The 2026 World Cup will be held in Canada, Mexico and the United States. It will feature 48 teams (up from 32) and will consist of 102 matches. As FIFA expands its global footprint with a larger, more lucrative 2026 tournament in North America, the organization’s willingness to placate powerful leaders is raising questions about who really benefits.

Kansas City, Missouri will be hosting six matches at Arrowhead Stadium. The following commentary World Cup is by Randy Gould, editor and chief reporter for the Kansas City-based Oread Daily email newsletter.

“The World Cup is coming to Kansas City next year. It probably shouldn’t.  Daytime soccer in Kansas City in the summer won’t be all that much fun.

“The heated world has arrived. We do not have any domed stadiums here, so if we are in the middle of summer heat in this new hot era, maybe the games could be rescheduled for like 3 AM!

“I don’t know if people are noticing that sporting events are more and more often being canceled due to extreme heat.  Hmm, what should we take from that in regard to the soccer World Cup?

“We should take from that exactly what Dave Zirin’s article headlined ‘FIFA Is Abusing Its Players to Keep Authoritarians Happy’ makes clear.  Gianni Infantino, and the rest of the top FIFA brass simply are unconcerned with the well being of the players.  They just do not care, despite the concerns raised by many players and others.”

As Zirin reported, “By holding the Club World Cup in the extreme summer heat—in the offseason for most of the 32 clubs involved—FIFA demonstrated blatant disregard for the health of the players.”

Zirin added: “FIFPRO, the global players union that represents more than 60,000 professional footballers worldwide, has long slammed FIFA for valuing petro-dictators’ bottom lines over the well-being of the athletes. Back in 2023, the union noted that the Club World Cup schedule ‘demonstrates a lack of consideration for the mental and physical health of participating players, as well as a disregard for their personal and family lives.’”

Gould: “Infantino does care about cozying up to the rich and powerful.  He enjoys the company of authoritarian dictators.  He is more than happy to kiss Donald Trump’s ass time and time again.

“Once again, the spectacle of global sport masks the brutal machinery of power, profit, and authoritarianism. In its relentless drive to court petro-tyrants and authoritarian strongmen, FIFA has once more revealed itself as not merely complicit in oppression — but actively enabling it.  Zirin’s piece exposes how football’s global governing body has sacrificed player safety, worker rights, and even basic human dignity on the altar of authoritarian appeasement and corporate greed.

“Why would the world’s best soccer clubs even play in the FIFA Club World Cup? The answer is money.”

Zirin points out that “The tournament total prize money pool has $1 billion in it, with $525 million doled out to clubs simply for participating and another $475 million allocated based on results. …. Manchester City, owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the Abu Dhabi United Group, reportedly walked off with nearly $52 million just for reaching the final 16 of the tournament. The winner of the tournament will nab a cool $125 million.”

Gould: “Whether it’s the almost slave like conditions for stadium workers in Qatar, the gagging of political expression, or the weaponization of tournaments by regimes like Saudi Arabia,  Erdoğan’s Turkey, and Trump’s USA, FIFA continues to function as a de facto propaganda ministry for the world’s most repressive governments. While players are expected to shut up and entertain, their labor—and their bodies—is commoditized in service of soft power and profit, not solidarity or sport.

“This is not just a sports story. It’s another chapter in the global assault on democracy, workers, and dissent — another instance of top-down structures silencing bottom-up voices. There is no area, no space these days that capital has not taken over. The same systems that crush unions, bulldoze Indigenous land, and surveil dissidents in the USA and numerous other States are draped in FIFA banners and presented to us as celebration.

“Oh well, apparently the model of the 1936 Nazi Berlin Olympics has been seized upon by FIFA today.”

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Bill Berkowitz.

The airstrike on the tent housing journalists in the grounds of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis killed Hilmi al-Faqaawi, a social media manager for pro-Palestinian Islamic Jihad broadcaster Palestine Today TV, and injured the following journalists:

• Ahmed Mansour, Palestine Today news agency editor
• Ahmed Al-Agha, BBC Arabic contributor
• Mohammed Fayeq, freelance photojournalist and drone operator
• Abdullah Al-Attar, freelance photographer for Anadolu Agency
• Ihab Al-Bardini, camera operator contributing to U.S. channel ABC
• Mahmoud Awad, Al Jazeera camera operator
• Majed Qudaih, Radio Algerie correspondent
• Ali Eslayeh, photographer for West Bank-based site Alam24

The Israel Defense Forces said the strike targeted Hassan Eslayeh, a freelance photographer who was with Hamas on October 7, 2023. The IDF said Eslayeh, who was injured on April 7, 2025, was a “terrorist” who “participated in the bloody massacre.”

In 2023, the pro-Israeli watchdog HonestReporting published a photo of Eslayeh being kissed by then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, after which CNN, the Associated Press and Reuters news agencies cut ties with the journalist.

“This is not the first time Israel has targeted a tent sheltering journalists in Gaza. The international community’s failure to act has allowed these attacks on the press to continue with impunity, undermining efforts to hold perpetrators accountable,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa  Director Sara Qudah. “CPJ calls on authorities to allow the injured, some of whom have sustained severe burns, to be evacuated immediately for treatment and to stop attacking Gaza’s already devastated press corps.”

Footage verified by Reuters news agency showed people trying to douse flames in the tent while other images of someone trying to rescue a journalist in flames were widely shared online.

CPJ’s email to the IDF’s North America Media Desk to request comment did not receive an immediate response.

More than 170 journalists and media workers have been killed in the Israel-Gaza war.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

On March 24, deadly Israeli strikes hit the car of Qatari-based Al Jazeera Mubasher’s Shabat near northern Gaza’s Beit Lahia, and the home in southern Gaza’s Khan Yunis of Mansour, who worked for the pro-Islamic Jihad, Beirut-based Palestine Today TV.

“CPJ is appalled that we are once again seeing Palestinians weeping over the bodies of dead journalists in Gaza,” said CPJ’s Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna in New York. “This nightmare in Gaza has to end. The international community must act fast to ensure that journalists are kept safe and hold Israel to account for the deaths of Hossam Shabat and Mohammed Mansour. Journalists are civilians and it is illegal to attack them in a war zone.”

On March 18, Israel resumed airstrikes on Gaza, ending a ceasefire that began on January 19.

On October 23, the IDF accused Shabat and five other Palestinian journalists working with Al Jazeera in Gaza of being members of the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad. CPJ has called on Israel to stop making unsubstantiated allegations to justify its killing and mistreatment of members of the press.

Shabat told CPJ in October that he was not a member of Hamas. “We convey the truth on Al Jazeera Mubasher, and we move within the areas classified by Israel as safe,” Shabat said. “We are citizens, and we convey their voices. Our only crime is that we convey the image and the truth.”

More than 170 journalists and media workers have been killed since the beginning of the Israel-Gaza war in October 2023.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

However, this seemingly great opportunity to restart the ‘new revolution’ in Iran did not last long. On the morning of 7 October 2024, the American aspiration of a feminist and democratic revolution or regime change in Iran, which was also shared by its Western allies and West Asian client regimes, was transformed into a nightmare when a few hundred Palestinians carried out the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation in the occupied Palestine. The political landscape of West Asia has been altered by this military operation in such a way that American political projects, such as the Iranian regime change and the Abraham Accords, have faded away. To the surprise of the United States and its Western allies, such as Norway, and thanks to the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation, 8 October 2023 became the day of the revival of the ideals of the 1979 revolution, such as freedom and independence from Western Imperialism. The liberation of Palestine from occupation was one of the particular ideals of the Iranian revolution and the political system it generated. As the Iranian revolutionaries of 1979 comprehended Palestine until its liberation in a state of revolution, they coined the slogan “Wake up people, Iran has become Palestine” which became one of the most popular slogans of the revolution. Several days before the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation,  Western media outlet were reporting on the latest developments of the Abraham Accord and the excitement of the leaders of the slave-states of the Persian Gulf, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirate, for signing the Accord. However, the leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, cautioned the leaders of these Arab regimes about the futility of their efforts to normalize relations with the apartheid regime of Israel. He described their efforts as “betting on a losing horse” because, in his opinion, the Palestinians were more capable than ever in their struggle for liberation from occupation.

In preparation for the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s decision to give the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize to Narges Mohammadi, a political activist with zero political influence in Iran, Norway organized a large gathering of Norwegian academics/imperialist agents and Iranian academics in diaspora who functioned as native informers. The Norwegian hosts were evidently interested in evaluating the degree to which the American regime change project coincided with the ‘new revolution’ in Iran. The conference persuaded the Norwegian Nobel Committee that Narges Mohammadi would be an ideal candidate for the Nobel Prize, as it would position her as a potential leader of the “new feminist and democratic” revolution in Iran. Because she is prone to repeating statements from Western masters about almost everything and remaining silent when they want her to be silent. The fact that she did not speak out regarding the Israeli genocide in Palestine explains, to a certain extent, why she was selected by the Nobel Committee as the winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize. Norway’s desire to play a role in the American regime change project in Iran was not a thoughtless decision, but a continuation of its effort in enhancing its own position in the American foreign policy strategy in the West Asia formulated in its foreign policy strategy document published in 2008. The document reveals that Norway’s foreign policy is merely an adjunct to the American foreign policy in West Asia and elsewhere. In accordance with the Norwegian foreign policy document and in the name of humanitarian intervention, Norway took an active role in the bombing of Libya in 2011. Many years later, as late as 2018, the Head of the Middle East Studies at the University of Oslo, who has been so dedicated to this foreign policy document, signs an open letter to the UN asking for humanitarian intervention in Syria. The letter to the United Nations states that Syrian sovereignty should not be viewed as a hindrance to protecting the Syrian people, as Kofi Anan, the former Secretary General of the United Nations, stated in one of his reports. According to Kofi Anan, “no legal principles — even sovereignty — can ever shield crimes against humanity.”

The Norwegian political elite was under the impression that by giving the Nobel Prize to a nobody of Iranian politics, they could either contribute to a regime change in accordance with the American plan or transform Iran into a new Syria and a target for humanitarian intervention. However, I doubt that any European academic would have the courage to ask the United Nations for humanitarian intervention in Palestine after the Israeli genocidal response to the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation. The unconditional support of the United States and other Western governments for the Israeli genocide against the defenseless Palestinian civilians for a year and now against Lebanese civilians has led people in the Global South to realize that the real meaning of democracy, human rights, and women’s rights that Westerners have been trying to bring them was genocide. After the 7th of October 2023, people from the Global South became aware that Israel, the state that Westerners have attempted to portray as the sole democracy in West Asia, is in fact a genocidal, racist and apartheid regime. They have discovered that the sole democracy in West Asia is a remnant of the colonial settler regimes of the past. This is the reason why its conduct cannot be distinguished from the avaricious and ruthless colonial powers of the past, and its survival and future depend on the persistence of American global dominance. The al-Aqsa Flood Operation not only succeeded in bringing to the attention of global public opinion the appeal of the oppressed and ethnically cleansed Palestinians, but also in defeating the American regime change project in Iran. Furthermore, the al-Aqsa Flood Operation revealed that Iran and the Axis of Resistance were the only forces that supported the Palestinian struggle for liberation from the Israeli occupation, as part of their own struggle against Western imperialism and in defense of their national sovereignty and independence in the region. The question is: How have Iran and its allies, in the Axis of Resistance, been able to liberate or protect themselves from the ideological deceptions and political traps, introduced and created by Western imperialism and their native informers, which would divide them and put them against each other?

Divide to Conquer and Rule

The methods Western governments use to promote their political and economic interests in the West Asia region are rarely examined by scholars and journalists who are specialized in the region. The scholars and journalists who work in the region are interested in the ethnic, religious, social and political dividing lines, cleavages or fault lines within the states and societies to enable Western governments led by the United States to exploit these dividing lines, cleavages and fault lines to their advantage. Recently, the Middle East Eye published a critical article on the preoccupation of Western governments, media, and academia with such dividing lines, whereas this publication has been preoccupied with such fault lines since its inception. While Saudi Arabia, in collaboration with the United States and Britain, was bombing noncombatant population and civilian infrastructure in Yemen for many years, the Middle East Eye was saying that the Iranian-backed Shia Houthi positions were the targets of the bombings. This publication would happily report that the Palestinian Hamas movement issued a statement supporting the ‘constitutional legitimacy’ of the Saudi collaborator, Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi. According to the Middle East Eye: “This statement is considered Hamas’s first tacit message of support for an ongoing Saudi-led military campaign against the Shiite Houthi group in Yemen, even as the Palestinian group did not clearly mention the campaign in its statement.” The Middle East Eye and outlets similar to it are the culmination of the American-Western declared plans for promoting democracy, human rights, stability and peace in West Asia. They are specialized in causing internal divisions and conflicts in the region. These media outlets typically exhibit empathy for the suffering of Palestinians and advocate for justice in the face of Israeli brutality. However, they hold Iran and the Axis of Resistance as the primary causes of instability in the region. This is why its editors, correspondents, and contributors hold an anti-Iranian position, while Iran has demonstrated that it is the only state in the entire world that sincerely supports the Palestinian struggle for liberation from the Israeli occupation. They downplay, dismiss, or criticize the Iranian position on the Palestinian issue. To create division within the Axis of Resistance, Middle East Eye spread lies about the Iranian Commander of the Qods Force’s role in the assassination of Seyed Hassan Nasrollah, the leader of Hezbollah. Qods Force is, in fact, the principal architect of the Axis of Resistance against Western imperialism and Israel in West Asia.

There are thousands of educated individuals from the West Asia region who have been working as native informers or imperialist propagandists for the United States and its Western allies since the early 1990s. These native informers and imperialist propagandists have been recruited as academics, NGOs, or political activists. While native informers have been elaborating on social, religious, ethnic, political, and cultural divisions within the region, imperialist propagandists have been attempting to turn these divisions into actual conflicts. However, the fact that a highly respected scholar of the West Asia region told the world that the 2023 fascist riots in Iran were a revolution against internal colonization demonstrated that native informers can easily turn into imperialist propagandists when the imperialist employer says so. “Woman, Life, Freedom is a movement of liberation from this internal colonization. It is a movement to reclaim life. Its language is secular, wholly devoid of religion. Its peculiarity lies in its feminist facet.”  A decade ago, this scholar argued that the security and economic interests of Western imperialism in West Asia were compatible with the political democratization of the region and considered the so-called Arab Spring to be the expression of the union between Western governments and Arab, Iranian and Turkish democrats under the leadership of Turkey. But since he has not learned anything from the failure of the Arab Spring, he has turned from being a native informer into an imperialist propagandist who refuses to learn from his logical inconsistencies and experiences. This is the reason why, years after the failure of the “Arab Spring” and months after the morally and politically justifiable suppression of the fascist riots in Iran, this native informer-imperialist propagandist cautions those he believes to be the genuine agents of the revolutionary movement that if they are unwilling or unable to assume power, others will. In his view, it was the unwillingness of the revolutionaries or those who had initiated and carried the uprisings forward in Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen to assume power that allowed the free-riders, counterrevolutionaries, and others to assume power in the “Arab Spring”.

Before addressing the question of who are the protagonists and free riders of the “Arab Spring” in these countries, it is worth noting that the Bahraini Uprising, which was by far the most genuine uprising among the so-called “Arab Spring” uprisings, has been omitted from the narratives about the uprisings. Almost simultaneously with the brutal suppression of the Bahraini uprising by the Saudi Arabian and Emirati military, the terrorist campaigns against the Syrian government commenced. While Saudi Arabia and Qatar provided funding for the terrorist campaigns in Syria, Turkey provided logistical support for the terrorist campaign, and Western governments provided political cover by tying it to the Arab Spring. Western governments, their academia, and media, which were totally uncaring about the bloody suppression and murdering of Bahraini political activists, stood firm behind the terrorist organizations active in Syria as the only advocates of democracy and human rights. Contrary to the claims of this native informer and imperialist propagandist, almost nothing happened in Iraq and Lebanon during the ‘Arab Spring.’ After the anti-corruption demonstrations in these countries in 2019-2020 were hijacked by pro-Western and anti-Iran and anti-Hezbollah forces with the active support of American embassies, these two countries were added to the ‘Arab Spring.’

The Arab Spring 2 was an attempt to weaken and marginalize the Axis of Resistance, which included Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, the Iraqi Popular Mobilization forces, and the Yemeni Ansarullah. In fact, the same political forces and states that supported the Israeli war against Hezbollah in 2006, the ISIS and the Saudi-Emirati war against Yemen lauded the Arab Spring 2. Arab Spring failed because the United States and its Western allies did not recognize the sovereignty of the very nations whose democratic aspiration they claimed to support. By the term “democracy,” the United States and its allies refer to political regimes in the region that adhere to their directives and follow their advice irrespective of their national interests or deliberations. The political regimes that follow the American order in the region share one thing in common: their opposition to and animosity toward the Axis of Resistance. This has paralyzed them to express their opinion of their people and condemn the Israeli genocide in the region. Since the stability of these regimes depends on how useful they are for the Axis of Western Domination led by the United States in the region, they cannot do otherwise. Nevertheless, a significant fracture has emerged among the educated Arabs, Iranians, and Turks who have come to the realization that the true essence of the entire Western discourse on democracy, human rights, and women’s rights is genocide. The fact that Israel has been committing genocide against the Palestinian people with the direct assistance of Western governments and their media, in violation of the Genocide Convention, makes the latter an accomplice in the Israeli genocide. As per article III of the Genocide Convention, both the act of committing and complicity in genocide are punishable offenses. According to article IV: “Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.”

With Israeli genocide and the unconditional support of all the members of the Axis of Western Domination led by the United States in West Asia, this Axis has been turned into an Axis of Genocide. It is noteworthy that all members of this supported the ‘new revolution’ in Iran. Israel was the most prominent sponsor of the fascist riots, with which Norway had the illusion of competing through the 2023 Nobel Prize. From 2001 to 2011, the Axis of Western Domination bombed any state or nation that hesitated to accept their submission peacefully, provided they were defenseless. They bombed and invaded Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya because they realized that these states and nations were defenseless. Due to the failure of the Axis of Western Domination in the region to subjugate Hezbollah, Syria, and Ansarullah through the Israeli war against Lebanon in 2006, the terrorist campaigns against Syria since 2011, and the Saudi-Emirati war against Yemen since 2015, the Axis of the Resistance has been formed. The Iraqi Popular Mobilization, whose main components emerged as a response to the American occupation of Iraq in 2003, joined the Axis of Resistance to fight the Western-Israeli phenomenon known as ISIS in Iraq and Syria. ISIS succeeded in controlling large parts of these two countries in 2014 through acts of genocide against all those they deemed to be unbelievers, especially Shia Muslims. Western governments and Israel hoped that an ISIS Khalifat in Syria and Iraq would end Iranian political influence in these two countries, which they viewed as a bridge to Hezbollah in Lebanon. It is the same story with Ansarullah, who were ruling the 80% of the Yemeni population. Saudi Arabia and its Western and regional backers accused Ansarullah of being an Iranian proxy but failed to defeat it after a decade. The Western backed Saudi-Emirati war against the Ansarullah movement made the movement stronger and its ties with Iran friendlier because Iran was the only state that supported them against foreign powers politically, economically and militarily. Hamas and Islamic Jihad joined the Axis of Resistance because they realized that the Axis was the only political and military force they could rely on to free Palestine from Israeli occupation. What is common between the Lebanese, Syrian, Iraqi and Syrian and Yemeni and Palestinian experience is that they had to defend their sovereignty against states and terrorist organizations that were supported by the United States, other Western governments and Israel. The Axis of Resistance is not a result of the decisions made by governments, but rather a result of the convergence of states and movements that have been fighting for their sovereignty and independence from the former Axis of Western Domination and the current Axis of Genocide in the region for several decades. Iran learned from its experience fighting alone against an enemy who had the support of Western powers in the 1980s that it was important to form an alliance against Western intervention in the West Asia region. This is why, while trapped in a devastating war, Iran helped the formation of Hezbollah, which has become the most effective resistance organization against the Israeli occupation of Lebanon since the 1980s. Iran went on to support Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which started their Armed Struggle in the 1980s and 1990s, and at the same time supported Islamic and anti-imperialist forces in Iraq and Yemen, which are now known as the Yemeni Ansarullah and Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq.

Each member of the Axis of Resistance has experienced the impacts of the Axis of Western Domination in their own country and in the region, and their actual resistance against such impacts has qualified them as constituting components of the Axis of Resistance. This is why each member of the Resistance raises the universalizing character of the Axis. If the slogan “one for all and all for one” has any meaning, it can be found in the practice and experiences of solidarity of the Axis of Resistance. While the Axis of Resistance was forming against the forces of Western Domination in the region, including Israel, not only Arab autocracies and Turkey, but also an army of native informers posing as academics and journalists argued that the people of the region could escape from the suffering of imperialist injustice if they are accustomed to it and contributed to its continuity. The terms of acceptance of imperialist injustice in the region and of contributing to its continuity were democracy, human rights, and women’s rights or moderation.

While Turkey represented democracy, human rights, and women’s rights for a while, especially during the Arab Spring, Saudi Arabia represented moderation. Therefore, the entire discourse regarding the politics of West Asia oscillated between moderation and democracy.

Although numerous scholars promoted Turkey while advocating for the objective of ‘Making Islam Democratic,’ the responsibility of promoting Saudi Arabia was delegated to Thomas Friedman and his like-minded people. The result was a fierce competition between the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Turkey for the consolidation of American hegemony in the region and for the normalization of Israeli apartheid in occupied Palestine. These leaders believed that their contribution to the imperialist injustice in the region and their collaboration with the Axis of Western Domination would safeguard them from harsh treatment in the ongoing injustice.

The efforts to make themselves a darling of the imperialist dominance in the region might explain the animosity of the imperialist clients against Iran and the Axis of Resistance expressed in their countless English and Arabic media outlets. A glance at the seemingly progressive and reliable outlets such as Aljazeera and Jadaliyya, Middle East Eye, and TRT will reveal the extent of their anti-resistance and anti-Iranian posture, not to mention the media owned by Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The majority of regional analysts appearing in these media outlets appear to be pro-Palestinian. Convinced of the enduring nature of the dominance of Western imperialism, led by the United States in the region, they refer to the members of the Axis of Resistance as the “proxies of the Iranian regime” to remind their audience of the temporary nature of the Iranian state. It appears that these analysts are unaware of the fact that all small and large Western governments constitute the primary obstacle to Palestinian liberation in any meaningful manner. These outlets do not mention that Iran has been subject to murderous economic sanctions for several decades because of its loyalty to its allies in the Axis of Resistance. While the Saudi-Emirati war against Ansarullah was supported by all Western governments, Iran was the only state to support the Ansarullah movement. Iran has provided support to the Yemeni Ansarullah, the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Force, the Palestinian freedom fighters such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as the Syrian government, as they all represent forces of sovereignty who defend their independence and freedom from Western dominance.

The United States and its Western allies have imposed economic sanctions on Iran due to their assertion that it has committed three unforgivable sins. They claim that Iran interferes with the affairs of other countries in the region, which implies that Iran does not accept the rulers imposed by the United States on the region. Thus, it supports forces that resist American interference in the region. According to American rules in the region, Palestinians must be prevented from fighting for their rights and for their liberation from Israeli bondage, and that Israel must preserve its military and technological supremacy regardless of the costs for other states and nations in the region. Iran not only regards Israel as an illegal state in the region that needs to be dismantled, but it also seeks to end American omnipotence and tyrannical power in the region, since it is the United States and its allies that allow Israel to commit genocide against the Palestinian and Lebanese people with impunity. According to American rule, Saudi Arabia on behalf of the United States should determine who should govern in Yemen, something Iran rejects and says that every state and nation must be the master of its own destiny. The second reason Iran is the target of American and Western sanctions is its advancing military technology, especially its advanced missile program, which the United States and other Western powers want to be dismantled. The real meaning of this Western demand is that Iran ceases its missile program and disarms itself so that it would not be able to reach enemy targets beyond its borders. This makes it easier for the United States and its allies to wage war against it. Iran not only succeeded in developing its military technology and accomplishing advanced missile and drone programs to secure its territorial integrity and national sovereignty against American threats, but it also succeeded in boosting the military technology of its allies in Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq and Palestinians to be more effective against the Axis of Western Domination and Genocide in the region. Ultimately, Iran has been subjected to demonization and economic sanctions and has become a target of Israeli terrorism due to its alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons. The United States wants Iran to prove that it is not seeking nuclear weapons in return for easing economic sanctions against it. According to this American logic, it is not the accuser who must demonstrate through the presentation of evidence that the accused has committed a wrong, but rather the accused who must demonstrate against evidence that is not present that he or she has not committed the wrong. To satisfy the American demand and demonstrate that Iran has no intention of making nuclear weapons, Iran must dismantle its entire nuclear program and refrain from developing nuclear technology. Iran does not accept this because it is a violation of its national sovereignty. Furthermore, Iran does not wish to be deprived of all options whenever it encounters an existential threat from either Israel or the United States. Therefore, it possesses all the necessary technology to produce nuclear weapons; however, it refrains from producing such weapons as it is not currently confronting an existential threat. Recently, Iranians are reminding Western powers that if they create a threatening condition for Iran, Iranians may reconsider their nuclear policy in a matter of days.

The rationale behind the economic sanctions, media war and regime change projects against Iran was that such measures would either install a Western friendly regime or convince Iran to change its behavior and give up its sovereignty. The United States and its allies were hoping that, even if all regime-change attempts and attempts to change Iran’s behavior fail, it would become so fragile that it could not hold the Axis of Resistance together and assist its allies in the region when they needed it most. Despite economic sanctions and technological embargo imposed by the Axis of Domination and Genocide in the region on Iran, Iran has proved to be more economically prosperous, technologically advanced, ideologically and politically influential, and militarily stronger than anticipated. Iran not only helped the Axis of Resistance economically and militarily, but also helped them achieve a high degree of technological sophistication and military self-sufficiency that no power could take from them, despite its own economic difficulties. Every member of the Axis was convinced by this that Iran believes in their talent and strength and wants them to be strong, self-sufficient, dignified, sovereign and equal members of the Axis. It suffices to compare the reverence of the Iranian leaders to that of Seyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, with the contemptuous treatment of Saad Hariri, the former Prime-Minister of Lebanon, by the leaders of Saudi Arabia. Iran and Saudi Arabia have treated these two Lebanese political leaders differently, demonstrating who is considered a sovereign ally and who is a dependent proxy.

Iran comprehends that in the event that the Axis of Domination and Genocide defeats the apparent weaker links within the Axis, it will not be content with anything less than Iran’s complete surrender. Imperial agents and their native informers interpreted almost every Western aggression or any Western political project as a means of regime change in Iran. This included the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Israeli War on Lebanon, the Arab Spring, and finally the fascist riots in Iran. The fascist riots in Iran, entitled Woman, Life, Freedom, were the last misinformation and disinformation attempt by the imperialist agents and their native informers. They created the illusion for Western governments, as their employers, that Iran was on the brink of collapse and would be forced to submit to American conditions in the region. These imperialist agents and their native informers, who have been functioning as academics, journalists, political activists, and NGO activists, have failed miserably in their last attempt. All the efforts carried out by these imperialist agents and native informers who have constructed religious, political, ethnic, and gender divisions in West Asia have been guided by the principle of divide and rule. They explained that political and economic underdevelopment, conflicts, and wars in the region were related to these divisions. These epistemological assumptions serve as a guideline for Western media and pro-Western media in the West and the region, but they also serve as a point of departure for social scientists and historians in the region. What follows from the knowledge produced based on these epistemological assumptions requires the active intervention of Western governments in the region. Western governments thus finance, initiate, and establish organizations which call themselves non-governmental organizations as instruments of interference in the social and political affairs of various societies in the region. Without the financial support of their government, Western NGOs in the region will disappear. This indicates that non-governmental organizations serve to divert the local populace from the fact that Western imperialism and Western elite are the main responsible for the social, religious, and political divisions and conflicts in the region.

Since unity, solidarity, and fraternity in the region challenge American imperialism regionally and globally, movements that promise unity, solidarity, and fraternity in the region are designed as Iranian proxies that conspire against peace and stability in the region. The imperialist agents and native informers who accuse Iran of interfering in Iraqi affairs never mention the fact that the United States has taken Iraq’s entire oil revenue hostage to impose its will on the Iraqi state. The United States and its Western allies use every political means, terrorism, mass murder and even genocide to reshape the region according to their insatiable interests. Naturally, the imperialist agents and their native informers become preoccupied with Iran’s nuclear ambitions, expansion, and influence, as well as its proxies, as the main causes of political disputes and social conflicts in the region. The anti-government and anti-corruption demonstrations in Iraq and Lebanon during the period of 2019-2020 were referred to as the Arab Spring 2 by the imperialist agents and their native informers, as they turned anti-Iran and anti-Hezbollah.

The Struggle for Sovereignty

Iran managed to build and strengthen a regional front known as the Axis of Resistance against the alliance of the Axis of Domination and Genocide, while every regional analyst believed that the collective West and Israel were going to shape the West Asia region according to their own security and economic interests. In his last speech, Iran’s leader said that the only reason the U.S. and other Western powers support the Israeli apartheid regime is because it lets them control the natural resources of the region. He explained that by controlling the region’s resources, the West, led by the United States, would be more confident in their future conflicts with other world powers such as China and Russia. Western powers have become the accomplices of the Israeli genocide because not only their security and economic interests, but their supremacist attitude toward non-Westerners is indistinguishable from those of the Israeli regime, according to Iran’s leader. This is the reason why, rather than focusing on the racist and genocidal nature of the Israeli regime, the Western media places emphasis on its military might and portrays it as the most powerful entity in the region. According to the leader of Iran, the combination of Israel’s fictitious military might with the American aspiration of transforming this regime of apartheid and genocide into a hub for both energy export from the region to the West and for importing Western products and technology to the region prompted several regimes in the region to normalize their relations with this regime. But the Palestinians and other members of the Axis of Resistance are fighting for their freedom and independence from Israeli and American dominance in the region, which has turned this Western dream into a nightmare.

Iran was, in fact, the first member of this resistance and was able to anticipate its formation since the 1979 revolution. The Iranian revolution transformed the country from a client of American imperialism into a sovereign and self-governing state. According to the section on foreign policy of the constitution of this sovereign state specified in articles 152, 153, and 154, Iranian governments have a duty to reject any forms of imperialist domination or interference in Iranian internal politics. Moreover, it obligates the Iranian governments to demonstrate active solidarity with all nations that oppose imperialist dominance and interference in their internal affairs. Here, the key concept is the sovereign right of nations and states to shape their societies according to their own will, aspirations, ideas, deliberations, and decisions. According to Article 152 of the Iranian constitution, The Islamic Republic of Iran is mandated to reject any form of foreign dominance within its territory, to preserve its independence and territorial integrity, and to defend the rights of all Muslims and the oppressed peoples of the world against superpowers. Article 153 prohibits any agreements that give any form of foreign control over the Iranian natural resources, economy, army, or culture. Finally, according to the Article 154, “The ideal of the Islamic Republic of Iran is independence, justice, truth, and felicity among all people of the world. Accordingly, it[the Islamic Republic] supports the just struggles of the Mustad’afun (oppressed) against the Mustakbirun (oppressors) in every corner of the globe.” During the first year of the revolution in Iran, there was a universal consensus among all revolutionary tendencies on these ideals declared by the Iranian Constitution. These articles of the Iranian constitutions are the guiding lines of the Iranian struggle to defend its state sovereignty and to support other nations in their struggles for sovereignty and independence from imperialist powers. Iran has supported the Palestinian struggle for liberation from Israeli apartheid for the same reason it supported South African struggles against apartheid. Iran stands in solidarity with Hezbollah, the Syrian government, Yemeni Ansarullah, and Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces as they fight for the same independence and sovereignty that it enjoys itself. Iranian independence and sovereignty prevent it from joining the Axis of Western Domination and Genocide in the region. Iran is aware that without aiding and defending the sovereignty of others, it is unable to safeguard its own sovereignty. For a long time, the imperialist agents and their native informers have argued that the Iranian nation does not endorse Iran’s interventions in Western imperialist affairs in the region. However, recent opinion polls conducted by imperialist agents and their native informers indicate that, the majority of Iranians “are invested in the idea of providing military support to Iran’s proxy groups in the Middle East, the so-called “Axis of Resistance” (Jebhe Moqavemat). Sixty percent are in favor of this policy and 31 percent are against it.”  Western governments’ academic and media mouthpieces accuse Iran for two contradictory reasons. They blame Iran for using its financial resources to assist and empower its proxies who cause instability in the region instead of using those resources to elevate the prosperity of its own people or accuse it of using other members of the Axis of Resistance for its own interests. While the first claim assumes Iran to be a nefarious but a rational and pragmatic player in the region, the latter claim assumes Iran to be an ideological, fanatic and dogmatic actor. Iran must be contained, moderated, or subject to constant demonization, economic sanctions, terrorism, and regime change since it is the cause of instability in both cases. However, despite the numerous criminal plots against the Iranian state and nation since the revolution, Iran has steadfastly upheld the revolutionary principles of sovereignty and independence against Western imperialism and demonstrated genuine solidarity with the oppressed people who fight for their own sovereignty and independence.

Even though the Soviet Union collapsed, which made the United States the global sovereign or consolidated its global hegemony, supported and facilitated by its various Western allies and regional clients, and to which Russia and other members of the former socialist block in Europe and Central Asia surrendered, Iran did not relinquish its sovereignty and independence. Iran faced two choices: either surrender to American global hegemony and its “new world order” or face American wrath in the form of regime change or land invasion, as it happened in Afghanistan and Iraq, Libya and Syria. Iran realized that it was impossible to protect its own sovereignty without promoting the principle of sovereignty and practicing a genuine practice of solidarity with all forces that resisted American domination and Israeli aggression in West Asia.

This is how the Axis of Resistance as we know it today came into being.  Iranians had to resist not only the military, economic, and political consequences of American global dominance in the region, but also the circulation of its ideology by contemporary political philosophers, historians, political scientists, sociologists, and anthropologists, who theorize, justify, and normalize the American order. The Aristotelian theory of rulership and governance is at the heart of the new world order. According to this theory, the soul, composed of the rational and expedient components of the world, is destined to reign over the physical, passionate, and natural components of the world. The American world order ideology assumes that the West, led by the U.S., represents the former and the rest of the world represents the latter in the contemporary world. This theory argues that the United States and its allies represent the human elements that must rule the animal elements of the world because both men and animals are better off when animals are tamed and ruled by men. This theory assumes that, since it is always the superior who discovers this principle of ruling, he must make sure that the inferiors understand this principle. This theory makes the inferior believe that he is a slave who must obey the superior as his master and execute his orders unquestionably. According to this principle of rulership, while the task of the slave is the administration of things and production of the necessities of life, the task of the master is the administration of the slaves. Russia, which consented to being administered by the West, led by the United States, attempted to fulfill the duties of a slave and fulfill the master’s demands, however, it was unsuccessful. However, China, which has achieved great success in the administration of things and production of necessities of life, has come to the realization that as a nation, they have high expectations and desire to safeguard their sovereignty and independence. At the same time, Russia realized that their success in the administration of things and the production of the necessities of life depended on them protecting their sovereignty and independence from Western interventions in the affairs of their nation. Aristotle advised superior men to do philosophy and politics because they were the kind of science that enable the superior to command the slave who produces the necessities of life. Modern imperialism, from an Aristotelian perspective, would not be possible without modern philosophy, social sciences and humanities that have persuaded the rest of the world of their inferiority. As Aristotle argued that plants exist for the sake of animals, and animals exist for the sake of men, and the slave exist for the sake of the master, modern human and social sciences argue that non-Westerners exist for the sake of Westerners. Imperial agents and their native informers are practitioners of the social and human sciences, whose failure to convince the inferior people of their inferiority could result in the inferior people refusing to be governed by their superiors. When this occurs, the Americans and their Western allies attempt to coerce the inferior populace into submission by means of economic sanctions, intimidation, and threats. Whenever these measures fail, and the superior Westerners find the inferior people defenseless, they turn into wild beasts by indiscriminate killing of civilians, murdering babies, women, and elderly people, and destroying their homes. The Israeli Genocide of Palestinian and Lebanese people is the last example of such crimes.  While the United States, with the help of its Western allies, attempts to dominate the world by demonstrating Western superiority and the inferiority of the rest of the world, Israel fails to dominate West Asia despite all the political, economic and military help it receives from America and Europe. In 2006, Israel attempted to replicate what the United States and its Western allies accomplished in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2001 and 2003, but it fell short. Since the so-called Arab Spring, the United States and Israel have worked together to kill as many Libyan, Syrian, Yemeni people as they can and destroy as much of their infrastructure as they can because according to the imperialist principle, the superiors can either subjugate the inferiors or destroy them. However, Iranian revolutionary foreign policy has rejected this Western superiority complex and has tried to minimize its political consequences in the region. Iran has been trying to convince the people of the region that their struggle for sovereignty and independence from imperialist domination is impossible without the formation of a united front to resist American and Western intervention in the region. From an Iranian perspective, the resistance against the imperialist dominance in the region is intrinsically linked to the Palestinian struggle for liberation from the Israeli occupation. Iran supports the Palestinian struggle for sovereignty and independence, as an unfree Palestine would make the future of its own sovereignty and independence uncertain. Because an unfree Palestine means supremacy of the Western Axis of Domination and Genocide in the region. This may explain the moral high ground held by Iran when it comes to the Israeli genocide and its Western and regional accomplices.

According to Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics, book VIII, it is with friends that men are more able to think and to act because the impacts of friendship are so significant that it can hold states together. Whereas men with friends do not have a need for justice, just men need friendship because justice has a friendly quality. But true friendship is about reciprocal goodwill, since friends wish what is good for one another for their own sake. It is the mutual recognition of goodwill between people that makes them friends. According to Aristotle, there are people who love each other for their utility and in virtue of some good which they get from each other. There are also those who love for the sake of pleasure because they find each other pleasant. Hence, those who love others for the purpose of their utility, do so for the sake of their own well-being, whereas those who love for the sake of pleasure do so for the sake of their own pleasure. If the parties don’t stay what they are to each other, their friendship will be easily broken up. For instance, when an individual ceases to be pleasant or useful to the other, the latter ceases to love them. Friendship is perfect when men are good and equal because they wish well for their friends for their own sake. Such friendships last as long as the parties remain good, and goodness is a lasting thing. Friendships such as these are not instrumental because they are not based on how useful friends are to each other. Since true friendship is rare and infrequent, it requires time and familiarity. The imperialist agents and their native informers fail to understand that Iran and the Axis of Resistance are the only true friends in Asia because they founded their friendship on mutual recognition of their sovereignty, equality, and struggle for justice. The familiarity with such virtues in each other took time, but the time was not wasted. The time was used to discover what is good in each other.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Yadullah Shahibzadeh.

At about 3 a.m. on October 25, an Israeli airstrike hit a compound housing 18 journalists from multiple media outlets in Hasbaya, a town in southern Lebanon. The strike killed pro-Hezbollah Al-Mayadeen TV’s camera operator Ghassan Najjar, broadcast engineer Mohammed Reda, and Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar TV’s camera operator Wissam Kassem.

According to the BBC, the IDF said it struck a Hezbollah military structure in Hasbaya where “terrorists were operating.” The IDF said it received reports “several hours after the strike” that journalists had been hit, adding that “the incident is under review.” 

Lebanon filed a complaint with the U.N. Security Council on Monday, October 28, over the strike. 

Israeli strikes have killed at least three additional journalists while on assignment and injured at least 11 in Lebanon since the Israel Defense Forces and Lebanon’s militant group Hezbollah began exchanging fire in October 2023. Israel escalated tensions on October 1, 2024, when they launched a ground invasion into Lebanon. 

CPJ is investigating another five killings of journalists and media workers in Lebanon by Israel since September 23 to determine if they were killed in relation to their work. 

“Journalists are civilians, and the international community has an obligation to protect them by making it clear to Israel that their long-standing record of aggression and impunity in journalist killings will not be tolerated,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna. “International bodies must be given access to conduct independent investigations into these killings. Deadly attacks on journalists, who are protected under international humanitarian law, and obstructions to reporting must immediately stop.”

CPJ has documented the following obstructions to journalism in Lebanon since the September escalation: 

Israeli strikes on media facilities 

• Israeli forces bombed and destroyed the outlet offices of the Hezbollah-affiliated religious TV channel Al-Sirat in the southern district of the capital, Beirut, on September 30. No casualties were reported. 

• Israeli forces bombed a building in the southern city of Tyre on October 20, which housed the Hezbollah-linked financial institution Al-Qard Al-Hasan and local radio station Sawt Al Farah. Workers evacuated the building, and no casualties were reported in the destruction of the 34-year-old station — one of the oldest in south Lebanon. Reports said the station’s broadcast was stopped by the bombing. Sawt Al Farah’s website continues to operate. 

• Israeli forces bombed and destroyed the Beirut office of the Hezbollah-affiliated broadcaster Al-Mayadeen in the Jnah neighborhood of Beirut on October 23. The two missile strikes killed one person and injured five others, none of whom have been identified. The channel said it had previously evacuated its offices and “holds Israel responsible for the attack.”

The IDF responded to CPJ in New York’s email inquiring about these strikes on October 28; the IDF said its operations in Lebanon since October 8 have been “in accordance with its obligations under international law,” and the IDF “directs its strikes towards military targets and military operatives only, and does not target civilian objects and civilians.”

The IDF told CPJ it was unaware of a strike on October 20 in Tyre, Lebanon, and that they could better answer CPJ’s questions with specific coordinates and times of the attacks, information that CPJ has no access to provide.

Displacement and lack of PPE

• Journalists who resided in southern Lebanon, including Beqaa valley and Beirut’s southern suburb, told CPJ they face displacement because of Israeli strikes in this area. At least 15 journalists were displaced and received housing aid from local press freedom groups Skeyes and the Alternative Press Syndicate.

• Lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) has been an issue for many in the country, journalists told CPJ, adding that many press members do not own any and are working as freelancers, without an outlet’s direct support. Skeyes and Alternative Press Syndicate have loaned PPE to at least 100 journalists in the last month, with many more still on the waiting list.  

Attacked while reporting

• A group of around 20 men, some of whom were armed, beat two Belgian journalists with broadcaster VTM News while they reported on an Israeli airstrike that hit the Islamic Health Organization building in the Bashoura neighborhood of Beirut on October 3. Journalist Robin Ramaekers told CPJ he was treated at a hospital for facial fractures, and camera operator Stijn De Smet was treated for gunshot wounds to his leg. 

• A man chased and attacked two Italian journalists, reporter Lucia Goracci and camera operator Marco Nicois, with broadcaster RAI TG3 and tried to steal and break their cameras on October 8 in Jiyeh, a town south of Beirut. Their driver, Ahmad Akil Hamzeh, was trying to de-escalate the situation when he collapsed and later died of a heart attack. 

• A group of men attacked and insulted Mahmoud Shokor, a reporter with the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya, while he was reporting live on October 15 in Beqaa, a valley near the central town of Chtoura.

Several local and international journalists spoke to CPJ about being beaten or witnessing other journalists being attacked on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of retaliation as they continue to report on the war. CPJ is investigating at least six additional incidents of journalists being attacked while reporting in various areas in Beirut between October 10 and October 22. 

A journalist detained

• Police detained Alia Mansour, a Lebanese Syrian journalist and deputy editor-in-chief of privately owned Now Lebanon, for several hours on October 19 after a social media account impersonating the journalist appeared to be in communication with Israeli social media accounts. 

Restricted access

Multiple journalists who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal, said that journalists working in Lebanon must now get accreditation from multiple parties before filming in any area, given the high risks of attacks. This includes the Lebanese Ministry of Information, political parties, and other groups influential in certain parts of the country. 

Multiple reporters told CPJ that authorities have also regularly restricted journalists’ access to bombed areas.  

On several occasions since September 2024, unidentified individuals have asked reporters from local and regional TV stations to leave or stop filming during live feeds of the bombings in Lebanon, according to reporters who spoke to CPJ and CPJ’s review of the news feeds. CPJ was unable to confirm the individuals’ affiliations.

Anti-media rhetoric

In October, Hezbollah’s media division accused several local and international media outlets, especially those that embedded reporters with the Israel Defense Forces in southern Lebanon, of “aiding Israel,” inciting violence, and “justification of Israeli crimes.” 

Mohammed Afif, Hezbollah’s media relations official, repeated these accusations in an October 22 press conference, adding that “freedom of the press does not give you immunity from incitement or complicity in murder.”

CPJ reviewed dozens of social media posts by unknown individuals in the last month containing calls to ban outlets, burn studios, or obstruct journalists working with the local privately owned Lebanese broadcaster MTV, the Saudi broadcasters Al-Hadath and Al-Arabiya, and the UAE-owned TV broadcaster Sky News Arabia. 

Outlets threatened

• Qatari-owned broadcaster Al Jazeera evacuated its studios in Beirut on October 17 over multiple bomb threats later determined to be fake by unnamed security sources. 

• NBN, a TV channel affiliated with the Shia political party Amal, part of Lebanon’s ruling coalition, evacuated its studios and paused broadcasting on October 22 after a staffer received a phoned threat that authorities later determined to be fake. 

CPJ’s texts to Hezbollah media spokesperson Rana Sahili and Lebanese Minister of Information Ziad Makari requesting comment on obstructions and attacks on the press and any official steps to protect them did not receive a response. A Lebanese Ministry of Interior media spokesperson told CPJ that the ministry declined to comment. 

The IDF’s North America Desk responded to CPJ in New York’s email requesting comment on the rest of these incidents on October 24; the IDF asked for an unspecified extension and coordinates of the attacks, information that CPJ, in response, said it has no access to provide.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

Palestine’s Permament Observer at the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, has slammed the UN Security Council for failing to secure a ceasefire and bring an end to Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip reports Al Jazeera.

“We have collectively failed. This council has failed,” the Palestinian envoy said during a special council session on the humanitarian response in Gaza.

“We can continue counting aid trucks and speaking of routes and imagining alternatives, but the only true measure of our success is our ability to alleviate human suffering — and the suffering of Palestinians is Israel’s goal and desire,” Mansour said.

• READ MORE: Other Israeli war on Gaza reports

“Whatever solutions you come up with, [Israel] will continue ensuring they fail until it is forced to change course.

“And the first, indispensable step is an immediate ceasefire.”

Meanwhile, in Paris yesterday at the opening of the Olympic Games 2024, the Palestinian Palestine’s Olympic team made its entry into the Paris Games on a boat in the River Seine.

Much support was shared for Palestine during the Asian Cup in Qatar earlier this year and a similar response during Paris 2024 is expected.

Call for ban on Israel
Pro-Palestine activists have been calling for Israel to be banned from the Olympics, accusing the Games’ bosses of double standards by allowing Israel to participate while barring Russia.

Olympic double standards over Israeli.         Video:Al Jazeera

In Washington, a briefing by UNRWA is under way at the UN Security Council.

Members of the council wanted to highlight the humanitarian situation in Gaza and it is perhaps no coincidence that Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu is in the US at this time.

Russia, China and Algeria — with Russia holding the presidency at present — called for this meeting after Netanyahu’s speech to the US Congress this week.

Several UNRWA representatives outlined the latest updates on the dire situation for the people of Gaza, including people’s inability to satisfy their basic needs due to the continued displacement, insecurity and lawlessness.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Israel massacred dozens of Palestinians in airstrikes in al-Mawasi, the supposed “safe zone” along the coast in southern Gaza, and in Beach refugee camp near Gaza City on Saturday.

At least 90 Palestinians were killed and 300 injured in the attack on al-Mawasi, according to the health ministry in Gaza, and at least 20 Palestinians were killed after Israel bombed worshippers gathered for noon prayers outside the ruins of a mosque in Beach refugee camp.

?The Palestine Red Crescent teams retrieved six martyrs and three injured individuals following the Israeli occupation targeting a prayer room in the Al-Shati refugee camp west of #Gaza City.
?Filmed by volunteer: Yousef Khader pic.twitter.com/zsagChjsYg

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) July 13, 2024

On Friday, the Israeli military killed four workers at an aid warehouse in Gaza, claiming that it had targeted Husam Mansour. Israel alleged that Mansour was a militant who worked at an aid organization to raise money for Hamas – an unsubstantiated claim similar to those made by Israel against other humanitarians in Gaza working for international charities who were killed and jailed with impunity.

The Al-Khair Foundation, a UK-based charity, stated that Mansour was a “cornerstone” of its team in Gaza and that his death “is not just a loss to our organization but a devastating blow to the humanitarian efforts in the region.”

The deaths of the aid workers came one day after Samantha Power, the head of the State Department agency USAID, said that Israel promised to improve safety for humanitarian workers in Gaza, where famine has taken hold as a result of Israel’s blockade.

Yesterday Today pic.twitter.com/P40VnhWejw

— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) July 12, 2024

This is the rubble of Sabha Clinic — the last health facility in Al Shuja’yia..

It used to serve over 50,000 people.. It was destroyed by the Israeli occupation forces during their last ground invasion into Al Shuja’yia! pic.twitter.com/APENV06zSY

— Motasem A Dalloul (@AbujomaaGaza) July 11, 2024

A spokesperson for the civil defense in Gaza said that the bodies of more than 60 people had been recovered in Shujaiya, and that many more were missing under the rubble of destroyed homes.

Dozens of people were also killed in Tal al-Hawa in southern Gaza City, the civil defense spokesperson said on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Israel once again ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate. Many Palestinians vowed to stay in Gaza City, no matter the cost.

“We are not leaving until death. We are staying on our land.”

Despite Israel’s orders to evacuate Gaza City, some Palestinians refuse to leave. pic.twitter.com/PtvQMKGPsI

— AJ+ (@ajplus) July 11, 2024

Itay Epshtain, an international law expert, said that “this is not a permissible evacuation but an act of forcible transfer” that “shows the open-ended nature of hostilities in Gaza.” Epshtain noted that “Israel appears interested as ever in a protracted conflict.”

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that its field workers “are investigating reports that the Israeli army forces committed extrajudicial killings and unlawful executions of numerous residents, the majority of whom were women” during its incursion into areas of western Gaza City between Monday and Friday.

Quadcopters fired on rescue workers

The UN office said that the strikes on al-Mawasi on Saturday allegedly hit tents housing displaced people, a food kitchen and a desalination plant where people had gathered to collect water, “leading to tens of fatalities.”

Israeli military “quadcopters reportedly targeted emergency rescue workers, killing at least one civil defense worker and injuring several others,” the human rights office added.

The UN office once again pointed to “a pattern of willful violation of the disregard of [international humanitarian law] principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution” and “a rampant disregard for the safety of civilians.”

Even if Palestinians belonging to armed groups were present among civilians, “this would not remove [the Israeli military’s] obligations” to comply with the fundamental principles of the laws of war, the UN office said.

Video of the immediate aftermath of the Israeli attack in al-Mawasi shows injured and dead people who appear to be civilians, including someone wearing a civil defense vest, lying in the streets as a black plume of smoke rises from an area adjacent to a tent encampment:

?? Graphic content ??

More horrific scenes coming out of the deadly Israeli massacre in al-Mawasi region, the area designated as a humanitarian zone by the Israeli army. pic.twitter.com/Iv7TnglvaK

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) July 13, 2024

Another video shows people attempting to dig victims out of a massive crater with their bare hands. A man’s left arm and shoulder is seen protruding from the sandy soil as a child says, “that’s my father, has he been martyred?”

A massacre occurred in Mawasi Khan Yunis this morning (13.07.2024) after F-16 jets bombarded a displacement camp filled with tents. The attack has resulted in significant casualties and devastation, leaving many families in deep mourning and despair. pic.twitter.com/i7rNsRnYfG

— Eye on Palestine (@EyeonPalestine) July 13, 2024

A witness says in the same video that “all of Gaza is wanted” by the occupation.

The man adds that there was a fire belt – a series of heavy bombs dropped in the same place – without warning on the tent encampment. When rescuers arrived, F-16 jets “bombed the paramedics and civil defense team,” he says.

Israel killed civil defense teams that were trying to rescue Palestinians in Mawasi Khanyounis. pic.twitter.com/ucjRPXVV4n

— Hind Khoudary (@Hind_Gaza) July 13, 2024

The PRCS #AlAmalHospital in Khan Yunis has received dozens of injuries from the displaced who were targeted by the Israeli occupation in the (Al-Nus) area in Muwasi Khan Yunis. Some of them are from the displaced in the PRCS's shelter camp in the targeted area. #Gaza pic.twitter.com/iGjBAGwEzF

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) July 13, 2024

The head of the World Health Organization said that Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, which received 134 people severely injured in the al-Mawasi attack, “is extremely overwhelmed by the influx of patients.”

Netanyahu stalls negotiations

After the deadly attack in al-Mawasi, Ghassan Abu Sitta, a British Palestinian surgeon who was working in Gaza during the first weeks of the genocide, said that “Israel committed this massacre to foil the ceasefire negotiations.”

Israel commited this massacre to foil the ceasefire negotiations. Neither Israel nor its US, UK and German accomplaces want the genocide to stop until the FINAL SOLUTION is achieved.

— Ghassan Abu Sitta (@GhassanAbuSitt1) July 13, 2024

There is no end to the genocide for one reason alone: Genocide @JoeBiden and the other murderous psychopaths in the White House don’t want it to. They can make “Israel” stop any time they want to. But they want the massacres, the baby-murder to continue.

— Ali Abunimah (@AliAbunimah) July 13, 2024

Egypt officials told Reuters on Saturday that the indirect talks between Hamas and Israel “have been halted after three days of intense negotiations failed to produce a viable outcome … blaming Israel for lacking a genuine intent to reach an agreement.”

Earlier in the week, an unnamed “former senior Egyptian official with knowledge of the negotiations” told The Washington Post that “Netanyahu does not want peace. That is all.”

The official added that Netanyahu “will find excuses … to prolong this war” until the US elections, in which Republican candidate and former president Donald Trump, who was lightly injured after gunshots rang out during a campaign event on Saturday, may be voted into a second term.

Whatever Netanyahu’s motivation, Israeli defense officials have told the Haaretz newspaper that the prime minister has “repeatedly torpedoed” progress towards a deal with Hamas to free the remaining captives held in Gaza since 7 October.

The officials said that “in his attempt to derail negotiations, Netanyahu relied on classified intelligence and manipulated the sensitive information.”

In recent days, an unnamed senior official told Hebrew-language media that Netanyahu’s new demand to build “a mechanism to prevent the movement of armed operatives” within Gaza threatened to derail a deal.

“This is the moment of truth for the hostages,” the official told Channel 12 news. “We can reach an agreement within two weeks and bring the hostages home.”

But Netanyahu’s new demand “will stall the talks for weeks and then there may not be anyone to bring home,” the official said.

US resumes weapons shipments

While US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that he was “determined to get this deal done and bring an end to this war, which should end now,” his national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that “there’s still miles to go before we close, if we are able to close” on an agreement.

With the US putting no real pressure on Israel, and continuing to supply weapons, more massacres of Palestinians in Gaza are all but guaranteed.

The US said in recent days that it will resume the shipments of 500-pound bombs to Israel after pausing a transfer of those weapons and 2,000-pound munitions in May to deter a major Israeli offensive in Rafah, southern Gaza, which went ahead anyway.

A clarification on POTUS tweet re: Gaza ceasefire.

Current signs suggest we are weeks away from a deal. Also: Netanyahu's unlikely to give Biden a win before coming to DC.

With Israel still getting overwhelming US support, bombing+Palestinian suffering+hostage anguish continue. https://t.co/aUMnpVHRf0

— Akbar Shahid Ahmed (@AkbarSAhmed) July 12, 2024

The Washington-based human rights watchdog DAWN said that the “partial lifting of the one solitary pause on munitions to the [Israeli military] in the face of overwhelming evidence of war crimes is a criminal offense under international law.”

The group’s advocacy director called on the International Criminal Court to investigate US officials for their complicity in “genocidal atrocities in Gaza.”

Karim Khan, International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, announced in May that he was pursuing arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas leaders Muhammad Deif, Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh.

• First published in The Electronic Intifada

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Maureen Clare Murphy.

Family members and colleagues of Shouman, who counts more than 291,000 followers on Instagram and has provided commentary to  BBC, FOX News, and  CBC News, told media outlets that they last heard from him on Sunday, January 21. They said he went missing on his way from Khan Yunis to Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Many Palestinians have left Khan Yunis for Rafah during the expanding ground invasion in Khan Yunis.

Shouman became a Canadian citizen in 2006. Two years ago, Shouman and his family decided to move to the occupied Palestinian territories so that his children could grow up in their ancestral homeland. He told the BBC that they chose to reside in Gaza, as it is his wife’s hometown. In November 2023, Shouman’s wife and their children fled from Gaza for the United Arab Emirates. But Shouman chose to stay, telling the BBC that he feels a responsibility to remain. “As long as 2.3 million people are suffering, I believe that it is my religious obligation, my humanitarian obligation, to stay and tell the story about what is really happening,” he said.

Sheltering in a tent next to a maternity ward at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, Shouman, like many freelancers and citizen journalists, has become a window for the world into Gaza. Through his daily social media updates, Shouman’s journalism has reached millions of English speakers and he has amplified the voices of people in Gaza on his YouTube channel. One month ago, he interviewed Al-Jazeera Bureau Chief Wael Al Dahdouh, about how he can continue reporting after losing several members of his family and his colleague and friend, Al-Jazeera cameraperson Samer Abu Daqqa.

In an interview with CBC News on Sunday, Shadi Sakr, a member of a volunteer team in Canada assisting Shouman with posting videos online, shared details about Shouman’s last known communication on January 21 at 3:02 p.m., when he sent a video from Khan Yunis. ”His last message was, ‘Please get this back to me quickly. I don’t have a lot of time,’’’ Sakr said.

Workers from the relief organizations Shouman was assisting with aid witnessed his apprehension by the IDF, according to Sakr. The workers told Sakr that Shouman was leaving Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis to travel to Rafah, when he was reportedly taken into custody by the Israel Defense Forces on his way. However, CPJ was unable to independently verify these eyewitness accounts or confirm the exact location where he is alleged to have been taken.      

Shouman’s colleague Zaheera Soomar told CTV News, “There are three eyewitness accounts that on Tuesday, when he was making his way from Khan Yunis to Rafah, he was arrested by IDF.”

In a statement released on January 27, Grantly Franklin, spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada, stated, “Global Affairs Canada is aware of a Canadian who is missing in Gaza. Canadian officials continue to monitor the situation closely and are in direct contact with the family members. Due to privacy considerations, no further information can be disclosed.”

His disappearance occurred over a month after Shouman told The Independent he is concerned that Israeli forces are targeting Palestinian journalists in Gaza, with several of his colleagues killed in strikes.

“We are deeply alarmed by the disappearance of Shouman, who has been the eyes of the world into events of the war in Gaza,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour. “Israeli authorities must respond to claims that the IDF arrested the journalist, and, ensure the safety and well-being of the press, and immediately release the numerous journalists in Israeli prisons.”

Palestinian journalists who have been imprisoned during the war have reported incidents of beatings and threats. On December 7, 2023, Palestinian journalist Diaa Al-Kahlout, chief bureau correspondent for the Qatari-funded London-based pan-Arab newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, was arrested in northern Gaza. After his January release, he said that he was beaten and tortured multiple times, mostly by agents of the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency. This included illegal “shabah” techniques in which prisoners are hung by their hands for hours or even days at a time. Al-Kahlout said that he had spent 25 out of the 33 days of his detention forced to remain in a kneeling position, causing him severe pain. Such techniques were outlawed by Israel’s highest court in 1999, but rules were relaxed in 2018, although torture still violates international law.

Since the start of the October 7 war, Israel has emerged as one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists, currently holding 19 Palestinian journalists in Israeli prisons. Most are held in administrative detention, which allows Israeli authorities to hold detainees without charge on the grounds that they suspect the detainee of planning to commit a future offense.

CPJ’s email requesting comment from the North America Desk of the Israel Defense Forces did not immediately receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

A delegation from Saudi Arabia has arrived in Yemen's capital Sana'a alongside Omani negotiators with the aim of reaching a resolution to the protracted war in Yemen. This marks a major turning point in a conflict that began more than eight years ago and has been characterized as a stalemate between Yemen's Houthis and a coalition of anti-Houthi forces backed and led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

This arguably unexpected turn of events—surprising given Saudi Arabia's yearslong war against a group they characterize as "Iran-allied rebels"—is the result of talks that began in early 2022 between the Saudi Arabian government and Yemen's government in Sanaa, led by Ansar Allah—also known as the Houthis. The Houthis have in effect been ruling much of northern Yemen for the past eight years.

This is "the closest Yemen has been to real progress towards lasting peace," Hans Grundberg, the United Nations envoy to Yemen, remarked.

This is "the closest Yemen has been to real progress towards lasting peace," Hans Grundberg, the United Nations envoy to Yemen, remarked to the Associated Press earlier this month. Grundberg urged both parties to "start an inclusive political process under U.N.auspices to sustainably end the conflict."

While the terms of any settlement have yet to be made public, this moment signals the seriousness of the talks and the likelihood of a lasting political agreement among warring parties following years of asymmetrical warfare in which hundreds of thousands of Yemenis were killed, millions more were starved, and Yemen was virtually left in ruins.

War and Famine

In the aftermath of the 2011 Arab Spring, peaceful countrywide protests began in Yemen that eventually ended with Yemen's longtime dictator, President Ali Abdullah Saleh, transferring power to his then-Vice President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi in 2011.

In the following years, Hadi clinged to power after failing to address the demands of all of the country's various factions. Meanwhile, Ansar Allah rose to power following protests against the government's curbing of fuel subsidies, and eventually seized the capital Sanaa in late 2014, and forced Hadi into house arrest.

Despite these tumultuous events, a U.N.-negotiated settlement was reached between Hadi, the Houthis, and other factions, but this settlement was derailed. Soon after the new Saudi king appointed his son, Mohammed bin Salman, as deputy crown prince and defense minister in early 2015, Saudi Arabia amassed a coalition of several neighboring countries and, together with Western support—primarily from the Obama administration—launched airstrikes against the Houthis and imposed a naval blockade targeting food, medicine, fuel, and other essential supplies in an effort to reinstate Hadi as the main head of the government. This was ratified in U.N. resolution 2216, which provided cover for these attacks and the imposition of the blockade under the guise of an "arms embargo."

Meanwhile, Hadi fled to Riyadh and continued to enjoy Saudi support for years to come, while the UAE trained and funded the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a separatist group whose stated goals are to secede from the Yemeni union.

Despite full military support from the United States and other allies, including weapon sales, intelligence, logistics, training, targeting support, and, until late 2018, mid-air refueling, the Saudi-led coalition failed to capture Yemen's most populous region from the Houthis. The Houthis, on the other hand, joined forces with their longtime enemy, former president Saleh, and formed a government and armed resistance to the Saudi-led coalition.

With more than 17 million people facing food insecurity in 2022, the U.N. warned that "catastrophic" and "famine-like" conditions were projected to increase fivefold for those most vulnerable.

Even after their fallout and subsequent killing of Saleh in December 2017 after he switched to the Saudi coalition's side, the Houthis continued to control much of the pre-1990 unity north Yemen, where 70% to 80% of the population resides. However, the Houthis' attempts to capture Marib, a key oil- and gas-rich province, failed.

As the fighting continued and the blockade on Yemen was tightened, the Yemeni population faced a crumbling economy and destruction of its healthcare systems. This led to outbreaks such as cholera and diphtheria, reduced functional healthcare facilities to 50%, and left more than 80% of Yemenis in need of food, water, and medicine. With more than 17 million people facing food insecurity in 2022, the U.N. warned that "catastrophic" and "famine-like" conditions were projected to increase fivefold for those most vulnerable.

Previous Talks

In early 2022, after a series of Saudi-led attacks that killed at least 80 civilians and shut down Yemen's internet for four days, and Houthi attacks that reached an oil facility in Jeddah and a storage facility in Abu Dhabi, warring parties began ceasefire talks in Oman.

Though far from being the first peace—a ceasefire agreement was reached in April 2022, and extended twice until October of that year—they brought a halt to U.S.-supported airstrikes for the first time since March 2015.

Despite the U.S. and Saudi's insistence that this war was waged on behalf of Hadi—Yemen's "legitimate" head of government—he was virtually powerless and remained in Riyadh since leaving Yemen in 2015. This facade came down when the Saudi and UAE governments set aside Hadi and replaced him with a council of eight men, all of whom were backed by Saudi Arabia or the UAE. While the council was formed to unify anti-Houthi groups given that most had already waged battles against the Houthis, their conflicting interests soon led to in-fighting, especially in Shabwa where UAE-backed STC forces fought Saudi-backed Islah forces.

Peace Now?

In the year since the first ceasefire was achieved in 2022, fighting on the ground continued in key southern areas including Shabwa and al-Mahra. And when Houthi demands to pay government workers their long overdue salaries using oil and gas revenues were not met, they responded by attacking oil facilities to prevent the export of oil and gas.

Now, this key condition seems to have been met in a draft deal last month, and reports of a roadmap toward peace include issuing payments to government employees using gas and oil revenues in exchange for the Houthis allowing exports to take place.

But to achieve a lasting peace deal, Yemen's sovereignty must be restored and the blockade must be fully lifted.

But to achieve a lasting peace deal, Yemen's sovereignty must be restored and the blockade must be fully lifted. While talks with Saudi Arabia are a major first step toward alleviating Yemenis' suffering, the UAE must also give up control over strategic areas such as Bab al-Mandab strait and the island of Socotra, which they occupied and recently militarized.

The coalition's failure to consolidate power among warring groups in southern Yemen, which they have controlled since 2015, underscores the importance of ceasing all foreign intervention and financial backing of warring factions. This includes the U.S.'s role, which has been instrumental in furthering the war over the past eight years despite legislative efforts to end this unconstitutional involvement.

While the meetings in Sanaa between Saudi and Houthi officials hold promise for peace with the Saudi-led coalition, a meaningful end to the war can only take place when all Yemenis who fought on either side of the war—the Houthis, Saleh, and Hadi's General People's Congress, the Islah party, the STC, and others—face one another in direct talks and draft a way forward without the financial and military backing of foreign governments. When overt and covert foreign interventions cease, Yemen will finally have a chance to chart its own course.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Shireen Al-Adeimi.

“Jamal Khashoggi will forever be a symbol of what it means to be a journalist, and we honor his memory and incalculable sacrifice for a free press,” said CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour. “Khashoggi’s legacy will haunt his killers, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to their graves, and the U.S. response to Khashoggi’s death will always stain the record of President Joe Biden’s professed support for press freedom and human rights worldwide.”

On Tuesday, September 27, bin Salman was named prime minister in a royal decree that could immunize him from prosecution in a U.S. lawsuit over his alleged role in Khashoggi’s death on October 2, 2018. U.S. intelligence found that the crown prince likely approved the killing, but the Wall Street Journal reported on September 29 that Biden had not declassified a U.S. intelligence report on Khashoggi’s murder, despite recommendations to do so from a government panel.

CPJ previously criticized Biden’s lack of action on Khashoggi during a meeting with bin Salman in July.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On January 16, Judge Moslem Salari of Branch 2 of Jiroft city penal court in Iran’s central Kerman province convicted Iranpour on charges of spreading false news on his social media accounts and through articles he wrote for the partially government-funded Ashkan News and the state-run Tabnak news site and sentenced him to one year in prison, according to a report by Human Rights in Iran, an exile-based rights group, and a source familiar with the case who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal. In April, a Kerman province appeals court upheld Iranpour’s sentence, according to the same sources.  

In May, the main judiciary office in Kerman province summoned Iranpour and when he arrived, he was arrested and transferred to Kerman central prison in the city of Kerman to serve his sentence, according to the same sources, which did not specify the date in May. The journalist’s term began the day of his arrest. CPJ learned of the case in September.  

“Iranian authorities must immediately release journalist Mansour Iranpour and ensure that he does not face any further retaliation over his work,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour. “The sentencing of a journalist to one year in prison is yet another example of the country’s blatant disregard for freedom of the press.”  

Iranpour’s conviction stemmed from his reporting criticizing local government officials and alleging financial corruption and embezzlement on the part of different government offices in the city, according to the same sources. The anonymous source told CPJ that some of Iranpour’s investigative reporting focused on a Kernan province representative who serves in parliament.  

According to the Human Rights in Iran report and the source who spoke to CPJ, Iranpour, a reporter and columnist at Ashkan News and a contributor to Tabnak, is a former Iranian soldier and suffers from several health issues including heart disease and diabetes. According to the anonymous source, Iranpour was beaten up in custody, though the source did not say how, and now suffers gangrene in his foot and is being denied medical attention. 

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has a strong presence in Kerman province and many of its officials have been appointed to local government positions, according to the Iranian Students News Agency, a state news outlet. 

CPJ emailed Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York requesting comment, but did not receive any reply. 

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.