WASHINGTON: The US defense secretary on Monday declined to rule out putting troops on the ground in Iran and indicated the war launched over the weekend could go on for as long as six weeks.&nbsp;US forces began carrying out sweeping strikes on Iran Saturday in concert with military action by Israel, and have struck hundreds of targets across the country since then, including the Islamic republic&#39;s missiles, navy and command-and-control sites.&nbsp;When asked if the United States already had boots on the ground, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth told a news conference: &quot;No, but we&#39;re not going to go into the exercise of what we will or will not do.&quot;&nbsp;&quot;We&#39;ll go as far as we need to go,&quot; he said.&nbsp;&quot;I think it&#39;s one of those fallacies for a long time that this department or presidents or others should tell the American people and our enemies by the way, &#39;Here&#39;s exactly what we&#39;ll do, here&#39;s exactly how long we&#39;ll go,&#39;&quot; he said.&nbsp;As for how long the war will last, Hegseth said: &quot;Four weeks, two weeks, six weeks, it could move up. It could move back.&quot;&nbsp;He sought to differentiate the Iran operation from past long-running US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying the war is not an effort to build democracy in Iran.&nbsp;&quot;No stupid rules of engagement, no nation building quagmire, no democracy-building exercise. No politically correct wars. We fight to win and we don&#39;t waste time or lives,&quot; the Pentagon chief said.&nbsp;&quot;This is not Iraq. This is not endless,&quot; Hegseth said. &quot;Our generation knows better and so does this president. He called the last 20 years of nation building wars &#39;dumb&#39; and he&#39;s right.&quot;&nbsp;&quot;With every passing day, our capabilities get stronger and Iran&#39;s get weaker. We set the terms of this war from start to finish. Our ambitions are not utopian, they are realistic scoped to our interests and the defense of our people and our allies,&quot; he added.&nbsp;General Dan Caine, the top US military officer, spoke alongside Hegseth, saying that air superiority had been achieved over Iran.&nbsp;Strikes by American forces &quot;resulted in the establishment of local air superiority. This air superiority will not only enhance the protection of our forces, but also allow them to continue the work over Iran,&quot; Caine said.&nbsp;

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The US defense secretary declined to rule out putting troops on the ground in Iran and indicated the war launched over the weekend could go on for as long as six weeks.

Pentagon chief refuses to rule out 'boots on ground' in Iran

TEHRAN: Security forces used tear gas to disperse protesters in Iran as people angered by the economic situation in the country kept up their challenge to the authorities and the exiled opposition Thursday urged them to step up their actions. The 12 days of protests have shaken the authorities already battling economic crisis after years of sanctions and recovering after the June war against Israel. The movement, which originated with a shutdown on the Tehran bazaar on December 28 after the rial plunged to record lows, has spread nationwide and is now being marked by larger scale demonstrations. Authorities have blamed unrest on &quot;rioters&quot; and the judiciary chief has vowed there would be &quot;no leniency&quot; in bringing them to justice. On Wednesday, an Iranian police officer was stabbed to death near Tehran &quot;during efforts to control unrest&quot;, the Iranian Fars news agency said. Reza Pahlavi, the son of the shah ousted by the 1979 Islamic revolution and a key exiled opposition figure, said that the turnout during Wednesday&#39;s protests had been &quot;unprecedented&quot; and called for major new protests Thursday evening. He said in a message on social media he had received reports the &quot;regime is deeply frightened and is attempting, once again, to cut off the internet&quot; to thwart the protests. The HRANA monitor published a video of protesters in Kuhchenar in the southern Fars province cheering overnight as they pulled down a statue of the former foreign operations commander of the Revolutionary Guards Qassem Soleimani who was killed in a US strike in January 2020 and is hailed as a national hero by the government. HRANA said according to its count protests had taken place in 348 locations over the last 11 days in all of Iran&#39;s 31 provinces. It also published a video of people massing late at night in the Tehran satellite city of Karaj and lighting fires in the streets and also images of security forces using tear gas to disperse a protest in the Caspian Sea town of Tonekabon. The Norway-based Iran Human Rights group said security forces on Wednesday &quot;opened fire on protesters, used tear gas and violently assaulted civilians&quot; during a protest in the key southeastern hub of Kerman. The protests are being characterized by larger-scale demonstrations, with hundreds marching through a main avenue in the northeastern city of Bojnord on Wednesday in a video verified by AFP. Demonstrators are repeating slogans against the Iranian leadership including &quot;this is the final battle, Pahlavi will return&quot; and &quot;Seyyed Ali will be toppled&quot;, in reference to Iran&rsquo;s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. IHR said on Tuesday at least 27 protesters including five teenagers under the age of 18, have been confirmed to have been killed in a crackdown on the protests, warning the death toll will climb as more killings are verified.

The 12 days of protests have shaken the authorities already battling economic crisis after years of sanctions and recovering after the June war against Israel.

Iran protests intensify amid economic crisis and mounting deaths

TEHRAN: Iran&#39;s military chief warned on Wednesday that Iran will not stand by and allow itself to be threatened by outside powers, after the United States and Israel backed anti-government protests. &quot;The Islamic Republic of Iran considers the escalation of hostile rhetoric against the Iranian nation a threat and will not tolerate its continuation without responding,&quot; General Amir Hatami said, according to the Fars news agency. Hatami, commander of the Iranian army but not Iran&#39;s most senior officer, warned that &quot;if the enemy makes a mistake&quot; Iran&#39;s response would be more robust than during last June&#39;s 12-day war with Israel. In recent days, US President Donald Trump has threatened to intervene in Iran &#39;if demonstrators were killed&#39;, while Israel&#39;s Benjamin Netanyahu expressed support for the protests. On December 28 merchants in Tehran staged a protest against soaring prices and the collapse of the rial, triggering a wave of similar actions in several cities, some of them deadly. The demonstrations have yet to reach the scale of a 2022 to 2023 movement, let alone that of the mass 2009 street protests that followed disputed elections. But the economic protests have attracted international attention, including from the leaders of the Islamic republic&#39;s international foes. &quot;We&#39;re watching it very closely. If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they&#39;re going to get hit very hard by the United States,&quot; Trump told reporters on Sunday. Netanyahu, meanwhile, told Israel&#39;s cabinet: &quot;We stand in solidarity with the struggle of the Iranian people and with their aspirations for freedom, liberty and justice.&quot; On Monday, the Iranian foreign ministry accused Trump and Netanyahu of inciting violence and trying to &nbsp;undermine Iran&#39;s national unity. The war in June began with an unprecedented Israeli attack on Iranian military and nuclear facilities. The United States briefly took part in the strikes, hitting three major Iranian nuclear sites.

In recent days, US President Donald Trump has threatened to intervene in Iran if demonstrators were killed, while Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed support for the protests.

Iran army chief threatens response to Trump and Netanyahu's 'threats'

DUBAI: Iran said Monday it hanged a man accused of spying for Israel, the latest as Tehran carries out its largest wave of executions in decades. Iran identified the executed man as Bahman Choobiasl, whose case wasn&rsquo;t immediately known in Iranian media reports or to activists monitoring the death penalty in the Islamic Republic.&nbsp; However, the execution came after Iran vowed to confront its enemies after the United Nations reimposed sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program this weekend. Iran accused Choobiasl of meeting with officials from the Israeli spy agency Mossad. Iran&rsquo;s Mizan news agency, which is the judiciary&rsquo;s official mouthpiece, said Choobiasl worked on &ldquo;sensitive telecommunications projects&ldquo; and reported about the &ldquo;paths of importing electronic devices.&rdquo; Iran is known to have hanged nine people for espionage since its June war with Israel. Israel waged an air war with Iran, killing some 1,100 people, including many military commanders. Iran launched missile barrages targeting Israel in response. Earlier this month, Iran executed Babak Shahbazi, who it alleged spied for Israel. Activists disputed that, saying Shahbazi was tortured into a false confession after writing a letter to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky offering to fight for Kyiv. Iran has faced multiple nationwide protests in recent years, fueled by anger over the economy, demands for women&rsquo;s rights, and calls for the country&rsquo;s theocracy to change. In response to those protests and the June war, Iran has been putting prisoners to death at a pace unseen since 1988, when it executed thousands at the end of the Iran-Iraq war. The Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights and the Washington-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran put the number of people executed in 2025 at over 1,000, noting the number could be higher as Iran does not report on each execution.

Accuses Choobiasl of meeting with officials from Israeli spy agency Mossad; Iran’s news agency says Choobiasl worked on 'sensitive telecommunications projects' and reported about the 'paths of importing electronic devices.'



Iran hangs man accused of spying for Israel as Tehran continues wave of executions

DUBAI: &nbsp;Iran on Wednesday said it executed a man it alleges spied for Israel, something disputed by activists who say he was tortured into a false confession after writing a letter to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy offering to fight for Kyiv. The execution comes as activists warn Iran could execute more prisoners on death row after its 12-day war with Israel and as it tries to stamp out dissent over its ailing economy and over women&#39;s rights, particularly after marking the third anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini this week. Amini died in police custody in 2022 after being detained for allegedly not wearing her mandatory hijab, or headscarf, to the liking of authorities, sparking months of demonstrations and a violent crackdown by security forces. The judiciary&rsquo;s Mizan news agency identified the executed man as Babak Shahbazi, who it claimed had gathered and sold sensitive information about Iranian data centers and security installations to Israeli handlers.&nbsp; It described him as working on &ldquo;industrial cooling devices&rdquo; as a contractor for companies that worked on telecommunications, military and security sites. The judiciary claimed Shahbazi then sold information to Israel&#39;s Mossad intelligence agency. Activists, including the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights, had said Shahbazi was detained over writing a letter to Zelenskyy offering to fight in the Ukrainian military.&nbsp; Iran has supplied Russia with drones that Moscow has used to attack Ukraine, something that has drawn anger from some in Iran particularly as Tehran cracks down on dissent at home. &ldquo;Babak&rsquo;s message to President Zelenskyy offering to help in the war against Russia was used as an example of espionage for Israel who they claim taught Babak to use Microsoft Word,&rdquo; the group said.&nbsp; Iran did not acknowledge that claim. Iran did not elaborate on how it executed Shahbazi, though condemned prisoners typically are hanged.&nbsp; Ukraine did not immediately acknowledge the execution. Iran has hanged eight people for espionage since its June war with Israel, sparking fears from activists that the government could conduct a wave of executions.&nbsp; Israel waged an air war with Iran, killing some 1,100 people, including many military commanders.&nbsp; Iran launched missiles barrages targeting Israel in response. Iran carried out executions at &ldquo;an alarming rate&rdquo; in 2024, with at least 975 people killed, according to a U.N. report that also cited other human rights abuses, from barriers to freedom of expression to the use of torture and arbitrary detention. Iran Human Rights says over 940 executions have been carried out already this year.

Asia

Has hanged eight people for espionage since its June war with Israel; activists say he was tortured into false confession.

Iran executes man for alleged spying for Israel

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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Iran called for increased cooperation among Arab and Muslim states following Israel&rsquo;s recent airstrike targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar. Pakistan proposed the formation of a joint task force, while Iran called for the establishment of &ldquo;joint operations rooms&rdquo; to counter escalating Israeli aggression. Their proposals come ahead of an emergency Arab-Islamic summit scheduled for Monday at 6 p.m. in Doha (8 p.m. PKT). Nearly 60 Arab and Islamic countries will convene to condemn the Israeli aggression and show solidarity with Qatar. <div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1967287260388471097&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Farticles%2F&sessionId=3bf6bc7387a33991ee425fbbd28c925568bbe357&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 624px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;" data-tweet-id="1967287260388471097"></iframe></div></div> Israeli strikes on DohaThe summit was convened in response to Israel&rsquo;s airstrikes on September 9, which targeted Hamas leaders attending ceasefire talks in Doha. The attack resulted in the deaths of five Hamas members, including the son of a senior leader, as well as a Qatari security officer. Several civilians were also injured. The attack was widely condemned across the Muslim world as a violation of Qatar&rsquo;s sovereignty and an infringement of international law. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Thani strongly denounced the strike as an act of &ldquo;state terrorism.&rdquo; He accused Israel of seeking to uproot Palestinians from their own homeland. He called on the international community to end double standards and hold the Israeli regime accountable for what he described as genocidal wars. Pakistan proposes a joint task forcePakistan&rsquo;s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar condemned the Israeli airstrike as illegal and in violation of the United Nations Charter and international laws. He proposed the establishment of a joint Arab-Islamic task force charged with monitoring Israeli intentions and coordinating both deterrent and offensive actions. Dar described the attack on Qatar, a sovereign state engaged in ceasefire negotiations, as an assault on diplomacy itself. He called for an immediate ceasefire, a prisoner exchange, and the establishment of a two-state solution. The Pakistani deputy PM demanded that Israel be held accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Pakistan, alongside Algeria and Somalia, also raised the issue with the U.N. Security Council and Human Rights Council, advocating for practical measures including the deployment of an international peacekeeping force in Gaza. Iran calls for &#39;joint operations rooms&#39;The Secretary of Iran&rsquo;s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, sharply criticized Muslim states over perceived inaction regarding the Gaza conflict. In a statement shared via social media platform X (formerly Twitter), he called for, &ldquo;at the very least, establishing a &lsquo;joint operations room&rsquo; against the madness of this entity,&rdquo; referring to Israel. Larijani warned that conferences filled only with rhetoric but lacking tangible outcomes invite further Israeli aggression. He urged Muslim states to unite in practical, coordinated resistance, asserting that such a move could destabilize the Israeli regime and compel change. Summit draft resolutionA draft resolution from the summit described the Israeli strike as a destabilizing escalation. It accused Israel of carrying out genocidal acts, ethnic cleansing, and colonial expansion that threaten peace prospects and normalization agreements in the region, such as the Abraham Accords, signed five years ago to normalize relations between Israel and several Gulf states. Convening of the Preparatory Ministerial Meeting for the Joint Arab-Islamic Emergency Summit in Doha to Discuss the Israeli Attack on the State of Qatar, image courtesy: <a data-fr-linked="true" href="//OIC.com" style="font-size: 18px; color: rgb(0, 115, 230);">OIC.com</a> Despite strong condemnation from the Arab-Islamic world, Israel maintained a defiant stance. On the day Arab ministers convened in Doha, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Jerusalem.&nbsp; Rubio&rsquo;s visit aimed to &lsquo;clarify&rsquo; Israel&rsquo;s strategy regarding Gaza, the ongoing hostage situation, and humanitarian plans amid lingering tensions caused by the unauthorized airstrike in Qatar. Ongoing attacks in Gaza and the West BankMeanwhile, Gaza continues to endure heavy bombardment. Recent Israeli airstrikes have destroyed multiple high-rise buildings, forcing evacuations of civilians with often little notice. Palestinian health officials report that over 64,000 Palestinians have died since the conflict escalated, including over 18,000 children. Several international media outlets have also reported an uptick in attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. The United Arab Emirates, which normalized relations with Israel in 2020, warned against annexation plans in the West Bank. It described such moves as a &ldquo;red line&rdquo; threatening hopes for peace. While the Arab-Islamic summit is expected to adopt a joint resolution condemning Israel&rsquo;s strike, it currently does not include sanctions or punitive measure.

Arab-Islamic Summit: Pakistan calls for joint task force, Iran urges ‘operations rooms’ against Israel, image courtesy: OIC

Articles tagged with "Israel Iran"

Pentagon chief refuses to rule out 'boots on ground' in Iran

Iran protests intensify amid economic crisis and mounting deaths

Iran army chief threatens response to Trump and Netanyahu's 'threats'

Iran hangs man accused of spying for Israel as Tehran continues wave of executions

Iran executes man for alleged spying for Israel

Arab-Islamic Summit: Iran, Pakistan propose concrete measures against Israel