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Iran's Foreign Minister Vows 'Definitive' Retaliation against Israel

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. (AP)
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. (AP)
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Iran's Foreign Minister Vows 'Definitive' Retaliation against Israel

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. (AP)
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. (AP)

Iran’s foreign minister again has referenced his country’s planned retaliation over the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Abbas Araghchi said late Sunday he made the remark in a conversation with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani by telephone.
“Iran reaction to Israeli terrorist attack in Tehran is definitive, and will be measured & well calculated,” Araghchi wrote on the social platform X. “We do not fear escalation, yet do not seek it — unlike Israel.”
Tajani said in a statement he “called for restraint and to pursue a constructive approach, in order to stop the cycle of military actions in the region, which only risks bringing more suffering”, The Associated Press said.
“It is important that Iran exercises moderation towards Hezbollah in order to avert an escalation on the Lebanese-Israeli border, where Italian soldiers of the UNIFIL contingent are operating, and towards the Houthis in order to avoid an increase in tensions in the Red Sea area, where Italy plays a leading role in the (European Union’s) Aspides mission,” he said in the statement.
Their call came after Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, long backed by Iran, traded heavy fire early Sunday but backed off from sparking a widely feared all-out war.
Meanwhile, a round of high-level talks in Cairo meant to bring about a cease-fire and hostage deal to at least temporarily end the 10-month Israel-Hamas war in Gaza ended Sunday without a final agreement, a US official said. But talks will continue at lower levels in the coming days in an effort to bridge remaining gaps.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the talks, said lower level “working teams” will remain in Cairo to meet with mediators the United States, Qatar and Egypt in hopes of addressing remaining disagreements.
The talks included CIA director William Burns and David Barnea, the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency. A Hamas delegation was briefed by Egyptian and Qatari mediators but did not directly take part in negotiations.

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Militant Attacks in Pakistan's Balochistan Kill 39

Pakistani security officials stand guard following an attack by criminal gangs, in Rahim Yar Khan district, Punjab province, Pakistan, 23 August 2024. EPA/FAISAL KAREEM
Pakistani security officials stand guard following an attack by criminal gangs, in Rahim Yar Khan district, Punjab province, Pakistan, 23 August 2024. EPA/FAISAL KAREEM
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Militant Attacks in Pakistan's Balochistan Kill 39

Pakistani security officials stand guard following an attack by criminal gangs, in Rahim Yar Khan district, Punjab province, Pakistan, 23 August 2024. EPA/FAISAL KAREEM
Pakistani security officials stand guard following an attack by criminal gangs, in Rahim Yar Khan district, Punjab province, Pakistan, 23 August 2024. EPA/FAISAL KAREEM

Separatist militants attacked police stations, railway lines, and vehicles on highways in Pakistan's province of Balochistan, killing at least 39 people, officials said on Monday, in the most widespread assault by ethnic insurgents in years.
Militants have fought a decades-long ethnic insurgency to demand the secession of the resource-rich southwestern province, home to a number of major China-led projects including a strategic port and a gold and copper mine.
The largest of the attacks targeted vehicles from buses to goods trucks on a major highway, killing at least 23 people, officials said, with ten vehicles set ablaze.
A rail line between Pakistan and Iran and a railway bridge linking Quetta, the provincial capital, to the rest of the country were also hit with explosives during the attacks, railways official Muhammad Kashif said, adding that rail traffic with Quetta had been suspended, Reuters said.
Police said they had found six bodies that have yet to be identified, near the attack on the railway bridge.
Militants also targeted police and security stations in the sprawling province, officials said, one of which killed at least 10 people.
Militant group the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) took responsibility in a statement emailed to journalists that claimed many more attacks, including one on a major paramilitary base, though Pakistani authorities have yet to confirm these.
PASSENGERS KILLED
On Sunday night, armed men blocked a highway in Balochistan, Pakistan's largest province, marched passengers off the vehicles, and shot them after checking their identity cards, a senior superintendent of police, Ayub Achakzai, told Reuters.
"The armed men also not only killed passengers but also killed the drivers of trucks carrying coal," said Hameed Zahir, the deputy commissioner of the area, adding that at least 10 trucks had been set on fire after their drivers were killed.
Militants have targeted workers from the eastern province of Punjab whom they see as exploiting their resources. In the past, they have also targeted Chinese interests and citizens operating in the province.
China runs the strategic deepwater port of Gawadar in Balochistan's south, as well as a gold and copper mine in the west.
The BLA said its fighters had targeted military personnel traveling in civilian clothes, who were shot after being identified.
Pakistan's interior ministry said the dead were innocent citizens.
STATIONS ATTACKED
Six security personnel, three civilians and one tribal elder made up the ten killed in clashes with armed militants who stormed a station of the Balochistan Levies in the central district of Kalat, police official Dostain Khan Dashti said.
Officials said police stations had also been attacked in the two southern coastal towns, but the toll had yet to be confirmed.
The office of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attacks in a statement, vowing that security forces would retaliate and bring those responsible to justice.
Balochistan, which borders both Iran and Afghanistan, is Pakistan's largest province by size, but the least populated and it remains largely underdeveloped, with high levels of poverty.