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Iran Calls on US to ‘Stop Hypocrisy’ in Gaza War

Members of the Iranian parliament chant slogans in support of Hamas on Oct. 7. (IRNA)
Members of the Iranian parliament chant slogans in support of Hamas on Oct. 7. (IRNA)
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Iran Calls on US to ‘Stop Hypocrisy’ in Gaza War

Members of the Iranian parliament chant slogans in support of Hamas on Oct. 7. (IRNA)
Members of the Iranian parliament chant slogans in support of Hamas on Oct. 7. (IRNA)

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian called on the United States to stop its “hypocrisy” in the Gaza war.

“More than 120 countries called for an end to the war. Millions of people took to the streets in cities around the globe, including Washington, in support of Palestine and to condemn ‘war crimes’. Yet, the White House prefers to be complicit and abet the collapsing regime of Israel at the expense of countering the global public opinion,” he said on X.

“Since last week, America has been after a humanitarian ceasefire. We received their message. They are completely wrong... They are running the game of war against Gaza and the West Bank simultaneously. Stop hypocrisy and genocide against Gaza,” he continued.

Abdollahian’s post came hours after Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia Al-Sudani met in Tehran with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Ibrahim Raisi, a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Baghdad.

With the escalation of the war of words between Iran and Israel, US forces in Iraq and Syria have been subjected to almost daily attacks since Oct. 17 by Iranian-backed armed groups. In response, US forces launched air strikes last week on two unmanned weapons storage facilities in Syria.

Meanwhile, Iranian Defense Minister Mohammad Reza Ashtiani said on Tuesday that Israel will not achieve any of its goals in Gaza.

He added: “The support of America and the West for the crimes of the Zionist entity will increase the complications of the regional security situation,” Tasnim agency reported.

In turn, Iranian Interior Minister Ahmed Vahidi said on Tuesday that the Gaza developments are an “indication of a radical change in regional equations.”

The government-affiliated ISNA agency quoted the minister as saying: “The events in the Gaza Strip are taking place in an area of 350 kilometers, but they have brought about profound cultural changes.”

Vahidi, a prominent leader in the Revolutionary Guards, added that this “profound development” was not limited to Palestine, stressing that the demonstrations at universities, such as Harvard and Oxford, are “manifestations of this change.”

Iranian ambassador to Vienna Abbas Bagherpour warned of the consequences of the war in Gaza on Europe.

“What we are witnessing in Palestine is a failed international system, a broken United Nations, and defective international law,” he said on X, adding: “This situation will lead to devastating chaos for the collective security system.”

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World

Israel’s Main Opposition Leader Says Ceasefire with Iran ‘Political Disaster’

People enter an underground parking garage as sirens warn of an incoming missile fired from Yemen in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP)
People enter an underground parking garage as sirens warn of an incoming missile fired from Yemen in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP)
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Israel’s Main Opposition Leader Says Ceasefire with Iran ‘Political Disaster’

People enter an underground parking garage as sirens warn of an incoming missile fired from Yemen in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP)
People enter an underground parking garage as sirens warn of an incoming missile fired from Yemen in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP)

Israel's main opposition leader Yair Lapid sharply criticized the ceasefire with Iran on Wednesday, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of failing to achieve the war's objectives. 

"There has never been a political disaster like this in our entire history. Israel was not even close to the table when decisions were made concerning the core of our national security," Lapid wrote on X. 

"The army carried out everything that was asked of it, and the public showed remarkable resilience, but Netanyahu failed politically, failed strategically, and did not achieve any of the goals he himself set." 

Netanyahu had set the elimination or at least severe degradation of Iran's nuclear program as a central goal of the war, describing it as an "existential threat" to Israel. 

He also called for neutralizing Iran's ballistic missile capabilities, weakening or potentially toppling the Iranian regime, and curbing Tehran's regional influence by targeting its network of allied groups. 

"It will take us years to repair the political and strategic damage that Netanyahu caused due to arrogance, negligence, and lack of strategic planning," Lapid said. 

The United States and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire in an 11th-hour bid to avert all-out destruction of Iran threatened by US President Donald Trump. 

Israel said it supported Trump's decision to suspend his bombing of Iran, but maintained the ceasefire "does not include Lebanon". 

Israel has been battling Iran-backed Hezbollah since the Lebanese armed group launched rocket fire at Israel in March. 

World

Sarkozy Asserts his ‘Innocence’ Over Libya Funding

Former France's President Nicolas Sarkozy returns to the courtroom following a recess in his appeal trial over charges he sought Libyan financing for his 2007 election, at the Palais de Justice courthouse in Paris on April 7, 2026. (AFP)
Former France's President Nicolas Sarkozy returns to the courtroom following a recess in his appeal trial over charges he sought Libyan financing for his 2007 election, at the Palais de Justice courthouse in Paris on April 7, 2026. (AFP)
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Sarkozy Asserts his ‘Innocence’ Over Libya Funding

Former France's President Nicolas Sarkozy returns to the courtroom following a recess in his appeal trial over charges he sought Libyan financing for his 2007 election, at the Palais de Justice courthouse in Paris on April 7, 2026. (AFP)
Former France's President Nicolas Sarkozy returns to the courtroom following a recess in his appeal trial over charges he sought Libyan financing for his 2007 election, at the Palais de Justice courthouse in Paris on April 7, 2026. (AFP)

France's ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday told an appeal trial there was "not a single cent of Libyan money" in the campaign that saw him elected in 2007.

The 71-year-old, who has always denied any wrongdoing, last year became modern France's first former president to have gone to jail over the case.

"The truth is that there wasn't a single cent of Libyan money in my campaign," Sarkozy said.

A lower court in September found the right-wing politician, who was president from 2007 to 2012, guilty of seeking to acquire funding from Moammar Gaddafi's Libya for the campaign, but did not rule that he received or used it for the campaign.

The court sentenced him to five years behind bars, 20 days of which he served before he was released pending the appeal.

In the initial trial, prosecutors had argued Sarkozy's aides, acting in his name, struck a deal with Gaddafi, promising in return to help restore the Libyan leader's international image after Tripoli was blamed for two plane bombings.

The West laid the blame on Libya for the bombing of the Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 over Lockerbie in Scotland -- which killed 259 people -- and of the UTA Flight 772 over Niger the following year, which took the lives of 170 people.

Relatives of those killed in the 1989 bombing spoke of their ordeal at the appeal trial last week.

"You can only respond to such indescribable suffering with truth," Sarkozy said on the first of several days of taking the stand, with his wife, model and singer Carla Bruni, in the courtroom.

"But you cannot repair suffering with an injustice: I am innocent," he said.

The ex-leader denied his aides made any promises to Gaddafi's then military intelligence chief Abdallah Senussi, who had been linked to the bombings.

A French court had in 1999 sentenced Senussi to life in jail in absentia for the attack on UTA Flight 772, and he has been wanted for questioning over the Lockerbie bombing.

"The truth is that never, never did I promise or act in favor of Mr. Senussi," Sarkozy said, adding that he was a key player in launching military action against Gaddafi during the Arab Spring.

A French warplane was the first to enforce a UN resolution calling for a no-fly zone and protection of civilians in Libya.

The appeal trial is set to run until June 3, with a verdict expected in the fall. If convicted, Sarkozy faces up to 10 years in prison.

Sarkozy has faced a series of legal issues since leaving office and has already received two definitive convictions in other cases.

World

Taiwan Opposition Leader Says China Visit to Sow ‘Seeds of Peace’

This picture taken and released by Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA) on April 8, 2026, shows Kuomintang Chairperson Cheng Li-wen speaking to the press after a visit at the Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum in Nanjing, in China's eastern Jiangsu province on April 8, 2026. (Central News Agency (CNA) / AFP)
This picture taken and released by Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA) on April 8, 2026, shows Kuomintang Chairperson Cheng Li-wen speaking to the press after a visit at the Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum in Nanjing, in China's eastern Jiangsu province on April 8, 2026. (Central News Agency (CNA) / AFP)
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Taiwan Opposition Leader Says China Visit to Sow ‘Seeds of Peace’

This picture taken and released by Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA) on April 8, 2026, shows Kuomintang Chairperson Cheng Li-wen speaking to the press after a visit at the Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum in Nanjing, in China's eastern Jiangsu province on April 8, 2026. (Central News Agency (CNA) / AFP)
This picture taken and released by Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA) on April 8, 2026, shows Kuomintang Chairperson Cheng Li-wen speaking to the press after a visit at the Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum in Nanjing, in China's eastern Jiangsu province on April 8, 2026. (Central News Agency (CNA) / AFP)

Taiwan's opposition leader, a proponent of closer ties with Beijing, said on Wednesday she hoped to sow the "seeds of peace" during a rare visit to China.

Kuomintang (KMT) chairwoman Cheng Li-wun is the party's first leader to visit China in a decade but her trip -- during which she hopes to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping -- has sparked debate in Taiwan.

Critics, including those within her own party which traditionally supports relations with China, have accused her of being too pro-Beijing.

China claims self-ruled Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to seize it.

"I hope that today we plant the seeds of peace not only for Chinese people on both sides of the Strait, but for all humankind," Cheng said on Wednesday, in comments broadcast by Taiwanese media.

She spoke during a symbolic visit to the eastern city of Nanjing, where she visited the mausoleum of revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen, one of the few Chinese historical figures revered in both Beijing and Taipei.

Beefed-up security at the mausoleum prevented foreigners from entering, AFP journalists saw.

China severed high-level contact with Taiwan in 2016 after Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party won the presidency and rejected Beijing's claims to the island.

Cross-strait relations have worsened since then, with China ramping up military pressure with near daily deployments of fighter jets and warships near Taiwan and regular large-scale military drills.

However, Cheng said in a speech after her arrival on Tuesday evening that "the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are not doomed to war, as the international community has feared".

"Taiwan should not be reduced to a geopolitical pawn," she said in a Facebook post, in an apparent reference to tensions between China and the United States, Taiwan's main arms supplier.

Her visit, she added, would mark a "historic journey of peace".

In a park surrounding the mausoleum, 74-year-old Nanjing resident surnamed Fen told AFP on Wednesday that he had come to the area after hearing of Cheng's visit.

"I hope she will contribute to the reunification of the motherland," he said.