Iran’s Raisi Says Israeli Actions ‘May Force Everyone’ to Act

A handout picture provided by Iran's Presidency on October 28, 2023, shows Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during an interview with the Qatari state-owned news television network Al-Jazeera in Tehran. (Photo by Handout / Iranian Presidency / AFP)
A handout picture provided by Iran's Presidency on October 28, 2023, shows Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during an interview with the Qatari state-owned news television network Al-Jazeera in Tehran. (Photo by Handout / Iranian Presidency / AFP)
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Iran’s Raisi Says Israeli Actions ‘May Force Everyone’ to Act

A handout picture provided by Iran's Presidency on October 28, 2023, shows Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during an interview with the Qatari state-owned news television network Al-Jazeera in Tehran. (Photo by Handout / Iranian Presidency / AFP)
A handout picture provided by Iran's Presidency on October 28, 2023, shows Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during an interview with the Qatari state-owned news television network Al-Jazeera in Tehran. (Photo by Handout / Iranian Presidency / AFP)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Sunday said Israel's ongoing bombardment of Gaza "may force everyone" to act in the latest warning issued by Tehran since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Israel has been pounding the tiny Palestinian territory since Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on October 7 and, according to Israeli officials, killed more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians.

Since then, more than 8,000 people have been killed, half of them children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, an impoverished strip of land which is home to 2.4 million people.

"The crimes of the Zionist regime have crossed the red lines, and this may force everyone to take action," Raisi said on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday.

"Washington asks us to not do anything, but they keep giving widespread support to Israel," he said.

"The US sent messages to the Axis of Resistance but received a clear response on the battlefield," he said, using a term often used by Iranian officials to refer to Iran and its allies like Lebanon's Hezbollah, Yemen's Houthi militias and other Shiite forces in Iraq and Syria.

Although it was not immediately clear what he was referring to, there have been a string of attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria as well as increasing exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the Lebanon border since the Gaza conflict began.

Iran, which financially and militarily backs Hamas, hailed the October 7 attacks as a "success".

But it has insisted it was not involved in the onslaught, during which 230 people were also taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities.

"Iran considers it its duty to support the resistance groups, but ... the resistance groups are independent in their opinion, decision, and action," the Iranian president said in an interview with Al Jazeera on Saturday, according to excerpts released by state news agency IRNA.

"The United States knows very well our current capabilities and knows that they are impossible to overcome," he said.



Russia Advances in Ukraine at Fastest Monthly Pace Since Start of War, Analysts Say

A police officer drives a vehicle past burning trees during an evacuation of civilians from the outskirts of the Kurakhove town, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine September 16, 2024. (Reuters)
A police officer drives a vehicle past burning trees during an evacuation of civilians from the outskirts of the Kurakhove town, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine September 16, 2024. (Reuters)
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Russia Advances in Ukraine at Fastest Monthly Pace Since Start of War, Analysts Say

A police officer drives a vehicle past burning trees during an evacuation of civilians from the outskirts of the Kurakhove town, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine September 16, 2024. (Reuters)
A police officer drives a vehicle past burning trees during an evacuation of civilians from the outskirts of the Kurakhove town, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine September 16, 2024. (Reuters)

Russian forces are advancing in Ukraine at the fastest rate since the early days of the 2022 invasion, taking an area half the size of Greater London over the past month, analysts and war bloggers say.

The war is entering what some Russian and Western officials say could be its most dangerous phase after Moscow's forces made some of their biggest territorial gains and the United States allowed Kyiv to strike back with US missiles.

"Russia has set new weekly and monthly records for the size of the occupied territory in Ukraine," independent Russian news group Agentstvo said in a report.

The Russian army captured almost 235 sq km (91 sq miles) in Ukraine over the past week, a weekly record for 2024, it said.

Russian forces had taken 600 sq km (232 sq miles) in November, it added, citing data from DeepState, a group with close links to the Ukrainian army that studies combat footage and provides frontline maps.

Russia began advancing faster in eastern Ukraine in July just as Ukrainian forces carved out a sliver of its western region of Kursk. Since then, the Russian advance has accelerated, according to open source maps.

Russia's forces are moving into the town of Kurakhove, a stepping stone towards the logistical hub of Pokrovsk in Donetsk, and have been exploiting the vulnerabilities of Kyiv troops along the frontline, analysts said.

"Russian forces recently have been advancing at a significantly quicker rate than they did in the entirety of 2023," analysts at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said in a report.

The General Staff of Ukraine's armed forces said in its Monday update that 45 battles of varying intensity were raging along the Kurakhove part of the frontline that evening.

The Institute for the Study of War report and pro-Russian military bloggers say Russian troops are in Kurakhove. Deep State said on its Telegram messaging app on Monday that Russian forces are near Kurakhove.

"Russian forces' advances in southeastern Ukraine are largely the result of the discovery and tactical exploitation of vulnerabilities in Ukraine's lines," Institute analysts said in their report.

Russia says it will achieve all of its aims in Ukraine no matter what the West says or does.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has repeatedly said peace cannot be established until all Russian forces are expelled and all territory captured by Moscow, including Crimea, is returned.

But outnumbered by Russian troops, the Ukrainian military is struggling to recruit soldiers and provide equipment to new units.

Zelenskiy has said he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin's main objectives were to occupy the entire Donbas, spanning the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, and oust Ukrainian troops from the Kursk region, parts of which they have controlled since August.