Iran Accuses Kurdish Opposition of Isfahan Attack

Eyewitness footage shows what is said to be the moment of an explosion at a military industry factory in Isfahan, Iran (West Asia News Agency via Reuters)
Eyewitness footage shows what is said to be the moment of an explosion at a military industry factory in Isfahan, Iran (West Asia News Agency via Reuters)
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Iran Accuses Kurdish Opposition of Isfahan Attack

Eyewitness footage shows what is said to be the moment of an explosion at a military industry factory in Isfahan, Iran (West Asia News Agency via Reuters)
Eyewitness footage shows what is said to be the moment of an explosion at a military industry factory in Isfahan, Iran (West Asia News Agency via Reuters)

The Iranian Supreme National Security Council accused Kurdish opposition factions based in Iraq of being "involved" in a drone attack that targeted a military facility in Isfahan.

Nournews, a news agency affiliated with the Council, reported that parts of the drones that were used to carry out the hostile action against the defense workshop in Isfahan and explosive materials all entered Iran with the participation and guidance of the Kurdish opposition groups stationed in the Kurdistan region of Iraq on the orders of a foreign security apparatus.

The Iranian authorities reported a "failed" drone attack last Saturday targeting a "military complex" of the Ministry of Defense in Isfahan, which includes the "Natanz" nuclear facility.

The Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post quoted intelligence sources saying the attack "was a phenomenal success."

The Iranian Ministry of Defense said that an anti-aircraft system destroyed a drone while two others exploded, which confirmed that the attack did not cause any injuries but only caused minor damage to the building.

AFP cited Nournews as saying that Kurdish groups brought the drone parts and explosives into Iran from "one of the hardly accessible routes in the northwest" upon "the order of a foreign security service."

The Iranian news agency indicated that Baghdad was repeatedly reminded of the necessity of confrontation with these Kurdish groups.

The agency did not name the foreign security service behind the attack but reported that the parts were delivered to "service's liaison in a border city."

It said that the parts and materials had been assembled and used for sabotage in an advanced workshop by trained forces.

On Monday, Iran summoned the Ukrainian Charge d'Affaires, Sergei Bordeliak, following a recent statement by the senior presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak.

Podolyak took to Twitter to mock the recent attack, saying, "Ukraine did warn you" against the consequences of supplying the drones to Russia.

Moscow announced its willingness to participate in the authorities' investigation of the Isfahan attack.

The Wall Street Journal was the first to report an Israeli role in the attack, quoting several unnamed sources, and a US official, speaking anonymously, told Reuters on Sunday that Israel appeared to be involved in the attack.

In turn, the New York Times quoted senior intelligence officials familiar with the dialogue between Israel and the US as saying that the attack was the work of Mossad.

Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region hosts camps and rear bases operated by several Iranian Kurdish rebel groups, which Iran has accused of serving Western or Israeli interests in the past.

In July, the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence said it had stopped a sabotage network affiliated with Mossad and arrested a Kurdish opposition Komala party group planning to attack a sensitive center in Isfahan.

On May 11, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that its forces arrested a "terrorist cell" in the Kurdish regions of Iran, consisting of five people. Later that month, it announced that it contained a network operating under the direction of Israeli intelligence.

The statement came hours after the assassination of the Quds Force commander, Sayad Khodaei, who was described by the Israeli media as the commander of Unit 840, a relatively secret unit that builds terrorist infrastructure and plans to launch attacks against Western targets.

Last April, Israel revealed operations carried out by the Mossad and Shin Bet deep in Iranian territory.

Iran announced in December that it had executed four men for cooperating with Israeli intelligence, carrying out kidnappings, and forcing false confessions.

In November, Iran launched cross-border missile and drone strikes against several of the groups in Iraq, accusing them of stoking the nationwide protests triggered by the death in custody in September of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini.

The IRGC sent troops and reinforcements to the borders of the Kurdistan region and threatened a ground operation against the headquarters of the Kurdish parties.

Iran bombed a villa near Erbil airport in March with 12 ballistic missiles, saying it was an Israeli conspiracy center.

The Kurdistan Region authorities denied the claims, and several reports linked the attack to Iran's annoyance with the region's aspirations to export gas to Europe.

Israel, which Iran does not recognize, threatened military action against Tehran if talks between it and world powers to curb nuclear activities fail.



Japan PM Takaichi Reappointed Following Election

Sanae Takaichi gestures at the Lower House of the Parliament in Tokyo, Japan, 18 February 2026. EPA/FRANCK ROBICHON
Sanae Takaichi gestures at the Lower House of the Parliament in Tokyo, Japan, 18 February 2026. EPA/FRANCK ROBICHON
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Japan PM Takaichi Reappointed Following Election

Sanae Takaichi gestures at the Lower House of the Parliament in Tokyo, Japan, 18 February 2026. EPA/FRANCK ROBICHON
Sanae Takaichi gestures at the Lower House of the Parliament in Tokyo, Japan, 18 February 2026. EPA/FRANCK ROBICHON

Japan's lower house formally reappointed Sanae Takaichi as prime minister on Wednesday, 10 days after her historic landslide election victory.

Takaichi, 64, became Japan's first woman premier in October and won a two-thirds majority for her party in the snap lower house elections on February 8.

She has pledged to bolster Japan's defenses to protect its territory and waters, likely further straining relations with Beijing, and to boost the flagging economy.

Takaichi suggested in November that Japan could intervene militarily if Beijing sought to take Taiwan by force.

China, which regards the democratic island as part of its territory and has not ruled out force to annex it, was furious.

Beijing's top diplomat Wang Yi told the Munich Security Conference on Saturday that forces in Japan were seeking to "revive militarism".

In a policy speech expected for Friday, Takaichi will pledge to update Japan's "Free and Open Indo-Pacific" strategic framework, local media reported.

"Compared with when FOIP was first proposed, the international situation and security environment surrounding Japan have become significantly more severe," chief government spokesman Minoru Kihara said Monday.

In practice this will likely mean strengthening supply chains and promoting free trade through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) that Britain joined in 2024.

Takaichi's government also plans to pass legislation to establish a National Intelligence Agency and to begin concrete discussions towards an anti-espionage law, the reports said.

Takaichi has promised too to tighten rules surrounding immigration, even though Asia's number two economy is struggling with labor shortages and a falling population.

On Friday Takaichi will repeat her campaign pledge to suspend consumption tax on food for two years in order to ease inflationary pressures on households, local media said, according to AFP.

This promise has exacerbated market worries about Japan's colossal debt, with yields on long-dated government bonds hitting record highs last month.

Rahul Anand, the International Monetary Fund chief of mission in Japan, said Wednesday that debt interest payments would double between 2025 and 2031.

"Removing the consumption tax (on food) would weaken the tax revenue base, since the consumption tax is an important way to raise revenues without creating distortions in the economy," Anand said.

To ease such concerns, Takaichi will on Friday repeat her mantra of having a "responsible, proactive" fiscal policy and set a target on reducing government debt, the reports said.

She will also announce the creation of a cross-party "national council" to discuss taxation and how to fund ageing Japan's ballooning social security bill.

But Takaichi's first order of business will be obtaining approval for Japan's budget for the fiscal year beginning on April 1 after the process was delayed by the election.

The ruling coalition also wants to pass legislation that will outlaw destroying the Japanese flag, according to the media reports.

It wants too to accelerate debate on changing the constitution and on revising the imperial family's rules to ease a looming succession crisis.

Takaichi and many within her Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) oppose making it possible for a woman to become emperor, but rules could be changed to "adopt" new male members.


Türkiye: Ocalan Announces ‘Integration Phase’

Members of the Kurdish community take part in a protest calling for the release of convicted Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan in Diyarbakir on February 15, 2026. (Photo by Ilyas AKENGIN / AFP)
Members of the Kurdish community take part in a protest calling for the release of convicted Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan in Diyarbakir on February 15, 2026. (Photo by Ilyas AKENGIN / AFP)
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Türkiye: Ocalan Announces ‘Integration Phase’

Members of the Kurdish community take part in a protest calling for the release of convicted Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan in Diyarbakir on February 15, 2026. (Photo by Ilyas AKENGIN / AFP)
Members of the Kurdish community take part in a protest calling for the release of convicted Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan in Diyarbakir on February 15, 2026. (Photo by Ilyas AKENGIN / AFP)

The jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party, Abdullah Ocalan, has said that the Ankara-PKK peace process has entered its “second phase,” as the Turkish parliament sets the stage to vote on a draft report proposing legal reforms tied to peace efforts.

A delegation from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), including lawmakers Pervin Buldan, Mithat Sancar, and Ocalan’s lawyer Ozgur Faik, met with the jailed PKK leader on Monday on the secluded Imrali island.

Sancar said that the second phase will be focused on democratic integration into
Türkiye’s political system.

According to the lawmaker, the PKK leader considered the first phase the “negative dimension” concerned with ending the decades-old conflict between the armed group and Ankara.

“Now we are facing the positive phase,” Ocalan said, “the integration phase is the positive phase; it is the phase of construction.”

For the second phase to be implemented, Ocalan called on Turkish authorities to provide conditions that would allow him to put his “theoretical and practical capacity” to work.

The 60-page draft report on peace with the PKK was completed by a five-member writing team, which is chaired by Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş, and is scheduled for a vote on Wednesday.

The report is organized into seven sections.

In July last year, Ocalan said the group's armed struggle against Türkiye has ended and called for a full shift to democratic politics.


Iranians Chant Slogans Against Supreme Leader at Memorials for Slain Protesters

An Iranian man holds the Iranian national flag during a memorial ceremony for those killed in anti-government protests earlier last month, at the Mosalla mosque in Tehran, Iran, 17 February 2026. (EPA)
An Iranian man holds the Iranian national flag during a memorial ceremony for those killed in anti-government protests earlier last month, at the Mosalla mosque in Tehran, Iran, 17 February 2026. (EPA)
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Iranians Chant Slogans Against Supreme Leader at Memorials for Slain Protesters

An Iranian man holds the Iranian national flag during a memorial ceremony for those killed in anti-government protests earlier last month, at the Mosalla mosque in Tehran, Iran, 17 February 2026. (EPA)
An Iranian man holds the Iranian national flag during a memorial ceremony for those killed in anti-government protests earlier last month, at the Mosalla mosque in Tehran, Iran, 17 February 2026. (EPA)

Iranians shouted slogans against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Tuesday as they gathered to commemorate protesters killed in a crackdown on nationwide demonstrations that rights groups said left thousands dead, according to videos verified by AFP.

The country's clerical authorities also staged a commemoration in the capital Tehran to mark the 40th day since the deaths at the peak of the protests on January 8 and 9.

Officials acknowledge more than 3,000 people died during the unrest, but attribute the violence to "terrorist acts", while rights groups say many more thousands of people were killed, shot dead by security forces in a violent crackdown.

The protests, sparked by anger over the rising cost of living before exploding in size and anti-government fervor, subsided after the crackdown, but in recent days Iranians have chanted slogans from the relative safety of homes and rooftops at night.

On Tuesday, videos verified by AFP showed crowds gathering at memorials for some of those killed again shouting slogans against the theocratic government in place since the 1979 revolution.

In videos geolocated by AFP shared on social media, a crowd in Abadan in western Iran holds up flowers and commemorative photos of a young man as they shout "death to Khamenei" and "long live the shah", in support of the ousted monarchy.

Another video from the same city shows people running in panic from the sounds of shots, though it wasn't immediately clear if they were from live fire.

In the northeastern city of Mashhad a crowd in the street chanted, "One person killed, thousands have his back", another verified video showed.

Gatherings also took place in other parts of the country, according to videos shared by rights groups.

- Official commemorations -

At the government-organized memorial in Tehran crowds carried Iranian flags and portraits of those killed as nationalist songs played and chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" echoed through the Khomeini Grand Mosalla mosque.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attended a similar event at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad.

Authorities have accused sworn enemies the United States and Israel of fueling "foreign-instigated riots", saying they hijacked peaceful protests with killings and vandalism.

Senior officials, including First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref and Revolutionary Guards commander Esmail Qaani, attended the ceremony.

"Those who supported rioters and terrorists are criminals and will face the consequences," Qaani said, according to Tasnim news agency.

International organizations have said evidence shows Iranian security forces targeted protesters with live fire under the cover of an internet blackout.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) has recorded more than 7,000 killings in the crackdown, the vast majority protesters, though rights groups warn the toll is likely far higher.

More than 53,500 people have been arrested in the ongoing crackdown, HRANA added, with rights groups warning protesters could face execution.

Tuesday's gatherings coincided with a second round of nuclear negotiations between Iran and the United States in Geneva, amid heightened tensions after Washington deployed an aircraft carrier group to the Middle East following Iran's crackdown on the protests.