Trump says he will be involved ‘indirectly’ in Iran nuclear talks
The US president’s comments come ahead of a second round of high-stakes talks in Geneva on Tuesday. Listen to this article Listen to this article | 5 mins info United States President Donald Trump has said that he will be involved “indirectly” in the second round of the high-stakes nuclear talks between Iran and Washington in Geneva. Trump’s comments on Monday came as Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi travelled to the Swiss city for meetings ahead of the indirect talks with the US. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Tensions in the Gulf region remain high ahead of the crucial negotiations, with the US deploying a second aircraft carrier to the region and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei warning that any attack on Iran would prompt a regional war. Trump told reporters on board Air Force One that the discussions on Tuesday were significant. “I’ll be involved in those talks, indirectly. And they’ll be very important,” he said. “Iran is a very tough negotiator.” Asked about the prospects for a deal, Trump said Iran had learned the consequences of its tough approach last June, when the US joined in Israel’s 12-day war on Iran and bombed three of its nuclear sites. The attacks came amid indirect talks between Iran and the US on Tehran’s nuclear programme and resulted in their derailment. However, Trump suggested Tehran was motivated to negotiate this time. “I don’t think they want the consequences of not making a deal,” he said. Despite the US president’s comments about Iran seeking an agreement, the talks face major potential stumbling blocks. Washington has demanded that Tehran forgo uranium enrichment on its soil and has sought to expand the scope of talks to non-nuclear issues, such as Iran’s missile stockpile. Advertisement But Tehran, which insists that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes, has said it is only willing to discuss curbs on its programme in exchange for sanctions relief. It has said it will not accept zero uranium enrichment and that its missile capabilities are off the table. ‘Fair and equitable deal’ Araghchi, who arrived in Geneva earlier on Monday, said he was in the city “with real ideas to achieve a fair and equitable deal”. He added, in a post on X, “What is not on the table: submission before threats.” The Iranian diplomat also met with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, in Geneva for a round of technical discussions. Tehran had suspended cooperation with the United Nations watchdog body after the US and Israel’s attacks on its nuclear sites. The IAEA has been calling on Iran for months to say what happened to its stockpile of 440kg (970 pounds) of highly-enriched uranium following the Israeli-US strikes and to let inspections fully resume, including in three key sites that were bombed: Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan. Tehran has allowed IAEA some access to the sites that were not damaged, but has not allowed inspectors to visit other sites, citing a potential risk of radiation. Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, reporting from Tehran, said there was “optimism” in the Iranian capital ahead of the talks. “Officials here say the Iranian delegation in Geneva includes fully authorised economic, legal, political and technical teams. This signals that the Iranian side is ready for some serious concessions, particularly regarding its nuclear programme,” he said. But Serdar noted that the talks come in the face of a massive US military build-up in the region, which continues to grow. The Iranians, too, he said, were not “stepping back”, with the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launching military drills in the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf on Monday. Iran has repeatedly threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, a vital international waterway and oil export route from Gulf Arab states, in retaliation against any attack. The move would choke a fifth of global oil flows and send crude prices sharply higher. Iran has also threatened to strike US military bases in the region in the event of an attack, promoting concerns of a wider war. “This military escalation is going on in parallel with the diplomatic engagement. The regional countries are also stepping up diplomacy, because they have their concerns and they have their own fears,” Serdar said. Advertisement Adblock test (Why?)
Australian PM Albanese says no help for ISIL relatives held in Syria camp
Listen to this article Listen to this article | 4 mins info Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced that his government will not repatriate Australian women and children from Syria who have been identified as relatives of suspected ISIL (ISIS) fighters. “We have a very firm view that we won’t be providing assistance or repatriation,” Albanese told ABC News on Tuesday. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Albanese said that while it is “unfortunate” that children have been affected, Australia is “not providing any support”. “As my mother would say, you make your bed, you lie in it,” he said. “We have no sympathy, frankly, for people who travelled overseas in order to participate in what was an attempt to establish a caliphate to undermine and destroy our way of life,” he added. A spokesperson for Australian Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke also warned that those who return to Australia from Syria will face the law if they have committed crimes. “People in this cohort need to know that if they have committed a crime and if they return to Australia, they will be met with the full force of the law,” the spokesperson said, according to the Reuters news agency. A total of 34 women and children holding Australian citizenship were released on Monday from the Kurdish-controlled Roj detention camp in northern Syria. The Australians, who are said to be relatives of ISIL fighters, were later returned to the camp due to what was described as “technical reasons”, the Reuters and AFP news agencies reported. Roj detention camp director Hakmiyeh Ibrahim told Al Jazeera that the women and children from 11 families were handed over to relatives “who have come from Australia to collect them”. Advertisement The women and children were seen boarding minibuses to reach the Syrian capital, Damascus, from where they were to depart for Australia. But halfway through the trip, Kurdish escorts were ordered to turn back, as the group did not have permission “to enter government-held territory”, according to Al Jazeera’s Heidi Pett, who is reporting from Aleppo. Rashid Omar, an official at the Roj camp, later confirmed to AFP that the Australian nationals were forced to return to the detention facility. He said that representatives of the families were still working to resolve the issue with Syrian authorities. ‘Concern in the Australian population’ The humanitarian organisation Save the Children Australia filed a lawsuit in 2023 on behalf of 11 women and 20 children, seeking their repatriation, citing Australia’s “moral and legal responsibility” to its citizens. The Federal Court ruled against Save the Children, saying the Australian government did not control their detention in Syria. A 17-year-old Australian boy died while under detention in Syria in 2022. Rodger Shanahan, a Middle East security analyst, told Al Jazeera that the Australian government is facing more resistance to the return of its citizens from Syria following the deadly Bondi Beach attack in December, in which 15 people were killed, at a Jewish festival in Sydney. “I think that there’s a concern in the Australian population that people might appear to have done away with their radical views, but they still retain them deep down,” Shanahan said. While Kurdish-led forces still control the Roj camp, they withdrew from the larger al-Hol camp in January, when Syria’s central government’s security forces took control of the area. At one point, the al-Hol camp housed some 24,000 people, mostly Syrians, but also Iraqis, and more than 6,000 women and children with foreign nationalities. Governments around the world have been resisting the repatriation of their citizens from the camps in Syria. The Roj camp also housed United Kingdom-born Shamima Begum, who was 15 when she and two other girls travelled from London in 2015 to marry ISIL fighters in Syria. In 2019, the UK government revoked Begum’s citizenship soon after she was discovered in a detention camp in Syria. Since then, Begum has challenged the decision, which was turned down by an appeals court in February 2024. Born in the UK to Bangladeshi parents, Begum does not hold Bangladeshi citizenship. She is reported to still be in the Roj camp. Adblock test (Why?)
Train derails in Switzerland, injuring five amid avalanches in the Alps
The accident, near the town of Goppenstein, occurred as the region is under its second-highest avalanche warning, a level four out of five. Listen to this article Listen to this article | 2 mins info Published On 17 Feb 202617 Feb 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share A regional train has derailed in southern Switzerland, injuring five people, police said, as the risk of avalanches in the region has reached its second-highest level. The accident on Monday near the town of Goppenstein occurred amid heavy snow and at an altitude of 1,216 metres (4,000 feet), according to the AFP news agency. “According to initial findings, an avalanche may have crossed the tracks shortly before the train passed,” police said, adding that the public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation. “Five people were injured. One of them was taken to hospital,” police added. The train accident follows a series of deadly avalanches across the Alps in recent days involving skiers. On Friday, three skiers were killed after being swept away by an avalanche in the upmarket French Alpine resort of Val d’Isere. Cedric Bonnevie, who oversees the resort’s pistes, said one of the victims was a French national while the others were foreign citizens. He said one victim appeared to have been caught in the avalanche high on the mountain slope, while the other two were part of a group of five, including a professional guide, lower on the mountain face and did not see the avalanche approaching. In Italy, rescuers said last week that a record 13 backcountry skiers, climbers and hikers had died in the mountains over the previous seven days, including 10 in avalanches triggered by an exceptionally unstable snowpack. Fresh snowfall during recent storms, combined with windswept snow sitting on weak internal layers, has created especially dangerous conditions across the Alpine arc bordering France, Switzerland, Austria and Italy, Italy’s Alpine Rescue said. Advertisement “Under such conditions, the passage of a single skier, or natural overloading from the weight of snow, can be sufficient to trigger an avalanche,” Federico Catania, Alpine Rescue’s spokesperson, said. The avalanche deaths have occurred on ungroomed mountain slopes, away from the well-maintained and monitored Winter Olympic sites in Lombardy near the Swiss border, Cortina d’Ampezzo in Veneto, and the cross-country skiing venues in Val di Fiemme, within the autonomous province of Trentino. A Securite Civile helicopter flies over an off-piste area around the Alpe d’Huez, French Alps, during an avalanche emergency response rescue mission on January 29, 2026 [Jeff Pachoud/AFP] Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,453
These are the key developments from day 1,453 of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Listen to this article Listen to this article | 4 mins info By News Agencies Published On 16 Feb 202616 Feb 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Here is where things stand on Monday, February 16: Fighting Russian forces launched attacks across Ukraine on Sunday, wounding six people in the central-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, three in the northeastern Sumy region, and two in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, the Ukrinform news outlet reported, citing local officials. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia has launched about 1,300 drones, 1,200 guided aerial bombs and dozens of ballistic missiles at Ukraine over the past week alone. About 1,600 buildings in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, remained without heat on Sunday following recent Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, officials said. Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba said Russian strikes overnight on Sunday had damaged railroad infrastructure in the southern region of Odesa and the Dnipropetrovsk region. The Ukrainian military said in a statement that it hit a key oil terminal in southern Russia, near the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula, on Sunday. The attack was on the Tamanneftegaz oil terminal near the village of Volna in the Krasnodar region. Ukrainian forces also launched a drone attack on the Russian Black Sea port of Taman, which handles oil products, grain, coal and commodities, causing damage and triggering several fires, according to Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of Russia’s Krasnodar region. He said more than 100 people were working to put out the fires. Kondratyev said there were more Ukrainian attacks on the Russian resort city of Sochi and the village of Yurovka, close to the seaside town of Anapa. They caused less significant damage, he added. Advertisement Russian air defences downed five drones approaching the Russian capital, Moscow, according to Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. A Ukrainian attack also left five municipalities in the Russian border region of Bryansk and parts of its capital without heat and electricity, Governor Alexander Bogomaz said. Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Sunday that its troops had taken the village of Tsvitkove in the southeastern Zaporizhia region, according to the TASS news agency. Russia controls about 75 percent of the Zaporizhia region, but battle lines had been largely static since 2022 until recent Russian advances. Russia’s army chief, Valery Gerasimov, said on Sunday that Russian troops had seized a dozen villages in eastern Ukraine in February. He made the announcement while visiting Russian troops in Ukraine, the AFP news agency reported. Politics and diplomacy Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau arrested the country’s former energy minister, German Galushchenko, who resigned in November amid a huge corruption scandal, as he tried to cross Ukraine’s border. Zelenskyy said in a statement that Ukraine has agreed to new energy and military support packages with European allies. The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said she felt that the bloc’s governments were not ready to give Ukraine a date for membership into the EU, despite demands from Zelenskyy. Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics echoed Kallas’s comments, saying that “there is no readiness to accept a date” for Ukrainian membership. He added that he has little hope of an imminent peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has accused Ukraine of delaying the restart of a pipeline carrying Russian oil to Eastern Europe via Ukraine to “blackmail” Hungary to drop its opposition to Ukraine’s future EU membership. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un presided over the completion ceremony of a new housing district in Pyongyang for families of troops who died in overseas military operations, state media KCNA reported. It is believed that more than 6,000 North Korean soldiers were killed while fighting alongside Russian troops in Ukraine. Russia will not end the militarisation of its economy after fighting in Ukraine ends, the head of Latvia’s intelligence agency, Egils Zviedris, told the AFP news agency on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, which ended on Sunday. A wounded Ukrainian serviceman walks in a street in Kyiv during snow fall on Sunday, February 15 [Sergei Supinsky/AFP] Adblock test (Why?)
Israel’s move to register land ‘systematises dispossession’ of Palestinians
Listen to this article Listen to this article | 5 mins info Israel’s decision to resume the land registration processes in the occupied West Bank for the first time since 1967 will facilitate the dispossession and displacement of Palestinians in violation of international law, Israeli rights groups say. The land registration process – also known as settlement of land title – has been reinstated after nearly six decades, following the government’s approval on Sunday of a proposal submitted by far-right Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich, Minister of Justice Yariv Levin, and Minister of Defence Israel Katz. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list While Israel has increased the confiscation of Palestinian land through military orders, with the activity reaching record levels in 2025, the new move gives Israel a legal avenue that “systemati[ses] the dispossession of Palestinian land to further Israeli settlement expansion and cement the apartheid regime”, Bimkom, an Israeli human rights organisation that focuses on land and housing rights, said in a statement. Michal Braier, head of research at Bimkom, told Al Jazeera that land registration will be inaccessible to large segments of the Palestinian population who never had their land formally registered, or who may fail to prove ownership. In the occupied West Bank, land registration under the Jordanian Administration – which followed British Mandate rule and lasted from 1949 to 1967 – covered about 30 percent of the total area. As a consequence, about 70 percent of the West Bank is “completely unregistered”, Braier said, making it “very hard to determine who actually owns the land”. Advertisement Even for those whose land was registered, “the legal bar for proving land ownership is very, very high, in a way that most Palestinians won’t have the proper documents to prove it”, said Braier. ‘Full annexation’ In 1968, Israeli occupation authorities froze most land settlement procedures in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, making transfer of ownership down the family line hard to prove for Palestinians. Additionally, legal documents could have been lost or stored in homes that are now out of reach to Palestinian refugees displaced by the Arab–Israeli war (1948-49) – when the newly-founded Israel seized control of 77 percent of Palestine – and in the Six Day War of 1967, which ended with Israel capturing the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria, while occupying the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. The Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now said the newly reinstated process of land registration amounts to a “full annexation” of Palestinian land. “This is a way for Israel to take control over the West Bank,” Hagit Ofran, a Peace Now member, told Al Jazeera. “The government is asking for papers that are dating back to the British mandate or to the Jordanian time 100 years ago.” “This is something that, very rarely, Palestinians will be able to prove, and therefore, by default, the land will be registered under [Israel’s] name,” she added. Israel’s Supreme Court last month rejected a petition opposing the resumption of the land registration process, filed by local human rights groups Bimkom, Yesh Din, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and HaMoked. The court deemed it “premature” to rule on the implementation of the government’s decision. Israeli settlers attempt to stop foreign activists and Palestinians from picking olives during harvest season in the village of Turmus Aya near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank [File: Mohammed Torokman/Reuters] ‘Totally invalid’ Israeli authorities have provided few details on how the process will unfold. Yet, a similar scenario has already played out in occupied East Jerusalem, where the settlement of land title that began in 2018 resulted in the expropriation of Palestinian land. Research conducted by Bimkom found that only 1 percent of the East Jerusalem land registered for ownership between 2018 and 2024 was registered to Palestinians, while the rest came under the control of the Israeli state or private Israeli owners. The move expanded Israel’s de facto annexation over East Jerusalem in breach of international law, including, most recently, an advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2024. Advertisement In its landmark ruling, the World Court found that Israel’s “expropriation of land and properties, transfer of populations, and legislation aimed at the incorporation of the occupied section are totally invalid and cannot change that status”. More broadly, the ICJ ruled that Israel’s long-term occupation of Palestinian territory – comprised of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip – was unlawful, and must be terminated “as rapidly as possible”. Braier said the Israeli government’s decision was its latest move expand control over Palestinian territory in breach of international law. “The government is not hiding its intentions. They want to expand settlements and push Palestinians into as small an area as possible.” Adblock test (Why?)
Netanyahu calls for dismantling Iran’s nuclear programme in any US deal
Listen to this article Listen to this article | 4 mins info Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has outlined the conditions he considers necessary for any prospective deal between the United States and Iran, including the dismantling of all of Tehran’s nuclear infrastructure. His comments on Sunday came as Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi headed to Switzerland for a second round of nuclear talks with the US. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Speaking at the annual Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Netanyahu said he was sceptical of a deal, but had told US President Donald Trump last week that any agreement must include several elements. “The first is that all enriched material has to leave Iran,” he said. “The second is that there should be no enrichment capability – not stopping the enrichment process, but dismantling the equipment and the infrastructure that allows you to enrich in the first place”. The third, he said, was resolving the issue of ballistic missiles. Netanyahu also called for sustained inspections of Tehran’s nuclear programme. “There has to be real inspection, substantive inspections, no lead-time inspections, but effective inspections for all of the above,” he said. Iran and the US resumed nuclear negotiations in Oman on February 6, months after previous talks collapsed when Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign against Iran last June, which started a 12-day war. The US joined in the attacks, bombing three Iranian nuclear sites. Netanyahu’s comments mark the first time he has spoken publicly on the discussions with Trump in Washington, DC, last Wednesday. The meeting was their seventh since Trump returned to office last year. Advertisement Trump told reporters afterwards that they had reached no “definitive” agreement on how to move forward with Iran, but that he had “insisted that negotiations with Iran continue to see whether or not a deal can be consummated”. According to a report by Axios, the two leaders agreed to intensify economic strangleholds on Iran, mostly on its oil sales to China. More than 80 percent of Iranian oil exports current go to China. The report, which cited US officials, said Netanyahu and Trump agreed in their meeting on the necessary end state: an Iran without the capability to obtain nuclear weapons. But they disagreed about how to get there. Netanyahu told Trump it would be impossible to make a good deal, while Trump said he thought it was possible. “Let’s give it a shot”, Trump said, according to Axios. Iran has long denied any intent to produce nuclear weapons, but has said it is prepared to discuss curbs on its atomic programme in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. It has ruled out linking the issue to missiles, however. The CBS broadcaster, meanwhile, reported on Sunday that Trump had told Netanyahu during a meeting in Florida in December that he would support Israeli strikes on Iran’s ballistic missile programme if the US and Iran could not reach a deal. The network cited two sources familiar with the matter. There was no immediate comment from the US or Israel on the CBS report. The renewed push for diplomacy comes after Trump threatened new attacks on Iran and sent a US aircraft carrier to the region, citing a deadly crackdown on antigovernment protesters in January. Tensions in the region remain high, meanwhile. On Friday, Trump said he was sending a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East, and openly discussed changing Iran’s government. Asked if he wanted a government change in Iran, Trump responded that it “seems like that would be the best thing that could happen”. Asked why a second aircraft carrier was headed to the Middle East, Trump said: “In case we don’t make a deal, we’ll need it … if we need it, we’ll have it ready.” For its part, Iran has promised to retaliate to any attack, saying it will strike US bases in the Middle East. The continued tensions have sparked fears of a wider regional war. Adblock test (Why?)
Iran seeks to get out of FATF blacklist amid domestic political divisions
Listen to this article Listen to this article | 7 mins info Tehran, Iran – Iran says it will continue efforts to get out of a blacklist of a prominent global watchdog on money laundering and “terrorism” financing despite “20 years of obstruction” from domestic opponents. The statement by the Financial Intelligence Unit of Iran’s Ministry of Economic Affairs on Sunday came two days after the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) renewed its years-long blacklisting of Iran, according to a report by the official IRNA news agency. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list The FATF also ramped up measures aimed at isolating Iran from global financial markets with a particular focus on virtual asset service providers (VASPs) and cryptocurrencies. It recommended member states and financial institutions around the world to: Refuse to establish representative offices of Iranian financial institutions and VASPs or consider the noncompliance risks involved. Prohibit financial institutions and VASPs from establishing offices in Iran. On a risk basis, limit business relationships or financial transactions, including virtual asset transactions, with Iran or people inside the country. Prohibit financial institutions and VASPs from establishing new correspondent banking relationships and require them to undertake a risk-based review of existing ties. Even the flow of funds involving humanitarian assistance, food and health supplies as well as diplomatic operating costs and personal remittances are recommended to be handled “on a risk basis considering the “terrorist” financing or proliferation financing risks emanating from Iran”. What does the FATF move mean? Iran has been blacklisted by the FATF for years and is currently on the list in the company of just two other countries: North Korea and Myanmar. Advertisement Since October 2019, Iran has had “heightened measures” like supervisory examination and external audit requirements recommended against it and has been subject to “effective countermeasures” since February 2020. This contributed to making access to international transactions increasingly difficult or impossible for Iranian banks and nationals and made the country more dependent on costlier shadowy third-party intermediaries for transactions. The new countermeasures emphasise existing frameworks but also specifically cite virtual assets, signalling an increased focus. The fact that the FATF also urges countries and global institutions to remain wary of risks of having any dealings with Iran may mean even more limited transaction opportunities for Iranian entities and nationals. Small banks maintaining old correspondent relations with Iranian counterparts may also reconsider after being recommended to re-evaluate existing links. The isolation has hobbled state-run or private income streams and contributed to the continuous depreciation of the Iranian rial over the years. Links with Iran’s nuclear dilemmas The FATF, formerly known by its French name, was established by the Group of Seven (G7) countries in 1989 to combat money laundering but later had its mandate expanded to countering financing of “terrorism” and weapons of mass destruction. It has been formally raising concerns about Iran since the late 2000s, which is also when it started calling for countermeasures as international tensions grew over Iran’s nuclear programme and the country was sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council. But a year after Iran signed a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with world powers that lifted the sanctions, the FATF also acknowledged a “high-level political commitment” from Iran and agreed to an action plan for the country to address its compliance requirements. The centrist government of President Hassan Rouhani, who had clinched the deals, pressed ahead with ratifying several laws needed to fulfil the action plan despite opposition from hardliners who were firmly against the increased financial transparency and international supervision. But United States President Donald Trump unilaterally reneged on the nuclear deal in 2018, imposing a “maximum pressure” campaign that has remained in effect until today. The move empowered the argument from the hardliners in Tehran, who succeeded in blocking the ratification of the rest of the FATF-linked legislation, leaving the issue dormant for years. Advertisement Washington has retained the sanctions over the years with some of the latest – including the blacklisting in January of two United Kingdom-based cryptocurrency exchanges – allegedly connected to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The UN Security Council sanctions were also reinstated against Iran in September when Western powers triggered the “snapback” mechanism of the nuclear accord. They include an arms embargo, asset freezes and travel bans as well as nuclear, missile and banking sanctions that are binding for all UN member states. Support for ‘axis of resistance’ The Iranian hardliners railing against any progress on FATF-related legislation have presented two main concerns. They assert that fully adhering to the watchdog’s guidelines would curb Tehran’s ability to back its “axis of resistance” of aligned armed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and Palestine. The axis lost its base in Syria with the fall of President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. Hardliners have also suggested that Iran’s ability to circumvent US sanctions may be significantly compromised by disclosing all the information required by the FATF. Iran has been selling most of its oil to China at hefty discounts, using a shadow fleet of ships that turn their transponders off to avoid detection in international waters. The country has also for years been forced to rely on a capillary network of currency exchanges and intermediaries, some of them based in neighbouring countries, such as Türkiye and the United Arab Emirates. To assuage some of the domestic concerns, two FATF-related laws ratified by Iran in 2025 were passed with special “conditions” and reservations infused in the text. One of the main conditions was that the ratified regulations must not “prejudice the legitimate right of peoples or groups under colonial domination and/or foreign occupation to fight against aggression and occupation and to exercise their right to self-determination” and “shall not be construed in any manner as recognition of the Zionist occupying regime”, a reference to Israel. Iran also said it would not accept any referral to the International Court of Justice and asserted that its own Supreme National Security Council would determine which groups qualify as “terrorist” outfits. Those
Thousands of Western nationals fought Israel’s war on Gaza: What to know
Thousands of Western nationals joined the Israeli military amid its genocidal war in Gaza, raising questions over international legal accountability for foreign nationals implicated in alleged war crimes against Palestinians. More than 50,000 soldiers in the Israeli military hold at least one other citizenship, with a majority of them holding US or European passports, information obtained by the Israeli NGO Hatzlacha through Israel’s Freedom of Information Law has revealed. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Since October 7, 2023, Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has killed at least 72,061 people in military actions that have been dubbed war crimes and crimes against humanity by rights groups. Rights organisations around the world have been trying to identify and prosecute foreign nationals, many of whom have posted videos of their abuse on social media, for their involvement in war crimes, particularly in Gaza. So, what does the first such data reveal about the Israeli military? And what could be the legal implications for dual-national soldiers? An Israeli soldier pushes a Palestinian man while military bulldozers demolish three Palestinian-owned houses in Shuqba village, west of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on January 21, 2026 [Zain Jaafar/AFP] Which foreign nationals enlist most in the Israeli military? At least 12,135 soldiers enlisted in the Israeli military hold United States passports, topping the list by a huge margin. That is in addition to 1,207 soldiers who possess another passport in addition to their US and Israeli ones. Advertisement The data – shared with Al Jazeera by Israeli lawyer Elad Man, who serves as the legal counsel for Hatzlacha – shows that 6,127 French nationals serve in the Israeli military. The Israeli military, which shared such data for the first time, noted that soldiers holding multiple citizenships are counted more than once in the breakdown. The numbers show service members enlisted in the military as of March 2025, 17 months into Israel’s devastating war in Gaza. Russia stands at third, with 5,067 nationals serving in the Israeli military, followed by 3,901 Ukrainians and 1,668 Germans. The data revealed that 1,686 soldiers in the military held dual British-Israeli citizenship, in addition to 383 other soldiers who held another passport in addition to their British and Israeli ones. South Africa, which brought a case of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also had 589 of its citizens serving in the Israeli military ranks. Furthermore, 1,686 soldiers hold Brazilian citizenship, 609 Argentine, 505 Canadian, 112 Colombian, and 181 Mexican, in addition to their Israeli nationality. Israel’s military comprises an estimated 169,000 active personnel and 465,000 reservists – of whom nearly eight percent hold dual or multiple citizenships. Can dual nationals be tried for war crimes in Gaza? Ilias Bantekas, a professor of transnational law at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, told Al Jazeera that “war crimes incur criminal liability under international law, irrespective of what the law of nationality says”. Otherwise, Nazi Germans, whose law allowed and obliged them to commit atrocities, would incur no liability, Bantekas added. “Dual nationality is immaterial to criminal liability,” he said. However, the major issue in prosecuting the accused “is getting [them] on your territory and putting them before a court”, he noted. Bantekas also added that there is no difference in the question of liability between native soldiers and those of dual nationalities. Dual nationals, in fact, “may in addition be liable under laws that prevent military service in foreign conflicts or joining armies of other nations”, the professor said. Prosecuting foreign nationals has been “pretty much the norm”, he noted. “Think of Nazi Germans tried by Allied war crimes tribunals after World War II, Japanese officers tried by US military courts, and crimes committed during the Bosnian conflict where alleged offenders were tried by various courts in Europe,” Bantekas told Al Jazeera. Advertisement Last May, the United Kingdom’s Foreign Office said that allegations of war crimes should be submitted to the Metropolitan Police. “The UK recognises the right of British dual nationals to serve in the legitimately recognised armed forces of the country of their other nationality,” it said. “Allegations of war crimes should be submitted to the Met Police for investigation.” Israel has damaged or destroyed more than 80 percent of Gaza buildings [File: AFP] Have foreign nationals been tried for Gaza war crimes? Nationals with dual or multiple citizenships have not yet been arrested for committing war crimes in Gaza. But rights groups, including lawyers, are trying to get them prosecuted. In the UK last April, the Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and the UK-based Public Interest Law Centre (PILC) filed a 240-page report to the Metropolitan Police. Accusations against the 10 British individuals, whose names have not been publicly disclosed, include murder, forcible transfer of people, and attacks on humanitarian personnel, between October 2023 and May 2024. In September last year, a case was filed in Germany against a 25-year-old soldier, born and raised in Munich, for participating in the killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, by PCHR, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), Al-Haq, and the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights. The sniper, with shootings documented near Gaza’s al-Quds and Nasser hospitals between November 2023 and March 2024, was a member of a unit known as “Refaim”, “ghost” in Hebrew. Legal proceedings against members of the same unit are also under way in France, Italy, South Africa, and Belgium. The Belgian public prosecutor’s office also opened a judicial investigation last October into a 21-year-old Belgian-Israeli citizen, a member of Refaim. The mandatory military service law in Israel exempts dual nationals residing abroad, making the enlistment a voluntary act, an important distinction when such crimes are tried in foreign courts. Lawyers have reportedly noted that the voluntary nature of the soldiers’ service makes them more liable for alleged crimes. Men carry a body bag as they bury one of 53 unidentified bodies at a cemetery in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on
As Sudanese city returns to life after two-year siege, drone threat lingers
Markets reopen in Dilling, South Kordofan’s second largest city. Yet residents face critical medical shortages and persistent aerial attacks. Listen to this article Listen to this article | 4 mins info Life is cautiously returning to the streets of Dilling, the second largest city in South Kordofan state, after the Sudanese army broke a suffocating siege that had isolated the area for more than two years. For months, the city had been encircled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), cutting off vital supply lines and trapping civilians in a severe humanitarian crisis. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list While the lifting of the blockade has allowed goods to flow again, local authorities and residents said the city remains under the threat of drone attacks. Al Jazeera Arabic’s Hisham Uweit, reporting from Dilling, described a city “recovering slowly” from the economic strangulation. “For over two years, heavy siege conditions were imposed on the city. Movement disappeared, goods vanished and livelihoods narrowed,” Uweit said. “Now the eyes of buyers pick through the few available goods … as if the market itself is announcing its recovery at a leisurely pace, drawing determination from the patience of its residents.” Markets return to life The immediate impact of the army’s advance is visible in the local markets, which were largely shuttered during the blockade. Fresh produce, absent for months, has begun to reappear in stalls. “The market and vegetables have all returned,” a local trader told Al Jazeera. “Before, the market didn’t exist. Now we have okra, potatoes, sweet potatoes, chillies and lemons. Everything is with us, and the market has returned to normal.” Advertisement However, the resumption of trade masks deep scars left by the isolation. The blockade devastated the local economy, stripping residents of their savings and leaving infrastructure in disrepair. ‘The price of isolation’ While food supplies are improving, Dilling’s health sector remains in critical condition. The city’s main hospital is struggling with a severe lack of equipment and essential medicines, a shortage that has had life-altering consequences for the most vulnerable. Abdelrahman, a local resident suffering from diabetes, paid a heavy price for the siege. During the months of encirclement, insulin supplies ran dry. His condition deteriorated rapidly, ultimately leading to the amputation of both his legs. “He had a medical appointment after a month, but the month closed off his check-ups,” a relative of Abdelrahman said. “He is suffering severely. He is missing his insulin. There is a shortage of food, and he is tired. His health has declined sharply.” ‘Chased like locusts’ Despite the Sudanese army asserting control over access routes, the security situation in Dilling remains precarious. Authorities said the city is subjected to almost daily drone strikes launched by the RSF and SPLM-N, targeting infrastructure and residential areas. For Maryam, a mother displaced multiple times by the conflict, the breaking of the siege has not brought peace. She described the terror of the unmanned aerial vehicles that hover over their homes. “Now the drones bombard and chase us. They chase us like locusts,” Maryam said. “When they come, we just run to hide. When they hover over us, they burn the thatch [roofs], start fires and force you to leave your home.” She added that the constant threat of aerial bombardment makes normal life impossible: “If you are having a meal, like porridge, … the moment you see them, you leave it.” Uweit said that while the lifting of the siege is a “glimmer of hope” and a first step towards recovery, the dual challenge of rebuilding a shattered health system and fending off persistent military attacks means Dilling’s ordeal is far from over. Adblock test (Why?)
Bangladeshi PM-in-waiting urges opposition to work with BNP
NewsFeed “In the interest of the country, we must remain united.” Bangladeshi Prime Minister-in-waiting Tarique Rahman urged opposition parties to work with the incoming BNP government after its landslide victory in the first elections since Sheikh Hasina’s ouster. Published On 14 Feb 202614 Feb 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Adblock test (Why?)