WebinarsNew
Explore Business Standard
Sharp differences between Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over the West Asia conflict were on full display on Thursday during the opening day of the BRICS foreign ministers' meeting in New Delhi, signalling the challenges the bloc faces in reaching a consensus position on the crisis. It is learnt that there were heated exchanges between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and the UAE's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Khalifa Shaheen Al Marar during the first sessions at the meeting. As the situation appeared to deteriorate, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov intervened to cool the tempers, it is learnt. In his address, Araghchi said Iran is a victim of "illegal expansionism and warmongering" and urged the BRICS nations to "explicitly condemn" what he described as violations of international law by the US and Israel. The Iranian foreign minister called upon the BRICS to resist "Western hegemony and the sense of impunity that the US believes it is entitled ...
Kuwait on Tuesday accused Iran of sending an armed Revolutionary Guard team to attack an island in the Middle East nation. Iran didn't immediately acknowledge the allegation by Kuwait, which came under repeated attack by Iran in the war. Kuwait said that a team of six armed members of the Guard tried to infiltrate Bubiyan Island in the northwest corner of the Persian Gulf near Iraq and Iran. It accused the team of planning to carry out "hostile acts." Kuwait said that it detained four of the men, while two escaped. Kuwait, which said one of its security officials had been wounded in the attack.
With the West Asia conflict disrupting global supply chains, a top Iranian official has said that Tehran is "not happy" about India and other countries facing its consequences and asserted that this was "caused" by the US and Israel. In an interview to India Today, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei also said the US and Israel have to be "held accountable" by the international community for "what they started and are still continuing". Asked if he saw any end to this conflict as countries like India are suffering because of its impact and choking of the Strait of Hormuz, Baghaei said, "You have to see what happened on February 28. Before that, the Strait of Hormuz was open and free to every country." "Iran was forced to take certain measures under international law, and I have to stress this: what Iran did is allowed under international law because we had to face aggressors, the United States and Israel, who were abusing the soil of other Persian Gulf states to ...
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that major US military operations against Iran are over - but he stopped short of saying the conflict cannot be restarted. Rubio told reporters at the White House that "Operation Epic Fury" - the attack the US and Israel mounted on Iran on Feb. 28 - "is concluded" because its objectives were met. Rubio said recent clashes with Iran related to US efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz were "defensive in nature." "We're not cheering for an additional situation to occur," he said. "We would prefer the path of peace." He said Iran must agree to President Donald Trump's demands on its nuclear program and reopen the strait, a waterway vital to global oil and gas supplies. US forces pressed ahead with an effort to guide commercial ships through the strait, but so far only two vessels are known to have passed through. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the US prefers a peaceful effort to guide vessels out of the Persian Gulf but is ready to ac