Iran rejected threats by US President Donald Trump of economic pain and isolation on Thursday, while six European countries and Canada condemned Israel over a settlement project in the occupied West Bank.
Doctors Without Borders also criticised the Israeli military’s decision not to investigate two fatal attacks on the medical humanitarian organisation’s staff. Meanwhile, a mass funeral was held in Gaza City for 50 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes nearly three years ago whose remains were only recently recovered, reports AP.
Iran rejects Trump’s economic threats
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi rejected the economic threats made against Iran, saying such “failed policies” would stir more hostility among Iranians and “bring more failures”.
His comments came hours after Trump threatened “crushing economic measures” against Iran. The US president also promised “Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale” but provided few details.
In a social media post, Araghchi said the threats were aimed at diverting US public attention from domestic financial problems. He added that US “economic terrorism threatens the global economy and the national sovereignty of countries around the world.”
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Iran would face the “greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world”.
In a CNBC interview, Bessent threatened secondary sanctions against nations and companies doing business with Iran, saying it was time for US allies to decide where they stand.
China and India are major buyers of Iranian oil, although Bessent did not name them specifically.
Doctors Without Borders condemns Israeli military decision
Doctors Without Borders said the Israeli military’s decision not to open criminal investigations into two strikes that killed four people showed that Israel would not take responsibility for attacks on civilians.
The international aid organisation called for an impartial investigation into the deaths but did not specify who should conduct it.
Doctors Without Borders had asked the Israeli military to investigate an attack on a Gaza City convoy in November 2023 and a strike on the organisation’s shelter in Khan Younis in February 2024. Israel announced on Wednesday that it would not launch criminal investigations into the two cases, in which its troops killed the organisation’s employees.
The decision showed “there is no prospect of accountability within the Israeli legal system for the killing of our staff, just as there has been no accountability for Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians,” Doctors Without Borders said in a statement.
The organisation said 15 of its staff and 1,700 healthcare workers had been killed in Gaza since October 2023.
Israel denies accusations of genocide and war crimes and says it is targeting Hamas following the militant group’s attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostage. Israel blames civilian deaths on Hamas, saying the group operates in populated areas of the densely populated Gaza Strip.
European countries, Canada condemn West Bank settlement plans
The UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Canada condemned the latest development in a contentious Israeli settlement project near Jerusalem that would effectively divide the occupied West Bank in two.
Israel’s Ministry of Construction and Housing issued a tender for several compounds containing more than 1,200 homes on an open tract of land east of Jerusalem.
The latest move is part of a project that has been under consideration for more than two decades. Critics say it would prevent the establishment of a contiguous Palestinian state in the territory.
In a joint statement, the leaders of the seven countries said international law was clear that the settlement was illegal and pointed to “unprecedented levels of violence by settlers against civilians”.
“We urge the government of Israel to retract these plans immediately and end its expansion of settlements in the West Bank. Not only will they take us further from peace, but they further undermine Israel’s international standing,” they said.
Egypt and Jordan also condemned Israel’s move.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar defended “the historic right of the Jewish people to reestablish their national home in the Land of Israel- including in the area in question”.
Saar criticised the UK government for “blaming only Israel while ignoring Palestinian extremism”.
Gaza funeral held for 50 Palestinians killed in early strikes
A mass funeral was held in Gaza City on Thursday for 50 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes during the opening months of the Israel-Hamas war, whose remains were only recently recovered from beneath the rubble.
Dozens of mourners carried the remains, draped in Palestinian flags, through debris-strewn streets before burying them. Some carried portraits and posters bearing photographs of the deceased.
“We were able to recover them after three years of war, after three years of anguish, pain and torture. We were able to recover them, and dignify them in their final resting place. We were able to pray over them and bury them,” said Lina Karam, who lost her father and other family members.
The 50 bodies belonged to three families killed in airstrikes in November and December 2023.
The nearly three-year war has killed more than 73,400 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, maintains detailed records considered generally reliable by UN agencies and international organisations.
The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and militants but says women and children account for around half of the death toll.
US sanctions network accused of funding Hezbollah
The US announced new sanctions on Thursday against a network of people accused of funnelling cash into Lebanon for Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group.
The network, run by Turkish businessman Yunus Alper Yilmaz, uses couriers travelling on commercial flights between Lebanon, Turkey, the UAE and Iran “to move up to hundreds of millions of dollars between jurisdictions, providing an avenue outside the formal financial system” to transfer funds to Hezbollah, the US Department of the Treasury said.
The Treasury also redesignated Hezbollah, which was already under US sanctions, as an Iranian proxy acting on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force rather than as a stand-alone operation.
The redesignation was intended to highlight that Hezbollah “operates with little to no regard for Lebanese sovereignty, the Lebanese people or the Lebanese state”, according to the Treasury statement.
Turkey denies delegation visited Syrian air base
Turkey denied that a Turkish military delegation had visited an air base in northern Syria that was targeted by Israeli airstrikes, while vowing to continue supporting Syria’s efforts to rebuild its military.
The Israeli strikes hit the Abu Duhur base early on Tuesday, causing damage but no casualties.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel attacked the base because Syria was “on the verge of breaching” an agreed “status quo in security matters” by allowing Turkish troops to deploy there.
Syrian officials said a Turkish delegation had visited the base before the Israeli strike to review rehabilitation work under way there.
Syrian foreign minister visits Pakistan
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani arrived in Islamabad for talks expected to focus on regional issues, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The visit came days after Israeli airstrikes targeted an air base in northern Syria, causing damage but no casualties.
Pakistani officials said the country’s political and military leadership remained in contact with both Iran and the US over efforts to de-escalate tensions and resume talks after a 60-day deadline under a June memorandum of understanding expired.
The agreement was brokered by Pakistan with the help of regional countries.
Bodies of Pakistani sailors killed in Houthi attack repatriated
The bodies of two Pakistanis killed in last week’s Houthi attack on a Tanzanian-flagged commercial vessel in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait were repatriated to Pakistan.
Six Pakistani sailors who were wounded in the attack also safely returned to the country, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said in a post on X.
