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French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday urged Hezbollah to immediately stop its attacks on Israel and called on Israel to avoid launching a ground offensive into Lebanon , warning that further escalation could endanger the entire Middle East as the widening Iran war spreads to new fronts. Macron said he conveyed the message during talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, amid rising cross-border strikes between Israel and Hezbollah.  Representational Image Via Emmanuel Macron The French leader said Hezbollah’s continuing attacks were a “major error” that risks destabilising the region, while also stressing that Israel must respect Lebanon’s territorial integrity and return to the ceasefire framework along the border. The intervention comes as Israel intensifies operations against Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon while expanding its broader war against Iran.  Israeli forces have ...

U.S. lawmakers are moving to assert congressional authority over the widening war with Iran, even as the White House defends the military campaign and new casualties emerge from the battlefield across the Middle East. The U.S. Senate is preparing to vote on a war powers resolution that would require congressional approval before any further American attacks against Iran. A parallel bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives, and reflect growing concern among some lawmakers that the United States has entered a major conflict without a formal debate in Congress. The measures face long odds in the Republican-controlled legislature and would almost certainly be vetoed by President Donald Trump if they passed. Representational Image: White Ho u se The push shows unease in Washington about the rapidly escalating war, which began with U.S.–Israeli airstrikes that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and triggered retaliatory missile and drone attacks across the re...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman At a time when the war between the United States, Israel and Iran has been going on for well over its fifth day, the conflict’s impact has widened dramatically beyond the battlefield, and triggered internet blackouts inside Iran, collapsed shipping through one of the world’s most critical oil corridors, paralysed air traffic across the Gulf and, most significantly, prompted some sharply divided responses from global leaders. Representational Image; U.S. Marines with 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit fast rope off of an MH-60S Knighthawk aboard USS Tripoli; Via: 7thFleet  For India, the widening conflict is no longer a distant geopolitical confrontation but a crisis unfolding uncomfortably close to home. The sinking of an Iranian warship IRIS Dena near Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean just today, after it had participated in a naval exercise in Visakhapatnam, has revealed how the war has already reached waters central to In...

A U.S. submarine torpedoed and sank the Iranian naval frigate IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean off Sri Lanka on Wednesday, and killed at least 8 7  sailors and left dozens missing in an attack that has drawn attention in India because the vessel had just returned from participating in a major naval exercise hosted by the Indian Navy in Visakhapatnam. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that an American submarine carried out the strike, and described it as part of Washington’s expanding military campaign against Iran.  File Photo: Indian Navy welcomes IRIS Dena of the Iranian Navy this Feb; Via: IN_HQENC “An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo,” Hegseth told reporters at a Pentagon briefing.  . @SECWAR “In the Indian Ocean—an American submarine sunk an Iranian warship, that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo—Quiet Death. The first...

India on Wednesday activated additional emergency coordination mechanisms as the West Asia war intensified, with the Ministry of External Affairs establishing a dedicated control room in New Delhi, maritime authorities creating a rapid-response support team for seafarers, and security restrictions tightening in parts of Kashmir following protests linked to the conflict. File/Representational Photo of senior MEA officials and Indian Ambassadors; Via: EAM Jaishankar In a statement issued March 4, the Ministry of External Affairs said the special control room has been set up to assist Indian nationals affected by the deteriorating security situation across Iran, Israel and the Gulf region.  The facility will operate daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., providing direct contact lines for citizens seeking information, assistance or evacuation guidance as hostilities expand across multiple countries. The government also released emergency contact numbers for Indian embassies and missions ac...

Signs of divergence are now emerging between Washington and Tel Aviv over the political endgame of the expanding war with Iran, even as U.S. and Israeli forces continue coordinated military operations targeting Iranian missile systems, naval assets and military infrastructure. In the early hours of the conflict, both U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had publicly framed the campaign as one that could ultimately lead to the fall of Iran’s current leadership. But subsequent statements from Washington have suggested a more limited military objective.  Image Via: Netanyah u on X Speaking at the White House two days after the strikes that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several senior figures, Trump said the primary U.S. goals were to destroy Iran’s missile capabilities, weaken its naval forces and prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed that position at a Pentagon briefing ear...

Israel has widened its strike campaign inside Iran on Wednesday, and targeted security and internal control forces in Tehran after it earlier hit a building in Qom linked by Iranian media to the clerical panel charged with selecting Iran’s next supreme leader, as Iran’s Revolutionary Guard launched a fresh volley of ballistic missiles and Iran-backed groups signaled potential new fronts across the region. Representational Image Via: IDF The Israeli military said it carried out a series of strikes across Tehran aimed at the Basij and other internal security-related buildings. It described the targets as part of Iran’s security apparatus that has suppressed protests in the past.  Iranian semiofficial outlets also reported an airstrike in the holy city of Qom that hit a building they linked to the Assembly of Experts, the body tasked under Iranian law with choosing a successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed at the start of the war. Iranian reports said there ...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman India’s political divide over the US–Israel–Iran war has sharpened as the Congress and Left parties have accused the Modi government of “silence” and “moral cowardice” over the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei , while the government has simultaneously expanded high-level outreach to Gulf leaders , activated trade and energy contingency mechanisms , and reiterated that dialogue and diplomacy are the only viable path to restore regional stability. Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, in an opinion piece in a mainstream daily, argued that New Delhi’s lack of a clear response to the assassination of Khamenei amounted to an “abdication” rather than neutrality and risked normalising targeted killings as instruments of statecraft.  File Photo; Via: LoP Raga She framed the killing of a sitting leader during a diplomatic process as a rupture in contemporary international relations and...

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday made a public appeal for news organizations to help amplify emergency contact information for Americans trying to leave the Middle East, saying thousands may still be in affected areas as airspace closures and ongoing missile and drone attacks complicate evacuation efforts.  File Photo Via Sec R u bio His plea came amid fresh security incidents in the Gulf, including an Iranian drone strike near the U.S. consulate in Dubai, and as the United Arab Emirates disclosed that it has intercepted hundreds of incoming drones and missiles since the conflict escalated — underscoring the volatile environment facing civilians and diplomatic personnel across the region. Rubio said the State Department believes roughly 1,500 Americans remain in affected areas and is working to assist them, though evacuations are complicated by widespread airspace closures.  “We know that we’re going to be able to help them,” Rubio said, adding that officials do ...