Magnitude 5.9 Earthquake in Iran Kills Three

Debris of a collapsed building following an earthquake in Kermanshah province in 2014 (EPA)
Debris of a collapsed building following an earthquake in Kermanshah province in 2014 (EPA)
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Magnitude 5.9 Earthquake in Iran Kills Three

Debris of a collapsed building following an earthquake in Kermanshah province in 2014 (EPA)
Debris of a collapsed building following an earthquake in Kermanshah province in 2014 (EPA)

At least three people were killed and hundreds were injured as a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck Iran on Saturday night.

The earthquake hit the city of Khoy, West Azerbaijan province, in northwest Iran, around 9:44 p.m. local time, citing the Iranian Seismological Center in Tehran.

"This incident has left 816 injured and three dead," West Azerbaijan governor Mohammad Sadegh Motamedian was quoted as saying by IRNA news agency, revising up an earlier toll of two dead and 580 injured.

Following the quake, Iran's minister of interior and chief of the Red Crescent Society traveled to Khoy.

Iran sits astride the boundaries of several major tectonic plates and experiences frequent seismic activity.

On January 18, a 5.8 quake near Khoy left hundreds injured.

In February 2020, a 5.7-magnitude earthquake that rattled the western village of Habash-e Olya killed at least nine people over the border in neighboring Türkiye.

Iran’s deadliest recorded quake was a 7.4-magnitude tremor in 1990 that killed 40,000 people in the country’s north, injured 300,000, and left half a million homeless.



Trump Says Gaza Ceasefire 'Would've Never Happened' Without His Team

FILE PHOTO: US President-elect Donald Trump makes remarks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, US January 7, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: US President-elect Donald Trump makes remarks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, US January 7, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
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Trump Says Gaza Ceasefire 'Would've Never Happened' Without His Team

FILE PHOTO: US President-elect Donald Trump makes remarks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, US January 7, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: US President-elect Donald Trump makes remarks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, US January 7, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo

US President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday the ceasefire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas would have never been reached without pressure from him and his incoming administration.
The agreement, which would exchange Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, awaits approval by Israel's security cabinet before taking effect, after which the terms of a permanent end to the war would be negotiated.
Four days away from being inaugurated for a second term, Trump told the Dan Bongino Show that negotiations would have never finalized without pressure from his team, including Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, AFP reported.
"If we weren't involved in this deal, the deal would've never happened," Trump said.
"We changed the course of it, and we changed it fast, and frankly, it better be done before I take the oath of office," he added.
Israel's security cabinet was set to meet Friday to discuss the terms of the ceasefire, which would go into effect Sunday at the earliest, just before Trump's presidential inauguration on Monday.
Trump also blasted outgoing President Joe Biden for taking credit for the ceasefire agreement, calling him "ungracious" and saying: "He didn't do anything! If I didn't do this, if we didn't get involved, the hostages would never be out."
Biden had proposed a ceasefire agreement last May with terms that mirrored the deal reached this week.
The ceasefire agreement under discussion proposes an initial 42-day ceasefire that would see the release of 33 hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza's population centers.
The second phase of the agreement could bring a "permanent end to the war," Biden said.
In an interview with MSNBC on Thursday, Biden said that he had not had any recent discussions with Trump about the ceasefire negotiations.