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Iran's President Tells Macron Aggression Will Not be Tolerated

An Iranian flag flies in front of the UN office building, housing IAEA headquarters, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Vienna, Austria, May 24, 2021. (Reuters)
An Iranian flag flies in front of the UN office building, housing IAEA headquarters, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Vienna, Austria, May 24, 2021. (Reuters)
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Iran's President Tells Macron Aggression Will Not be Tolerated

An Iranian flag flies in front of the UN office building, housing IAEA headquarters, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Vienna, Austria, May 24, 2021. (Reuters)
An Iranian flag flies in front of the UN office building, housing IAEA headquarters, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Vienna, Austria, May 24, 2021. (Reuters)

Iran will not stay quiet over aggression, President Masoud Pezeshkian told French counterpart Emmanuel Macron according to state media on Wednesday, amid fears of more regional conflict after the killing in Tehran last week of Hamas' leader.

"Iran will never remain silent in the face of aggression against its interests and security", Pezeshkian told Macron in a phone call, criticising Israel over the 10-month Gaza war.

"If the United States and the Western countries are truly seeking to prevent war in the region, they must force this regime (Israel) to stop the genocide and attacks on Gaza and accept a ceasefire," he said, according to the media.

According to Reuters, an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation was being held on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia at Iran's request to discuss the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, the former leader of Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Tehran and Iran-aligned groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah have accused Israel of killing Haniyeh on July 31. His death was one in a series of killings of senior Hamas figures during the war.

Israeli officials have not claimed responsibility for Haniyeh's death.

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Russia Battles Ukrainian Troops for a Third Day after Major Incursion

Ukrainian Armed Forces shows servicemen of 24th Mechanized Brigade, named after King Danylo, firing an Easel Antitank Grenade Launcher SPG9 at a front line position near Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, 06 August 2024. EPA/Press service of 24 Mechanized brigade handout
Ukrainian Armed Forces shows servicemen of 24th Mechanized Brigade, named after King Danylo, firing an Easel Antitank Grenade Launcher SPG9 at a front line position near Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, 06 August 2024. EPA/Press service of 24 Mechanized brigade handout
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Russia Battles Ukrainian Troops for a Third Day after Major Incursion

Ukrainian Armed Forces shows servicemen of 24th Mechanized Brigade, named after King Danylo, firing an Easel Antitank Grenade Launcher SPG9 at a front line position near Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, 06 August 2024. EPA/Press service of 24 Mechanized brigade handout
Ukrainian Armed Forces shows servicemen of 24th Mechanized Brigade, named after King Danylo, firing an Easel Antitank Grenade Launcher SPG9 at a front line position near Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, 06 August 2024. EPA/Press service of 24 Mechanized brigade handout

Russian forces were battling Ukrainian troops for a third day on Thursday after they smashed through the Russian border in the Kursk region, an audacious attack on the world's biggest nuclear power that has forced Moscow to call in reserves.
In one of the biggest Ukrainian attacks on Russia of the two-year war, around 1,000 Ukrainian troops rammed through the Russian border in the early hours of Aug. 6 with tanks and armored vehicles, covered in the air by swarms of drones and pounding artillery, according to Russian officials, Reuters said.
Ukrainian forces swept through the fields and forests of the border towards the north of the border town of Sudzha, the last operational trans-shipping point for Russian natural gas to Europe via Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin cast the attack as a "major provocation". The White House said the United States - Ukraine's biggest backer - had no prior knowledge of the attack and would seek more details from Kyiv.
Russia's most senior general, chief of general staff, Valery Gerasimov, told Putin on Wednesday that the Ukrainian offensive had been halted in the border area.
But multiple pro-Russian military bloggers said the battles continued into Thursday and that civilians were being evacuated.
"Sudzha is basically lost to us. And this is an important logistics hub," said Yuri Podolyaka, a popular Ukrainian-born pro-Russian military blogger, adding that Ukrainian forces were pushing north towards Lgov.
"In general, the situation is difficult and continues to deteriorate, despite the fact that the pace of the Ukrainian offensive has noticeably dropped."
The Ukrainian army has remained silent on the Kursk offensive. Some Russian bloggers criticized the state of border defense in the Kursk region, saying that it had been far too easy for Ukrainian forces to slice through them.
CRITICAL JUNCTURE
The battles around Sudzha come at a crucial juncture in the conflict, the biggest land war in Europe since World War Two. Kyiv is concerned that US support could drop off if Republican Donald Trump wins the November presidential election.
Trump has said he would end the war, and both Russia and Ukraine are keen to gain the strongest possible bargaining position on the battlefield.
Ukraine wants to pin down Russian forces, which control 18% of its territory, though the strategic significance of the border offensive was not immediately clear.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said the Ukrainian attack was an attempt to force Russia to divert resources from the front and to show the West that Ukraine could still fight.
As a result of the Kursk attack, Medvedev said, Russia should expand its war aims to include taking all of Ukraine.
"From this moment on, the SVO (Special Military Operation) should acquire an openly extraterritorial character," Medvedev said, adding that Russian forces should go to Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Mykolayiv, Kyiv "and beyond".
"We will stop only when we consider it acceptable and profitable for ourselves."
Gas was still flowing through Sudzha via the Urengoy–Pomary–Uzhhorod pipeline which carried about 14.65 billion cubic meters of gas in 2023, about half of Russia's gas exports to Europe.
Russia's National Guard said it had beefed up security around the Kursk nuclear power station, which lies about 60 km northeast of the town.