Iran Vows 'Severe Revenge' for Top General's Death

The assassination of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, which was ordered by US President Donald Trump, ratcheted up tensions between the arch-enemies | AFP
The assassination of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, which was ordered by US President Donald Trump, ratcheted up tensions between the arch-enemies | AFP
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Iran Vows 'Severe Revenge' for Top General's Death

The assassination of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, which was ordered by US President Donald Trump, ratcheted up tensions between the arch-enemies | AFP
The assassination of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, which was ordered by US President Donald Trump, ratcheted up tensions between the arch-enemies | AFP

Thousands of Iraqis have followed the coffin of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani, killed in a US airstrike at Baghdad airport on Friday.

Soleimani, viewed as a terrorist by the White House, was the architect of Iran's Middle East operations and Iran has vowed to take "severe revenge".

The funeral procession which began in Baghdad on Saturday marks the beginning of days of mourning for Soleimani.

The crowds in Baghdad also mourned the death of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, an Iraqi who commanded the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah group and effectively led the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) - an umbrella of militias in Iraq dominated by groups aligned with Iran.

Soleimani's body arrived Sunday in Iran where thousands of mourners thronged his coffin ahead of a grand funeral procession across the Islamic Republic amid soaring tensions between Iran and the US.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has promised members of the dead commander's family that Americans will "feel the impact" of their "criminal act... for years ahead".

The US drone strike killing Soleimani in Iraq Friday escalated the crisis between Tehran and Washington after months of trading attacks and threats that put the wider Middle East on edge. The conflict is rooted in Trump pulling out of Iran's atomic accord.

Iran has promised "harsh revenge" for the US attack, which shocked Iranians across all political lines. Many saw Soleimani as a pillar of the Islamic Republic at a moment when it is beset by US sanctions and recent anti-government protests.

Retaliation for Soleimani could potentially come through the proxy forces which he oversaw as the head of an elite unit within the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. Soleimani's longtime deputy Esmail Ghaani already has taken over as the Quds Force's commander.

Late Saturday, a series of rockets launched in Baghdad fell inside or near the Green Zone, which houses government offices and foreign embassies, including the US Embassy.

Trump warned on Saturday that America was targeting 52 sites in Iran and would hit them "very fast and very hard" if the Islamic republic attacks American personnel or assets.

In a saber-rattling tweet, Trump said: "If they attack again, which I would strongly advise them not to do, we will hit them harder than they have ever been hit before!"

The 52 targets represented the 52 Americans held hostage in Iran after being seized at the US Embassy in 1979 during the country’s Islamic Revolution, Trump said.

The two countries have no diplomatic relations and on Sunday, Iran summoned the Swiss envoy representing US interests in Tehran to protest at “Trump’s hostile remarks”, according to Iranian state television.

Iran’s army chief, Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi, was quoted by state television on Sunday as saying the United States lacked the courage for military confrontation with Iran.

“In a potential conflict in the future, which I don’t think they (Americans) have the courage to carry out, there it will become clear where the numbers five and two will belong,” he said.

Trump said on Friday Soleimani had been plotting imminent attacks on US diplomats and military personnel. Democratic critics said the Republican president’s action was reckless and risked more bloodshed in a dangerous region.

Oman has called on the United States and Iran to seek dialogue to ease tensions, Oman News Agency reported on Sunday. Oman, which maintains friendly ties with both the United States and Iran, has previously been a go-between for the two countries.

British foreign minister Dominic Raab described Soleimani as a “regional menace” and said he was sympathetic to the situation the United States found itself in, while also calling for crisis diplomacy to avoid war.

“There is a route through which allows Iran to come in from out of the international cold,” Raab told Sky News. “We need to contain the nefarious actions of Iran but we also need to de-escalate and stabilize the situation.”

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged Iran’s foreign minister by phone on Sunday to work to de-escalate the situation and invited him to Brussels to discuss ways of preserving world powers’ 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

Trump’s withdrawal of the United States from the deal in 2018 and the reimposition of sanctions on Iran touched off a new spiral of tensions after a brief thaw following the accord.

Iran will decide on Sunday about its next step to further roll back its commitments to the nuclear deal, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi was quoted as saying.

“Tonight, there will be a very important meeting to decide about our next nuclear step and the implementation of the deal ... considering the recent threats (by America) it should be underlined that in politics, all developments and threats are linked to each other,” state news agency IRNA quoted him as saying.

Iran previously has broken limits of its enrichment, its stockpiles, and its centrifuges, as well as restarted enrichment at an underground facility.

After the airstrike early Friday, the US-led coalition has scaled back operations and boosted "security and defensive measures" at bases hosting coalition forces in Iraq, a coalition official said on condition of anonymity according to regulations.

Meanwhile, the US has dispatched another 3,000 troops to Kuwait, the latest in a series of deployments in recent months as the standoff with Iran has worsened. Protesters held demonstrations in dozens of US cities Saturday over Trump's decisions to kill Soleimani and deploy more troops to the Mideast.

In a thinly veiled threat, one of the Iran-backed militias, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or League of the Righteous, called on Iraqi security forces to stay at least a kilometer (0.6 miles) away from US bases starting Sunday night. However, US troops are invariably based in Iraqi military posts alongside local forces.

The Iranian parliament on Sunday opened with lawmakers in unison chanting: "Death to America!" Parliament speaker Ali Larijani compared Soleimani's killing to the 1953 CIA-backed coup that cemented the shah's power and to the US Navy's shootdown of an Iranian passenger plane in 1988 that killed 290 people. He also described American officials as following "the law of the jungle."

"Mr. Trump! This is the voice of Iranian nation. Listen!" Larijani said as lawmakers chanted.

A spokesman for Iran's armed forces, Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, likewise threatened the US by saying Iran and the "resistance front will decide the time, place and way" revenge will be carried out.

Iraq's parliament is meeting for an emergency session Sunday. Its government has come under mounting pressure to expel the 5,200 American troops who are based in the country to help prevent a resurgence of the ISIS group.

The US has ordered all citizens to leave Iraq and temporarily closed its embassy in Baghdad, where Iran-backed militiamen and their supporters staged two days of violent protests in which they breached the compound. Britain and France have warned their citizens to avoid or strictly limit travel in Iraq, as London said it would begin escorting ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

No one was hurt in the embassy protests, which came in response to US airstrikes that killed 25 Iran-backed militiamen in Iraq and Syria. The US blamed the militia for a rocket attack that killed a US contractor in northern Iraq.



UN Security Council to Vote on Iran Nuclear Sanctions Friday

Iranians drive past next to a pro-Palestine billboard carrying Palestine flags and a sentence reading in Persian, 'Little angel will guard the hope ships', at the Valiasr square in Tehran, Iran, 18 September 2025.  EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
Iranians drive past next to a pro-Palestine billboard carrying Palestine flags and a sentence reading in Persian, 'Little angel will guard the hope ships', at the Valiasr square in Tehran, Iran, 18 September 2025. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
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UN Security Council to Vote on Iran Nuclear Sanctions Friday

Iranians drive past next to a pro-Palestine billboard carrying Palestine flags and a sentence reading in Persian, 'Little angel will guard the hope ships', at the Valiasr square in Tehran, Iran, 18 September 2025.  EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
Iranians drive past next to a pro-Palestine billboard carrying Palestine flags and a sentence reading in Persian, 'Little angel will guard the hope ships', at the Valiasr square in Tehran, Iran, 18 September 2025. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH

The UN Security Council will vote Friday on whether to reimpose sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, the Council's rotating presidency said, after Britain, France and Germany triggered the vote.

The three European countries, signatories to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action intended to stop Tehran obtaining nuclear weapons, allege that Iran has broken its promises under that 2015 treaty.

Diplomatic sources expect that the resolution will not have the nine positive votes needed to uphold the status quo -- in which sanctions remain lifted -- and as such the punishment will be reimposed.

French President Emmanuel Macron said he expected international sanctions against Iran to be reinstated by the end of the month, in an excerpt from an Israeli television interview broadcast Thursday.

In a letter to the UN in mid-August, the "European Three" slammed Iran as having breached several JCPOA commitments, including building up a uranium stock to more than 40 times the level permitted under the deal.

The hard-won 2015 deal has been left in tatters ever since the United States, during Donald Trump's first presidency, walked away from it in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran.

Western powers and Israel have long accused Tehran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, a claim Iran denies.

Following the US withdrawal, Tehran gradually broke away from its commitments under the agreement and began stepping up its nuclear activities, with tensions high since the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June.

The war also derailed Tehran's nuclear negotiations with the United States and prompted Iran to suspend cooperation with the IAEA, with inspectors of the Vienna-based UN body leaving the country shortly afterwards.

During his previous term, Trump attempted to trigger the so-called "snapback clause" to reimpose sanctions in 2020, but failed due to his country's unilateral withdrawal two years earlier.

While European powers have for years launched repeated efforts to revive the 2015 deal through negotiations and said they "have unambiguous legal grounds" to trigger the clause, Iran does not share their view.

Iran has threatened to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if the snapback is triggered.


Trump Says He Disagrees with UK Recognizing Palestine

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer meets with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House on February 27, 2025 in Washington, D.C., US Carl Court/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer meets with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House on February 27, 2025 in Washington, D.C., US Carl Court/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
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Trump Says He Disagrees with UK Recognizing Palestine

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer meets with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House on February 27, 2025 in Washington, D.C., US Carl Court/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer meets with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House on February 27, 2025 in Washington, D.C., US Carl Court/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he and Donald Trump "absolutely agree" on the need for an Israeli-Palestine peace roadmap, but the US president said he disagreed with countries recognizing Palestine as a state.

"We absolutely agree on the need for peace and a road map, because the situation in Gaza is intolerable," Reuters quoted Starmer telling reporters after the two men held a bilateral meeting.

Asked about countries recognizing a Palestinian state, Trump said: "I have a disagreement with the Prime Minister on that score, one of our few disagreements, actually."

Trump and Starmer held a roundtable with business leaders and also had private meetings where the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and tariff rates the US may set on steel imported from Britain were expected to be discussed.


Türkiye Monitoring Reports Cyprus Getting Israeli Defense System, Official Says

A Turkish flag flutters atop the Turkish embassy as an Israeli flag is seen nearby, in Tel Aviv, Israel June 26, 2016. REUTERS/Baz Ratner/File Photo
A Turkish flag flutters atop the Turkish embassy as an Israeli flag is seen nearby, in Tel Aviv, Israel June 26, 2016. REUTERS/Baz Ratner/File Photo
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Türkiye Monitoring Reports Cyprus Getting Israeli Defense System, Official Says

A Turkish flag flutters atop the Turkish embassy as an Israeli flag is seen nearby, in Tel Aviv, Israel June 26, 2016. REUTERS/Baz Ratner/File Photo
A Turkish flag flutters atop the Turkish embassy as an Israeli flag is seen nearby, in Tel Aviv, Israel June 26, 2016. REUTERS/Baz Ratner/File Photo

Türkiye is monitoring "attempts to disrupt the balance in Cyprus" and will act to safeguard security in the north of the island, a Turkish official said on Thursday after Cypriot reports that the government there had procured an air defense system from Israel.

Cyprus was split by a Turkish invasion after a brief Greek-inspired coup in 1974, with the internationally-recognized government controlling the south, and a breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in the north that is only recognized by Ankara.

Cypriot media reported last December that Cyprus had taken delivery of an Israeli air defense system. The Barak MX anti-aircraft system will complement and eventually replace the older Russian-made Tor M1, the reports said.

Cypriot media have since reported two more deliveries, most recently last week. Cypriot officials never openly disclose procurement programs because of the ongoing tensions with Türkiye, according to Reuters.

A Turkish defense ministry official, speaking to reporters on Thursday on condition of anonymity, said ongoing armament efforts by Cyprus and "activities that undermine peace and stability on the island could have dangerous consequences".

"Any attempt to disrupt the balance on the island is being closely monitored and all necessary measures are being taken for the security and peace of the TRNC," he added, using the acronym for the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Earlier this week, Cypriot Defense Minister Vassilis Palmas was quoted by state media as saying with regard to any procurement of Israeli air defense systems: "Cyprus is a peaceful, democratic country which has been under occupation for 51 years."

"As long as there is an occupation and no political solution (of the island's division), we have the self-evident duty and obligation to ensure the defenses of the Republic of Cyprus."