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Iran Expresses Reservations over Two-State Solution, PLO Articles of OIC Summit Declaration

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi upon his return to Tehran from Riyadh. (Iranian Presidency)
Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi upon his return to Tehran from Riyadh. (Iranian Presidency)
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Iran Expresses Reservations over Two-State Solution, PLO Articles of OIC Summit Declaration

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi upon his return to Tehran from Riyadh. (Iranian Presidency)
Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi upon his return to Tehran from Riyadh. (Iranian Presidency)

Iran expressed four reservations over the Riyadh Declaration of the Arab-Islamic summit on the war in Gaza, despite praising its tone and phrases, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani.

Iranian media quoted Kanaani as saying: "The resolution approved during the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting in Riyadh, despite having a strong text, has several provisions about which the Islamic Republic of Iran has always expressed reservations in the past."

Kanaani said Iran announced it has "reservations over certain provisions of the resolution, especially regarding the two-state solution, 1967 borders, and Arab peace plan," reported the official IRNA news agency.

He expressed Tehran's reservations about the Arab position in the resolution that says the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was the only legal representative of the Palestinian state.

"Iran believes that all Palestinians and Palestinian groups, including the PLO, are the representatives of the Palestinian state and have the right to fight against occupation and self-determination according to international law," he added.

Kanaani reviewed ten proposals, which Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi presented in his speech before the summit.

"Most of the proposals put forward by Iran during the document negotiation have been incorporated into the resolution," he remarked.

Upon his return at Mehrabad Airport, Raisi raised Iran's reservations about the two-state solution, saying Tehran proposed a democratic solution that allows all Palestinians, including Muslims, Christians, and Jews, to determine their fate.

Political adviser of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Ali Shamkhani said the statement of 57 Islamic and Arab countries in Riyadh was a "necessary condition for action against crimes of Israel's fake regime, but it is not sufficient."

Meanwhile, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced the readiness of its ground units in terms of equipment and personnel throughout the country.

IRGC Ground Force commander Mohammed Pakpour headed to the country's southwestern borders, where he was briefed on the forces’ combat and defensive readiness.

Pakpour praised the Hamas’ Al-Aqsa Flood operation, saying it dealt a significant blow to the strategic plans of the Israeli Zionist regime and was a symbol of Palestinian resistance against 75 years of oppression and massacres by the occupying forces.

IRGC Deputy Commander Ali Fadavi said Israel and the countries supporting it have been dealt a strategic defeat, adding that the “resistance front” groups are launching highly accurate missiles against Israel.

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World

Australian Soldier Dies, 5 Others Injured During Training Exercise

Australian army soldiers (Reuters file photo)
Australian army soldiers (Reuters file photo)
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Australian Soldier Dies, 5 Others Injured During Training Exercise

Australian army soldiers (Reuters file photo)
Australian army soldiers (Reuters file photo)

An Australian army soldier has died and five others have been injured during a training exercise in the Northern Territory ⁠of Australia, the Defense Department said on Tuesday.

The incident occurred at the Mount Bundey Training Area on October 5, the department said in a media statement ⁠on its website.

Five other Australian Army soldiers were injured, it added. No further details ⁠of the incident were available, according to Reuters.

“Next of kin has been notified. ⁠Defense will provide further updates when possible,” ⁠the statement said.

World

War-weary Northern Israelis Rethink Loyalty to Netanyahu before Election

Nahariya resident Maxim Zarbaylov says he is considering not backing Netanyahu for the first time. JACK GUEZ / AFP
Nahariya resident Maxim Zarbaylov says he is considering not backing Netanyahu for the first time. JACK GUEZ / AFP
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War-weary Northern Israelis Rethink Loyalty to Netanyahu before Election

Nahariya resident Maxim Zarbaylov says he is considering not backing Netanyahu for the first time. JACK GUEZ / AFP
Nahariya resident Maxim Zarbaylov says he is considering not backing Netanyahu for the first time. JACK GUEZ / AFP

On Israel's border with Lebanon where Hezbollah fired thousands of rockets and drones, previous backers of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu say they are rethinking how they will vote in the first election since the war.

"Many I know were right-wing and were Bibi supporters, and today they're not," said plant nursery owner Sigal Malachi, using a nickname for Israel's longest-serving premier.

In traditional strongholds of Netanyahu support, many told AFP they could no longer back his right-wing government in the October 27 vote, accusing it of failing to secure a lasting quiet with the militants.

Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Lebanese militant group, began firing into Israel in October 2023 in support of Hamas following the deadliest-ever attack on the country.

The barrages altered life in northern communities, displacing tens of thousands of Israelis and forcing people like Malachi to close shop for several years.

Northern Israelis are accustomed to incoming fire from the Lebanese side of the border, but they say that round of conflict was more intense.

"We grew up with Katyushas (rockets) and bombs," said Malachi, whose plant nursery reopened in March.

"This war was different."

She described that "if you went outside, within a second you'd be running" for shelter.

The war was halted with a fragile ceasefire in November 2024, but evacuees were not allowed home until early 2025.

Life began slowly returning to normal, until the northern front reopened after the outbreak of the Iran war.

Maxim Zarbaylov, who was born in the former Soviet Union but has long lived in Nahariya, the northernmost Israeli town on the Mediterranean, is among those wavering.

"All my life I voted for (Likud), for Bibi Netanyahu... But this year I want to vote for (Gadi) Eisenkot," he said, referring to the former military chief who is Netanyahu's main election rival.

Hezbollah has repeatedly dragged Lebanon into conflicts with Israel, most recently in March with rocket fire at Israel in support of Iran.

Israel has in turn seized what it calls a "security zone" in Lebanon, where authorities say Israeli attacks have killed more than 4,300 people.

At least 48 Israeli civilians and 30 soldiers have died on the Lebanese front since 2023.

- 'Psychological catastrophe' -

The prolonged violence has left border residents in limbo.

"After October 7 we don't sleep well anymore," Malachi said.

"I've thought about leaving. But the roots are so deep that I'm staying."

In Shlomi, an Israeli border town, the enemy is a tangible presence behind a hill.

Shadi Tuma, who owns a supermarket there, prides himself on running the only one that remained open.

"This area is under a trauma we haven't seen before. There's anger. The government is unable to provide a comprehensive response," he said.

"It's a huge psychological catastrophe. Not everyone is able to cope with a war that lasts three years."

The war has cracked the local support base for Netanyahu, Tuma said.

In the last elections in 2022, the premier's Likud party won 43 percent of the vote in Shlomi, compared with 23 percent nationwide.

Residents who backed Netanyahu "now want change because they no longer trust this government," Tuma said.

He said the high cost of living was a major complaint.

"Many people I see are struggling to make it to the end of the month."

For Tuma, the conflict is also personal.

He was born in Lebanon, the son of a fighter with the South Lebanon Army, a militia that fought alongside Israel in the 1980s and that had many fighters granted Israeli citizenship.

- 'Feel protected' -

The war could have shifted longstanding political loyalties in towns like Nahariya, a sleepy resort of about 70,000 people.

In 2022, 38 percent of voters there chose Likud.

But Zarbaylov says there is anger over the failure to stop Hamas' unprecedented assault on the country.

"What happened on October 7, Bibi could have prevented it, but he didn't," he said.

"The army, the top commanders, the chief of staff, could have prevented it."

Others believe only the current hawkish coalition can protect them.

Patrice Haddad retired to Nahariya from Paris a year ago, drawn by the town's "charm".

Israel's "Law of Return" allows any Jew anywhere in the world to immigrate and automatically receive citizenship.

Adjusting to life under the rockets was not simple at first.

"We were told we had 30 seconds to find shelter" after sirens blared, he said. "In reality, sometimes we only had 15, sometimes less."

For his first election as an Israeli, he has made his choice.

"The left in Israel has done a lot of harm, it wanted to give up territories," he said.

"It's important to vote for the right, because for me, with a government like Netanyahu's, we will feel protected."

World

Trump Approves Execution of 2009 Military Base Shooter by Firing Squad

US President Donald Trump during a rally at Pinnacle Bank Expo Center in Grand Island, Nebraska, US, October 5, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
US President Donald Trump during a rally at Pinnacle Bank Expo Center in Grand Island, Nebraska, US, October 5, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
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Trump Approves Execution of 2009 Military Base Shooter by Firing Squad

US President Donald Trump during a rally at Pinnacle Bank Expo Center in Grand Island, Nebraska, US, October 5, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
US President Donald Trump during a rally at Pinnacle Bank Expo Center in Grand Island, Nebraska, US, October 5, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

US President Donald Trump has approved the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan, a US Army psychiatrist who shot dead 13 people at a military base in 2009, the Pentagon said on Monday.

Hasan’s execution for the attack at Fort Hood in Texas, which also wounded more than two dozen people, will be the first carried out by the US military since 1961.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “has recommended – and President Donald J Trump has approved – death by US Army firing squad for convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a post on X.

“The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution. Judgement day for Hasan has finally come,” Parnell added.

Hasan was sentenced to death by a military jury in 2013 for carrying out the Al-Qaeda inspired mass shooting at Fort Hood, according to AFP.

He chose to conduct his own defense during the trial but called no witnesses and gave no testimony, and made no attempt to deny the charges. Court-appointed defense attorneys expressed concern that he was seeking execution.

Hasan, US-born Muslim of Palestinian descent, opened fire on November 5, 2009, at a medical facility in the sprawling Fort Hood base, which served as a staging point for soldiers to deploy to combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Twelve of the dead and 30 of the wounded were soldiers. Hasan was shot and partially paralyzed by a civilian police officer who responded to the attack.

The court that convicted Hasan was told that he was opposed to the US military's occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and that he had spoken online with an alleged Al-Qaeda figure, radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen subsequently killed in a US drone strike in Yemen.