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Iran Hints at Responding to Attacks on its Forces in the Region

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani
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Iran Hints at Responding to Attacks on its Forces in the Region

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani

The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Monday hinted that it will respond to any attacks on its interests and “advisory forces” in the region.
The announcement came two days after the Iranian Revolutionary Guards said two of its military advisers in Syria have been killed in an Israeli attack, in the first reported Iranian casualties during the ongoing war in Gaza.
A Revolutionary Guards statement did not give details of the attack.
On Monday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani warned that attacks on Iranian interests and its “advisory forces” in Syria “will not go unanswered.”
In his weekly press conference, he reiterated Iran’s accusations against the United States, echoed by Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian during a press conference with his Omani counterpart Sayyid Badr al-Busaidi in Tehran on Saturday.
“The new round of Israeli military attacks and aggressions began when the US Secretary of State attended the Israeli war cabinet,” Kanaani said, accusing Washington of sending tons of bombs to Israel.
“America is a party to the war,” the spokesperson affirmed.
Iran Rejects US Accusations
Without mentioning the attacks launched by the pro-Iranian Houthi group on ships in the Red Sea, Kanaani described the US Central Command (CENTCOM) operating in the Middle East as “terrorists” and said that their presence “undermines regional security.”

Kanaani reiterated earlier statements that armed groups facing charges of ideological loyalty to his country, also known as the “axis of resistance,” do not take orders from Iran. “We offer them instructions. But, they represent their own people and make decisions based on their interests,” he affirmed.
The spokesperson then rejected reports accusing Iran of sending drones to the Houthis.
“These are propaganda claims that provide cover for the crimes of the Zionist entity,” he said, adding that Washington must stop its support for Israel.
On the nuclear deal, Kanaani said the Omani foreign minister had not delivered a US message to Iran. However, he welcomed Muscat's efforts to return to the commitments made in the 2015 nuclear deal in exchange for the lifting of US sanctions imposed on Iran.
Also, the spokesperson commented on the $6 billion recently transferred by the US to Qatar in a prisoner swap deal with Iran. “The US must fulfill its commitments,” he said, adding that Iran has received enough guarantees, because dealing with America is not based on trust.
“We can access these funds and use them according to our needs,” he added.
Kanaani also spoke about the recent statements of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi, as well as the phone call between Amirabdollahian and High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell on Saturday evening.
“We expect Grossi to raise issues related to Iran's program from a technical standpoint away from political suspicions,” he said.
In the same context, Kanaani added: “It is remarkable that the European Union is taking unconstructive positions on issues related to the nuclear program and the IAEA. It is unfortunate that the Union is making unilateral accusations against Iran without paying attention to the US for evading its commitments and to Europe's inaction.”
On Saturday, Borrell expressed hope that constructive cooperation between Iran and the IAEA will continue, according to a statement by the Iranian Foreign Ministry.
The EU’s foreign policy chief later wrote on X that he spoke over the phone with Amirabdollahian, but did not address the nuclear talks, which have been stalled for over a year.
Borrell emphasized on a two-state solution to the longstanding Israel-Palestine conflict.
He added that he urged Iran to “use its influence and to actively work towards avoiding any further escalation in the region.”

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World

World's Water Cycle Becoming More Unpredictable, UN Warns

FILE PHOTO: People walk on the dry riverbed of the Indus River in Hyderabad, Pakistan April 24, 2025. REUTERS/Yasir Rajput/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: People walk on the dry riverbed of the Indus River in Hyderabad, Pakistan April 24, 2025. REUTERS/Yasir Rajput/File Photo
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World's Water Cycle Becoming More Unpredictable, UN Warns

FILE PHOTO: People walk on the dry riverbed of the Indus River in Hyderabad, Pakistan April 24, 2025. REUTERS/Yasir Rajput/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: People walk on the dry riverbed of the Indus River in Hyderabad, Pakistan April 24, 2025. REUTERS/Yasir Rajput/File Photo

The planet's water cycle is becoming increasingly erratic, swinging between too little and too much, the United Nations warned Thursday, with an unprecedented El Nino expected to exacerbate the long-term trend.

Last year was among the driest for the world's rivers in over three decades, the UN's World Meteorological Organization said in a report.

In 2025 -- one of the warmest years on record -- glaciers also shrank across all regions, even as groundwater levels in many parts of the world are in multi-year decline, it found.

Overall, the WMO's annual State of Global Water Resources report showed that the Earth's freshwater storage -- the total amount of water stored in groundwater, lakes and rivers, soil moisture, vegetation and ice and snow -- continued a decade-long decline.

Some elements of the water cycle change rapidly -- like precipitation, river flow and soil moisture, responding to weather within days or weeks.

WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo voiced particular concern about the decline in "slow reserves", like groundwater and glaciers, which she said had traditionally served as the planet's "savings account".

They have served as "a buffer that absorbs bad years so that a single drought or a single dry season does not translate directly into a water crisis", she told reporters.

Now, "we are depleting that savings account", she warned, according to AFP. "We are spending our reserves."

Glaciers have also been shrinking at a precipitous rate, with 2025 marking the fourth consecutive year where they shed significant ice mass across all regions.

Between 2023 and 2025, the report estimated that glaciers lost a cumulative global glacier mass of 1,400 gigatons of water -- roughly equal to the water required to fill 560 million Olympic-sized swimming pools, or about a third of the world's annual freshwater withdrawals.

"Groundwater tells a similar story: nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showed conditions outside the historical norm in 2025," Saulo said.

She highlighted that this was happening in parallel with "more water-related disasters".

In particular, she pointed to the current El Nino pattern, which is expected to be the strongest since comparable records began four decades ago.

El Nino is the warm phase of a natural climate cycle that occurs every two to seven years and is characterized by above average ocean temperatures across the Pacific, and brings worldwide changes in winds and rainfall patterns and erratic weather.

"The strengthening El Nino will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others," Saulo cautioned.

Already before El Nino hit, rivers worldwide were showing "abnormal" flows, WMO said, with 2025 among the three driest years for rivers in 35 years.

For a seventh year in a row, the number of river basins globally experiencing "normal" conditions were in a clear minority in 2025.

Only around 36 percent saw normal flows, while an equal percentage saw below-normal discharge conditions and 21 percent were above normal, the report found.

The WMO stressed the importance of good data to map the developments in the water cycle, warning that significants gaps remained in hard-hit areas.

"Weather respects no borders, and this is especially true for water," Saulo said, arguing for the importance of "shared data, shared standards and shared early warnings".

"A river basin is fed by water upstream, often in another country," she pointed out.

And "a glacier disaster in one country can lead to devastation in another as we saw with the recent tragedy of China and Nepal".

World

North Korea Says US-led Arms Buildup Justifies Expanding Nuclear Force

North Korea's Vice Defense Minister Kim Kang Il looks on before a plenary session at the Beijing Xiangshan Forum in Beijing, China September 17, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo
North Korea's Vice Defense Minister Kim Kang Il looks on before a plenary session at the Beijing Xiangshan Forum in Beijing, China September 17, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo
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North Korea Says US-led Arms Buildup Justifies Expanding Nuclear Force

North Korea's Vice Defense Minister Kim Kang Il looks on before a plenary session at the Beijing Xiangshan Forum in Beijing, China September 17, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo
North Korea's Vice Defense Minister Kim Kang Il looks on before a plenary session at the Beijing Xiangshan Forum in Beijing, China September 17, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo

North Korea's vice defense minister said on Thursday that a growing US-led military buildup and what he called an expanding nuclear alliance among Washington, Seoul and Tokyo justified Pyongyang's efforts to strengthen and expand its nuclear forces.

Speaking at the Beijing Xiangshan Forum, China's flagship international security conference, Vice Defense Minister Kim Kang Il said North Korea's status as a nuclear weapons state was irreversible and pledged to continue expanding its nuclear arsenal.

"The ceaseless nuclear arms buildup of the enemy states fully justifies the building of a solid nuclear shield of the DPRK," Kim said, using the acronym for North Korea's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"As ⁠the enemy states' ⁠nuclear threat reaches the extreme level ... the DPRK will firmly defend the peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula and the region by ceaselessly expanding and strengthening its self-defensive nuclear deterrent."

According to Reuters, Kim blamed tensions on the Korean Peninsula on what he called Washington's "invariable" hostile policy toward North Korea and accused the United States of turning trilateral cooperation with South Korea and Japan into a nuclear alliance.

He said North Korea's constitutional status as a nuclear weapons state was "the line of no retreat" and urged ⁠other countries to abandon what he called the "daydream" of denuclearization.

Kim's appearance at the Xiangshan Forum marked a rare high-profile showing by North Korea at an international security gathering in recent years and came as Pyongyang seeks closer ties with Beijing amid tensions with Washington and its allies.

Asked about the possibility of a meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Kim said he was not in a position to discuss whether such a summit could take place.

His remarks followed a statement on Thursday morning from Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un, rejecting renewed international calls for North Korea's denuclearization following discussions at the annual meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

In a statement carried by state media KCNA, ⁠she said North Korea's ⁠status as a nuclear weapons state was "absolute" and could not be reversed, dismissing repeated denuclearization demands as annual "noise" and insisting Pyongyang's nuclear position had been permanently established "physically and legally.”

Her comments echoed a separate statement issued on Wednesday by a North Korean defense ministry spokesman, who accused the United States and South Korea of escalating military confrontation through joint weapons-of-mass-destruction response planning and exercises.

The spokesman said recent US-South Korean WMD response discussions amounted to an "open declaration of confrontation" and warned such actions could require Pyongyang to invoke provisions of its nuclear force policy law.

The statements appeared to form part of a broader messaging campaign by Pyongyang on its nuclear policy, according to Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University's Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul.

The comments were aimed at cementing North Korea's claim that its nuclear status had reached an "irreversible stage,” while creating justification for future military and nuclear activities in response to what it portrays as growing US and South Korean pressure, Lim said.

World

WHO Eyes ‘Encouraging’ Signs in DR Congo Fight Against Ebola

A member of the civil protection team's dignified and safe burial service prepares to swab the body of a child suspected of having died from Ebola at the Butembo Unit Hospital morgue, in Butembo, North Kivu province, Democratic Republic of Congo, September 13, 2026. (Reuters)
A member of the civil protection team's dignified and safe burial service prepares to swab the body of a child suspected of having died from Ebola at the Butembo Unit Hospital morgue, in Butembo, North Kivu province, Democratic Republic of Congo, September 13, 2026. (Reuters)
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WHO Eyes ‘Encouraging’ Signs in DR Congo Fight Against Ebola

A member of the civil protection team's dignified and safe burial service prepares to swab the body of a child suspected of having died from Ebola at the Butembo Unit Hospital morgue, in Butembo, North Kivu province, Democratic Republic of Congo, September 13, 2026. (Reuters)
A member of the civil protection team's dignified and safe burial service prepares to swab the body of a child suspected of having died from Ebola at the Butembo Unit Hospital morgue, in Butembo, North Kivu province, Democratic Republic of Congo, September 13, 2026. (Reuters)

The Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo is still spreading but appears to be showing "encouraging" signs of improvement, the head of the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

"We are starting to see encouraging signs that we're gaining ground," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference in Geneva.

Since the DRC declared its 17th Ebola outbreak in mid-May, more than 3,500 deaths have been recorded from over 7,200 cases to date across seven northern and eastern provinces plagued by widespread insecurity and a litany of armed groups.

Ebola, which is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids and can cause severe internal and external bleeding and organ failure, has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the last 50 years.

Tedros said that transmission was declining in the worst-affected areas of Ituri province, the epicenter of the outbreak, while South Kivu has not reported any new cases since May.

"Trials of treatments and post-exposure prophylaxis are picking up speed, due to increased community engagement," he added.

"Vaccine trials should begin in the coming weeks," Tedros said, while warning against complacency. "Make no mistake: the epidemic continues to grow and continues to kill," he said.

"We still have many, many months ahead of us," added Maria Van Kerkhove, director of epidemic and pandemic management at the UN health agency.

- Right response -

In North Kivu, the number of cases was rising "fast", Tedros said, with weekly cases almost doubling from about 100 to more than 200.

"The area is so vast that it is hard to speak of a single epidemic. It is many outbreaks, in many places. We must get the response right in every one of them," he added.

The remoteness of the province, high population mobility and attacks on humanitarian workers were further complicating efforts to fight the epidemic, he explained.

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the WHO issued a funding appeal in June for $518 million to support the epidemic response until November.

Both organizations and the Congolese government earlier this month launched a new bid for $1.3 billion for the next six months, on top of the $1.1 billion requested by the UN in August for humanitarian assistance, WHO health emergencies chief Chikwe Ihekweazu said.

There is currently no approved vaccine or treatment against the Bundibugyo strain responsible for the current outbreak.

Some 70,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine, which has been approved against the Zaire strain of Ebola, have been sent to the DRC to assess its effects on tackling the spread of Bundibugyo.

More than 3,000 health workers and frontline staff have already been vaccinated in Kisangani, said Meg Doherty, director of science for health at the UN health agency.

An observational study led by the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity will start on Saturday to evaluate the vaccine's effectiveness in reducing illness and death, she added.

Clinical trials of two vaccines in development against Bundibugyo will take place in the country on a date to be fixed.