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Pakistan Condemns Trump for Bombing Iran a Day after Recommending Him for a Nobel Peace Prize

In this handout photograph taken and released by Pakistan's Prime Minister Office on April 24, 2025, Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chairs a high level security meeting with the chiefs of the Pakistan forces and other government officials at the Prime Minister House in Islamabad. Sharif on April 24 led a rare meeting of the national security committee, the government said, after India accused its neighbor of supporting "cross-border terrorism" and downgraded ties. (Photo by Pakistan's Prime Minister Office / AFP)
In this handout photograph taken and released by Pakistan's Prime Minister Office on April 24, 2025, Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chairs a high level security meeting with the chiefs of the Pakistan forces and other government officials at the Prime Minister House in Islamabad. Sharif on April 24 led a rare meeting of the national security committee, the government said, after India accused its neighbor of supporting "cross-border terrorism" and downgraded ties. (Photo by Pakistan's Prime Minister Office / AFP)
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Pakistan Condemns Trump for Bombing Iran a Day after Recommending Him for a Nobel Peace Prize

In this handout photograph taken and released by Pakistan's Prime Minister Office on April 24, 2025, Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chairs a high level security meeting with the chiefs of the Pakistan forces and other government officials at the Prime Minister House in Islamabad. Sharif on April 24 led a rare meeting of the national security committee, the government said, after India accused its neighbor of supporting "cross-border terrorism" and downgraded ties. (Photo by Pakistan's Prime Minister Office / AFP)
In this handout photograph taken and released by Pakistan's Prime Minister Office on April 24, 2025, Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chairs a high level security meeting with the chiefs of the Pakistan forces and other government officials at the Prime Minister House in Islamabad. Sharif on April 24 led a rare meeting of the national security committee, the government said, after India accused its neighbor of supporting "cross-border terrorism" and downgraded ties. (Photo by Pakistan's Prime Minister Office / AFP)

Pakistan condemned US President Donald Trump for bombing Iran, less than 24 hours after saying he deserved a Nobel Peace Prize for defusing a recent crisis with India.

Relations between the two South Asian countries plummeted after a massacre of tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir in April. The nuclear-armed rivals stepped closer to war in the weeks that followed, attacking each other until intense diplomatic efforts, led by the US, resulted in a truce for which Trump took credit.

It was this “decisive diplomatic intervention and pivotal leadership” that Pakistan praised in an effusive message Saturday night on the X platform when it announced its formal recommendation for him to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Less than 24 hours later, however, it condemned the US for attacking Iran, saying the strikes “constituted a serious violation of international law” and the statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in a phone call Sunday with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, expressed his concern that the bombings had targeted facilities that were under the safeguards of the IAEA. Pakistan has close ties with Iran and supports its attacks on Israel, saying it has the right to self-defense.

There was no immediate comment on Monday from Islamabad about the Trump Nobel recommendation, which also followed a high-profile White House lunch meeting between the president and Pakistan’s powerful army chief, Asim Munir.

Thursday’s meeting, which lasted more than two hours, was also attended by the Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff, the US Special Representative for Middle Eastern Affairs.

According to a Pakistani military statement, a detailed exchange of views took place on the “prevailing tensions between Iran and Israel, with both leaders emphasizing the importance of the resolution of the conflict.”

While Pakistan was quick to thank Trump for his intervention in its crisis with India, New Delhi played it down and said there was no need for external mediation on the Kashmir issue.

The Himalayan region of Kashmir is divided between Pakistan and India but claimed by both in its entirety. India accuses Pakistan of backing militant groups in the region, which Pakistan denies.

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World

Report: 4 Dead, 8 Hurt as Gunman Opens Fire in Southern Türkiye

The shooting occurred near Tarsus, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Mersin, prompting a widespread police manhunt to locate the shooter. (Reuters file)
The shooting occurred near Tarsus, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Mersin, prompting a widespread police manhunt to locate the shooter. (Reuters file)
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Report: 4 Dead, 8 Hurt as Gunman Opens Fire in Southern Türkiye

The shooting occurred near Tarsus, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Mersin, prompting a widespread police manhunt to locate the shooter. (Reuters file)
The shooting occurred near Tarsus, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Mersin, prompting a widespread police manhunt to locate the shooter. (Reuters file)

Four people were killed and another eight wounded when a gunman opened fire near the southern Turkish city of Mersin on Monday, the DHA and IHA news agencies reported.

At least two people were killed when the assailant opened fire at a restaurant, with the two others killed elsewhere and the assailant fleeing in a car, DHA said.

The shooting occurred near Tarsus, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Mersin, prompting a widespread police manhunt to locate the shooter that also involved helicopters, it said.

There was no immediate comment from police or other officials.

DHA said the shooter was a 17-year-old armed with a shotgun.

Among those killed in the shooting were the restaurant owner and one of his employees, IHA said, identifying the other two as a young man grazing livestock and a truck driver.

The violence came a month after two shooting attacks by teenagers rocked Türkiye.

In the first incident, 16 people were injured, while the second attack claimed 10 lives, most of them young schoolchildren.

World

Romanians Stabbed Journalist in London at Behest of Iran, UK Court Told

Nandito Badea and George Stana, two Romanian men accused of stabbing the Iran International journalist Pouria Zeraati near his home in Wimbledon in March 2024, appear at Woolwich Crown Court in London, Britain, May 18, 2026, in a courtroom sketch. (Reuters)
Nandito Badea and George Stana, two Romanian men accused of stabbing the Iran International journalist Pouria Zeraati near his home in Wimbledon in March 2024, appear at Woolwich Crown Court in London, Britain, May 18, 2026, in a courtroom sketch. (Reuters)
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Romanians Stabbed Journalist in London at Behest of Iran, UK Court Told

Nandito Badea and George Stana, two Romanian men accused of stabbing the Iran International journalist Pouria Zeraati near his home in Wimbledon in March 2024, appear at Woolwich Crown Court in London, Britain, May 18, 2026, in a courtroom sketch. (Reuters)
Nandito Badea and George Stana, two Romanian men accused of stabbing the Iran International journalist Pouria Zeraati near his home in Wimbledon in March 2024, appear at Woolwich Crown Court in London, Britain, May 18, 2026, in a courtroom sketch. (Reuters)

A team of Romanian men, acting as proxies for the Iranian government, carried out a knife attack on a journalist working for a Persian-language media organization in London, prosecutors told a British court on Monday.

Pouria Zaratifoukolaei, known as Pouria Zeraati, a British journalist of Iranian origin who works for Iran International, was stabbed in the leg three times as he was attacked near his home in Wimbledon, southwest London, in March 2024.

At the start of the trial of two of the three men accused of carrying out the stabbing, prosecutor Duncan Atkinson said ‌they had targeted ‌Zeraati, whose TV employer is critical of Iran's government.

'DELIBERATE, PLANNED VIOLENCE'

"This was no robbery, no fight that got out of control, it was deliberate, planned violence to achieve what it did, that is serious injury to its target," Atkinson told London's Woolwich Crown Court.

They had "committed a planned attack preceded by reconnaissance, and which was ordered by a third party acting on behalf of the Iranian state," the prosecutor said.

Iran has denied any involvement in ⁠the incident.

Nandito Badea, 21, and George Stana, 25, both ‌deny charges of wounding with intent and unlawful ‌wounding. The third man accused of involvement, David Andrei, was arrested in Romania but is not ‌involved in the trial.

Atkinson said Zeraati was an "obvious and readily identifiable target for ‌violence to be inflicted by proxies" acting for Iran. He said posters had been put up in Tehran in November 2022 featuring pictures of journalists including Zeraati, under the heading "Wanted: dead or alive".

"In recent years, since 2005, Iran has turned less to its ‌own operatives and increasingly to use proxies such as criminal gangs to meet their threatened violence on their behalf," Atkinson ⁠said.

"That has included ⁠attacks on persons in this country who have become targets of Iranian intimidation and, effectively, terror."

Atkinson said Zeraati had been subject to "extensive reconnaissance", and a year before Stana had been arrested in the garden of his apartment with another man, in possession of latex gloves, scissors and a mask.

On the day of the attack, Badea and Andrei confronted Zeraati as he crossed the street from his home to his car, the prosecutor said. Andrei held him, while Badea stabbed him at the top of his thigh before they fled to a getaway car driven by Stana, the prosecutor added.

The men, who were motivated by money, dumped the car and some clothing, and then took a taxi to Heathrow Airport from where they flew to Geneva, Atkinson said.

The trial, which is expected to last more than two weeks, continues.

World

Iran Arrests Over 4,000 on Charges Related to War, Says Rights Group

An Iranian woman walks next to an anti-Israeli mural on a street in Tehran, Iran, May 18, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
An Iranian woman walks next to an anti-Israeli mural on a street in Tehran, Iran, May 18, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
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Iran Arrests Over 4,000 on Charges Related to War, Says Rights Group

An Iranian woman walks next to an anti-Israeli mural on a street in Tehran, Iran, May 18, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
An Iranian woman walks next to an anti-Israeli mural on a street in Tehran, Iran, May 18, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

Iranian authorities have made more than 4,000 arrests on charges related to the US-Israeli war against the country in a mass crackdown, a US-based rights group said on Monday.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said it had documented at least 4,023 arrests between February 28, when the war started, and May 9.

Charges included espionage, threats to national security and communicating or sharing content related to the conflict with foreign media, it said.

"Iranian authorities have used the conflict to intensify national security narratives and justify arrests, restrictions on freedom of expression, and violence against civilians," it said.

Meanwhile, Iran's national police chief Ahmad Reza Radan had said Sunday that more than "6,500 traitors and spies" linked with the "enemy" had been arrested since anti-government protests peaked in January.

The authorities described the demonstrations as riots and put them down with a crackdown that left thousands dead, according to rights groups.

"The process of identifying and arresting elements associated with the enemy continues, and the police have not stopped their actions in the field of confronting rioters," Radan said, quoted by the IRNA news agency.

There has also been growing alarm over executions in Iran.

Rights groups have said that since the start of the war, Iran has executed 26 men seen as "political prisoners" -- 14 men charged over January protests, one more over 2022 demonstrations and 11 accused of links to banned opposition groups.

Six men have been hanged by Iran on charges of spying for Israel since the war began, according to reports in Iranian official media.

HRANA said it had also documented at least 3,636 fatalities, including 1,701 civilians, due to US-Israeli attacks on Iran in the war, which is currently on hold with an uneasy ceasefire.