Iranian Commander Threatens to Destroy Haifa, Tel Aviv

Iran's regular army ground forces' commander Kiumars Heydari. Fars
Iran's regular army ground forces' commander Kiumars Heydari. Fars
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Iranian Commander Threatens to Destroy Haifa, Tel Aviv

Iran's regular army ground forces' commander Kiumars Heydari. Fars
Iran's regular army ground forces' commander Kiumars Heydari. Fars

Iran will raze the cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa should its enemy Israel make any mistake, Commander of the Iranian army ground forces Kiumars Heydari threatened on Tuesday.

“For any mistake made by the enemy, we will raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground by the order of the Supreme Leader,” the semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted the Iranian commander as saying.

Heydari said all units of the army are being equipped with precision-guided, long-range and smart weapons, adding that the range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and that the operational missiles of the army have increased.

He underlined that the military and defense achievements of the Iranian army are a thorn in the enemies' eyes.

“All this equipment is to respond to the stupid aggressions of the enemies of the Islamic Revolution,” Heydari noted.

The Army commander reiterated that the usurper Zionist regime has occupied Muslim lands and these lands will return to Islam in less than 25 years.

However, Heydari failed to refer to any of the security developments that shook Iran lately.

Last May 25, an engineer died and another employee was injured after an accident in a research center at the Parchin military site affiliated with Iran's Defense Ministry.

The next day, Iranian authorities confirmed the death of engineer Ehsan Ghad Beigi in an "industrial accident" at the military site.

The New York Times said that according to three Iranians with knowledge of the attack and to a US official, a drone strike targeted the highly sensitive military site outside Tehran where Iran develops missile, nuclear and drone technology.

The attack came four days after a senior member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, Col. Sayad Khodayee, was assassinated in Tehran outside his home, according to a statement by the Guards.

NYT said Israel told the United States that it was behind his killing, according to one intelligence official.

The Israelis intended it as a warning to Iran to stop targeting Israeli citizens abroad, the official said.

Few days following the Parchin explosion, another commander of IRGC Quds Force died under suspicious circumstances in Karaj. There were conflicting reports concerning the reason for his death, his role at the IRGC and his link to Khodayee.

Later, reports revealed that Ayoob Entezari, a senior Iranian engineer who held a PhD in aerospace engineering and was reported dead under unclear circumstances early this month, had been intentionally poisoned in the city of Yazd.

A letter written by the governor called him a "martyr" and a picture allegedly showed officials paying a condolence visit to his home.

Khodayee’s killing and the Parchin bombing dealt a major blow to Iranian authorities, who tried to reduce Israel’s ability to carry out operations deep inside Iranian territory, especially after hardliner Ibrahim Raisi was elected President.



Italian PM Calls Threatened US Tariffs Over Greenland a ‘Mistake’

 Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speaks during a press conference with Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo on January 16, 2026. (AFP)
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speaks during a press conference with Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo on January 16, 2026. (AFP)
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Italian PM Calls Threatened US Tariffs Over Greenland a ‘Mistake’

 Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speaks during a press conference with Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo on January 16, 2026. (AFP)
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speaks during a press conference with Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo on January 16, 2026. (AFP)

Italy's prime minister called US President Donald Trump's threat to slap tariffs on opponents of his plan to seize Greenland a "mistake" on Sunday, adding she had told him her views.

"I believe that imposing new sanctions today would be a mistake," Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told journalists during a trip to Seoul.

"I spoke to Donald Trump a few hours ago and told him what I think, and I spoke to the NATO secretary general, who confirmed that NATO is beginning to work on this issue."

However, the far-right prime minister -- a Trump ally in Europe -- sought to downplay the conflict, telling journalists "there has been a problem of understanding and communication" between Europe and the United States related to the Arctic island, an autonomous territory of Denmark.

Trump has threatened to impose tariffs of up to 25 percent on all goods sent to the United States from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland over their objections to his moves.

Meloni said it was up to NATO to take an active role in the growing crisis.

"NATO is the place where we must try to organize together deterrents against interference that may be hostile in a territory that is clearly strategic, and I believe that the fact that NATO has begun to work on this is a good initiative," she told reporters.

Meloni said that "from the American point of view, the message that had come from this side of the Atlantic was not clear".

"It seems to me that the risk is that the initiatives of some European countries were interpreted as anti-American, which was clearly not the intention."

Meloni did not specify to what exactly she was referring.

Trump claims the United States needs Greenland for its national security.


Drone Strike Cuts Power Supply in Russia-Held Parts of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Region

 This photo, provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, shows a regional border stele decorated with national flags and military unit emblems in Orikhiv district in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
This photo, provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, shows a regional border stele decorated with national flags and military unit emblems in Orikhiv district in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
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Drone Strike Cuts Power Supply in Russia-Held Parts of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Region

 This photo, provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, shows a regional border stele decorated with national flags and military unit emblems in Orikhiv district in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
This photo, provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, shows a regional border stele decorated with national flags and military unit emblems in Orikhiv district in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)

More than 200,000 consumers in the Russian-held part of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region were left without electricity on Sunday, the ‌Moscow-installed regional governor ‌said, after a ‌Ukrainian ⁠drone strike ‌on Saturday.

In a statement posted on Telegram, Yevgeny Balitsky said that work was ongoing to restore the power supply, but that almost 400 settlements remain without electricity.

Temperatures are well below freezing ⁠throughout the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, around 75% of ‌which is controlled by Russia.

Russia ‍has frequently bombarded ‍Ukraine's power infrastructure throughout its nearly ‍four-year war, causing rolling daily blackouts, and has also targeted heating systems this winter.

Separately, the governor of the Russian border region of Belgorod, which has come under regular Ukrainian attack since 2022, ⁠said that one person had been killed and another wounded by a drone strike on the border village of Nechaevka.

Further south, in the Caucasus mountains region of North Ossetia, two children and one adult were injured when a Ukrainian drone struck a residential building in the town ‌of Beslan, the region's governor said.


Danish Foreign Minister to Visit NATO Allies Over Greenland

Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen reacts, following his and Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt meeting with US Senators Angus King (I-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and a press conference, in Washington DC, US, January 14, 2026. (Reuters)
Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen reacts, following his and Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt meeting with US Senators Angus King (I-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and a press conference, in Washington DC, US, January 14, 2026. (Reuters)
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Danish Foreign Minister to Visit NATO Allies Over Greenland

Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen reacts, following his and Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt meeting with US Senators Angus King (I-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and a press conference, in Washington DC, US, January 14, 2026. (Reuters)
Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen reacts, following his and Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt meeting with US Senators Angus King (I-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and a press conference, in Washington DC, US, January 14, 2026. (Reuters)

Denmark's foreign minister is to visit fellow NATO members Norway, the UK and Sweden to discuss the alliance's Arctic security strategy, his ministry announced Sunday.

Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen will visit Oslo on Sunday, travel to London on Monday and then to Stockholm on Thursday.

The diplomatic tour follows US President Donald Trump's threat to punish eight countries -- including the three Rasmussen is visiting -- with tariffs over their opposition to his plan to seize control of Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory.

Trump has accused Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland of playing a "very dangerous game" after they sent a few dozen troops to the island as part of a military drill.

"In an unstable and unpredictable world, Denmark needs close friends and allies," Rasmussen stated in a press release.

"Our countries share the view that we all agree on the need to strengthen NATO's role in the Arctic, and I look forward to discussing how to achieve this," he said.

An extraordinary meeting of EU ambassadors has been called in Brussels for Sunday afternoon.

Denmark, "in cooperation with several European allies", recently joined a declaration on Greenland stating that the mineral-rich island is part of NATO and that its security is a "shared responsibility" of alliance members, the ministry statement added.

Since his return to the White House for a second term, Trump has made no secret of his desire to annex Greenland, defending the strategy as necessary for national security and to ward off supposed Russian and Chinese advances in the Arctic.