Author: Prima News

Lebanon was pulled deeper into the war in the Middle East on Tuesday as the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah launched ​missiles at Israel for a second consecutive day and Israel sent troops into the south and carried out waves of air ‌strikes. Israel’s neighbour to the north and the theatre of numerous conflicts between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon had avoided spillover from the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran until Monday, when Hezbollah opened fire with drones and missiles. With dozens of people killed in retaliatory airstrikes, Hezbollah’s move to enter the conflict has sharpened long-standing divisions in Lebanon over its status as an…

Ukraine’s push for a fast track into the European Union as part of any ​peace deal has hit stiff resistance from EU governments, who do not want to open the Pandora’s box of problems that they fear a quick accession would ‌unleash. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wants a 2027 date to join the EU as part of a settlement to end Russia’s war, hoping this would anchor his country in Europe’s main political club and offer a path to greater prosperity, security and stability. A clear route into the EU could be vital for Zelenskiy in selling any peace settlement to…

Russia’s Federal Security Service on Tuesday said that its special forces prevented a “terrorist attack” attempt on a defense company executive, Interfax news agency reported. In a statement cited by the outlet, the FSB claimed the suspect was being detained by special forces when “his Ukrainian handler remotely detonated the IED (Improvised explosive device), resulting in fatal injuries.” According to the FSB, the attack was planned by a 40-year-old Russian citizen using a “fake passport” on “instructions from Ukrainian intelligence services.” “During an inspection of the crime scene, a second IED, disguised as a power bank, was seized. It contained…

World War III will break out if US President Donald Trump “continues his insane course of criminally changing political regimes,” the deputy chairman of Russia’s powerful Security Council said Monday. Speaking in an interview with the Russian state news agency Tass, Dmitry Medvedev described Washington’s actions as “a war by the US and its allies to preserve global dominance.” “If Trump continues his insane course of criminally changing political regimes, it will undoubtedly begin. And any event could be the trigger. Any event,” he warned. According to Medvedev’s assessment, the vulnerability of US and Israeli officials “has significantly increased” since…

A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the west coast of Indonesia’s Northern Sumatra province early Tuesday, according to the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences. The quake occurred at 0456GMT at a shallow depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). The tremor was recorded offshore west of Sumatra island, a region situated along the seismically active Pacific “Ring of Fire.” There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow had still seen no evidence that Iran ​was developing nuclear weapons as the U.S. and Israel ‌pursue their attack. U.S. President Donald Trump has offered various reasons for going to war with Iran. On Monday, in his most extensive public ​comments so far, he said he had ordered ​the attack to thwart Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic ⁠missile programmes. Lavrov told Brunei’s foreign minister during talks ​in Moscow: “We still see no evidence that Iran was ​developing nuclear weapons, which was the main, if not the only, justification for the war.” He said the consequences…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war against Iran was “not going to take years”, as the conflict widened with Israel again attacking the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon and Iran striking Gulf states that host U.S. bases. U.S. President Donald Trump, who launched strikes on Iran together with Israel on Saturday, initially projected the war to last ​four to five weeks, but has since sought to justify a broad, open-ended war. In the meantime, Iran has launched missile and drone strikes against not only Israel and U.S. forces but also a host of countries across ‌the region that are allied to…

The Israeli military deployed ‌additional forces to southern Lebanon overnight, to take up what a military ​spokesperson on Tuesday described as ​defensive positions to protect Israeli ⁠civilians and strategic sites from ​any potential Hezbollah attack. “We’re only at ​the borderline area in a defensive manner to prevent attacks against civilians and ​very strategic important points,” Lieutenant ​Colonel Nadav Shoshani said in an online ‌briefing ⁠with reporters. Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement he had authorised the military to advance ​and take ​control ⁠of additional positions in Lebanon after Hezbollah fired rockets ​at Israel late on Sunday, ​in ⁠reaction to U.S. and…

At least 42 ‌civilians have been killed and 104 wounded in Afghanistan in the fighting with Pakistan between February 26 and March 2, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA)said on Tuesday, as the military conflict between the neighbours entered its sixth day. Military tensions ​between the South Asian Islamic nations remained high on Tuesday, with Afghanistan saying it had ​captured another Pakistani post in the Kandahar region and the fighting between the allies-turned-foes ⁠was “still ongoing”. “The civilian casualties include those caused by indirect fire in cross-border clashes…as well as those caused ​by airstrikes,” the UN agency said,…

The U.S. military campaign against Iran has put Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the back foot ahead of an expected summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, who for the second time in as many months has turned America’s military against one of Beijing’s close partners. Trump is set to arrive in Beijing at the end of March following the ​U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a risky Caracas raid in January and the U.S.-Israeli air war that on Saturday killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the former ‌leaders of two countries that have been major oil suppliers for China. It is far from clear…