In a letter to his Middle Eastern counterparts, Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said, "While standing ready for bilateral technical cooperation toward containing the dust particles, the Islamic Republic of Iran calls for the signing of a relevant regional convention, with the participation of the United Nations and its specialized agencies, particularly the United Nations Environment Program and the World Health Organization."

According to an IRNA report from Iran's Environmental Protection Organization, the vice president and head of the Environmental Protection Organization arrived in Kuwait at the head of the technical-diplomatic delegation to conclude and operationalize the agreements to deal with dust storms.

In a meeting with high-ranking Kuwaiti officials, Ali Selajgeh emphasized regional cooperation to deal with dust and implement the regional action plan.

A memorandum of understanding on dust storms was signed between the Environmental Protection Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the General Competent Authority of the Environment of the Government of Kuwait.

One of the most critical aspects of this cooperation is holding seminars, conferences, and joint meetings, exchanging visits of experts and scientists in the field of dust storms, forming a special working group and sharing knowledge, exchanging experiences in the field of management, adaptation and dealing with dust storms, as well as using the experiences of existing international centers in the field of early warning and forecasting of dust storms.

Since 2022, frequent dust storms are covering the skies of the Middle East, the acute dust storms stall everyday life and regular economic activity as the Middle Eastern economies are recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic. 

In early 2022, NASA initiated a project to document daily satellite images of Middle East skies covered in khaki dust and monitor dust storms' emergence and spread. 

 

 

The Lebanese Hezbollah confirmed that it targeted a disputed area with Israel with three drones over gas installations in the Mediterranean. 

According to Hezbollah, the drones were for surveillance reconnaissance, and Israel had received the message.

Israeli defense ministry published footage targeting drones it claimed belonged to Hezbollah. Israeli media reported that "the Israeli army shot down three drones, which were launched by Hezbollah towards Israeli's exclusive economic zone in the Mediterranean Sea."

Israel is said to gain over 50 billion Euros in natural gas sales to Europe as the Union wants to get rid of Russian energy. The drones were headed toward the Karish offshore gas field that is believed to hold 1.75 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves.

Israeli English-language newspaper, Jerusalem Post, pointed out that "one of them was shot down by an F-16, while two others were shot down by the Barak 8 Navy on INS Eilat," noting that "it is the first time that Use of the system against air threats.

The Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said, "The Air Force intercepted three drones belonging to Hezbollah that were on their way to the Karish platform."

In the first statement after the incident, Israeli Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, warned Iran, saying: "Do not test us," and considered that "Iran is the number one threat to us." Lapid added: "We will do everything we can so that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon."

A new report by the Israeli research center "Alma" revealed that the Lebanese Hezbollah owns about 2,000 drones, many of which were developed by Iran.

The Israeli newspaper "Jerusalem Post," quoting the center, reported that Hezbollah has been using drones since the 1990s. An article bylined by Seth Frantzman said that "Over the last several years Iran has rapidly expanded its drone program and encouraged its proxies in the region to develop their own drone technology."

 "much of Hamas and Hezbollah's unmanned technology derives from or originated in Iran, which has maintained an active military drone program since the Iran-Iraq War," Frantzman added. It also explains the Israeli prime minister's remarks about Iran. 

And she continued, "Hezbollah used its drones in Syria as well as against Israel," noting that the Lebanese militias launched a march towards Israel before the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

 

 

On Monday, Iran said that reviving its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers depends on Washington, amid expectations that talks to salvage the deal will resume after a top European Union diplomat’s visit Tehran.

"The ball is now in Washington's court," Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said in a weekly televised press conference.

The Iranian news agency ISNA, quoting an adviser with the Iranian nuclear negotiating team, reported that Qatar will host indirect talks between Washington and Tehran on the nuclear agreement.

"Iran chose Qatar because it is a friendly country," Mohammad Marandi told the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency.

And the spokesman for the National Security Council in the White House, John Kirby, said yesterday that he could not talk about the status of the Iranian nuclear negotiations.

Kirby told reporters, that nothing has changed about Washington's position, which sees the nuclear deal as the best way to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

On Saturday, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell suggested resuming nuclear negotiations with Iran in the coming days, and expressed his happiness with the decision taken by Tehran and Washington.

Borrell added, "We agreed today that this visit will be followed by a resumption of negotiations between Iran and the United States, facilitated by my team to try to resolve the outstanding issues."

For his part, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian announced that his country will seek to resolve problems and differences through negotiations that will resume soon.

Washington withdrew from the nuclear agreement during the presidency of Donald Trump in 2018, and then imposed severe sanctions on Tehran. The sanctions have brought ordinary Iranians to their knees, the recent protests that revolved around food and salary clearly show the effects of the sanctions.

The War in Ukraine is also another factor that motivates the Europeans to convince the Americans to revive the nuclear deal. EU wants to replaced part of Russian energy with Iranian imports.

Over 35 HDP officials have been arrested in an operation by Turkish security forces in Adana. The Adana Court Presidency has issued arrest warrants for a number of others.

According to witnesses, some of the detainees were tortured during their arrest.

On June 21, the Constitutional Court approved the closure of the HDP prepared by the prosecutor general. In July, the court officially gave the HDP three months to file its defense. The 843-page case calls for the ban on political activities of 451 HDP members and the closure of the party.

The party’s closure will be accepted if 10 out of 15 members of the Constitutional Court vote in favor of shutting down the party.

Since the failed 2016 coup, Turkish authorities have jailed hundreds of thousands of activists, journalists, politicians and civilians. The HDP has seen many of its members and offices in Turkey detained and closed, a move that has severely weakened the party.

 

The Turkish army and its mercenaries bombed the village of Arab Hassan in the north of the city of Manbij with artillery, and heavy and medium weapons, the press center of the Manbij Military Council said. The council did not report any casualties. 

One June 1, Recep Teyyip Erdogan announced a military operation against two Kurdish cities of Tal Rifaat, and Manbij. The cities are ruled by the YPJ, a Kurdish dominated party that Turkey labels terrorist.

On Monday, in a televised press conference, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said that his country is ready to reach a "good agreement" with world powers.

However, according to Reuters, he blamed the United States for the stalled talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.

"Until today, we are ready to return to Vienna to reach a good agreement if Washington fulfills its obligations," Khatibzadeh said.

The US State Department announced last Tuesday that the United States is waiting for a constructive response from Iran regarding reviving the agreement, noting the need to return to the agreement before Tehran acquires a nuclear bomb.

While the Director of the International Atomic Agency, Rafael Grossi, had confirmed that negotiations with Iran to revive the nuclear agreement had reached a dead end.

Grossi said, "Iran had not responded to the three traces of uranium found in secret sites, stressing the need to provide precise details because verification and inspection are essential parts of the agency's work in Iranian nuclear facilities."

The Vienna talks, launched in April 2021, to revive the nuclear agreement had been suspended since last March after failing to resolve several files.

The situation worsened after the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency issued last week a US-European resolution officially criticizing Iran for its lack of cooperation, after a previous report last month in which the agency confirmed that it had not obtained "clarifications" regarding traces of enriched uranium found in three unauthorized sites.

Tehran responded to the agency's decision last Wednesday by closing 27 cameras dedicated to monitoring its nuclear activities.

Hawar News Agency reported that the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) held its ninth Congress on November 18 and 19 and elected Asia Abdullah and Salih Muslim as the new co-chairpersons of the party. The congress was held in Hasakah with the participation of 700 representatives and party members.

The People's Protection Units, PYD, is the backbone of the US-back Syrian democratic forces that control east and north Syria. Salih Muslim was a popular Kurdish leader in Rojava and the most popular Kurdish representative in the Syrian War. At 70, he leads one of the most active Kurdish movements in the Middle East. 

Muslim attended primary school in Kobane. He got a chemical engineering degree at Istanbul Technical University. A father of five children, in 2010, he was appointed party leader at the fourth congress of PYD. In 2013, Sharvan Muslim, a Muslim's son, was killed in the fighting to liberate the Rojava.

Muslim's reelection as PYD co-chairman would anger Ankara as the Turkish authorities want him. In 2018, Muslim was detained by Czech authorities on a warrant from Turkey. Turkey has asked several European countries to extradite Muslim.

In February 2018, Turkey elevated Muslim to its most-wanted list and offered a $1 million reward for his capture. He faces 30 life sentences if convicted.

During the EU foreign ministers' endorsement of the strategic partnership document with the Gulf countries, that the Gulf countries are a reliable partner to supply energy and ensure the balance of the global market.

Last month, the European Union unveiled a new document to enhance cooperation with the Gulf states, in the areas of energy, green transformation, trade, economic diversification, regional stability and global security, and humanitarian and development challenges.

The document issued in the name of "Prosperity Partnership" and adopted by the High Representative of the European Union and the European Commission, and endorsed today by the Union's foreign ministers, is concerned with the strategic partnership with the Gulf states, and aims to expand and deepen joint cooperation.

The document touched on the free trade agreement with the Gulf states, whose discussions were suspended in 2008, saying, "The European Union's framework for free trade agreements has been developed and currently includes ambitious provisions on sustainable development, the gradual abolition of export duties and other measures that distort trade and investments."

The document also indicated that the partnership between the European Union and the GCC countries represents 20 percent of the global economy, 17.5 percent of global trade, and covers more than half of global foreign direct investments.

In 2020, the European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries were the largest import partner and the fourth largest export partner, with rates of 17.8 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively, and thus the two parties achieved a distinguished trade and investment relationship, the document explains.

According to the document, the EU will seek to strengthen EU-GCC cooperation on economic integration, a business environment and sustainable investment, where enterprises can compete on the basis of their advantages and equal opportunities and address unfair trade, practices and subsidies that distort competition.

According Rojava media, the military police kidnapped three Kurdish citizens from the village of Nasriya in the town of Jinders in the Afrin region, which is under the control of Turkish armed groups.

Meanwhile, Hall refugee camp security forces found bodies of two women, one from Raqqa and the other unidentified.

Turkish-backed militants continuously abduct Kurdish civilians since the invasion of the city by the Turkish forces in 2018. Just in May 2022, Turkish-backed groups arrested or kidnapped 55 civilians, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported.

Tel Aviv has warned Bashar Al-Assad that his palace would be hit if his regime continued to allow  Iran to smuggle arms through his territory, Saudi news portal Elaph reported Monday.

It comes after the Damascus Airport was forced shut after an Israeli bombing damaged a runway, which allegedly targeted the delivery of Iranian arms.

Israel's Channel 12 claimed on Monday that attacks on the Damascus Airport had effectively stopped 70 percent of Iranian arms smuggling.

The television channel reported that the air strikes were a clear message to Assad to stop Iranians from using his country as a transit route, as "he and his country's economy will be severely affected."

Iran is a key Assad ally, and Tehran is thought to operate several Syrian airports and military facilities. Tel Aviv has regularly targeted these sites claiming they are being used to funnel in arms for Tehran's regional proxies. 

Israel cooperates with Russia on such strikes in Syria. Russia silents its missile defence systems often turned off during Israeli air raids, but recent tensions over Ukraine have reportedly led to ruptures in this arrangement.

This evening, at around 11 PM Tehran time, an explosion hit a café in Tehran’s Shahriar city while a birthday party was ongoing inside the café, KurdSat News correspondent in Tehran reported. 

The reporter added that the cause of the explosion is not reported yet, and the police have not commented yet. though, gas leak might be the cause, the reporter noted. 

In a video published on Iranian social media, the bodies of the killed inside body bags are seen lying in front of the café in Shahriar. 

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said the attack on Erbil, which injured three civilians, was "a surgical operation, and mission accomplished."

On Monday, Khatibzadeh told a group of reporters in Tehran that "Iraq must not allow its territory to threaten Iran's security." Referring to Tehran's claim that Erbil hosts Israeli spies.

Khatibzadeh's comments came as the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Fuad Hussein, said, "Iran had not provided any official evidence of Israel's presence in Erbil, saying he was surprised that Tehran had chosen the Kurdistan Region to respond to Israel.

Hussein stated that an Iraqi delegation had visited Tehran and asked the Iranian officials why they did not inform Iraq if they had prior information about the presence of a Mossad base in Erbil.

Iraq's top diplomat said he was shocked that Iran had chosen the Kurdistan Region to retaliate against Israel.

"During its visit to Tehran, Iran had not shown him any evidence about Israeli intelligence presence in Erbil, though Tehran had offered a delegation to investigate the case, still the delegation has not arrived in Erbil," Hussain added. The Iraqi foreign minister was referring to the Kurdish oil tycoon's villa in Erbil destroyed by Iranian ballistic missiles in March.

Tel Aviv and Tehran are directly engaged in the Kurdistan region's capital, Erbil. Usually targeting each other's intelligence agents and spies. Iran claims to have killed Ilak Ron, believed to be at the top of Israel's assassination unit, known as Kidon.

 

The US-backed Kurdish-dominated Syrian democratic forces have cooperated with Damascus since early 2011. The Syrian regime maintains a military base in SDF's stronghold in Al-Hasaka. 

Al-Assad said in an interview with the "Russia Today" channel that "the Turkish invasion of the areas controlled by his forces will face popular resistance in the first stage.

He added that "the Syrian army is ready for direct military confrontation with the Turkish army when the appropriate military conditions are available." He noted that its forces "inflicted heavy losses on the Turkish army during the confrontation with it two years ago."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had announced a Turkish military operation with the aim of "cleansing" the Manbij and Tal Rifaat regions of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) north of Aleppo and completing the establishment of the "safe zone" along his country's southern border with Syria, at a depth of 30 kilometers.

The confrontation that al-Assad spoke of took place in the Idlib countryside at the end of February 2020. Still, it clearly showed the weakness of his forces in the first confrontation he waged against the Turkish army without the Russian air cover, according to the leader of the Syrian opposition, Brigadier General Fateh Hassoun.

Hassoun told Al-Modon that this battle "came with the direct support of the Iranian militias, with the aim of storming opposition-controlled areas in the countryside of Idlib," explaining that it "began with an air raid attributed by Russia to the regime's warplanes, targeting a gathering of the Turkish army, which left 33 people dead in the area." The Turkish army launched Operation Spring Shield against them.

According to Hassoun, the previous battles conducted by the Turkish army with the participation of the National Army were "initially successful, and the loss of the Assad regime was self-evident."

For his part, the military and strategic analyst, Brigadier General Ahmed Rahal, said that Assad was "embarrassed" due to SDF's repeated requests for his participation in repelling Turkish operations, pointing out that the term "popular resistance" that Assad singled out during the interview to resist the Turkish army meant SDF forces.

Rahal told Al-Modon that "apart from the fact that Assad has lost his decision to wage a direct battle against the Turkish army, any bullet he fires at the Turkish forces will mean a new experience for his forces with the nightmare of the Turkish Bayraktar aircraft."

On Sunday, the commander-in-chief of the SDF, Mazloum Abdi, confirmed that "the SDF will coordinate with the Syrian government forces to repel any Turkish invasion of northern Syria," noting that his forces "are open to working with the regime's forces to fight against Turkey."

In an interview with Reuters, Abdi said, "More military coordination with Damascus will not threaten the semi-autonomous rule in the areas under the control of his forces in northeastern Syria," calling on the regime's army to "activate its air defenses against Turkish planes to defend Syrian territory."

According to the Yazd Emergency Department, 25 injured passengers were transferred to Thebes Hospital.

This morning, the mashhad-Yazd passenger train was derailed due to a mechanical failure on the Siah Abbasabad-Rizo railroad. Investigation into the incident has begun.  

A member of the Civil Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly said their commission wants to carefully investigate the Mashhad-Yazd train crash.

According to ISNA, a deputy passenger of the Railway Company of the Islamic Republic of Iran said, last night at 19:20, the Mashhad-Yazd passenger train started its journey with 348 passengers. At 5:30 in the morning, the train crashed, when five passenger cars of the train collided with a mechanical excavator.

Iran's public transport is in jeopardy because the US-led sanctions have deprived the Islamic republic of obtaining the necessary equipment to replenish its public transport.

Recent Israeli cyberattacks have also targeted Iran's critical infrastructure. Although, Israel has traditionally targeted Iran's nuclear facilities. In April 2021, an Israeli cyber attack shut down Iran's main nuclear facility after an hour-long blackout.  

Two Iranian pilots died after their F7 fighter jet crashed on Tuesday near Anarak, 200 km (124 miles) east of the city of Isfahan, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported. 

 

Isfahan Governor's Deputy for Security, Political and Social Affairs Mohammad Reza Jan Nasari confirmed the crash early Tuesday morning.

The F7 fighter aircraft was practising how to shoot at its targets when it crashed at 8:30 am Tehran time. The deputy governor added that it is not yet clear what caused the crash. 

The Isfahan provincial official said it is not yet clear what caused the crash, adding that a team was investigating the incident.

Two people were killed in the accident, one the pilot and the other co-pilot, Qasim Zamani and Mohammad Javad Bai, both of senior military ranks.

Iranian aircraft, both tourist and fighter, are outdated and crash every year due to various accidents. Moreover, Iran has not been able to replenish its new aircraft due to international sanctions.