Turkey (Turkiye)
Some 40 diplomats from mainly Muslim majority countries are meeting today with officials of the Foreign ministry of Iran.
They are meeting in Turkiye to try and explore the prospects of a diplomatic solution to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran on one hand and Iran and America on the other.
The conflict with Israel revolves around the ongoing military campaign against each other after Israel, in a still surprise move, began to attack Iran ahead of scheduled talks between officials of America and Iran on the nuclear programme of the latter.
Today’ s meeting, holding under the canopy of the Organization of Islamic Council, comes a day after an earlier talk on the issue between officials of Iran and their counterparts from the United Kingdom, UK, Germany and France, failed to make any headway at their Geneva talks, which had been preceded by one between British Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, and the Secretary of States for the United States, Marc Rubio.
Ahead of today’ s talks in Turkiye, the Foreign Minister of Iran, Abbas Araghchi, told newsmen that his country remained committed to resuming talks with America on its nuclear programme, but said that no such talks could hold while Israel had illegally declared war on it.
According to him, talks with America could resume as soon as Israel ceased fire.
Israel had repeatedly said it won’t let up on its operation which, it said, targeted Iran’ s nuclear facilities.
America, which is suspected of greenlighting the Israeli military campaign, has not committed to compelling Israel to stop the onslaught now in its ninth day.
More than 600 Iranians have been killed and many more wounded in Israeli strikes over the past nine days.
On its part, Israel, which has a strict policy of shielding its casualty figures, has also suffered significant losses, with estimates o
Put at scores dead and up to 800 others wounded.
Russia
Russian strong man, Vladimir Viktor Putin, Friday night, confirmed his country was actively working on the prospects of de-escalation of the military conflict between Israel and Iran.
Putin said he had reached out to the leaders of both countries and made proposals that could help deescalate the crisis and lead to the return to diplomacy.
Russia, itself at war with its smaller neighbour, Ukraine, for some three years now, is at the centre of Iran’ s nuclear energy programme, with technical input and human expertise.
At least 200 Russian experts are involved in the Iran’ s nuclear programme, and Russia said it had received assurance from Israel that its nationals would be safe and secure in Iran.
Putin, who had called his American counterpart, Donald Trump, on the conflict, did not give details of the proposals which, he said, had been madd available to stakeholders in Iran and Israel.
Russia, China,Pakistan and North Korea, all nuclear states, had roundly criticised Israel for its war on Iran and called for the early return to diplomacy.
China and Russia have a strategic partnership with Iran, but because it is short of a full.military treaty, both countries cannot aid Iran militarily in its current conflict with Israel.
Iran, the world ‘ s single largest producer of suicide drones, and North Korea, have aided Russia with military assets in the course of its war on Ukraine.
America
President Donald Trump is scheduled today to continue his consultations with diplomatic, military and security experts on the Israeli and Iranian military conflict.
The consultations come a day after foreign ministers of the UK, France and Germany failed in their Geneva meeting to persuade Iran to return to talks with America on its nuclear programme.
Before the Geneva talks, Trump had offered Iran a two- week window to accept to return to talks or face America’s military might.
America is the only country with the 30,000 pound bunker bursting bombs capable of destroying targets 250 feet underground, and the aircraft capable of carrying it( the Big Ugly Flying Fighter, also called B 52 Bomber ).
America has 21 units of the bomber, and the Burster bomb, is the biggest Non- nuclear bomb in global.military arsenal.
Iran’ s main nuclear power plant, Fordaw, is around 270 feet underground, and is buried under a rocky mountain.
Israel has pleaded with America to help it drop the bomb on Fordaw and the other nuclear sites of Iran in order to mangle the nuclear programme.
Israel has an estimated 400 nuclear bombs and is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, NPT.
Palestine
Away from global attention, Israel continued its controversial military campaign in Gaza and the occupied West Bank of Palestine.
In Gaza, no fewer than 40 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces.m since morning today.
The dead, included at least, 14 who were shot as they made to get food for their families at the aid distribution centres.
Many more were wounded at the centres for the distribution of humanitarian supplies at the few centres set up by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation GHF, a controversial organization created by Israel and America to side step the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, which had been in charge for more than 70 years.
But the GHF, just as predicted by the UN and other stakeholders, has been dogged by controversies in its operations, including the point-of kickoff resignation of its founding leader, Jake Woods, and the daily record of gun violence, including fatalities, at its centres.
Today’ s tally of 40 dead, awful as it is, is a significant drop from Friday’s scenario in which more than 70 persons were killed, mainly at the GHF centres, and far many more wounded.
France, Canada and Britain, all allies of Israel and America,as well as other countries, have roundly denounced GHF and called for a return to the safe old ways of getting aid to Palestinians via UNRWA.
Israel has locked out UNRWA as well as all other humanitarian groups from aid distribution, in Gaza, thus leading to the trapping of more than 800 aid trucks just outside of the embattled enclave.
Iran
Israeli air assets, estimated at 60, sustained their serial assault on core Iranian facilities overnight on Friday.
And, as day broke today in Teheran came the news that two brass of the Iran Republican Guards (IRG ) Corps had been killed in overnight Israel strikes.
The sorties equally targeted a nuclear programme facility in Isfanah, far away from Teheran.
Also targeted was a military facility in the capital city, Teheran, which, following a week of bombardments, is showing early signs of desertion.
Israeli strikes entered their ninth day today and estimates from emergency workers put the casualty figure at more than 600 dead and many more wounded.
Israel says it is hoping to dismantle the nuclear programme of Iran, but experts say it lacks the capacity, for reason of inadequate military potency, to effectively do so.
Israel
Iran, overnight, pounded parts of Tel-Aviv, Haifa and other parts of Israel as it sustained its activism in its military contest with Israel.
As on most other previous days and nights, Iran deployed drones and its hypersonic missiles in its attacks.
Some of the projectiles, by Israeli accounts, were shot down but some managed to evade the air defence system.
In Haifa, at least, one of the drones successfully made landfall when it hit a residential apartment, causing much material and other losses.
The situation was the same in Tel-Aviv, the capital, where incoming missiles,or their debris, tore through structures,setting fires to prized property.
It is estimated that scores of troops, agents and civilians have been killed, and more than 800 others wounded, in the nine days of intense military combat.
