News

China urges all parties to immediately stop military operations, prevent further escalation of tensions and avoid causing greater harm to people in regional countries, said Zhai Jun, the special envoy of the Chinese government on the Middle East issue, during a meeting with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud in Saudi Arabia. Zhai also met with Jassim Mohammed Al-Budaiwi, secretary-general of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) in Riyadh on the same day.

Faisal said the situation in the Middle East is undergoing an unprecedented crisis, with the flames of war spreading to Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia, seriously threatening regional stability and affecting global energy supply and maritime security. Saudi Arabia is fully aware of the risks of escalation and spillover of the conflict and has exercised the utmost restraint. The Saudi side appreciates China’s consistent commitment to fairness and justice and hopes China will continue to play an active role in promoting a ceasefire and ending hostilities to prevent further deterioration of the regional situation.

Zhai said that China is deeply concerned about the current tensions in the region. China has always believed that the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and the basic norms governing international relations should be upheld. The sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of countries in the Gulf region must not be violated, and any attacks against innocent civilians and non-military targets should be condemned. Promoting peace and ending hostilities is the fundamental way out of the current predicament. 

As a major country committed to fairness and justice, and as a good friend and partner of Saudi Arabia, China will continue to play a constructive role and stands ready to work with Saudi Arabia to engage all parties and make unremitting efforts to safeguard peace and stability in the Gulf region, Zhai noted.

The principle of de-escalation was echoed when Zhai met with Al-Budaiwi. “The current regional situation is highly complex and sensitive, China urges all parties to immediately cease fire and stop hostilities, prevent further escalation of tensions, and return to the track of negotiations as soon as possible, Zhai said.

Al-Budaiwi said the escalation of tensions in the Gulf region seriously threatens global security and stability and serves no party’s interests. The GCC highly appreciates China’s active efforts in promoting peace and ending hostilities and is willing to strengthen communication and coordination with China to jointly push for easing the situation.

Zhai said China appreciates that the GCC ministerial meeting, especially its extraordinary foreign ministers’ meeting, emphasized that dialogue and diplomacy are the only way to overcome the current crisis and maintain regional stability. China will continue to play a constructive role, working with the GCC and Gulf countries to promote ceasefire and de-escalation and push for cooling down tensions.

Zhai, served as the special envoy of the Chinese government on the Middle East issue, was sent to the region to work for the de-escalation of the tense situation, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a press briefing on March 5.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a press conference on Sunday on the sidelines of the fourth session of the 14th National People’s Congress, noting the situation in Iran is the focal point in the current international situation. China’s attitude on this issue is objective and impartial. 

“We have stated our principled position on multiple occasions, which can be summarized into one key message, that is, to bring about ceasefire and end hostilities. Ancient Chinese wisdom warns that weapons are ominous tools, and should not be used without discretion. The Middle East is engulfed in flames. This is a war that should not have happened — it is a war that does no one any good,” Wang said.

Source:Adaderana.lk

The Iranian army said on Sunday that at least 104 people were killed and 32 were wounded in an attack by ⁠the U.S. on an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka’s coast last week.

A U.S. submarine sank the frigate Dena in the Indian Ocean about ⁠19 nautical miles off Sri Lanka’s southern port city of Galle on ⁠Wednesday, killing dozens of sailors and dramatically widening ⁠Washington’s pursuit of the Iranian navy.

Source:adaderana.lk

At least 32 people were injured in Bahrain after an Iranian drone attack near the capital, according to a report by the state owned Bahrain News Agency.

The report, which quoted the Ministry of Health, said that all those injured were Bahraini citizens - including a 17-year-old girl who suffered severe head and eye injuries. 

The youngest person injured was a two-month-old.

Of those injured, four were ‘‘serious cases’‘, the report added, which included children that required surgery.

Source:adaderana.lk

Iran has launched its first wave of missiles under its new leader Mojtaba Khamenei, state broadcaster IRIB said in a post on its Telegram channel.

It also posted a picture of a projectile bearing the slogan: ‘‘At Your Service, Sayyid Mojtaba’‘.

Source:adaderana.lk

The dollar took another leg higher on Monday, jumping to a three-month peak on the euro as oil surged past $100 a barrel, stocks slid and investors headed for safety as protracted war in the Middle East threatened to disrupt global energy supplies.

The dollar was up 0.8% to $1.1525 on the euro , its highest since November, and rose almost 0.4% to 158.48 yen early in the Asia session.

Sterling and the Australian and New Zealand dollars fell by more than 0.6% on the dollar, while Brent and U.S. crude futures shot to more than $108 a barrel, which is expensive enough to make a dent in global growth.

"Oil remains the transmission channel into inflation expectations, rates and currency markets, with the dollar’s resurgence echoing the 2022 energy crisis," said Bob Savage, head ⁠of markets macro strategy at BNY.

"The week ahead will test whether markets continue to treat the current conflict as a contained shock or begin to price a more durable supply disruption."

The dollar, which notched its sharpest one-week rise in 15 months on the breakout of war last week, has been the most effective safe haven asset for investors as gold has faltered amid broad selling in anything that has lately made sharp gains.

"The dollar benefits from its twin status as a safe-haven and energy exporter," said Joe Capurso, Head of Foreign Exchange, International and Geoeconomics at Commonwealth Bank in Sydney.

"We expect the Iran-U.S. war to escalate before it de-escalates. Iran is incentivised to strike back to gain leverage in future negotiations to end the war.
 
The ⁠US and Israel are incentivised to degrade Iran’s offensive capabilities."

The Australian dollar was down 0.7% to $0.6983 and the New Zealand dollar down 0.6% to $0.5860. Sterling slid nearly 0.8% to $1.3324, while the dollar even gained 0.5% on its fellow safe haven in the Swiss franc .

Iran on Monday named Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his father, as Supreme Leader, signaling hardliners remain firmly in charge in Tehran a week into battle with ⁠the United States and Israel.

The conflict has already led to the suspension of around a fifth of global crude and natural gas supply, as Tehran targets ships in the vital Strait of Hormuz between its shores and Oman, and attacks energy infrastructure across the region.

Qatar’s energy ⁠minister told the Financial Times on Friday he expects all Gulf energy producers to shut down exports within weeks, a move he said could drive oil to $150 a barrel.

High energy prices act like a tax and can also stoke inflation, ⁠leaving investors worried that central bankers may be reluctant to cut interest rates.

Surprisingly weak U.S. jobs data had on Friday briefly stalled dollar gains, and raised expectations for U.S. rate cuts, but that faded somewhat on Monday morning and U.S. stock futures tumbled, too, with S&P 500 futures down 1.6%.

Source:adaderana.lk

Iran on Monday named Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his father Ali Khamenei as Supreme Leader, signaling that hardliners remain firmly in charge in Tehran a week into its conflict with the United States and Israel.

Mojtaba, a mid-ranking cleric with influence inside Iran’s security forces and vast business networks under his father, had been seen as a front-runner in the lead up to the vote by the assembly, a body of 88 clerics charged with choosing the new leader after Ali Khamenei.

“By a decisive vote, the Assembly of Experts, appointed Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei as the third Leader of the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the assembly said in a statement issued just after midnight Tehran time.

The position gives Mojtaba the final say in all matters of state in the Islamic Republic.

Mojtaba’s appointment will likely draw the ire of U.S. President Donald Trump, who said on Sunday that Washington should have a say in the selection. “If he doesn’t get approval from us, he’s not going to last long,” he told ABC News. Israel, ahead of the announcement, threatened to target whoever was chosen.

Mojtaba’s father, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, was killed in one of the first strikes launched against Iran more than a week ago.

The U.S. military on Sunday reported a seventh American has died from wounds sustained during Iran’s initial counter-attack a week ago, a day after Trump presided over the return to the United States of the remains of the six others who died. The U.S.-Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,332 Iranian civilians and wounded thousands, according to Iran’s U.N. ambassador.

As Trump pressed for an “unconditional surrender,” Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker, said Tehran was not seeking a ceasefire to the war and would punish aggressors.

Israel continued to target senior Iranian figures, including Abolqasem Babaian, the recently appointed head of the military office of the supreme leader, saying he was killed in a Saturday strike.

As fighting escalated on day nine of the U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran, thick black smoke hung over Tehran on Sunday, residents said, after strikes on oil storage facilities had lit up the night sky with plumes of orange flame.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said the large-scale attack marked a “dangerous new phase” of the conflict and amounted to a war crime.

“By targeting fuel depots, the aggressors are releasing hazardous materials and toxic substances into the air,” he wrote on X.

Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told reporters the depots were used to fuel Iran’s war effort, including producing or storing propellant for ballistic missiles. “They are a legal military target,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government would press on with the assault and strike Iran’s rulers “without mercy.”

“We have an organized plan with many surprises to destabilize the regime and enable change,” he said in a video statement.

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will visit Israel on Tuesday, according to Axios, citing a senior U.S. official.

Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he was not seeking negotiations to end the conflict, which has driven up global energy prices, disrupted business and snarled air travel.

“At some point, I don’t think there will be anybody left maybe to say, ‘We surrender,’” he said.

Source:adaderana.lk

Donald Trump has said a decision on when to end the war with Iran will be a “mutual” one that he will make with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, The Times of Israel reports.

In the brief telephone interview, the US president also asserted that the Islamic Republic would have destroyed Israel if he and Netanyahu had not been around.

He said: “Iran was going to destroy Israel and everything else around it... We’ve worked together. We’ve destroyed a country that wanted to destroy Israel.”

The US president was asked whether he alone would decide when the war with Iran ends, or if Netanyahu would also have a say.

“I think it’s mutual... a little bit. We’ve been talking. I’ll make a decision at the right time, but everything’s going to be taken into account,” he said.

Asked whether Israel could continue the war even after the US decides to stop its strikes, Trump declined to speculate, before adding: “I don’t think it’s going to be necessary.”

Source:adaderana.lk

Iran’s Assembly of Experts has more or less decided on the country’s next supreme leader after its longtime ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a US-Israeli strike.

“A decisive and overwhelming opinion - which represents the majority view - has been formed,” assembly member Ayatollah Mohammad Mehdi Mirbagheri said in a video published by Iranian state-affiliated Fars News Agency.

However, no name was announced. Mirbagheri said that “in these difficult circumstances, there are obstacles” and “this work must be carried out carefully so that it is not subject to dispute.”

Khamenei, who ruled with an iron fist for nearly four decades, was killed without an officially declared heir, leaving the choice of his successor to the country’s clerical regime.

The next supreme leader will be selected by the Assembly of Experts, an elected body of 88 senior clerics.

Source:adaderana.lk

A massive fire near one of Scotland’s busiest train stations has engulfed a historic building in Glasgow, causing it to partially collapse.

Dozens of firefighters scrambled at Union Street just before 4 p.m. Sunday after the blaze started on the ground floor of a four-story commercial building, crews said.

Dramatic images captured orange flames curling around a domed roof beneath the night sky, as a silhouetted crane directed a powerful water jet over the raging blaze.

Specialist equipment was used to tackle the inferno. No casualties have been reported so far.

‘‘At its height, 15 fire appliances and specialist resources, including three high-reach vehicles and a water rescue team, were mobilized to the area,’’ the Scottish Fire and Resue Service said.

Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney expressed deep concern over the fire and thanked emergency crews for their ongoing response in a post on X late Sunday, local time.

‘‘Please continue to follow travel guidance, avoid the area and stay safe,’’ Swinney added.

Glasgow Central has regular rail services across the United Kingdom including direct links to Edinburgh and London. It has been closed for now and major disruptions to train services have been reported, according to Britain’s National Rail.

Source:adaderana.lk

Personnel of the Sri Lanka Navy have uncovered a large quantity of narcotics aboard a local multi-day fishing trawler intercepted in deep waters off the southern coast of Sri Lanka on the night of March 7.

Following the interception, the vessel along with the suspects on board was escorted to Dikkowita Harbour for further inspection. During examinations carried out at the harbour, officials confirmed that several sacks discovered on the trawler contained more than 102 kilograms of heroin.

In addition to the heroin haul, naval officers and investigators also recovered approximately 900 grams of cocaine from the boat.

Authorities are continuing investigations into the incident while legal action against those involved is expected to follow.

The Department of Meteorology says that much of Sri Lanka will experience predominantly dry weather today (09).

Nevertheless, brief showers or thundershowers may develop after 2.00 p.m. in a few areas, particularly in the Ratnapura District, Kalutara District, Galle District and Matara District.

The department also noted that misty conditions are likely during the early hours of the morning in parts of the Western Province, Central Province, Sabaragamuwa Province, Uva Province and North Western Province.

In addition, morning mist may also occur in the districts of Anuradhapura District, Mannar District, Galle District and Matara District.

Israel’s military has issued a warning to Iran that it will continue pursuing every successor of the country’s deceased supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In a post on X, the IDF’s Farsi-language account said: ‘‘Iran’s Assembly of Experts, which has not convened for decades, will soon gather in the city of Qom.

‘‘We want to tell you that the hand of the State of Israel will continue to pursue every successor and every person who seeks to appoint a successor.

‘‘We warn all those who intend to participate in the successor selection meeting that we will not hesitate to target you either. This is a warning!’’

Source:adaderana,lk