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Jordan’s King Abdullah II called for a de-escalation of tensions in the Middle East to prevent a full-out regional war.
Faced with the heightened risk of attacks from Iran or its proxies in the region, Israel is diversifying and fortifying its power supplies.
Iran’s president, EU’s Michel talk about Gaza, nuclear deal
Iran’s president warned a senior European official about Israel’s war on Gaza while also indicating Tehran’s willingness to restart negotiations over a 2015 nuclear agreement.
In a phone call with European Council President Charles Michel on Sunday, Masoud Pezeshkian described Israel as a significant threat to regional and global peace and security, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (Irna).
“The double standards of the US and some Western countries have made the Zionist regime more insolent,” Pezeshkian was cited as saying by Irna.
The remarks come in the wake of accusations from Iran that Israel was behind the recent assassination of Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Iran has vowed retaliation.
The Iranian president also “discussed ways to resume negotiations” to restore the nuclear deal, which was scrapped by the Trump administration in 2018 and has since remained in limbo.
“If both sides honour all their commitments and trust is built, other issues can also be discussed in addition to reviving the nuclear agreement,” said Pezeshkian.
The deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, curbed Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for some sanctions relief.
Jordan’s king calls for de-escalation of tensions in region
Jordan’s King Abdullah II called for a de-escalation of tensions in the Middle East to prevent a full-out regional war.
Jordan would not be a battleground for any party and would not tolerate any threats to the lives of its people, the king also said at a meeting in Amman with a delegation of US Congress staffers, according to an emailed statement by the Royal Hashemite Court.
The region would remain vulnerable to an expansion of the conflict that threatened its stability as long as the war on Gaza continues, said the king.
Israel bolsters infrastructure defence amid Iranian attack risks
Mayors have battery-backed sirens ready, first responders got satellite phones and old-fashioned transistor radios could be an information lifeline if people need to move into shelters.
Faced with the heightened risk of attacks from Iran or its proxies in the region, Israel is diversifying and fortifying its power supplies. Maintaining continuous power is particularly important for the economy, which is so reliant on technology that the country has earned the nickname “Start-Up Nation.”
While there are few signs of panic — the nation already withstood a barrage of missiles and drones from Iran in April and has endured regular attacks from its proxies to the north and south for months — authorities are preparing for the worst, including stockpiling alternative fuels for power plants should regular supplies be disrupted.
“We purchased infinite quantities,” said Tamar Fekler, vice-president for operations, logistics and security at the Israel Electric Corporation, the largest supplier of electrical power in the country.
Since the 7 October surprise attack on Israel by Hamas, the Iranian-backed militant group designated a terrorist organisation by the US, the IEC has built on-site defences at its power plants, said Fekler.
Offshore gas rigs have been at risk of attacks from Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia also backed by Iran and also deemed a terrorist group by the US. In the event of an all-out war in the north, Israel would decide on rig shutdowns on a case-by-case basis, making it unlikely for a complete closure to take place quickly, an Israeli official familiar with the matter said.
Even a short-lived power outage could make it difficult to keep the Israeli public up to date with events. That prompted authorities to fit backup diesel generators or lithium batteries to more than half of the cellular telephone masts in northern Israel, including in the port city of Haifa. In the commercial capital Tel Aviv, dozens of masts are plugged into the generators of nearby businesses or municipal facilities.
Authorities see added caution as justified, as tensions run high with Iran and its allies. A deadly strike near a Gaza school on Saturday, where Israel said a Hamas command centre was located, drew international criticism for the casualties it caused.
Hours later, Iran reiterated its pledge to avenge the recent death of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. The Islamic Republic’s acting foreign minister, Ali Bagheri Kani, said early on Sunday that the response to Israel would be “legitimate and resolute”. Israel neither acknowledged nor denied responsibility for Haniyeh’s killing.
Hezbollah has also vowed to retaliate for Israel’s assassination of a senior commander of the militant group last month. It is thought to possess as many as 150,000 drones and missiles including long-range weapons.
While Iran or Hezbollah hasn’t offered an indication as to where they might choose to target if they conduct a direct attack, Israel’s defensive focus has been on vital infrastructure and communications.
“Cellular telephony is critical in an emergency situation,” said Inbal Mashash, the director-general of the Communications Ministry. The authority is trying to extend mobile operations to as much as 24 hours after a power outage, up from two hours normally, she said.
As a backup, Cabinet ministers, city officials and emergency coordinators have been provided with satellite phones. SpaceX’s Starlink will soon also be available to enable Internet connectivity in municipalities, Mashash said.
Read more: Israel versus Iran — what all-out war could look like: QuickTake
So far in the 10-month-old war, Israelis have usually had to spend just a few minutes in fortified rooms or public shelters as the country’s air defenses shot down most of the rockets launched from Gaza or Lebanon.
In the event of a heavy and sustained attack from Iran or its proxies though, those defenses may need to be focused on protecting strategic facilities, leaving civilians increasingly dependent on shelters whose thick walls can limit normal mobile signals.
Some municipalities have made wireless connections available in shelters, said Mashash. Her ministry has also started using AM radio channels, since they are more effective in shelters, and has been distributing transistor radios.
Iran’s Pezeshkian names Cabinet amid simmering Israel tensions
Iran’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian has picked an architect of the 2015 nuclear deal as his foreign minister and an industry veteran for the top job in oil.
Pezeshkian presented his nominee ministers to parliament on Sunday, state TV reported, as the Islamic Republic repeated its intention to retaliate against Israel after the killing of a top Hamas leader in Tehran on 31 July.
Pezeshkian’s proposed ministers still have to be approved by Iran’s parliament, which is dominated by hard-liners opposed to reviving the 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers that capped Iran’s nuclear activity in exchange for sanctions relief. Former US President Donald Trump exited the accord in 2018.
Pezeshkian has pledged to secure sanctions relief to improve the economy and boost the country’s oil exports.
If Pezeshkian’s choices for the top jobs are rejected, that will leave ministers from the administration of the late hard-line cleric Ebrahim Raisi in charge of key portfolios, until he can name alternatives.
Abbas Araghchi, who served in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and was a nuclear negotiator under moderate former President Hassan Rouhani, has been nominated to run Iran’s foreign ministry.
The acting foreign minister is Ali Bagheri Kani, a close ally of Raisi, who has been handling talks with regional counterparts about the conflict with Israel. He has said that Israel should pay for last month’s killing of a top Hamas leader in Iran. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.
Read more: Iran hard-liners tighten parliament grip as turnout hits new now
At the oil ministry, Pezeshkian has chosen Mohsen Paknejad for the top job. He has held several positions at the state-run National Iranian Oil Co. including a stint as acting managing director. He also served under Rouhani.
The only appointment of a woman in the list of 19 ministers is Farzaneh Sadegh Malvajerd, a 48-year-old architect and urban planner, who will serve as Iran’s first female minister of roads and urban development.
Iran missile unit conducts military drills near Iraqi border
A missile unit of Iran’s military was conducting exercises near the Iraqi border to “improve the combat readiness” of its forces in the area, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
The exercises were confirmed after residents reported hearing several explosions. They come as tensions simmer with Israel over its war in Gaza and the 31 July assassination of a top Hamas leader in Tehran.
The drills started on Friday near the border towns of Qasreshirin and Gilanegharb in western Kermanshah province and would continue until Tuesday, Irna said, quoting a provincial official.
Israel says it hit Hamas command in a Gaza school
A deadly Israeli strike on Gaza City that drew international condemnation was aimed at a Hamas “command and control centre” embedded within a school and adjacent mosque, said Israel’s military.
Hamas authorities in Gaza estimated about 100 people were killed in Saturday’s missile attack. The figures couldn’t be independently verified and Hamas authorities don’t distinguish between civilian and combatant casualties.
US Vice-President Kamala Harris, who’s running to replace President Joe Biden in the White House in November, rebuked Israel for civilian casualties while affirming its “right to go after the terrorists that are Hamas.
“Yet again, far too many civilians have been killed,” she told reporters on Saturday during a campaign swing in the western US. “We need a hostage deal, and we need a ceasefire. The deal needs to get done, and it needs to get done now.”
The Israel Defense Forces said the air strike, using three precision-guided bombs, targeted “approximately two dozen” members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad who it described as operating within the Al-Taba’een school. It named 19 operatives who it said were killed.
In a video statement, chief IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said an Islamic Jihad commander, Asraf Juda, may also have been present at the compound.
According to IDF intelligence, no women or children were present in the part of the compound that was struck, Hagari added, accusing Hamas of issuing an “unverified casualty count” inconsistent with Israel’s figures.
The US was seeking “further details” from Israeli officials about the strike, Sean Savett, a spokesperson for the White House’s National Security Council, said on Saturday.
Several European and Middle Eastern countries condemned the strike, along with Israel’s repeated targeting of school buildings.
“Horrified by images from a sheltering school in Gaza,” Josep Borrell, the European Union’s top diplomat, said on X. “At least 10 schools were targeted in the last weeks. There’s no justification for these massacres.”
France condemned the strike “in the firmest of terms.” The foreign ministry of Qatar, which along with the US and Egypt has been trying to get a new round of ceasefire talks going, called the bombing a “brutal crime against defenceless civilians”. Turkey said the attack showed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government “intends to sabotage the negotiations for a permanent cease-fire.”
The school was located adjacent to a mosque in Daraj Tuffah, which serves as a shelter for the residents of Gaza, said the IDF. Gaza authorities said the dead included women and children who were sheltering in the school.
The attack was one of the deadliest in the Israel-Hamas war, now into its 11th month, and may hinder international attempts to resume ceasefire talks between the two sides.
The US, Qatar and Egypt have called for a new round of talks on 15 August, the latest attempt by the Biden administration to end the war in Gaza even as the region braces for an expected Iranian attack on Israel. Israel has said it will send a delegation, while Hamas has yet to respond.
The three nations have been pressuring the two sides for months, urging both Israel and Hamas militants to halt fighting in the Gaza Strip that has killed roughly 40,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the coastal strip.
Iran promises to punish Israel in ‘legitimate, resolute’ manner
Iran’s acting foreign minister reiterated the country’s determination to punish Israel for last month’s killing of a top Hamas leader in Tehran.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran will make Israel’s violations costly for this transgressive regime in a legitimate and resolute measure,” Ali Bagheri Kani said, according to a statement released by Iran’s foreign ministry early on Sunday. He did not disclose specifics on the potential scale or timing of the planned retaliation.
Bagheri made the remarks during a phone call with Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib, according to the statement. He emphasised that Iran’s response would be “in line with defending its national security, territorial integrity and sovereignty, and based on international law, global norms, and the United Nations Charter”.
The remarks add to an escalating series of statements from Iranian officials saying that revenge for the assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh was inevitable.
Sailors on US carrier headed for Middle East brace for conflict
As the USS Abraham Lincoln pulled out from Guam, the aircraft carrier’s captain announced to the crew over the intercom that fresh US strikes to destroy Houthi missiles and drones in the Middle East were a “reminder of the environment we are going to”.
The Lincoln is set to relieve the USS Theodore Roosevelt later this month after a planned transit through the South China Sea. It will be the fourth US carrier to be deployed to the region since the 7 October attacks by Hamas on Israel, a sign of the US’s intention to defend its ally and deter major escalation.
As Israel braces for a possible attack from Iran and regional militias in retaliation for assassinations of Hezbollah and Hamas officials, the US has sent defensive reinforcements while pressing for a Gaza ceasefire deal. This makes the environment far more challenging for the latest US carrier sent to the Middle East.
On board the Lincoln, sailors and airmen said they were prepared for what may be a long engagement. On the flight deck and in the cavernous hangar space, mechanics worked on F-18 and F-35 fighter jets that could play a central role in countering attacks against Israel and other targets such as commercial ships.
Critics have contended these deployments offer little in the way of deterrence and are fraught with risks. The US military has been targeted before in the region and the dispatch of US military assets could draw the US into a wider regional conflict.
“We’re exposing US troops to physical harm for no good reason, and the carrier deployment in particular is uniquely problematic,” said Van Jackson, a faculty member for international relations at the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand.
He said carriers wouldn’t deter adversaries who have already been attacked. “Our habitual use of force in the Middle East has gotten us nothing good,” said Jackson, who served in the office of the US Secretary of Defense. DM
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