Iran’s retaliation against Israel ‘imminent’ as Biden holds crisis talks- latest

The UN says it has fired nine staff members from its agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, after an internal investigation found they may have been involved in the Hamas-led 7 October attack in southern Israel.

The UN secretary-general’s office announced the move in a brief statement yesterday, without elaborating on the UNRWA staffers’ likely role in the attack.

It said the nine included seven staffers who were fired previously over the claims.

The UN’s internal watchdog has been investigating the agency since Israel in January accused 12 UNRWA staffers of being involved in the attack on Israel in which militants killed more than 1,100 people and abducted some 250 others.

Israel could launch a preemptive strike on Iran if it were certain that Tehran was preparing to attack the Jewish nation, Times of Israel reported citing Hebrew media following prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with security chiefs.

Iran has vowed retaliation against Israel following the assassination of Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week.

Israel has not claimed responsibility for the killing so far. Haniyeh was killed just hours after Israel killed Hezbollah senior commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut.

On Sunday the meeting chaired by Mr Netanyahu was attended by defense minister Yoav Gallant, military chief of staff Lt-Gen Herzi Halevi, Mossad head David Barnea and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.

During the meeting the option of striking Iran as a deterrence measure was discussed, Ynet reported.

However, Israeli officials stressed that a preemptive attack would only be considered upon receiving definite intelligence “confirming that Tehran was about to launch a strike”.

Western nations, including the UK, have called on their citizens to leave Lebanon by any means possible amid rising concerns of a wider Middle East war.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office over the weekend said Britons should use any commercial options still working, acknowledging potential exit routes were already limited or closed.

Foreign secretary David Lammy warned that “tensions are high and the situation could deteriorate rapidly”.

The US embassy in Beirut urged its nationals to “book any ticket available” out of Lebanon, noting that several flights had already been cancelled and that military evacuations were rare.F

rance and Canada followed the statement saying, “now is the time to leave”.

Germany’s air force was preparing a limited fleet of A400M transport aircraft to facilitate the evacuation from Lebanon, Der Spiegel reported. These aircraft would potentially shuttle evacuees from Beirut to Cyprus.

At least five US personnel were injured in an attack against a military base in Iraq yesterday, American officials said, as the region braced for fresh conflict over the killings of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders.

Two Katyusha rockets were fired at al Asad airbase in western Iraq, two Iraqi security sources told Reuters.

One Iraqi security source said the rockets fell inside the base, but it was unclear whether the attack was linked to threats by Iran to retaliate over the killing of the Hamas leader.

One of the American troopers sustained serious injuries in the rocket attack, an official said. “Base personnel are conducting a post-attack damage assessment.”

The killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was intended to prolong the Gaza conflict, said the president of the Palestinian Authority, ahead of his meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Mahmoud Abbas is expected to visit Russia on 12 August for talks with the Russian president in the wake of the assassination of Hamas’s political leader, RIA reported.

Mr Abbas told the news agency that Haniyeh’s killing in Tehran was “a cowardly act and a dangerous development in Israeli politics”.

“There is no doubt that the purpose of Mr Haniyeh’s assassination is to prolong the war and expand its scope,” he said.

“It will have a negative impact on the ongoing negotiations to end the aggression and withdraw Israeli troops from Gaza.”

Haniyeh had been the face of Hamas’s international diplomacy since Israel launched a retaliatory war on Gaza after Hamas’s 7 October attack.

Iran, which backs Hamas in its war with Israel in Gaza, has blamed Israel for Haniyeh’s killing and said it will “punish” it. Israeli officials have not claimed responsibility.

Russia has condemned Haniyeh’s killing and called on all parties to refrain from further destabilisation of the region.

Iran believes it needs to punish Israel to prevent further instability in the Middle East after the deaths of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders last week, the foreign ministry said.

“Iran seeks to establish stability in the region, but this will only come with punishing the aggressor and creating deterrence against the adventurism of the Zionist regime (Israel),” Nasser Kanaani said, adding that action from Tehran was inevitable.

Mr Kanaani called on the US to stop supporting Israel, saying the international community had failed in its duty to safeguard stability in the region and should support the “punishment of the aggressor”.

An emergency meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation will be held on Wednesday at Iran’s request to discuss the killing of Ismail Haniyeh and Iran’s response, he added.

Joe Biden held ‘around-the-clock’ crisis meetings with stakeholders in the Middle East to stop another war from breaking out in the region between Israel and Iran amid fears of an imminent retaliation from Tehran over the killing of Hamas’s top political leader.

“We are engaged in intense diplomacy, pretty much around the clock, with a very simple message — all parties must refrain from escalation,” US secretary of state Antony Blinken said yesterday.

Mr Biden called King Abdullah II of Jordan, while Blinken called top officials in Qatar and Egypt, the key intermediaries seeking a ceasefire in Israel’s 10-month-long war in Gaza.

“It’s also critical that we break this cycle by reaching a ceasefire in Gaza,” Mr Blinken added.

Hezbollah has hit northern Israel with a drone attack in response to what it calls “attacks and assassinations” carried out by Israel in southern Lebanon, as fears grow of the potential for all-out war in the Middle East.

It comes as Iran claimed it is not looking to escalate tensions but needs to punish Israel to prevent further instability, following the assassination of a Hamas leader in Tehran.

The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), General Hossein Salami, reiterated the threat that Israel “will receive punishment in due time”.