Foreign Tit Bits( Afternoon Diet)
Compiled by Yadnom Awu/Asaba
Iran
Israel, for the eighth day running, deployed its stealth bombers to target nuclear and missile sites in Teheran and other parts of Iran, overnight.
The strikes also targeted hospitals, with at least five of them hit, according to locals.
Casualty figures from the strikes were not readily available, but emergency workers were called to sites struck after the onslaught ebbed.
The Israeli strikes came as Pro- Israeli groups continued to pressure American President, Donald Trump, to step into the fray and help Israel deliver a deadly telling strike on the underground Fordaw Nuclear Plant in Iran, the hub of the country’s nuclear programme buried under rocky mountains.
Israel has no bomb to successfully target Fordaw, which is buried some 300 feet,under rocky mountains.
America
The President of America, Donald Trump, has offered a two- week window to Iran to resume talks on its nuclear programme.
The talks are between officials of America and Iran and they were supposed to have started a little over a week ago, but the prospect dimmed after Israel, which itself has multiple nuclear weapons, launched a war against Iran.
Following the attacks now in their eighth day, Iran walked out of the talks, stressing that it could not be negotiating under Israeli military fire.
The decision of Iran to cease participation in the talks drew the ire of Trump who ordered Iran to either surrender unconditionally to Israel or risk military annihilation.
Iran rejected the offer.
Later in tweets on the social media, Trump threatened to kill Iran’ s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but said that the time was not rife .
Khamenei has firmly rejected the offer for unconditional surrender, and said that Iran would stand up to Israel in a military contest.
That military contest is into the eighth day today and Iran, last night, continued its daring strikes on Beersheba.
Geneva
Officials of the Foreign ministry of Iran are meeting today in Geneva, Switzerland, with their counterparts from Germany, the United Kingdom and France , in an effort to find a diplomatic end to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran over the nuclear programme of the latter.
The meeting, the first between officials of Iran and the West since the war between Israel and Iran began some eight days ago, came on the heels of an earlier secret meeting between America ‘s Secretary of State , Marc Rubio and his British countetpart, David Lammy, in Washington.
Details of the meeting between Rubio and Lammy remained closely guarded secrets at press time, but the unscheduled meeting held shortly Trump, who had been hard-nosed on the ongoing Iranian/ Israeli military conflct, suddenly made his widely publicized two- week window to Iran.
Despite every attempt to etch it in colours of cautious optimism, the talks are not expected to delivefa quick fix to the increasingly acrimonious war between both nations.
This is because of the irreconcilable differences in the positions of both countries.
For instance, while Israel insists on sustaining its military action against Iran, the Persian nation has ruled out negotiating under fire.
The yawn in the positions of both countries leaves the diplomats very lithe space to find an acceptable way out of the shooting war,and,hopefully, for the resumption of talks between American and Iranian officials on the nuclear programme.
Israel
Israel, last night, took more direct military hits from Iran, with its core technology hub, co- founded by Microsoft, one of the targets of Iranian military power.
Besides, the Iranians also targeted the general hospital for a second night running.
Both the hospital and hub are located in the Southern to city of Beersheba.
Israeli security forces cordoned off the hub from prying eyes after it was struck.
However, more than 70 persons were injured,including three seriously, when the hospital was first struck yesterday.
Israel classifies its casualty figures, just as details of its security engagements.
However, scores of Israeli security and other personnel are believed to have died and more than 800 others wounded in the strikes by Iran, which is deploying hypersonic missiles in its onslaught.
France
For the second time in as many days, French President, Emmanuel Macron, has strongly advocated for a ceasefire to the Iranian/ Israeli conflict.
He also said that there was an urgent need for the resumption of talks between officials of Iran and America, over the nuclear programme of the former.
Fielding reporters’ questions today in Paris, he urged both Israel and Iran to show restraint and to avoid worsening the security crisis in the Middle East.
Today’ s call by Macron is his second in two days, and although France, just as much of the rest of Europe, is an ally of Iran, the French leader has wasted no opportunity in calling Israel to order.
France, Canada and Britain are at the growing calls for the effective recogntion of an independent Palestinian State, pegged on the 1967 boundaries with Israeli
Israel has accused all countries pushing for independent statehood for Palestine as Anti-Semitism, and vowed that Palestine would never be an independent state of its own.
