In Afghanistan’s northeastern Badakhshan province, dozens of excavators operate day and night to extract gold from the mountains where villagers and their livestock once roamed.

Thousands of miners are deployed across the Shiwa area, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) northeast of the provincial capital Faizabad, extracting gold for investors nationwide.

Some residents in the area have profited from the gold rush, only to regret it later, such as farmer Muhammad Amin.

“Before, the river was deep, the water was clean,” said the 74-year-old from Pul-e-Ziri Ban valley.

Since mining got underway, “the water of the river is not drinkable; you can’t even wash your body with that water”, he told AFP.

With tears in his eyes, Amin said the grass along the riverbank “has all gone” and farming is no longer possible due to “the wind and dust”.

Now he can only feed up to 15 goats, compared with as many as 40 previously.

Amin said he was paid half the $20,000 for which he agreed to lease his land to a mining firm that failed to fulfil a promise to restore his fields after the work stopped.

The Taliban authorities have expanded the mining sector since returning to power five years ago, aiming to tap into Afghanistan’s vast underground resources to boost state coffers.

Abdul Mateen Rahimzai, head of Badakhshan’s mines department, said they have registered “almost 650 to 700 companies, and there are thousands of people working manually”.

The World Bank said hundreds of mining contracts have been signed since 2021, with “real growth averaging 25 to 30 percent” annually according to a May report.

– ‘Better than anything else’ –

While mining has temporarily stopped in Amin’s village, not far from his home, in Gulak-Dara valley, dozens of diggers were carving into the mountainside.

With jobs scarce in Afghanistan, the area has drawn workers from across the country.

Mohammad Agha Khwaja Khail, from Kabul, has worked in mining for five years and earns 10,000 Afghanis ($150) a month loading trucks.

“It’s better than anything else… There aren’t many jobs in Kabul,” said the 21-year-old, above the din of diggers.

Shafiullah Ehsas, a father-of-five, transported his excavator hundreds of kilometres from Jalalabad about three months ago.

“In Jalalabad, the gold (mining) work hasn’t started, and it was happening in Badakhshan, so we didn’t have any other option but to bring our machinery here,” said the 32-year-old, who earns 25,000 Afghanis per month.

The Ministry of Mines and Petroleum has sought to regulate the industry, with spokesman Hamayoun Afghan saying resources “used to be extracted erratically; it wasn’t done under supervision” by the previous government.

Gold mining has accelerated in the north, the ministry spokesman said, including in neighbouring Takhar province where an Afghan company was operating with Chinese partners.

Fabrizio Foschini, a researcher at the Afghanistan Analysts Network, said during earlier decades of war “mining mainly benefited insurgent groups, including the Taliban, and local strongmen with links to corrupt government officials”.

Mining firms are now taxed 20 grams of gold per hectare per month, or the equivalent in cash, no matter their profits.

– ‘Reduced to ruins’ –

Mohammadullah Mubariz, the manager of a mining company with about a hundred labourers and 20 diggers, said the team can extract “200 to 300 grams of gold” in a week.

Despite this, he said the firm was operating at a loss because of start-up costs since April.

Rahimzai, head of the provincial mines department, said last year the government collected 112 kilograms (247 pounds) of gold in Badakhshan. According to miners who spoke to AFP, their sale price per gram was around $118.

Rahimzai said that last year, “most of the mines were not registered, and there was no system to collect the fees from them”.

He has also ordered the closure of around 225 sites that caused damage, including in the Shiwa area.

“There was a bridge there, there were shops, and there was a school. All of them were buried under floodwater, mud, and debris. The area has been completely reduced to ruins,” Rahimzai told AFP.

The provincial mining chief also pledged to tackle any corruption, and ensure the “mineral resources of Badakhshan will be utilised properly and for the benefit of the people”.

Some parts of the province remain untouched, including a few kilometres from Shiwa where herder Fazil hoped the miners would stay away.

“Because it’s a place for people, for picnics, for livestock to graze,” he told AFP, giving only his first name for security reasons.

The gold industry “doesn’t benefit the local communities here”, said the 45-year-old, who has brought his herd to the mountains each summer since childhood.

“It benefits only the powerful people.”

By Agence France-Presse

The post “Gold Rush” in Afghanistan: Taliban Mining Booms in Badakhshan. Jobs & Gold for Some, Ruined Land for Others appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.

As Japan marks the anniversary of the 1945 atomic bombs, its leaders are pushing for a renewed debate on nuclear weapons in a challenge to the nation’s long-time pacifist stance.

The post Japan’s Nuclear Debate Unnerves Pacifists as Tokyo Declines to Reaffirm Non-Nuclear Principles Amid China Threat appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.

Turkey’s foreign minister said he expected Egypt to join a joint defense agreement with regional partners designed to stabilize the region that is grappling with the Middle East war.

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed the agreement on Friday against the backdrop of war between the United States and Iran, which has drawn in surrounding nations and disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea.

The war has emboldened Iran and its Houthi allies in Yemen, both of which have attacked Saudi Arabia, and a drone last month hit US assets at an Egyptian port on the Mediterranean.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told state news agency Anadolu he expected Egypt to join the “Mecca Joint Defense Agreement”, calling the country a “natural partner on all issues”.

“I believe that at the next stage Egypt will also be among us in the alliance. We already act toward one another as if we were alliance members,” he said in an interview.

“There are a few technical issues. Once these are implemented, there is no reason for Egypt not to be part of it.”

Fidan said the agreement does not target a specific country.

“There is no common threat that we have put in writing,” he said, according to the news agency.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry said Friday the pact meant an attack on any member would be regarded as an attack on all, adding it was “intended to strengthen collective deterrence”.

In the interview, Fidan said the agreement was “the most important step toward bringing lasting stability to this region”, and suggested the alliance could expand further.

“Under our president’s vision, we should not remain limited to three countries. We should grow and, if necessary, bring all countries under this umbrella,” he said.

By Agence France-Presse

The post Egypt Could Join Saudi-Turkey-Pakistan Defense Pact To Stabilize Middle East, Turkish FM Says appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.

A defense pact between Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan could totally reshape the Middle East. Analysts believe that it could deter Iran, offset an unpredictable United States, and send a strong message to Israel.

This alliance binds three Sunni nations that are strategic allies of the United States with a NATO-style clause that considers any attack on one country as an attack on all.

Analysts doubt this provision will be enforced, as the trio seeks resolutions to the war, with Pakistan and Turkey acting as intermediaries.

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia has positioned itself at the center of this new alliance, signed in Islam’s holiest city, Mecca, but what does this agreement mean in practical terms?

Nearly six months into the Iran war, the US has failed to knock out Iran, while Tehran continues to choke off traffic in and around the Strait of Hormuz and its Houthi allies disrupt shipping in the Red Sea.

This reality has upended the region’s security architecture — forcing a rethink of decades of conventional wisdom rooted in US military supremacy.

Despite the archipelago of US bases across the region, American forces have struggled to intercept all of the drones and ballistic missiles fired by Iran and its proxies.

The new alliance shows “American deterrence has been significantly weakened and that the Iranian threat will increasingly need to be managed by regional powers,” wrote Ali Shihabi, a political analyst close to the Saudi government.

Since the onset of the war, Saudi Arabia has grown closer to Turkey, with whom it previously had fraught ties, as well as Egypt and Pakistan. The four nations have supported mediation in the conflict.

Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have a history of security ties and had already signed a similar agreement last year.

This Saudi-Turkey-Pakistan defense pact is less about creating a new NATO-style alliance and more about an insurance policy. Riyadh is using its financial muscle to buy military assurance from Ankara and Islamabad. The mutual defense agreement is largely symbolic — neither Turkey nor Pakistan is likely to go to war with Iran on Saudi Arabia’s behalf — but the real message is clear: the Gulf can no longer rely solely on Washington and is determined to shape its own regional security architecture.

Andreas Krieg, lecturer at King’s College London, says: “The three countries are unusually complementary. Oil-rich Saudi Arabia has wealth but limited indigenous military-industrial depth… Turkey has technology and manufacturing capacity but needs markets and investment. Pakistan has manpower, military institutional depth and nuclear deterrence but needs financing and industrial opportunities.” “It is in Saudi Arabia’s interest to seek several layers of security rather than one American umbrella.”

Asfandyar Mir, Senior Fellow, Stimson Center, says: “What matters is three militarily capable states, in crucial geographies, with diverse relationships, are committing to one another’s defense. It is not intended to replace the United States. But it certainly reflects a judgment that U.S. commitment alone is no longer sufficient to ensure security and maintain stability.”

Will Turkey and Pakistan attack Iran?

Pakistan has not done much for Saudi Arabia despite coming under attack from Iran and the Houthi militia.

“Turkey and Pakistan will not fight Iran. These countries view themselves as ‘stabilizers’ and want to create a political momentum to push for that,” wrote Asli Aydintasbas, a fellow at Brookings Institution.

HA Hellyer, geopolitical analyst, says even if it is unlikely for Pakistan and Turkey to hit Iran in retaliation for strikes on Saudi Arabia, “this pact sends a politically symbolic signal to Iran and Israel”.

Saudi Arabia has grown closer to Pakistan and Turkey as deep divisions plague the Gulf, even as it reeled from repeated attacks from Iran and its allies.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE were embroiled in a public rift even before the war, and though they recently appeared to reconcile, the UAE is likely to be wary of the new pact, analysts say.

The United States has long sought to build on the Abraham Accords that saw the UAE, Bahrain and others normalize relations with Israel, pushing for a regional alliance that integrates its close ally. But the new defense pact consolidates major US allies into an alternative security architecture that rejects Israel’s hegemony, analysts said.

Pakistan and Turkey have been vocal against Israel, while Saudi Arabia has insisted it will not normalize unless Israel agrees to a path to Palestinian statehood.

“Washington would have wanted a security architecture that includes Israel, and they’re still keen for Saudi Arabia to normalize ties. This alliance doesn’t point to that in the slightest,” said Hellyer.

The alliance, he said, “shows a desire to interrupt both the project of Iranian hegemony and that of Israeli paramountcy”.

By Agence France-Presse and ET Online Desk

The post Fighting Iran & Israel’s “Hegemony”! Saudi-Turkey-Pakistan Defense Pact Aimed at Tehran & Jerusalem: Analyst appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.

A Saudi official said Friday that the joint defense pact signed with Turkey and Pakistan was not linked to “any nuclear ambitions” and was not a threat to any country in the region.

“The agreement does not represent an effort to establish a military axis or a sectarian bloc. Nor is it linked to any nuclear ambitions or arms race; rather, it is focused on building sustainable capabilities,” said Deputy Minister for Public Diplomacy Rayed Krimly in a post on X.

He said the deal “does not constitute a threat to the security of any country in the region, nor does it represent an escalation of tensions between any two states”.

Meanwhile, Turkey insisted on Friday that its joint defense pact signed with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan amid the US-Iran war was “not aimed at any particular country”.

“The Mecca Agreement, which is not aimed at any particular country, will strengthen the shared security and collective deterrence of the three nations… thereby making significant contributions to the preservation of peace and stability in our region,” Burhanettin Duran, the Turkish presidency’s communications director, posted on X.

Saudi, Turkey & Pakistan Sign Defense Pact

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed a joint defense pact amid the US-Iran war.

Riyadh is looking to strengthen its security ties against the backdrop of war between the United States and Iran, which has drawn in surrounding nations and disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea.

The war has emboldened Iran and its Houthi allies in Yemen, both of which have attacked Saudi Arabia, while analysts say Washington is now seen as an increasingly unreliable partner.

In a joint statement published by the official Saudi press agency and Pakistan’s foreign ministry, the three countries announced the signing of the “Mecca Joint Defence Agreement”.

They declared a “shared commitment to further strengthening their collective security and to promoting peace, security and stability in the region and beyond”.

The Pakistani foreign ministry said the pact meant an attack on any member would be regarded as an attack on all, adding it was “intended to strengthen collective deterrence”.

Since the onset of the regional war, Saudi Arabia has grown closer to Turkey, Egypt and Pakistan, which have been pushing for mediation and a resolution to the conflict.

Umar Karim, an expert on Saudi foreign policy at the University of Birmingham, called the deal a “highly significant development”.

The alignment “is clearly oriented towards Iran and meant to address Iran’s new strategic approach which is geared towards dominance of the broader Gulf region”.

The fact that Turkey and Pakistan border Iran means they could “exercise a different kind of leverage” on Tehran, he added.

A source close to the Saudi military and government told AFP before the signing that although the agreement had been under discussion for a long time, “the latest developments in the region expedite it”.

Andreas Krieg of King’s College London said the deal showed a clear desire to diversify alliances beyond the United States.

“Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan are not trying to replace the United States. They are building the capacity to protect their interests when Washington cannot or will not do so.”

Riyadh, in particular, he said, “wants several layers of security rather than one American umbrella”, after the shock of the Iran war.

The deal will support Saudi Arabia’s ambitions to become an organizer of regional security and diversify its defense umbrella, while Turkey and Pakistan gain political clout and access to potential Saudi investments, he said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Mecca on Friday, the Turkish presidency said on X, sharing an image of the meeting.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and army chief Asim Munir also traveled to the Gulf kingdom for the signing.

“Although taking place against the backdrop of heightened tensions in the Gulf, the visit will carry significance beyond the immediate crisis and short-term considerations,” Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi said on Thursday.

The deal reflects closer ties between the three Muslim-majority nations.

Saudi Arabia and Pakistan had already announced a mutual defense pact in 2025, a move that drew attention because Pakistan is the Muslim world’s only nuclear-armed state.

Pakistan has also sought to mediate efforts to end the US-Iran war, while Turkey has played a diplomatic role in negotiations aimed at ending the war in Gaza.

Renewed Houthi attacks

The deal also comes as a truce between Riyadh and the Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen has broken down, with the Houthis launching attacks on Saudi soil and declaring a maritime blockade against Saudi Arabia, which they have attempted to enforce by attacking Saudi tankers.

The Houthis, backed by Iran, have added pressure to Gulf energy exporters, who are already under strain from Tehran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, by threatening Red Sea shipping — another key route for oil exports.

Saudi Arabia has led a military coalition in support of Yemen’s internationally recognized government against the Houthis since 2015.

A truce was agreed four years ago which largely held until hostilities broke out again in recent weeks.

On Thursday, the Houthis killed at least 58 Yemeni government troops in missile and drone attacks, a military source said, in one of the deadliest days in the conflict for years.

Yemen’s civil war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and triggered a major humanitarian crisis.

By AFP

The post Saudi, Turkey, Pakistan Defense Pact Not a Military Axis or Sectarian Bloc Against Any Country: Riyadh & Ankara appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.

China has confirmed the deaths of two sailors in a collision in the South China Sea, according to government statements nearly a year after the incident.

In August 2025, a Chinese navy vessel collided with one from its own coast guard while chasing a Philippine patrol boat near a disputed shoal.

A Chinese Coast Guard spokesperson confirmed at the time that there had been a confrontation, but did not mention the collision, nor injuries or deaths.

The People’s Armed Police Force said on social media Wednesday it had awarded four “martyrs” — including Coast Guard sailors Yi Xinyu and Cheng Long — a special title for “steadfast political convictions, exemplary deeds and outstanding achievements”.

Yi and Cheng both died on August 11, 2025 — the date of last year’s collision — in a “rights defense operation”, according to their profiles on the government’s “China Martyrs Network”.

“Yi sacrificed his life… while participating in a frontline rights defense operation in the South China Sea,” according to the website.

Cheng “heroically sacrificed his life during a maritime rights defense operation”, the website reads.

It is not clear when the sailors were given the designation of “martyr”, which awards their families special housing and medical support among other aid.

Yi was 21 years old at the time of his death, and Cheng was 25, according to their profiles on the website.

The incident had occurred near the contested Scarborough Shoal as the Philippine coast guard escorted boats distributing aid to fishermen in the area, spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela had said in a statement.

The post China Confirms Deaths of 2 Sailors in 2025 South China Sea Collision While Chasing Philippine Ship, Calls Them “Martyrs” appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.

Space is no longer the empty void it once appeared. Thousands of dead satellites, spent rocket stages and shattered fragments now circle Earth at tens of thousands of kilometers an hour, turning near-Earth orbit into a crowded and increasingly dangerous place.

As Matthew Archer, Deputy Director for Launch and Space Domain Awareness, UK Space Agency, said earlier: “Most of those don’t collide with anything, most of the time. But any of them can cause significant damage or even destroy potential satellites.” “The growing number of objects is making space far more congested, so the need for this capability is growing all the time.”

Officials at Chilbolton Observatory, UK, track a rising flood of objects circling Earth.

Their data powers Britain’s space monitoring efforts. As the massive antenna swings into place, control-room screens light up with every detection: stars, working satellites, and abandoned rocket bodies.

Experts at Chilbolton Observatory, operated by the UK’s national space laboratory RAL Space, monitor UK-licenced satellites and fast-multiplying fragments of space debris swirling around them.

The space junk includes defunct man-made objects like rocket bodies, dead satellites and fragments from launches, explosions and collisions that threaten to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere or crash into functioning satellites.

According to the European Space Agency, there are more than 46,000 pieces of debris weighing a total of 17,000 tonnes currently in orbit.

“Most of those don’t collide with anything, most of the time,” Matthew Archer, deputy director for launch and space domain awareness at the UK Space Agency, told AFP on a visit to the observatory.

“But any of them can cause significant damage or even destroy potential satellites.”

On Wednesday, part of a SpaceX rocket about the size of a bus slammed into the Moon, unleashing a stream of debris. Researchers warn the growing density of space junk could trigger the so-called “Kessler syndrome” cascade of collisions.

Chilbolton Observatory feeds data to the National Space Operations Center (NSpOC) — led by the UK Space Agency and UK Space Command — that works around the clock to prevent orbital collisions and track debris re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.

“Our role is to look at everything that happens and is in space,” said Archer.

Space infrastructure underpins some 20 percent of the UK economy, said Archer. The growing “number of objects is making space far more congested, so the need for this capability is growing all the time.”

As he speaks, multiple Starlink devices — part of the constellation of thousands of internet satellites launched by US tycoon Elon Musk’s SpaceX — float by on the control room screens.

There are currently 14,000 satellites orbiting Earth, with some 1.7 million satellites planned in the coming years. SpaceX alone has unveiled plans to begin launching more than one million satellites in 2028.

The UK has pledged to invest $114 million in the NSpOC, which issues around 3,000 monthly collision warnings to satellite operators.

The researchers also monitor to ensure satellite operators are complying with their licenses and track foreign “adversaries”.

“We see examples of countries that have demonstrated the ability to get close or to fly by certain objects,” said Archer. “We do have to track … threats regularly from a military perspective.”

And when space debris re-enters the atmosphere, scientists are on stand-by to issue alerts for objects which may not burn up before landfall.

In January, Britain and European countries closely watched the re-entry of a Chinese rocket, amid fears fragments could land in Britain. The rocket eventually splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.

Asteroids

“The whole environment is changing,” said Chilbolton Observatory’s facility leader Sarah Nash. “It really is a multinational environment, and there are so many objects that are not controllable.”

“The only way that all of this can continue to operate safely is by keeping track of where everything is,” Nash told AFP.

Another branch of their work is planetary defense, which involves identifying threats like comets and asteroids.

Last year, the UK Space Agency became a member of the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN), which monitors the movement of asteroids including those that could hit Earth.

“We work in partnership with NASA and others in the US to effectively give a percentage chance that (it) might hit the Earth and when that might happen,” said Archer.

While smaller space rocks frequently burn up in Earth’s atmosphere, large orbiting rocks like asteroids are rarer.

The UK will support the European Space Agency’s 2029 mission to study a 375-meter (1,230 feet) wide asteroid called Apophis as it flies by Earth.

“Asteroids are a really interesting challenge in many ways. It’s unusual for an asteroid to come out of nowhere,” explained Nash.

The giant space rocks are generally monitored by optical sensors, as they are too far away for Chilbolton’s radar dish to detect.

“If they’re close enough for the (radar) antenna to see them, then we have bigger problems,” laughed station manager Graham Marshall.

• By Agence France-Presse
• Edited by ET Online Desk

The post Starlink, Dead Rockets & 17,000 Tons of Space Junk: How a UK Observatory is Fighting & Tracking Space Debris appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.

Her voice is that of a frail, elderly woman, but ousted Bangladesh leader Sheikh Hasina still has the power to incite from exile, vowing to return home despite facing the gallows.

Analysts say her defiance is not a death wish, but a desperate bid to remain politically relevant, claw on to her supporters, and revive an outlawed party which once dominated Bangladesh.

To her enemies, Hasina is evil incarnate — a convicted fugitive sentenced to hang for crimes against humanity over her failed bid to crush the 2024 revolution that toppled her.

The 78-year-old told AFP in July from India that she wanted to return to Bangladesh by the year’s end.

“I may be killed. I may be arrested. I may be sent to prison,” Hasina wrote in an email sent from hiding.

“I am fully aware of my fate. Still, I want to go back because my people are calling me.”

On Wednesday, marking two years since she fled by helicopter to old ally India, she is due to address by telephone a New Delhi event entitled “Sheikh Hasina’s homecoming”.

“Sheikh Hasina’s return is important for the survival of the party — she is still a symbol,” said Mohammad Jalal Uddin Sikder, a political science professor at North South University (NSU) in Dhaka.

One senior member of her Awami League (AL) party said he believed she was genuine in wanting to return.

“She feels obligated because party members are being arrested left and right, despite having no involvement in any crimes,” he said, too fearful himself to speak on record.

“Her return is a way of repaying the party’s loyalty.”

Dhaka’s Prothom Alo newspaper suggested her vow was “part of a strategy to energize party members, build pressure for the lifting of the ban on the party, and reclaim political space”.

But former senior Awami League member Mahmudur Rahman Manna, now a fierce critic of Hasina, dismissed the vow as self-serving.

“There are people in the AL who have some degree of public acceptance. Sheikh Hasina could have given them a little space to help bring the party back after the ban. She didn’t,” he said.

“The idea that she would come back for the sake of the party is absurd.”

Hasina also knows that simply threatening to return will needle Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, who swept February’s elections in which the Awami League was barred, Sikder said.

Political imprisonment has a long history in Bangladesh.

Under Hasina’s rule, Rahman’s mother, former leader Khaleda Zia, spent years in jail in Dhaka on graft charges that her party said were politically motivated.

“The Bangladesh government isn’t ready to accept her, even if she lands in jail directly from India,” Sikder told AFP.

“Her return will create political instability… I doubt the government can handle that.”

‘Ensure Justice’

Not so, says Zahed Ur Rahman, an adviser to Bangladesh’s prime minister.

“We want her back — please return,” he told reporters. “We have written to India. The individual we want to bring back intends to return. We are ready — let her come, and we will ensure justice.”

Hasina refused to attend her trial in Dhaka, where she was found guilty of incitement, ordering killings and failing to prevent atrocities.

Her vow to return comes as Bangladesh and India seek to repair strained ties, with Hasina remaining a persistent point of friction.

Dhaka has repeatedly requested her extradition, while New Delhi has said only that the request is being examined through the legal process.

But relations have improved since Rahman, leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, became leader, and India has invited him to a BRICS summit in September.

India’s foreign ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal, speaking to reporters on Tuesday, sought to distance New Delhi from Hasina’s “homecoming” speech.

“The government has no involvement whatsoever in it, nor does it endorse any views that may be expressed at the forum,” he said.

But some in Bangladesh see India’s hand in using Hasina’s return threat as leverage.

Mahmudur Rahman, editor of Dhaka’s Amar Desh newspaper, told AFP he saw her threat as part of a power struggle between New Delhi and Dhaka. “Delhi wants to gain the upper hand,” he said.

“India is just playing the ‘Hasina card’ to put pressure on the government.”

By Agence France-Presse

 

The post The “Hasina Card”: Bangladesh Critics Say India is Using Exiled PM Sheikh Hasina to Pressure Dhaka appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.

Former US Vice President Mike Pence supported continued military operations against Iran and urged the US and Israel to “finish the job.”

In a Fox News interview, he praised Donald Trump for directly attacking Iran and urged the U.S. President to order the military to strike Tehran’s remaining nuclear facilities and eliminate its ability to project power in the Strait of Hormuz and across the region.

“They don’t make peace with the enemy, they make peace with a defeated enemy,” Pence added.

He added that given the Islamic Republic’s positions and denial of negotiations, he is confident that a time will come when Trump will decide that enough is enough. Pence called the joint US-Israeli operation against Iran “historic” and said that now is the time for the military forces of the two countries to complete this mission.

Earlier, Trump said negotiations with Iran were ongoing despite Tehran’s contradictions, and Tehran was facing a “last chance before decapitation.”

Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, said he agreed to continue to pursue talks with Iran at the request of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and other countries.

Iran’s foreign ministry denied that talks with Washington were taking place, but Trump insisted they were. “We are talking right now,” he said.

“This is a last chance for them to sign a good document,” the US president added. “I want to give them every last chance before decapitation.”

The discussions are focused on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which Trump said could come “literally by tomorrow,” and the denuclearization of Iran, which he said could “take a little while.”

Washington and Tehran have been at war since February 28, when the United States and Israel launched surprise strikes against Iran, though months of on-and-off diplomacy have led to periods of relative calm.

More than five months later, Iran remains able to fire missiles and drones at US and allied targets in the region and retains its enriched uranium stockpiles.

Early Tuesday, the UK maritime security agency UKMTO said that a cargo vessel was struck by an “unknown projectile” in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Oman.

Japan Vows Major Military Build-Up as Threats from China, North Korea and Russia Surge – Defense Chief

The vessel, which was not named, reported being hit and authorities were investigating, UKMTO said, without giving specifics on damage or injuries.

In what has become a routine pattern, Trump last week had threatened to hit Iran “very hard” — potentially with renewed attacks against energy infrastructure — only to pull back on Saturday, saying the “perimeters” of a deal were there.

Iran, for its part, said it is not currently negotiating with the United States.

“Our negotiations are with Oman to secure passage through the Strait of Hormuz,” the critical oil corridor, foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said.

Hormuz has been a major sticking point in efforts to end the war. Since a ceasefire broke down, Iran has reprised a blockade of the waterway that it first imposed early in the war, obstructing vessels attempting to pass and firing on commercial ships.

Calling Tehran “duplicitous” for “openly and proudly” saying it was not negotiating, Trump wrote on social media: “Whether Iran wants to admit it or not, we are, in fact, talking of a solution to a problem that they have caused, for decades.”

He pointed to the United States’ counter-blockade of Iranian ports, adding: “Nothing gets through to Iran, unless we want it to, and nothing will get through, unless a Deal, or Total Surrender, is accomplished.”

Before the war, there was free passage through Hormuz, but Iran now insists on retaining control and charging fees, something the United States rejects.

Tehran has refused to let ships travel any route other than one that hugs the Iranian coast.

On Sunday, Baqaei told state television that a deal was close on managing Hormuz together with Oman, which sits on the other side of the narrow waterway.

“We are now going to reach an understanding on a route acceptable to both sides — neither the northern route nor the southern route — but one that respects the sovereign rights of both sides and safeguards our national interests and security,” he said.

But he insisted that such an agreement did not mean the reopening of the strait.

The US president said at the start of the conflict that the war was necessary to deal with Iran’s nuclear program and he repeated on Monday that “the denuclearization of Iran has to happen.”

Western nations accuse Iran of seeking a bomb, though Tehran insists the program is entirely civilian in nature.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One over the weekend, Trump said he had been asked by Iran as well as regional US partners to hold off on further strikes, which he claimed would have been “the biggest attack since World War II.”

Iranian media denied that Tehran had asked Trump not to strike.

A previous ceasefire deal fell through last month. It was supposed to open the Strait of Hormuz to ships carrying vital energy exports from the Gulf to feed the global economy.

By Agence France-Presse

The post “Finish The Job”: Ex-American VP Says It’s Time for U.S. & Israel To Eliminate Iran Once For All: Latest News appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.

Iran’s foreign ministry has said that there were currently no negotiations with the US, but there were talks with Oman over the management of the Strait of Hormuz.

“We are not currently negotiating with the United States. Our negotiations are with Oman to secure passage through the Strait of Hormuz,” said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei during a weekly press briefing.

The post Iran War Latest News: Tehran Says Currently No Negotiations With USA, Only with Oman over Strait of Hormuz appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.

The post At-Least 13 Killed in Pakistan Suicide Attack During Protest in Northern Swat District, Over 20 Injured appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.

A US Marine Corps (USMC) F-35B fighter jet crashed and erupted into flames near Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego on Friday morning, officials said. The pilot ejected safely before impact and suffered minor injuries.

USMC said: Emergency personnel responded this morning to an aircraft mishap on the flightline of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar at approximately 10:00 a.m. local time today, involving an F-35B assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 11, 3d Marine Aircraft Wing. The pilot ejected, was transported to a local medical facility in stable condition for evaluation and treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.

The single-seat F-35 went down at approximately 10:00 am local time in the vicinity of the base’s flight line, south of Miramar Road near Mitscher Way, the Marine Corps said in a statement.

“There was an aviation mishap involving a Marine Corps F-35B in the vicinity” of the air station, base officials confirmed, classifying the incident as a Class A mishap — the military’s most severe category, typically involving the destruction of an aircraft, damage exceeding $2.5 million or the permanent disability or death of personnel.

No cause for the crash has been released, and officials have not identified the pilot.

MCAS Miramar, located about 14 miles north of downtown San Diego, is a major hub for Marine aviation and was once home to the US Navy’s elite “Top Gun” fighter weapons school, made famous by the 1986 film starring Tom Cruise.

The F-35B is the short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) variant of F-35 Lightning II, a fifth-generation stealth fighter designed for the US Marine Corps. It is also operated by the UK and Italy.

Unlike the conventional F-35A variant used by the Air Force or the carrier-based F-35C, the B model is equipped with a shaft-driven lift fan behind the cockpit and a swiveling rear exhaust nozzle that can redirect thrust downward.

This propulsion system, powered by a Pratt & Whitney F135 engine producing more than 40,000 pounds of thrust, allows the aircraft to operate from short runways, amphibious assault ships or austere forward bases without needing full-fledged airstrips.

The F-35B has an approximate flyaway cost of $109 million, making it the most expensive of the three F-35 variants.

The crash is among several F-35 accidents in recent years involving various variants, though officials highlighted the aircraft’s safety systems as pilots managed to eject each and every time.

Earlier F-35B Crashes

On September 28, 2018, in South Carolina, the first crash of any F-35 variant was recorded. An F-35B from Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501 crashed during a training flight. The pilot ejected safely. Investigators determined a manufacturing defect caused an engine fuel tube to fail.

The entire F-35 fleet was temporarily grounded for inspections.

Two years later, on September 29, 2020, an F-35B from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121 collided mid-air with a Marine Corps KC-130J tanker during aerial refueling near Naval Air Facility El Centro.

The pilot ejected, but the aircraft was destroyed. The KC-130 made an emergency landing, and all its crew members survived.

A year later, on November 17, 2021, a British F-35B crashed into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after takeoff from Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier. The pilot ejected safely and was later recovered. An inquiry later found that an engine intake blank had been left in place, causing the loss of thrust.

On December 15, 2022, at NAS Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas, an undelivered F-35B undergoing production flight testing crashed during a failed vertical landing attempt. The test pilot ejected while the aircraft was still on the ground and was not seriously injured. The jet was written off.

Next year, on September 17, 2023, an F-35B from Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501 experienced an electrical malfunction during a training flight in heavy rain and instrument meteorological conditions. The pilot ejected near North Charleston.

The unmanned aircraft continued flying for approximately 11 minutes and 21 seconds under its automatic flight-control systems before crashing in a rural area.

The aircraft’s debris was not discovered for more than a day. A Marine Corps investigation later attributed the mishap to pilot error, while noting the electrical failures and display malfunctions as contributing factors.

On May 28, 2024, an F-35B, a developmental test aircraft being flown by an Air Force pilot, crashed shortly after takeoff following a refueling stop en route from Fort Worth, Texas, to Edwards Air Force Base, California. The pilot ejected at low altitude, sustained serious injuries, but survived. The aircraft was completely destroyed.

Despite all these crashes, the pilots managed to eject and survive, though some sustained injuries.

By ET Desk

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In a resort town on the southern coast of the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula, ice cream vendor Anatoli was at his wits’ end.

His shop would typically sell up to 400 ice creams a day. But a series of Ukrainian strikes on the peninsula this summer has seen the visitors dry up.

“The season is completely ruined, it’s practically non-existent,” he told AFP from Simeiz, a beachside community of around 2,500 people.

Once a magnet for millions of Russian holidaymakers each year, Crimea’s tourism industry has collapsed in recent months, as Ukrainian drone attacks have starved the peninsula of electricity and fuel.

Hotel bookings have fallen more than 70 percent compared to last July, while restaurants and swimming pools lie empty.

The Russian government has pledged to support the sector, offering a one-time payment to tourism workers equivalent to three months’ salary, but the amount is based on the minimum wage and is not a long-term fix.

Anatoli said he was now trying to make ends meet on just a fraction of his former business.

“We’re still carrying on, because everything had been prepared in advance: the equipment, the repairs, the license, the taxes,” he said.

With its abundance of cicadas, plentiful sunshine a year and verdant olive groves, Crimea’s southern coast is in many ways more reminiscent of the Mediterranean than much of Russia, which seized the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.

Generations of Russians spent their holidays on the peninsula during the Soviet era, many of whom regard Crimea as an integral part of their country.

One luxury hotel in Simeiz –- whose managers did not wish to be named –- said it was offering 30 percent discounts to bring the tourists back.

“At the weekend it gets busier, but otherwise…” one hotel manager said, trailing off.

AFP saw walkways, sun loungers and a restaurant terrace at the hotel deserted.

Ukrainian attacks have killed more than a dozen people on the peninsula since the beginning of June, including a child, according to Russian-installed authorities.

Drone strikes on Crimea’s electrical substations have meanwhile triggered power outages, including in the largest city of Sevastopol, while Russian-installed authorities suspended fuel sales last month amid strikes on oil depots.

– ‘No-one’s safe’ –

Some tourists were undeterred, despite the danger.

Yulia said she was visiting Simeiz from Belgorod — a Russian region that borders Ukraine and has itself been the target of Ukrainian strikes

The night before, a Ukrainian drone crashed into a block of flats a few kilometres away from Simeiz, wounding 17 people, according to officials.

“I heard a drone twice and that was it,” she said.

“The reason we’ve come is that we’re not afraid. Everyone I know is writing to me, asking me how we weren’t afraid to come here.”

She came with her family on a train that crosses the Kerch Bridge — the only practical route into Crimea from Russia, as the road via Russian-occupied Ukraine has become too dangerous due to Ukrainian drone strikes.

Fellow tourist Vladislav, who arrived by road from the Russian region of Krasnodar, said he had brought jerry cans filled with petrol in case he was unable to find fuel.

Like Yulia, he said he was not worried, having become accustomed to the regular buzz of drones.

Ukraine often fires hundreds of drones into Russia each night, in retaliation for Russia launching hundreds of drones at Ukrainian towns and cities.

“Look, they fly over us too,” said Vladislav.

“They fly overhead, whether we’re waking up in the morning — at 7 am even — or when we’re going to bed, they’re always flying about. So no one’s safe.”

Business is Suffering

Ukraine says the strikes are aimed at pressuring Moscow into peace talks.

Moscow began its full-scale offensive against Ukraine in February 2022, and has regularly struck its neighbor, including from the Crimean peninsula.

The Russian government has pledged more than 4.3 billion rubles ($54 million) in one-time payments to employees in the sector, including travel agents, tour operators and restaurateurs.

But the payments only apply to tourism.

Lilia, a holidaymaker from an area north of Sevastopol, said the private sector was “struggling”.

“I know people who run a driving school. It’s completely at a standstill because of the high price of petrol,” she told AFP, sitting on a beach in Simeiz.

“Business is suffering, of course it is.”

By Agence France-Presse

 

 

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The US and Saudi Arabia have carried out coordinated attacks on positions held by the Hashed al-Shaabi, an Iraqi paramilitary network that incorporates powerful pro-Iran armed groups.

These factions, which form part of the broader Tehran-backed “axis of resistance,” have for years posed a persistent threat to American forces and interests in Iraq and the wider Middle East.

Meanwhile, a powerful alliance of pro-Iran armed groups warned on Wednesday that a response to the deadly US-Saudi strikes in Iraq was “inevitable”.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which has targeted US facilities hundreds of times during the Middle East war, said: “our response to the American enemy is inevitable, and may target its tools in Saudi Arabia”.

Hashed al-Shaabi

The Hashed al-Shaabi, also known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), is a network of Shia-majority factions that was established in 2014 to fight the Islamic State group.

It was formed following a fatwa from Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the highest Shia Islamic religious authority in Iraq, at a time when IS was conquering swathes of the country.

Pro-Iran armed groups heeded the call and were also joined in the fight by Iraqi volunteers from across the country.

The Hashed forces were mostly trained by Iranians and led by Tehran-backed armed groups, which fought American forces after the US-led invasion that toppled former ruler Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Their efforts were overseen by General Qasem Soleimani, the former head of the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Soleimani was killed in an American strike in Baghdad in 2020.

In 2016, a law integrated the Hashed into the regular security forces, and a year later the alliance contributed to IS’s defeat by the Iraqi army, which was supported by the US-led anti-jihadist coalition.

The US has held major sway in Iraq since its 2003 invasion. But Iran has also built its influence and seen its Shia allies installed in Baghdad’s halls of power.

Iraq has long been a proxy battleground for the US and Iran.

Today the Hashed encompasses dozens of groups, including brigades belonging to powerful pro-Iran armed factions, which are blacklisted as terrorist organizations by the US.

Some factions face accusations of collecting government salaries for their fighters while acting independently of the state.

Over the years, they have seen their clout grow, with some gaining seats in parliament, even as several group leaders, including the Hashed’s top commander, have been subjected to US sanctions.

Several pro-Iran groups are also part of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq alliance, which has claimed hundreds of attacks against US facilities in Iraq and the region during the Middle East war.

They pledge their allegiance first and foremost to the Tehran-led “axis of resistance”, which includes Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Hamas in Gaza and Yemen’s Houthis.

The most active among them are Kataeb Hezbollah, which has long spearheaded attacks on US interests in Iraq, and over the years has lost key commanders in American strikes.

They also include Kataeb Sayyid al-Shuhada and the al-Nujaba movement.

In some cases, these groups are present on Hashed al-Shaabi bases. But they also have their own bases, arm depots and workshops, mostly for making drones. The groups mainly rely on explosive-laden drones but also possess rockets and are believed to have short-range ballistic missiles.

By Agence France-Presse

The post Hashed al-Shaabi: Who Are the Iraqi Militia Group Hit by US-Saudi Strikes? appeared first on EURASIAN TIMES.

Meanwhile, Houthi rebels said they targeted a Saudi oil tanker in the Red Sea with ballistic missiles for violating a blockade on the kingdom’s ports. Saudi Arabia had yet to comment on the Houthis’ claim, but reported having intercepted drones targeting oil facilities in its east, blaming pro-Iran militias in Iraq.

“The targeting of the Saudi vessel came after it ignored warnings,” a Houthi military spokesman said, identifying the ship as the NCC Ghazal and adding it had been “forced to turn back”.

The website MarineTraffic, owned by maritime tracking firm Kpler, listed the Ghazal as a Saudi-flagged tanker whose last known location was the port of Yanbu, the terminus of an important oil pipeline on the kingdom’s Red Sea coast.

Last week, the Iran-backed Houthis declared a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia and have since claimed attacks targeting Saudi tankers and oil infrastructure.

The blockade has threatened Saudi Arabia’s ability to get its supplies to the world following Iran’s parallel blockade of the Strait of Hormuz after hostilities resumed in the Middle East war, cutting off the kingdom’s only other maritime route.

Riyadh last week struck Houthi targets in Yemen in response to the threats to Red Sea shipping.

A spokesman for the Saudi defense ministry said late Tuesday that “aerial defenses intercepted and destroyed several drones that attempted to target oil installations” in the country’s east.

The spokesman, Turki al-Maliki, added that “these new terrorist attacks were launched from Iraqi territory and carried out by militias linked to Iran”.

It was the second day in a row Riyadh had blamed Iran-backed groups in Iraq for launching attacks.

By Agence France-Presse

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