U. S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin blasted off Wednesday aboard the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to meet with sailors he ordered to stay at sea to prevent the war between Israel and Hamas from escalating into a deadlier regional conflict.
Austin in the realm is pressuring Israel to redirect its bombardment of Gaza to a more limited crusade and a faster transition to meet the pressing humanitarian desires of Palestinian civilians.
At the same time, the US has been concerned that Israel will launch a similar military operation along its northern border with Lebanon to expel Hezbollah militants there, potentially opening a second front and widening the war.
At a news conference in Tel Aviv on Monday, Austin did not say whether U. S. troops could be further deployed to protect Israel if its crusade expanded into Lebanon, and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant gave the impression of toning down recent rhetoric that an imminent northern front, depending first on diplomatic efforts.
Still, that leaves incredible uncertainty for the Ford and its crew, which Austin ordered to the Eastern Mediterranean to be closer to Israel the day after Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7. The aircraft carrier’s more than 4,000 sailors and the accompanying warships were supposed to be home in early November.
Using the public deal formula of the Ford, which sails a few hundred miles off the Israeli coast, Austin thanked the sailors and their families for forgoing vacationing together because of the mission.
“Sometimes our biggest accomplishments are the bad things we keep from happening,” Austin told the team. “At a time of enormous tension in the region, all of you have been the linchpin for preventing a wider regional conflict. »
The defense secretary met with an organization of sailors in the hangar of the Ford to inform them of the risks in the region guarded through the aircraft carriers, destroyers and cruisers deployed along it.
He thanked them for focusing their attention on cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, and then told reporters traveling with him that if Israel moved away from primary combat operations in Gaza, it could ease some of the regional tensions that kept Ford in power. place. of. power.
The Ford’s commanding officer, Navy Capt. Rick Burgess, said one of Ford’s main contributions has been to stay close enough to Israel that it can send its planes to provide support, if needed. Even though Ford’s fighter jets and surveillance planes don’t give a look, Burgess said other ships in his strike organization contribute to the vigilance desires of Israeli operations in Gaza.
Ford is one of two U. S. carrier strike teams monitoring the dispute. The other, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, recently patrolled near the Gulf of Aden, at the mouth of the Red Sea waterway where so many advertising ships have been attacked in recent weeks.
Iranian-backed Houthi militias in neighboring Yemen have vowed to continue attacking advertising ships transiting the Red Sea with ballistic missiles and drones until Israel ends its devastating bombardment of Gaza, which has already killed more than 19,000 Palestinians.
To counter the shipping attacks, Austin on Tuesday announced a new foreign maritime project to get countries to send their war shipments and other assets south of the Red Sea, to the roughly 400 ad shipments that pass through the waterway daily.
Since leaving Norfolk in the first week of May, Ford’s fighter and surveillance aircraft have flown more than 8,000 missions.
A US court on Wednesday unsealed an indictment charging an alleged senior Hezbollah operative with terrorism charges, in part for coordinating a 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said Samuel Salman El Reda, 58, coordinated Hezbollah’s activities in South America, Asia and Lebanon since 1993. The Iranian-backed Shiite armed organization is part of Lebanon’s coalition government.
Prosecutors said El Reda is in Lebanon and remains at large. In 2019, the U. S. State Department sanctioned El Reda and presented him with a $7 million commendation for information on his whereabouts.
Argentina also accuses Hezbollah of being behind the 1992 attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, in which 29 people were killed.
A man accused of conducting “hostile reconnaissance” against a London-based television channel and criticizing the Iranian government was found guilty Wednesday of collecting data that could be used in a terrorist attack against the channel.
Magomed-Husejn Dovtaev flew from Austria to London in February, before going straight to the Persian-language Iran International channel’s headquarters in west London.
Prosecutors said Dovtaev, 31, went to Iran International’s office to try and record security arrangements after the channel became a target following its reporting on the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in Iran and subsequent protests last year.
Prosecutor Nicholos Poer told London’s Old Bailey newspaper last week that Iran’s intelligence minister had declared Iran International a terrorist organization and that others had carried out surveillance of the channel before Dovtaev.
Dovtaev denied a single count of attempting to collect information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism and claimed he had been “set up” into visiting Iran International’s London office.
He stated that he and his father had been defrauded of around €20,000 and that they had been told that the fraudsters could be traced back to a business park in west London, unaware that it was actually the headquarters of Iran International.
Dovtaev also told jurors that he and his family had fled Chechnya when he was a child, after his uncle was kidnapped by Russian soldiers, and were granted political asylum in Austria.
Asked by his lawyer if he had any affiliation with or support for the Iranian regime, Dovtaev said he did not.
Dovtaev found out his guilt Wednesday through a jury. He showed no emotion when the verdict was delivered.
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy Commander Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri announced on Tuesday the formation of a new Basij naval unit.
IRGC-affiliated Tasnim and Fars news agencies quoted Tangsiri as saying his forces were also racing to identify a “ghost sub-unit,” offering details.
He said the new Basij unit for ocean missions includes giant, smooth vessels capable of sailing offshore to Tanzania.
This is the first time a Guard commander has brazenly talked about the option of soft (wooden) ships on military missions.
British and American forces had announced in the last two years the seizure of armed ships destined for the Houthis. Several of those ships were also seized with drug shipments.
Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the release of a multinational industrial force in the Red Sea, as attacks by Iran-backed Yemeni militias forced major shipping corporations to turn their backs.
“Iran’s pro-Houthi attacks on advertising vessels will have to stop,” Austin said.
Iranian Defense Minister Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani had warned that any multinational task force would face “extraordinary” disruptions when dealing with shipping in the Red Sea.
“If the U. S. makes such an irrational decision, it will face run-of-the-mill problems. No one can move in a region where we are predominant,” he said.
Russia launched its fifth airstrike on Kyiv this month and air defense systems destroyed all drones as it approached the capital, Ukrainian military officials said on Wednesday.
Ukraine’s air force said air defense systems destroyed 18 of the 19 attack drones introduced in Kyiv, Odessa, Kherson and other regions of Ukraine. It is known precisely how many were destroyed in Kiev.
“According to initial information, there were no casualties or destruction in the capital,” Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s army administration, said on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukraine’s air force also said Russia attacked the Kharkiv region with two guided surface-to-air missiles. There were no casualties as a result of the attack, he added.
There was no immediate comment from Russia.
Russia began taking measures on Ukraine’s energy, military and transport infrastructure in regions far from the front line in October 2022, six months after Russian troops failed to take Kyiv and withdrew to eastern and southern Ukraine.
Most of southeastern Ukraine remained on air attack alert at 23:00 GMT, and Ukraine’s air force said the Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Kirovohrad regions were threatened by Russian ballistic missile strikes.
The United States has imposed new sanctions on 10 entities and four U. S. entities in Iran, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Indonesia, accusing them of supporting Iranian drone production, the Treasury Department said Tuesday.
A Swedish appeals court has upheld the guilty verdict and sentence handed down against a former Iranian official convicted last year for his role in the mass execution of political prisoners in Iran in 1988.
In 2022, the Stockholm District Court’s ruling found Hamid Noury guilty of manslaughter and felonies contrary to foreign law, prompting harsh complaints from Iran, which claimed the verdict was politically motivated.
Court of Appeal Judge Robert Green said: “Our assessment is that the prosecutor’s case is generally strong and compelling, and that the district court is correct in finding the prosecutor’s fees largely well-founded. »
The 1988 executions were reportedly ordered through then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini in retaliation for attacks by the opposition People’s Mujahideen party of Iran (MEK), as well as other political dissidents.
Noury is the only person so far to face trial over the killings at the Gohardasht prison in Karaj.
Sweden has requested his immediate release, calling the detention arbitrary.
Iranian-Swedish academic Ahmadreza Djalali, who was arrested in Iran in 2016, also faces execution on espionage charges.
Mark Klamberg, a foreign law professor and non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank, said Tuesday’s verdict would likely be appealed to the Swedish Supreme Court and that any potential settlement would have to wait until a final decision.
Klamberg said a prisoner swap can be done in two ways.
“The government can simply pardon Noury. . . But I don’t think that’s going to happen, it’s politically impossible,” Klamberg told AFP.
Most likely, if Stockholm needs a swap, Sweden and Iran will agree that Noury will have to serve the remainder of his sentence in Iran, which, in practice, would probably mean he would be a loose guy once he returns. .
However, Klamberg noted that politics would then come into play.
For example, a deal could inspire Iran to continue its policy of taking foreign nationals hostage to use as bargaining chips, he said.
Klamberg said that for some victims it was vital that Noury serve his sentence, while for others it might be equally vital that the Swedish court had authoritatively established what happened in the 1980s, an exclusive trial in itself.
“I think one facet for the Swedish government is how (a prisoner exchange) would be achieved through the victims,” Klamberg said.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom has declined to comment on the possibility of a prisoner swap.