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Ukraine war briefing: Russian soldier in Crimea shoots comrades and civilians

A Russian soldier ⁠in Crimea ⁠opened fire on comrades, killing one and wounding ⁠another, before shooting civilians and killing ⁠three. Three other ‌people were ‌wounded, said Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-installed ‌governor of the Sevastopol region. He said the attacker had been arrested. “A tragedy in Sevastopol … According to initial information, a soldier opened fire on his fellow servicemen, killing one person, before attacking civilians and killing three of them,” Razvozhayev posted. “All circumstances and causes of the incident are being established.” Crimea, a peninsula illegally annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014, has for weeks been the target of Ukrainian attacks aimed at disrupting Russian military logistics and cutting off the occupiers’ gasoline and electricity supplies. Russian missile and drone strikes killed at least 15 people and wounded dozens more in Kyiv and the surrounding region overnight, authorities said on Wednesday. Kyiv’s military administration said the barrage damaged residential buildings and several warehouses: “The enemy is once again deliberately striking civilians and civilian infrastructure.” Ukrainian drones struck logistics centres across Russia including several run ⁠by online retailer Wildberries, local officials said. Wildberries said its warehouse near St Petersburg ‌caught fire ‌with no casualties. In the Tver ‌region, about 180km north-west of Moscow, a Wildberries facility was damaged by drones in the rural area of Emmaus. In the Moscow region, ‌a drone attack on the city of Chekhov set a warehouse alight and killed five people in the Novoselki industrial zone. Drones damaged a Wildberries warehouse near Krasny Bor in north-western Russia, wounding one person. A fire broke out when a drone ⁠fell on a distribution centre ⁠in the Leningrad region near St Petersburg operated ‌by Lenta, one ‌of the country’s largest food retailers, the company ‌said, with one person injured. A North Korean missile unit ⁠has begun deploying to western Russia and could be equipped with 120 ballistic missiles and six launchers for strikes against Ukraine, according to Andrii Cherniak, an official at Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said. Russia has fired scores of North Korean ballistic missiles at Ukraine since late 2023. Cherniak told the Reuters news agency that Russia planned to base the missile unit of around 90 North Korean personnel in the western Russian region of Voronezh, within its 112th Missile Brigade. Pyongyang had already sent a new batch of ⁠40 KN-23 and KN-24 missiles and personnel to Russia, but the configuration of the deployment and total number of missiles would be finalised next month, he said. Ukraine ⁠accused Russia of committing a war ⁠crime after a video was released showing a drone chasing down a street vendor and exploding in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson. Police said the man in his 50s survived but suffered shock and shrapnel ⁠injuries, having dived under the vehicle for shelter. “Today, many were shocked by yet another video of the drone ‘safari’ Russians are carrying out against civilians in Kherson,” said Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president. “We must act and support life in ways that force Russia to think seriously about peace rather than expanding ‌the range of its drones.” Ukraine’s police and its foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said the attack happened on Tuesday. Sybiha said the attack formed part of a deliberate Russian campaign to intimidate civilians. “This barbaric Russian war crime in Kherson demands international condemnation and justice, but thousands of similar crimes never come to the public eye.” The minister said the “sadist” pilot of the Russian drone would have known the target was a civilian. Two children and an elderly woman were killed in Russian guided bomb strikes on Ukraine’s northern city of Sumy, said the regional governor, Oleh Hryhorov. Russia said seven people, including three children, were killed and 60 injured at its Black Sea holiday resort of ‌Gelendzhik by a Ukrainian drone. A Ukrainian official said the drone only fell on the beach because it was shot down by Russian air defences: “Ukraine uses its weapons exclusively against the Russian military-industrial complex and economic infrastructure facilities.” Hundreds of mourners dressed mostly in white walked through central Kyiv on Tuesday behind the open casket of a university student killed at the weekend by a Russian strike as she helped people wounded in an earlier attack. Vitalina Yarovenko’s mother had asked she be given the kind of funeral procession used in Ukraine to honour fallen soldiers. Several hundred people followed her casket. Traffic stopped to let the procession past while drivers stepped out of their cars and stood silently or knelt hand on heart. Russia has repeatedly targeted rescue workers by hitting residential buildings with two consecutive missiles: the first to draw crews to the scene and the second to wound or kill them. The tactic is called a “double tap” in military jargon.

Hundreds camp in Rome heatwave as Meloni government cracks down on squats

Hundreds of people have spent a week sleeping in tents in the Rome heat amid a standoff between Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government and local politicians over the future of Italy’s most high-profile centre for housing and social assistance. A minor fire last week forced the evacuation of the building, occupied by grassroots groups since 2013, and it has remained closed as the Meloni government attempts to crack down on such squatted properties. “It’s an awful situation, made worse by this heatwave,” said Petronela Podaro, a domestic worker from Romania camped outside the building, its huge red gates locked up, in Rome’s Esquilino district. The fire inside Spin Time Labs broke out in the early hours of 29 July in an external area and was quickly extinguished by residents before it could spread. Police evacuated the 10-floor complex, citing the need for safety checks, forcing about 400 residents including children, elderly and disabled people on to the street. Spin Time Labs, an initiative supported by Rome’s leftwing council and the Vatican, has long been targeted for eviction by Meloni’s government, which regards occupied buildings as dens for criminality. The centre, which over the last decade has transformed into a space offering various social and cultural services, including a food bank, a restaurant and co-working, hit the headlines in 2019 after an aide to the late Pope Francis, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, climbed down a manhole to restore the electricity, provoking the fury of Matteo Salvini, who was the interior minister at the time and is now deputy prime minister. Various Italian writers, actors and film directors, including the Oscar winner Paolo Sorrentino, have appealed for the residents to be allowed back in or for alternative accommodation to be provided. Roberto Saviano, an author and high-profile critic of Meloni’s government, visited the scene on Monday and described the centre as a “symbol of democracy” rather than a criminal act. The building is now under two judicial seizure orders – one linked to the private owner’s long-running legal battle to regain possession and the other to the fire. Although shutting down Spin Time is in its plans, the interior ministry has failed to carry out an eviction order first issued by a judge in 2020, two years before Meloni came to power, reportedly due to fears over the social and legal repercussions of forcing vulnerable people on to the street. Earlier this year, the ministry, led by Matteo Piantedosi, was ordered to pay €21m in damages for failing to act on the eviction order. As Rome’s council, which along with an army of volunteers has provided camp beds, food, drink and medical assistance, scrambles for a solution, including offering to buy the building so that the community can be maintained, Spin Time’s residents are facing more time on the street. “There are lots of children, newborns, elderly and disabled people, and those with complicated illnesses who are struggling in this heat,” said Podaro, who is unemployed. “But we are very united community, of all nationalities and backgrounds. What this government doesn’t seem to understand is that if we had a decent job and could earn money, then we wouldn’t be in this situation.” Spin Time has provided a lifeline for hundreds of people, including Marco Perilli, an Italian construction worker who was one of the community’s first residents after becoming homeless following a divorce. Perilli was also among the residents who put the fire out. “There was panic but we were able to extinguish it within about 20 minutes,” he said. “Firefighters made the area safe but then the police arrived and, because we were afraid, we all went outside. They locked the gates and told us we couldn’t go back inside due to the safety checks. Within a few hours, the building was seized.” Perilli said police searched the building for drugs and weapons. “It backfired because they found nothing,” he added, while claiming “the fire was exploited as an excuse for eviction”. “But we will continue to fight against it,” he said. “The Meloni government needs to think carefully about the real meaning of power. Power is not about attacking poor people – this government is at war against the poor.” Benjamin Macshane, a British volunteer cook in Spin Time’s restaurant, said the initiative provided more than just shelter. “There’s co-working, there’s an after-school club, there’s migration assistance, a food bank, a barbers, an auditorium … I can’t think of anywhere else in the world that has so many different avenues for a community to grow.”

Hundreds in Morocco gather near Ceuta border in anxious wait for missing loved ones

Hundreds of people have gathered in the northern Moroccan town of Fnideq, near the border with Spain’s Ceuta, flashing photos of their missing loved ones to passersby in the hope of tracking them down. Their perch was the same small tranche of land that made headlines around the world last week as extraordinary scenes emerged of about 72,000 people making their way into Ceuta, a tiny Spanish territory in north Africa. On Tuesday, as interior ministers from across the EU joined an emergency videoconference to grapple with the lingering tensions, the focus on the Moroccan side of the border with Ceuta was on the harrowing death toll. At least 88 people have died in Ceuta, according to local officials, and another 11 in Morocco, while dozens of others remain missing. “I have just one son,” said Hadijja, who had been waiting at the border since Saturday, scanning the steady stream of returnees for any sign of her 23-year-old son. “I haven’t had any news of him; he’s not answering his mobile phone.” She had travelled to the border from her home in Tangier, surmising that her unemployed son was among those who had made the crossing. “He didn’t tell me he was going to cross,” she said. “This is a tragedy.” An estimated 70,000 people who arrived late last week in Ceuta had been returned to Morocco in recent days, Spain’s interior minister said Tuesday. Referencing posts on TikTok, Facebook and WhatsApp that had claimed Morocco was letting people cross the border, people arrived at Fnideq by foot or packed into buses and cars as they joined the surge of people crossing into Spain. Madrid sprang into action, working with Rabat to return the vast majority of those who crossed within 48 hours, even as it fended off a political crisis sparked by calls for Spain to be suspended from the Schengen free-movement zone. As they returned to Moroccan soil, some said they had come home voluntarily. “I was hungry for days and filled with fear,” said Abselam, 19, from Kenitra in north-western Morocco. A Ceuta resident had eventually taken him in, giving him food and a place to sleep, before he decided to return home. “It’s not worth it, there aren’t jobs for everyone.” Others said they had been forced out of the Spanish territory. “The police surrounded a group of us and escorted us all the way towards the border,” said Simo, 21, from Tetuan. “We didn’t really have a choice.” In recent days, NGOs across Spain have voiced concerns that some of those who crossed into Ceuta and who were eligible for international protection were being returned before being allowed to exercise their right to request asylum. On Tuesday the Spanish government estimated that 2,000 people who had made the crossing were still in Ceuta. The tally includes at least 862 children who have been registered as unaccompanied minors, as Unicef Spain warned that dozens more could still be wandering the city’s streets unprotected. “Many small children crossed over; we don’t know how many have disappeared,” Susana Hidalgo, a migration expert for the organisation, told the broadcaster TVE. The result was a “tremendously difficult” situation in Ceuta. “There are many families on the other side of the border looking for their sons and daughters,” she said, while in Ceuta “there are 10- and 12-year-old children asking for phones so they can call their mothers and tell them they’re OK.” Spanish police said on Tuesday they had set up an office in Ceuta to gather reports of missing people. The concerns over the fate of unaccompanied children in Ceuta were heightened on Tuesday after Spanish media published a video that appeared to show a boy age 12 crying as he begged a soldier not to send him back to Morocco. After several bystanders intervened, pointing out that Spanish law impeded children from being deported alone, the operation – which played out just metres from the border – was halted. Days after the sudden influx, questions continue to linger as to what led to the mass crossing. Morocco has faced mounting accusations over the role it may have played. “People felt that this, if not orchestrated, was at least encouraged or permitted by Morocco,” Juan Jesús Vivas, the long-serving conservative leader of Ceuta, said earlier this week. The insinuation was rejected by a senior Moroccan official. “It’s simplistic to say that Morocco should just have used force to stop them. That is to completely misunderstand this phenomenon,” the official told AFP. “At a certain point, the Moroccan law enforcement forces could no longer confront the migrants because the numbers were very large” and because “the pull effect was very strong,” he added. “Could Spain, seeing them coming, have done something to stop them simply using weapons and security forces? That’s not possible.” In a statement published on Sunday, Morocco’s interior ministry laid blame with the “exploitation of the digital sphere” and “the spread of misinformation” to explain the mass crossing. Spanish intelligence sources have suggested the influx could be traced to a hoax that had swiftly spread across social media after a Spanish supreme court ruling that migrants arriving by sea could not be summarily deported. The Moroccan official said Rabat had sought to warn Madrid about the repercussions of the ruling. “We started engaging with the Spanish side around 22-23 July, when the networks began talking about this,” the official told AFP. “We explained that this ruling was going to create a problem. And it did create a problem.” The claim was rejected by Spain’s migration minister, Elma Saiz. “At no point was there any evidence, any report that alerted us to the magnitude of this unprecedented event,” she told reporters in Madrid. The uncertainty hovering over what exactly transpired extended to Fnideq, where the relatives gathered at the border spoke in hushed tones of what could have happened to their loved ones. Many held on to hope, citing the trickle of good-news stories that had emerged in recent days, such as that of Fatima, who had spent the day waiting at the border with her family for a glimpse of her brother, who had crossed into Ceuta days earlier. “My brother’s phone had run out of battery, but yesterday he borrowed the phone of a Spaniard to call me,” she said. “He told me he would come back this morning, so here we are waiting. I’m sure he’ll arrive soon.”

New Zealand capital delights in rare snowfall as southern city residents ski down world’s steepest street

Temperatures have plummeted across New Zealand as an Antarctic cold snap hovers over the country, delighting the capital, Wellington, which experienced snow for the first time in 15 years, while giving a southern city’s residents a chance to ski through the streets. The front moved in on Tuesday, with much of the country waking to freezing conditions, frosts, snowfall, hail and bitingly cold wind. Conditions persisted on Wednesday morning, with three South Island locations reaching -9C. Some highways were closed, while parts of the North Island’s east coast woke to thick hail storms. In Wellington, a mix of sleet and snow fell to sea level just after midday on Tuesday, for the first time in 11 years. Office workers rushed out of their buildings to stand in the flurries and elated residents expressed shock and joy as they flooded social media with footage. It was a “winter wonderland”, wrote one social media user. “Snow in Wellington?! Amazing! What a way to turn a day around,” wrote another. “Finding the excitement around this so wholesome. I went to my office window and every window in the building opposite was filled with people watching too,” someone wrote on Reddit. Students in Dunedin, the South Island’s second largest city, were sent home on Tuesday, after snow blanketed the city and many took the opportunity to make the most of the weather. Video footage in local media outlets showed residents snowboarding down the city’s streets, with one daring skier flying down Baldwin Street – recognised by the Guinness World Records as the world’s steepest street. “The thing I love about Dunedin is you get half an inch of snow maybe twice a year and everyone loses their minds,” wrote one social media user. Further north, Christchurch’s New Brighton Beach was covered in a dusting of snow and a plane had to abort its landing into the Christchurch International Airport due to wind and rain. Police responded to multiple incidents of cars sliding off icy roads, and urged the public to avoid travel. Temperatures were set to warm on Wednesday but would plunge again overnight, with Thursday likely to be the coldest morning of the year in parts of the country, Metservice, New Zealand’s weather bureau, said. Meanwhile, Transpower, the national grid operator, said it recorded the highest-ever electricity use during Wednesday morning’s peak and warned there may be an energy shortfall on Friday morning.

‘Our new champion’: Philippines swept up in tennis fever after Alex Eala’s historic win

The Philippines has been swept up in tennis fever after 21-year-old rising star Alex Eala delivered a historic win, drawing praise from the president who hosted a reception in her honour. On Monday, Eala became the first player from the Philippines to win a Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour-level singles title. Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos released a message on social media on Tuesday congratulating Eala on “yet another historic achievement”, adding: “You continue to redefine what is possible for Philippine tennis and inspire countless young Filipinos to dream without limits.” Eala not only beat the top-ranked player, Jessica Pegula, to win the title in Washington DC, but also did so coming back from behind in a match spread over two days due to rain delays. Pagula said after the match: “This is the best Monday final crowd I’ve seen ... To all the Filipino fans that came out, and have supported, you guys are helping to grow tennis around the world, and I appreciate that. Being a female athlete, being in tennis, we love to see that growth.” Signs in the stadium during the match expressed what Eala means to the country, including one reading: “Alex you make us proud to be Filipino”. Filipinos had already been celebrating Eala’s historic run at Wimbledon in July, going farther than any Filipino woman at a grand slam championship and upsetting the defending champion, Iga Swiatek, in straight sets on Centre Court. Eala came home to a hero’s welcome, with Marcos hosting a reception in her honour at Malacanang Palace in Manila, and a nation that had previously paid little attention to the sport now obsessed with it. She has inspired droves of Filipinos to take up tennis, which has seen classes, camps and courts fully booked, leading clubs to upgrade old courts, and increased support for the tennis federation. Speaking about this rise in popularity at a press conference, Eala said: “Everyone comes up to me whenever I go back to Manila saying it’s so hard to get courts … that’s a good thing because when I was younger the courts were empty, nobody was playing.” The Philippines’ sporting interests have historically been all about the “three Bs”: basketball, billiards and boxing. But now fans and supporters of Eala have been packing local venues and public spaces with watch parties, often staying up to cheer through the night on the other side of the world. The Philippines has not had a prominent sporting superstar to throw its support behind since boxing champion Manny Pacquiao, who applauded Eala as “our new champion” on social media, lauding her Washington comeback for showing the “Filipino heart” . Washington’s tournament director Mark Ein said interest in Eala had been unmatched. He told a media conference, “over the last month the ticketing team says at least 80%, if not more, of the requests in this tournament are about when is Alex Eala playing?” Tennis is a sport often dominated by players whose home countries – the United States, Great Britain, and France – can afford the tens of millions of dollars annually it takes to develop young talent. The Philippines does not have that infrastructure, and tennis remained a sport for the elite, with courts mostly found in wealthy areas. Eala comes from a prominent family, but she learned to play tennis on painted-over basketball courts in Quezon City before moving to Spain to attend the Rafa Nadal Academy on a scholarship at the age of 13. Eala is inspiring young Filipinos from more modest backgrounds to find the means to play but has spoken about the need to improve access to public courts and equipment, as well as the condition of those that are available. It was only during her Wimbledon she truly appreciated the impact she is having on millions of Filipinos, she told the palace reception according to the state news agency. “I’m so grateful that I am able to share my triumphs … with the country,” Eala said. “As we say, tagumpay nating lahat (this is our victory).”

Penguins and dolphins among nearly 400 Australian species under threat from bird flu as ‘true extent of disaster’ revealed

Almost 400 native Australian bird and mammal species have been assessed as being at a high risk – or worse – from the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, a federal government assessment has revealed. Some of Australia’s most beloved animals – including species of penguins, fur seals, quolls, dolphins, more than 300 birds and the Tasmanian devil – are considered at least high risk from the virus, meaning they could suffer “severe reduction in population size or viability” or worse if it reached them. Five species are considered at extreme risk, meaning “unlikely to survive where the virus occurs”. These are all birds that breed in single islands or groups of islands, such as the endangered Christmas Island frigatebird and the critically endangered herald petrel, which only breeds on Raine Island in the far north of the Great Barrier Reef. More than 80 endangered and critically endangered species are also considered to be facing at least a high risk from an infection, suggesting that the H5N1 strain of bird flu will push them further towards extinction. The federal government released the results of the assessment of more than 2,000 native species, carried out with Charles Darwin University and BirdLife Australia, on Tuesday evening. Nearly one in five have been rated as facing extreme, very high or high risk. Australia’s three resident seals – the Australian fur seal, the New Zealand fur seal and the Australian sea lion – are all considered at very high risk. The Tasmanian devil and the eastern quoll, both assessed as high risk, are the land mammals at greatest threat. The extent of the analysis and the number of species considered at high risk underlines expert fears for the threat to local wildlife. Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter Prof John Woinarski, a leading conservation scientist at Charles Darwin University who helped devise the analysis, said: “This has sketched out a more bleak picture than perhaps we considered previously. “We are going to get major consequences for many species and our bird and mammal diversity is likely to suffer substantial impacts from this disease.” Prof Hugh Possingham of the University of Queensland, a lead councillor at the Biodiversity Council, said the analysis was “a good first cut” but it should have been released two years ago. “A year ago we needed a priority action list and we should have been taking action then because everyone knew that it was coming,” he said. Kate Millar, the chief executive of BirdLife Australia, said while the list of species at high risk or worse was “long” and “incredibly confronting” it also meant Australia could “prioritise and take action protecting the species most at risk”. Jack Gough, the chief executive of the Invasive Species Council, said the “list of doom” revealed “the true extent of the disaster facing Australian wildlife”. He said it demanded a “serious response” from the government “but instead we have had cuts to on-ground environment programs nationally”. “Almost one in five Australian mammals and birds has been rated by the government as at risk of severe population reductions or even extinction,” he said. “This includes quolls, parrots, seals and pelicans.” The council is among several conservation groups calling for the government to fund a $200m package to scale up on-ground efforts to protect wildlife, including feral animal controls. The government has said it has committed $113m to prepare for bird flu, including $47m “to accelerate protective action” for threatened species and biodiversity. The environment minister, Murray Watt, said the risk analysis had already informed investments to protect captive animal populations, removing feral threats and inoculating against more common diseases. “We have been investing in these types of projects across the country for several years in preparation for a bird flu outbreak, and as a result, our native species are in a better position to withstand the H5 incursion.” Jess Abrahams, national nature campaigner at the Australian Conservation Foundation, said: “Australia is already in the midst of an extinction crisis and we need to be prepared for just how harrowing this could get. “Australians love nature and we all need to be emotionally prepared for the onslaught that could occur and know what to do if they come across a sick, dying or dead animal.” The H5N1 virus has killed millions of birds and mammals since it spread from Europe in 2021 to every continent on the planet. Australia was the final continent to be breached six weeks ago, when infected Antarctic and subantarctic migratory seabirds were found dead and sick in Western Australia and South Australia. The virus has now been confirmed in more than 100 individual birds and air surveillance has recorded the first mass mortality event from the disease, in South Australia. Detections have also been confirmed in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.

Rubio hopes US can reach Hormuz deal with Iran ‘very shortly’ as officials say progress has been made – as it happened

Iran and Oman made progress on Tuesday toward a deal to reopen the strait of Hormuz, a potential breakthrough that could help end the war, regional officials said. Under the emerging agreement, ships would enter the Persian Gulf through an Iranian-controlled route and exit through a route controlled by Oman, with service fees charged for providing security and preserving the maritime environment, two regional officials told the Associated Press. US secretary of state Marco Rubio ⁠said there has been ⁠progress made in discussions with Iran ⁠and Oman on ‌getting ‌more ships through ‌the strait of Hormuz but no final agreement has been ‌reached. “There’s been progress made in those talks, but not finality yet. ⁠We’re hoping that will happen very shortly,” Rubio told reporters ‌at the US state department. The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said Washington could reach a deal with Iran by tomorrow to reopen the strait of Hormuz. “We are in talks with the Iranians, and I think there is a chance we may have a deal today or tomorrow to open the strait and move towards a more normalised position in this conflict,” he said in an interview with CNBC. Qatar’s foreign ministry said efforts to reach a diplomatic solution between the US and Iran were “ongoing”, despite conflicting statements from Tehran and Washington over whether negotiations had resumed. “We can confirm that the efforts are still ongoing with all parties,” the ministry spokesperson, Majed al-Ansari, told reporters at a briefing today. Iran’s president was also forced to deny claims that he has repeatedly threatened to resign as he battles hardline factions opposed to reaching a settlement with the US over the strait of Hormuz. Masoud Pezeshkian accused some of wishing to create a rift inside Iran and said: “If I want to resign, I will officially announce that I have resigned. I will not resign, I will stand.” Here’s our story on that. Meanwhile, Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces will not withdraw from their current lines in Gaza until Hamas has completely disarmed. Sugessting there were differences between Israel and the Trump administration over a recent deal announced to disarm the militant group, Netanyahu, who faces a tough battle for re-election in October, said that Hamas’s disarmament should come first, and that Israeli forces would continue to “do whatever is necessary to protect themselves, our territory, and our citizens.” He added that the Trump administration “sent us a draft. We did not agree. It is not our draft. We sent our comments. This is our position. We stand firm on our interests, I believe both wisely and resolutely.” And the ⁠latest round of US-facilitated talks between ⁠Israel ⁠and Lebanon also began on Tuesday in Rome ⁠and will continue through Thursday, ⁠US state department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said. “These discussions bring together technical teams from both governments to advance full implementation of the Trilateral Framework, including the pilot zone process, verified disarmament of Hizballah and other Iran-backed security threats, redeployment of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon, and laying the ground for a comprehensive peace and security agreement,” Pigott wrote in ‌a post on X.

Iran’s president denies threatening to resign during talks over strait of Hormuz

Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s president, has been forced to deny claims that he has repeatedly threatened to resign as he battles hardline factions opposed to reaching a settlement with the US over the strait of Hormuz. The US and Europe hope a deal is imminent to reopen the strait and they are putting pressure on Oman to accept a temporary agreement that officials in Muscat fear will leave Iran retaining near permanent dominance of the vital oil shipping channel. Ships would enter the strait in a route close to Iran, but leave on a route that passes through Iranian and Omani waters. But far from being feted over an imminent diplomatic victory, Pezeshkian was instead forced to deny that he had repeatedly offered to resign, verbally and in writing, during a television interview marking his second anniversary in the job. Pezeshkian accused some of wishing to create a rift inside Iran and said: “If I want to resign, I will officially announce that I have resigned. I will not resign, I will stand.” The resignation claims, which have been front page news in Iran, were made by Mohammad Bagher Kharazi, who is linked by marriage to Mojtaba Khamenei, the new supreme leader. He said Pezeshkian had become frustrated at being excluded from decision making, made worse by the supreme leader’s reluctance to reveal his whereabouts for fear of foreign intelligence agencies. Khamenei was badly injured in the Israeli bombing on the first day of the war that killed his father and has not been seen or heard in public since. Kharazi claimed Pezeshkian had threatened to quit so many times that Khamenei warned him he would accept the next resignation threat, a claim Khamenei’s office eventually said on Tuesday was “fundamentally false and untrue”. Pezeshkian insisted in the interview that he was in complete harmony with the military and said those that claimed 30,000 people had been killed in the January protests never took up the offer to provide proof. The interview, marking the halfway point of his turbulent presidency, appeared to be an attempt to dispel the impression that his belief in consensus was a weakness, or that he had been sidelined by hardline war leaders. Kharazi is the brother-in-law of Massoud Khamenei, the younger brother of the supreme leader. Critics say he has a record of making unsubstantiated allegations and despite his family connections to the supreme leader, it is not clear if he has seen him since his elevation to the post in March. However, the row has highlighted the deep strategic and tactical differences inside Iran over the wisdom of talks with the US. Mehdi Tabatabaei, a senior member of the Iranian president’s office, described the reports as “complete nonsense and lies”. In a post on social media, he condemned a “sinister coalition of lying, deceitful and reckless extremism”whose members could not accept democratic outcomes. He said: “Two years have passed since their failure in the arena of national elections, yet they are still seeking revenge against the will of the nation. They have become puppets of Iran’s enemies.” Ahmad Zeidabadi, a reformist reporter, said the claims were inflammatory and served only to exacerbate tensions. Pezeshkian on Sunday suggested that the memorandum of understanding, negotiated with the US in June and reviled by some hardliners, would serve as a cornerstone for Iranian foreign relations in the future, saying that Iran “must strive to compel the enemy to remain committed to what it has signed”. On Monday, the conservative-dominated Assembly of Experts issued a statement describing hopes for an agreement or understanding with the US as “futile” and labelled what it termed “whispers of capitulation in the name of defending peace” an “unforgivable betrayal”. It added that trusting this arrogant government was nothing more than a mirage. Khamenei himself had said in April he was opposed to talks with the US in principle, but in deference to Pezeshkian had allowed them to go ahead.