Light News (LN)

  Iran's foreign minister is continuing his diplomatic drive amid the war against his country with a trip to Russia. It comes after planned talks with the US in Pakistan were canceled. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in  Russia   on Monday, where he is expected to meet with President   Vladimir Putin   and seek his support. The visit comes following Aragchi's trips to mediators Pakistan and Oman to discuss the   widening Middle East conflict , with peace efforts between Tehran and Washington currently on ice. Russia and Iran are   close strategic allies , but Moscow has so far been   cautious about being drawn into recent Middle East conflicts  as it continues with its   full-scale invasion of Ukraine . US to blame for talks failure: Araghchi According to the AFP news agency, which cited Iranian state media, upon arrival Araghchi said the US was responsible for the failure of a   first round of ne...

  Abbas Araghchi travels to Russia, where he will speak with “senior officials”, Iran’s foreign ministry says. Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi has departed Islamabad for Moscow, the Iranian foreigm ministry said, as mediators hoped to keep the prospect of more Iran-US talks alive. Araghchi sandwiched a visit to Oman’s Muscat in between trips to the Pakistani capital, and left on Sunday to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow the following day, but there was no indication that direct US-Iranian talks would resume. But in a sign that indirect efforts were ongoing, the Fars news agency reported that Iran had transmitted “written messages” to the Americans via mediator Pakistan that were “about some of the red lines of the Islamic Republic of Iran, including nuclear issues and the Strait of Hormuz”. Those messages were not, however, part of any negotiations, Fars said. Trump last week indefinitely extended the ceasefire that the US and Iran agreed to on April 7 that has l...

  Hezbollah rejects allegations from Benjamin Netanyahu that it is undermining the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire. Israel has issued new forced evacuation notices for areas in southern Lebanon, ordering residents of seven towns that lie beyond its so-called “buffer zone” to leave, ramping up the conflict with Hezbollah despite a US-brokered ceasefire. An Israeli military spokesperson said in a statement on X on Sunday that the Lebanese armed group was violating the ceasefire ⁠and that Israel would act against it, telling residents to head north and west. The towns are north of the Litani River, in an area where Israeli troops have continued military operations despite the ceasefire. They lie outside of what Israel has declared a “buffer zone”, an area stretching roughly 10km (6 miles) north of the border inside southern Lebanon where Israeli forces remain. Hezbollah rejected allegations that it is undermining the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire, saying its continued attacks are a “legitimate re...

  Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi travelled once to Oman and twice to Pakistan over the weekend, before heading to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday. Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi returned to Islamabad on Sunday, a day after leaving the country as US President Donald Trump  cancelled a planned trip  to Islamabad by US negotiators. Araghchi also visited Oman on Saturday, and is set to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday. There are no indications, however, that talks between Iran and the US are set to resume. Still, Iran's ISNA news agency reported that Tehran had transmitted "written messages" to the US via Pakistani mediators, which addressed "some of the red lines of the Islamic Republic of Iran, including nuclear issues and the Strait of Hormuz". The messages were not part of any negotiations, the agency said. Iranian media said that Araghchi's second visit to Pakistan looked to share "Iran...

  Russia's defense minister and the chairman of the State Duma are both visiting North Korea. One helped inaugurate a memorial to North Korean soldiers killed fighting Ukraine, the other hashed out a new defense deal. Two senior  Russian   politicians visited   North Korea   over the weekend, inaugurating a memorial to   North Korean troops who died fighting against Ukraine   and negotiating a new defense cooperation agreement set to run until 2031.  The two countries' military, political and economic cooperation has intensified amid   Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine , with Pyongyang offering military support to Moscow, not least to push   Ukrainian   forces back from the Russian border region of Kursk.  Moscow and Pyongyang already signed a mutual defense deal in 2024   amid a meeting between Kim Jong Un and   President Vladimir Putin in Pyongyang   that June.  Defense minister hails new military co...

  A s Israel escalates military operations and targets local police, analysts warn that Donald Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ and its Palestinian administrative committee have been stripped of their authority. Israel has escalated its attacks on the Gaza Strip in the past week, with at least four Palestinians killed across the devastated enclave, including a 40-year-old woman in Khan Younis, in the past  24 hours  amid daily violations of the October “ceasefire”. Medics and local health officials report more than 25 Palestinians have been killed in the past week alone, taking the number of people killed since the ceasefire to more than 800. The enclave has been devastated by more than two years of genocidal war, which killed more than 72,500 Palestinians. The rising attacks come as the new United States-backed governance structures seem to have been sidelined. Chaos and the ‘yellow line’ On the ground, the Israeli military has intensified its targeting of Palestinian police off...