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Khamenei Says Iraq Can Play ‘Special Role’ in Pressuring US, Israel

06 November 2023, Iran, Tehran: Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei (R) and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (L) meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and an accompanying delegation. (Iranian Supreme Leader's Office/dpa)
06 November 2023, Iran, Tehran: Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei (R) and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (L) meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and an accompanying delegation. (Iranian Supreme Leader's Office/dpa)
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Khamenei Says Iraq Can Play ‘Special Role’ in Pressuring US, Israel

06 November 2023, Iran, Tehran: Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei (R) and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (L) meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and an accompanying delegation. (Iranian Supreme Leader's Office/dpa)
06 November 2023, Iran, Tehran: Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei (R) and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (L) meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and an accompanying delegation. (Iranian Supreme Leader's Office/dpa)

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Monday Iraq can play a “special role” in the region by coordinating with Iran to increase political pressure on the US and Israel to end the war in Gaza.

He made his comments during a meeting in Tehran with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, who headed to Iran less than 24 hours after meeting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Baghdad. It was unclear whether the PM was carrying a US message to Tehran.

Blinken visited Iraq amid growing US concern about an uptick in attacks by pro-Iranian Iraqi armed groups on its bases in Iraq and Syria since the conflict in Israel broke out on Oct. 7.

Several political parties in Iraq have called on the government to sever diplomatic ties with Washington.

“As an important country in the region, Iraq can play a major role in putting political pressure on the US and the occupying regime to stop the massacre of people in Gaza and also in starting a new approach in the Arab and Muslim world,” Khamenei said during his meeting with the Iraqi PM.

He praised Iraq for the strong stance it has taken in supporting the people of Gaza.

He then noted that from the very first days of the Israeli attacks, all evidence pointed to the direct involvement of the US in the war. “The longer the current war goes on, the evidence showing the direct role of the US in directing the crimes of the Zionist regime in Gaza becomes more pronounced,” he said.

Khamenei noted that the US weapon supplies and political support to Israel, saying “the Americans are truly accomplices of the Zionists in the crimes that are being committed in Gaza.”

Sudani’s office said the PM stressed to Khamenei that Iraq is making every effort to stop the aggression against Gaza and allow the entry of aid into the enclave.

He lashed out at the international community that “has abandoned about its responsibilities” and done nothing to stop “brutal crimes, genocide, forced displacement, and the policy of starvation against the Palestinians.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told state TV on Monday that, “Over the past three days, we received a message from the Americans that they are looking for a ceasefire ... but in practice they have only supported mass killing and genocide in Gaza.”

“We hope the US will soon change its policy and stop supporting the occupying party,” he said, according to the official IRNA website.

Sudani also met with Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi in Tehran.

At a joint news conference with the PM, Raisi accused the United States and some European countries of “encouraging” Israel to kill and carry out “cruel acts” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, reported AFP.

Raisi described the Israeli attacks as a “crime against humanity” and an example of mass genocide and infanticide.

“Unfortunately, the weapons, intelligence and financial aid of the Americans to the Zionist regime encourages killings and brutal actions against the Palestinian people,” he added.

Sudani, for his part, said Hamas’ Al-Aqsa Flood operation on October 7 was the outcome of Israel’s years of criminal policies against the oppressed people of Palestine.

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Arab World

2 Drones from Lebanon Strike Israel as Smotrich, Ben Gvir Hold Onto ‘Dahiyeh Doctrine’

Lebanese security officers gather at the site where an Israeli airstrike hit a building in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Sunday, June 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Lebanese security officers gather at the site where an Israeli airstrike hit a building in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Sunday, June 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
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2 Drones from Lebanon Strike Israel as Smotrich, Ben Gvir Hold Onto ‘Dahiyeh Doctrine’

Lebanese security officers gather at the site where an Israeli airstrike hit a building in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Sunday, June 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Lebanese security officers gather at the site where an Israeli airstrike hit a building in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Sunday, June 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

The Israeli military said two drones, suspected to have been launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon, struck northern Israel on Sunday but caused no casualties.

"Two impacts of suspicious aerial targets in Israeli territory were identified near the Israel-Lebanon border. No injuries were reported," AFP quoted the military as saying.

In the wake of the strikes, two far-right Israeli ministers called for retaliatory strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold known as Dahiyeh.

"The shooting at northern communities is a test of the Dahiyeh Doctrine that the prime minister declared. I call on him to implement it decisively and firmly, and to bring down buildings in Dahiyeh," Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on X.

"For every drone -- a missile; for every violation -- fire; for every UAV -- Dahiyeh must tremble," wrote National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on X.

Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have previously warned that Israel would strike Dahiyeh should Hezbollah target northern Israeli communities, a position they say has the backing of Washington.

Arab World

UN: Houthis Engagement in Regional War Alongside Iran Threatens to Deepen Yemen’s Humanitarian Crisis

Lack of funding threatens more lives in Yemen (UN)
Lack of funding threatens more lives in Yemen (UN)
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UN: Houthis Engagement in Regional War Alongside Iran Threatens to Deepen Yemen’s Humanitarian Crisis

Lack of funding threatens more lives in Yemen (UN)
Lack of funding threatens more lives in Yemen (UN)

A UN report warned that the Houthis' continued engagement in the regional war alongside Iran coupled with a sharp reduction in humanitarian funding, threaten to deepen Yemen’s humanitarian crisis when already 450 health facilities, including 76 hospitals, have closed in the last year.

“The Houthis’ engagement in the regional war may trigger displacement, civilian casualties, and damage to vital infrastructure, including ports and storage facilities, deepening humanitarian needs nationwide,” according to a Public Health Situation Analysis (PHSA) issued by the World Health Organization this week.

WHO called on the international community to take urgent action to close the worsening funding gap, warning that continued cuts in humanitarian assistance would lead to more loss of livelihoods, and increase exposure to hunger, disease, displacement and protection risk.

The UN agency noted that escalating conflict in the Middle East has spillover risks for Yemen.

In March 2026, it said Houthis began to engage in the regional war by launching military attacks against Israel.

“Renewed hostilities are already drawing forces into regional fighting,” it said, warning that strikes on Houthi-held areas may trigger displacement, civilian casualties, and damage to vital infrastructure, including ports and storage facilities, deepening humanitarian needs.

Decline in Funding

Surging needs, significant funding cuts, and shrinking access are forcing partners to scale back life-saving support, according to WHO.

The agency said in its report that Yemen enters 2026 at a critical tipping point, with 22.3 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and protection.

Nearly 5 million people are experiencing IPC Phase 3 or above (Crisis or worse) conditions between March and May 2026, with 1.4 million people experiencing IPC Phase 4 (Emergency).

Also, Yemen faces widespread outbreaks of vaccine -preventable diseases, including circulating vaccine -derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2), acute watery diarrhea (AWD)/cholera, measles, diphtheria, dengue fever and malaria, exacerbated by low vaccination rates, misinformation.

The UN agency warned that without urgent action, lives will be lost, communities will destabilize, and essential systems will edge closer to collapse.

Hospitals Closing

WHO revealed that against a backdrop of increasing needs, the humanitarian response in 2025 operated under severe and unprecedented funding shortages, with the Yemen 2025 HNRP funded at only 29%, forcing clusters to scale down or suspend critical life saving services across sectors.

As of May 2026, it said reduced funding has resulted in a reduction of nutrition services by up to 63%. Over 450 health facilities, including 76 hospitals, have closed in the last year.

In a related development, WHO said Yemen has been engulfed in violent conflict.

It said that by 2019, the country had reversed human development by 21 years, and if the conflict continues until 2030, the developmental setback could extend to nearly four decades, more than one-and-a-half generation.

Forgotten Crisis

UNFPA Representative Francesco Galtieri said this week that Yemen has become a forgotten crisis, despite witnessing one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world.

He said around 650,000 pregnant women need support in a country with the highest maternal mortality rate in the Arab region.

Galtieri noted that three women die every day due to pregnancy complications or during childbirth. Around two-thirds of these deaths could be prevented if they had access to a midwife or doctor.

He also said funding cuts are putting the programs under severe strain. Galtieri told UN News that around 40% of UNFPA’s humanitarian funding was cut last year, forcing the agency to suspend or halt support for roughly one third of its services.

Arab World

Iraq Says Saddam Son-in-Law Plotted to Kill Security Chief

A member of the Iraqi security forces mans a turret while on guard. (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP)
A member of the Iraqi security forces mans a turret while on guard. (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP)
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Iraq Says Saddam Son-in-Law Plotted to Kill Security Chief

A member of the Iraqi security forces mans a turret while on guard. (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP)
A member of the Iraqi security forces mans a turret while on guard. (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP)

Iraq’s National Security Service said it had thwarted a plot by an “opposition cell” linked to Jamal Mustafa, the son-in-law of late president Saddam Hussein, to assassinate its chief.

But one member of the three-man cell questioned whether it could target a heavily protected senior security official.

The service said in a statement late Friday that its units in Baghdad, under the direct supervision of its head, Abdul Karim al-Basri, had “managed to foil a dangerous criminal plot” by a cell linked to the so-called Iraqi National Gathering for Liberation and Change, which it described as one of the banned Baath Party’s fronts, after intelligence work that included surveillance, tracking and infiltration.

Jamal Mustafa founded the National Gathering, which seeks to change the political system, a few years ago after he was released from custody and left Iraq for a regional country.

US forces arrested Mustafa on April 20, 2003, just 11 days after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s government. He remained in detention until mid-2021, before Iraqi authorities decided to release him in June that year because of insufficient evidence over the charges against him.

The National Security Service statement said “investigations and interrogations revealed that the cell members had moved beyond the stage of incitement and threats to the stage of assignment, target selection and weapons preparation ahead of carrying out assassination operations targeting National Security Service chief Abdul Karim al-Basri, the service’s official spokesman, the Baghdad security director and a number of officers.”

It said that “through a preemptive effort and based on judicial approvals, the service’s units were able to uncover the plot, track its members, arrest those involved and seize evidence and materials linked to the case before it reached the execution stage.”

Image taken from a video distributed by Iraqi security forces showing a light weapon allegedly used to assassinate the head of the National Security Service

The statement concluded by saying that “the report presented will include part of the suspects’ confessions, the mechanism of assignment and the planning stages that preceded the foiling of the plot.”

Audio and video recordings released by the service showed calls between the alleged plotters, in which one person speaks about an attempt to assassinate the service chief, while another, who was tasked with carrying it out, denies owning even a single firearm.

In another exchange between the two men, one of them questions whether “only a few people” could carry out a major operation of this kind against “the huge security convoys used by the service commander, Abu Ali al-Basri, and the other targeted officers.”

But in one video clip, one of the men is seen threatening the service’s leaders and declaring his absolute loyalty to Jamal Mustafa.

Image taken from a video distributed by Iraqi security forces showing the arrest of a cell member who claimed the cell was linked to the Baath Party.

Drug gang brought down

Alongside the arrest of the “Baathist cell,” the National Security Service announced that two of the most dangerous drug traffickers in the southern province of Maysan had been killed in a special security operation that involved an armed clash with a security force.

The service said in a statement on Saturday that “the operation came as part of continuing efforts to pursue organized crime gangs and drug traffickers. It was carried out in the al-Uzair area of Maysan province and resulted in the killing of two of the most prominent wanted men in this file.”

The statement said one of the men killed was considered the main crystal meth trafficker in Iraq. Known as Abu Fatim, he was wanted by the judiciary under Article 27 of the Anti-Narcotics Law and was classified as one of the country’s most prominent drug distributors.