Times, which also published the article, pharmacist, banker, and author, Olu Akanmu, referenced the “Five Basic Laws of Human Stupidity” by Carlo M. Cipolla, and wrote: “Good article by Azu. Iran has truly (surprisingly) been made to look so ordinary. It overrated itself and fails with its Hamas ally, the military maxim that war is not just about your attack, but whether you have the counterforce to neutralise what will be a counterattack to your attack. Can’t but relate Hamas to one of the quadrants of Cipolla’s law of stupidity.”

    Ishiekwene, Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP, is the author of the new book Writing for Media and Monetising It. 

  • Trump clashes with intel community over U.S. airstrikes on Iran

    Trump clashes with intel community over U.S. airstrikes on Iran

    President Donald Trump’s longstanding tensions with the U.S. intelligence community are resurfacing, this time over conflicting assessments of the impact of recent American airstrikes on Iran.

    An early intelligence assessment concluded that Iran’s nuclear programme was only set back by a few months following last weekend’s strikes on three sites.

    Trump, however, publicly rejected the findings, insisting that the programme was “completely and fully obliterated.”

    The disagreement has set the stage for another high-profile standoff.

    Top administration officials are expected to press Trump’s narrative at a Pentagon news conference on Thursday.

    Meanwhile, briefings for lawmakers on Capitol Hill had been scheduled, though the White House reportedly planned to limit the disclosure of classified information following a leak of the initial assessment.

    “Intelligence people strive to live in a world as it is, describe the world as it is,” said Larry Pfeiffer, a 32-year intelligence veteran and former CIA chief of staff.

    “Politicians are all about describing the world as they want it to be,” he added.

    With the dispute now spilling into public view, it mirrors the broader pattern of Trump’s first term, where his foreign policy assertions often clashed with intelligence analysis, particularly during the Russia investigation.

  • 22-year-old student arrested in Israel on suspicion of spying for Iran

    22-year-old student arrested in Israel on suspicion of spying for Iran

    A student has been arrested in Israel on suspicion of spying for Iran.

    The 22-year-old is alleged to have committed security offences and carried out tasks on behalf of Iranian agents, according to a joint statement issued Thursday by the Shin Bet domestic security service and the police.

    The young man, who studies information systems at Ben Gurion University in Beersheba, is from the Arab village of Deir al-Asad in northern Israel.

    He was arrested in June and will be formally charged, the statement said.

    It remains unclear whether the arrest occurred before or during the recent 12-day conflict with Iran.

    Authorities say the student had been in contact with an Iranian agent for several months. In exchange for payment, he allegedly carried out “security-related acts” under the agent’s instructions.

    These included an attempt to injure a person, scattering nails on a main road in Beersheba, and inciting divisive social discourse.

    He reportedly claimed his actions were motivated by solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

    In recent years, Israel has seen a number of arrests involving suspected espionage for Iran.

  • UN nuclear watchdog states “number one priority” after Iran’s facilities attacks

    UN nuclear watchdog states “number one priority” after Iran’s facilities attacks

    The Secretary General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday that his “number one priority” is for IAEA inspectors to return to Iran’s nuclear sites.

    Rafael said in Vienna thay the return would enable IAEA inspectors to evaluate the damage caused by recent bombing and to verify stockpiles of highly enriched uranium.

    Israel began launching air and missile strikes against Iranian military and nuclear sites nearly two weeks ago.

    The U.S. later carried out surprise bombing raids on three Iranian uranium enrichment facilities this past weekend.

    However, the extent of damage to Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile remains unclear.

    Following the initial attacks, Iran informed the IAEA that it would take “special measures” to protect its nuclear materials and equipment.

    Grossi said that he had received a letter from the Iranian Foreign Minister, which said protective measures had been taken.

    “They did not get into details into what that meant, but clearly that was the implicit meaning of that. So, we can imagine that this material is there,” he said.

    To confirm this and to evaluate the situation, the UN nuclear energy watchdog chief said “we need to return”.

    On Wednesday, Iran’s parliament approved a bill to suspend cooperation with the IAEA, according to media reports, which has to be approved by the executive branch of the government.

    Grossi said he wrote to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Tuesday requesting that they meet “to analyse the modalities” for inspections to continue.

    He stressed that the international community “cannot afford” for the inspection regime to be interrupted.

    He also expressed disapproval about Iran’s plans to withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a key international accord aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.

    The IAEA chief said the move would be “very regrettable “.

    “I hope this is not the case. I don’t think this would help anybody, starting with Iran. This would lead to isolation, all sorts of problems,” Grossi said.

    A fragile ceasefire between Iran and Israel, announced by U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday night, is holding.

  • Israel dares Iran at last! – By Richard Maduku

    Israel dares Iran at last! – By Richard Maduku

    By Richard Maduku

    Jews in their numbers, were forced to flee from their homeland about two thousand years ago because of their frequent revolts against the Romans who were then their overlords. This was after the death of Jesus Christ. Over the decades, they dispersed into all the continents leaving only a negligible number behind.

    Most of the Jewish immigrants prospered in the countries they had settled in but they were not the darlings to other citizens in those places. In fact, Adolf Hitler of Germany hated them so much he had them, in all the countries he conquered, rounded up and put into camps where they were gased to death. About six millions were believed to have been murdered this way. This was during the Second World War.

    Since they were only tolerated in many countries, the Allied Forces that defeated Hitler decided to return them to their original land. As to be expected, their land by now, had been occupied by other tribes. The Muslim majority among the occupiers had even built a mosque right on top of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.

    But the United Nations that had just been formed at that time, was able to carve a tiny strip of land for them which is now Israel. They were not even allowed the ownership of Jerusalem again. Donald Trump was so enraged by this denial he ordered them to take it back as their capital during his first stint as President of the United States. .

    Despite documented and physical evidence that the Jews were originally the owners of most of that area, Muslims who are now the dominant group still insist they have no right to live in any place there. As a result they have waged wars against them several times but on each occasion, the new Jewish state had triumphed and even got back some of her former territory. The series of defeats made Israel’s neighbours to stop their aggression and to make peace with her. But not Iran (a regional power) that is not even her neighbour.

    For over four decades now, Israeli has been at the receiving end of hate speeches from successive Iranian leaders. They use every occasion to yell ‘death to the Jews’ or ‘death to all Israeli’. They have no qualms telling the world that they are going to wipe out the state of Israel from the face of the earth one of these days. It’s as if this was why they were created.

    These Iranians have not restricted themselves to only verbal attacks on Israeli. Since both countries have no common border, Iran has been sponsoring jihadist groups to commit horrible crimes against Israeli. Some of the groups include Hezbolah in Lebanon, the Houthi in Yemen and Hamas in Gaza.

    On 7 October 2023 for instance, Hamas terrorists from neighbouring Gaza had breeched the border fence erected by the Israeli and pounced on several homes and people partying in one of the settlements. They murdered 1,200 Israeli and dragged 250 into Gaza as hostages. Some of those taken captives were foreigners.

    Those killed includes pregnant women and babies. Some of the women were raped before being killed while the bowels of some were ripped open with swords. Some of these gory scenes were captured on CCTV cameras while others were narrated by those who were lucky enough to escape..

    For several days after the horrendous act, Israel had waited patiently to see if the United Nations will come up on how to get her citizens out of Gaza as well as how to rid the world of the barbarism Hamas represented. Only feeble condemnation of the atrocious act of 7 October came from some quarters.

    When Israel launched the operation to free the hostages after waiting for weeks without a word on what to do about the situation from the UN, another proxy of Iran joined the fray. Hezbolah, a group that Iran had armed to the teeth began firing missiles from Lebanon into Israeli homes across the border. The Lebanes Army did not stop them so also the United Nations Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) that was raised to prevent such cross border fire. Israel had to evacuate hundreds of her citizens from the area into hotels where the Hezbolah missiles could not reach.

    But Hezbolah was not the last of the Iranian proxies. The Houthi rebels who had fought the government forces to a standstill and now control a large chunk of Yemeni territory including Saana the capital, also joined the fight against Israel. They started firing rockets at ships passing through the Suez Canal with the claim that these vessels belong to Israeli. A few vessels had caught fire from direct hits and many began to avoid the route. The Houthi then started firing missiles directly into Israeli territory.

    It was at this point that some onlookers became worried. They felt Israel should take the fight to the Iranians. They were afraid fighting only Iran’s suicidal proxies would wear the Israeli down. Moreover, Iran’a nuclear enrichment programme was reported to be nearing the stage where it could be used to make warheads within a few months if they chose to. It was feared that if it got to this stage, the Iranians will only be too glad to use them to achieve their objective of annihalating Israel.

    As if the Israeli leadership was thinking the same thing as these concerned watchers, on June 13, 2025, their fighter jets coordinated by their spies on the ground bombed strategic targets in Tehran and  other Iranian towns. Apart from critical infrastructure that were destroyed or damaged, half a dozen or so top commanders of the Iranian military and a couple of nuclear scientists were also eliminated that day.

    The following day or so, the Iranians retaliated by firing missiles into Israeli towns and some deaths and destruction were also recorded. The exchange of fire has been going on for over a week now. It is too early at this stage to predict how it will end. But for now, the Iranians are no longer threatening that they are going to wipe out Israel from the map. In fact, they are now saying that if Israeli bombings stopped, they are ready to negotiate!

     

    Richard Maduku, a retired Nigerian Army (Infantry) Captain and novelist lives in Effurun-Otor,  Delta State.

  • What’d have happened if we didn’t attack Iran’s nuclear sites – Trump

    What’d have happened if we didn’t attack Iran’s nuclear sites – Trump

    President Donald Trump has said if the United States had not destroyed Iran’s key nuclear facilities, there “would still be fighting right now” between Israel and the Islamic nation.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports President Trump to have said this on Wednesday on the sidelines of the NATO summit in The Hague.

    The U.S. President compared Washington’s recent strikes on Iran to the 1945 bombings of Japan’s Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

    “I do not want to use an example of Nagasaki, but that was essentially the same thing that ended that war. This ended the Israel-Iran war. If we did not take that out, they would still be fighting right now”.

    The situation in the Middle East has escalated on June 13, when Israel launched a large-scale operation against Iran, accusing it of implementing a secret military nuclear programme.

    Tehran retaliated by launching Operation “True Promise III’’, hitting military targets inside Israel.

    On June 22, the U.S. struck three Iranian nuclear sites in Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan, joining Israel’s campaign against Iran.

    Trump said after the attack that Tehran “must now agree to end this war’’ or face far more serious consequences.

    On Monday, Iran launched a missile strike on the U.S.’s Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in response to the U.S. attack.

    The strike resulted in zero casualties, as all the missiles apart from one were intercepted.

    Trump said late on Monday that Israel and Iran had agreed to a ceasefire.

    On Tuesday, Trump said that the ceasefire between Iran and Israel was now in effect.
    Iran denied the military dimension of its nuclear program.

    The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has not seen concrete evidence that Iran has an active nuclear weapons programme, Director-General Rafael Grossi said on June 18.

    In August 1945, the U.S. dropped nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

    The explosions and their aftermath killed 140,000 of the 350,000 people in Hiroshima and 74,000 in Nagasaki.

    The vast majority of the victims of the atomic bombings were civilians.

  • Iran disagrees with Israel on conflict resolution at UN

    Iran disagrees with Israel on conflict resolution at UN

    Iran and Israel on Tuesday at the UN Security Council, sharply disagreed over employing diplomacy to resolve Iran’s nuclear programme that led to a 13-day violent conflict between them.

    Iran had said diplomacy could and must resolve differences between it and Israel on the one hand, and the world on the other hand, over its nuclear programme.

    However, Israel differed, warning that diplomacy with Iran had failed.

    Iran’s Ambassador to the UN, Amir Iravani, told the Security Council that his country “never initiated this war”.

    Saeid said “once the aggressors stopped their attacks, Iran stopped its lawful military response as well”.

    Saeid also expressed his country’s strong commitment to diplomacy as the path through which differences can and should be resolved.

    “Iran continues to believe that a diplomatic resolution to nuclear and sanction issues is possible,” Saeid said.

    He called on the Security Council to condemn Israel’s and the United States’ attacks on Iran and their International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)-protected nuclear facilities and work to ensure that they never happen again.

    Saeid added that Iran upheld Council Resolution 2231 and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and that remedial measures were “fully consistent” with these two instruments.

    Howevet, Israel warned that diplomacy with Iran over its nuclear programme had failed.

    Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon defended his country’s military operation against Iran, describing it as a necessary move to neutralise a “double existential threat” from Tehran’s nuclear and missile programmes.

    He said Israel achieved complete air superiority and removed key regime targets, acting in coordination with the U.S.

    Danon accused Iran of deceiving the world for years, using diplomacy as cover to advance its nuclear weapons programme.

    “There is still time to take meaningful and decisive action to ensure that the threat of a nuclear Iran does not return stronger than before,” he said.

    “We are often told that diplomacy must be given a chance, it was given every chance, every round, every channel, every deadline.

    “But so far it has failed, the regime in Tehran never had any intention of complying,” he added.

    The United States, in its position, urged Iran to return to the negotiation table and renounce its nuclear programme.

    Acting U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN, Amb. Dorothea Shea, said Iran’s increase in nuclear activity lacked “any credible civilian justification.”

    The UK Ambassador Barbara Woodward welcomed the ceasefire brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump but warned that “the situation remains extremely fragile.”

    Expressing that “now is the time for a return to diplomacy,” Woodward urged Iran to engage in talks without delay, warning that its nuclear programme had exceeded “any credible civilian justification.”

    She said all diplomatic levers would be deployed for a negotiated outcome and to “ensure Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon.”

    Echoing UN appeals for dialogue, the European Union stressed that “a lasting solution to the Iranian nuclear issue can only be through a negotiated deal, not military action.”

    Briefing the Council, Amb. Stavros Lambrinidis said, ”Ensuring that Iran does not acquire or develop a nuclear weapon remains a key security priority for the EU”.

    A fragile ceasefire brokered by the United States between Iran and Israel appears to be holding, marking a tentative halt to a dangerous regional escalation.

    UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo said the fragile ceasefire announced by U.S. President Donald Trump provided “an opportunity to avoid a catastrophic escalation and achieve a peaceful resolution of the Iran nuclear issue.”

    Amid the relative calm, the UN renewed its call for a diplomatic solution to the Iran nuclear issue, warning that the objectives of the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) and the resolution that endorsed it remained unmet.

    JCPOA is an agreement negotiated between Iran and the Permanent Members of the UN Security Council, with the EU.

    It aims to limit Iran’s nuclear programme to exclusively peaceful purpose in return for sanctions relief and other provisions.

    UN urges Iran, Israel to ‘fully respect’ ceasefire

    The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has welcomed the ceasefire announcement between Iran and Israel.

    Before both sides confirmed that a ceasefire was in place early Tuesday, they exchanged fire, with Tehran residents saying they had experienced a heavy barrage of attacks.

    In a social media post, the UN chief urged both countries to fully respect the ceasefire.

    “The fighting must stop. The people of the two countries have already suffered too much,” Guterres said.

    “It is my sincere hope that this ceasefire can be replicated in the other conflicts in the region,” he stressed.

    The Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, stressed the need for strong new nuclear deal.

    The head of the UN-backed nuclear watchdog urged Tehran to consider “resuming cooperation” with the international community to quell any lingering hostility around its nuclear programme.

    “Resuming cooperation with IAEA is key to a successful agreement,” the IAEA chief stressed adding, he had offered to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on working together.

    Grossi stressed “this step can lead to a diplomatic solution to the long-standing controversy” over Iran’s nuclear programme.

    A fragile ceasefire proposed by the United States seemed to take hold briefly on Tuesday morning, before reports of further Iranian missile strikes on Israel, which was disputed by Tehran.

    The Iran-Israel conflict began with Israeli air attacks on June 13 and escalated over the weekend with U.S. forces striking Iranian nuclear facilities.

    Hundreds of civilians have reportedly been killed in the Israeli airstrikes, while Iran’s retaliatory strikes killed at least 30 people in Israel.

    An updated casualty count from the Iranian authorities on Tuesday indicated that 610 people have been killed including 49 women and 13 children since June 13.

    That number included two pregnant women and one infant along with 4,746 injured, including 185 women and 65 minors.

    Seven hospitals, four health units, six emergency bases and nine ambulances were also damaged, according to the Iranian health authorities.

    Some 28 Israeli citizens have reportedly been killed by Iranian missile strikes to date.

    Before leaving Washington for a NATO Summit in the Netherlands, Trump expressed his frustration at the breaches of the fragile ceasefire agreement, urging Iran and Israel to observe the truce.

    Iran’s atomic chief says nuclear activities won’t stop

    Iran’s atomic chief on Tuesday said that no pause would take place in the country’s nuclear activities, according to state-run IRIB news agency.

    President of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran Mohammad Eslami made the remarks during an interview while pointing to the attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the report said.

    “We have made the necessary arrangements and preparations and are assessing the damages,” Eslami said, stressing that preparation for reviving the country’s nuclear facilities had been anticipated in advance.

    He emphasised that the country has plans to prevent any pause in its nuclear production and services.

    On June 13, Israel launched major airstrikes on different areas in Iran, including nuclear and military sites, killing several senior commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians.

    Iran responded by launching several waves of missile and drone attacks on Israel, inflicting casualties and heavy damages.

    The United States on Saturday attacked three Iranian nuclear sites, the Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.

    In retaliation, Iran on Monday targeted U.S. Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar with missiles.

    Shortly after Iran’s retaliatory attack, U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday night announced that Israel and Iran had reached a formal agreement to implement a complete and total ceasefire, marking what he called the end of the “12-Day War.”

    Nevertheless, Israel on Tuesday morning claimed it had detected new missile launches from Iran a charge denied by the Iranian military.