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In the first major internal rupture within the United States security establishment since the start of the Iran war, National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent has resigned, declaring he could not “ in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran ” and asserting that “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation,” directly contradicting the central justification offered by the Trump administration for launching military action. File Photo Via Joe Kent Kent’s resignation, effective immediately, marks the first senior-level departure tied directly to the conflict , and has now exposed a widening divide between intelligence leadership and political decision-making at a critical moment in a war that has already destabilised global energy markets and expanded across multiple fronts. In his resignation statement, Kent wrote that “it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” adding that he could not support sending “the next gen...

Iran has named Mojtaba Khamenei , the son of the slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei , as the country’s new supreme leader , state media reported Monday, marking a pivotal moment in the rapidly escalating Middle East war that has already spread across multiple countries and pushed global oil prices above $100 per barrel . Image Source: Iran in India Mojtaba Khamenei was selected by Iran’s Assembly of Experts , the 88-member body of senior clerics responsible for appointing the country’s supreme leader, following the killing of his father in U.S.–Israeli strikes earlier in the conflict . The appointment places the younger Khamenei at the center of Iran’s military and political response to the war, as the country’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) answers directly to the supreme leader and plays a central role in directing Iran’s regional strategy. The announcement came as U.S. President Donald Trump issued a warning about Tehran’s new leadership , and said the ...

India told Parliament on Monday that dialogue and diplomacy remain the only viable path to de-escalate the widening war in West Asia, with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar warning that the conflict poses serious risks to global energy flows , shipping routes and the safety of millions of Indians living in the Gulf region. Addressing both the hoses of the Parliament separately amid loud protests from opposition benches, Jaishankar said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was closely monitoring developments while multiple ministries were coordinating responses to the fast-evolving security situation in the Middle East. Image Source: ANI Screengrab of Sansad TV on X “Our government had issued a statement expressing deep concern and urging all sides to exercise restraint,” Jaishankar said . “We continue to believe that dialogue and diplomacy should be pursued to de-escalate the tensions.” The minister said stability in West Asia remained vital for India’s economic interests, given th...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman Nine days into the expanding war involving Iran, Israel, United States and Western allies, the conflict is no longer confined to military targets. Civilian deaths, migrant worker casualties, diplomatic scrambling and tightening information controls inside Iran are together revealing how rapidly the war is widening across the region. The United States confirmed that a seventh American service member has died during Operation Epic Fury, after succumbing to injuries sustained during Iran’s initial wave of attacks across the Middle East. According to United States Central Command, the soldier had been critically wounded during an attack on American troops stationed in Saudi Arabia on March 1, underscoring the continuing risk to US forces deployed across Gulf bases. Image Via: United States Central Command The war has also begun claiming foreign civilian lives in the Gulf. A projectile that struck a residential area in Al...

Israel said it carried out more than 100 airstrikes across Lebanon within the past 24 hours , targeting Hezbollah infrastructure, weapons depots and military sites as the conflict on Israel’s northern front intensifies. In a statement by Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee on Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its strikes included an attack on a compound belonging to Hezbollah’s Radwan Force in Beirut’s southern Dahiya district , a stronghold of the Iran-backed group. Image Via: Avichay Adraee According to the IDF, the compound served as a headquarters and training facility where Radwan Force members were allegedly preparing attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians. Israeli forces also struck what they described as warehouses containing combat equipment and dozens of additional military sites linked to Hezbollah across Lebanon. #عاجل 🔸أكثر من 100 غارة نُفِّذت خلال الساعات الأربع والعشرين الماضية في أنحاء لبنان: جيش الدفاع هاجم مجمّعًا لوحدة قوة الرضوان في...

French President Emmanuel Macron has launched a flurry of emergency diplomatic calls with leaders across West Asia and the Caucasus as the Iran-centered conflict threatens to widen across the region. In a series of statements posted Sunday, Macron said he had spoken with the Emir of Kuwait, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, and Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani. Aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle; Via: FrenchEmbassyZA Macron said he also spoke with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian , pressing Tehran to halt its military strikes across the region and ensure the security of global shipping lanes. Macron said he raised France’s “absolute priority” of securing the safety and return of French nationals Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, currently within the French Embassy compound, while urging Iran to immediately end attacks on regional countries and restore freedom of navigation by end...

The United States military has issued an unusual public safety warning directly to civilians inside Iran, cautioning them to stay away from areas used by the Iranian military to launch drones and ballistic missiles as the conflict in West Asia intensifies. Image Source: CENTCOMFarsi In a statement released on March 8 through its Farsi-language channel , the US Central Command (CENTCOM) accused Iran’s leadership of placing civilians at risk by operating military systems from densely populated urban areas. CENTCOM alleged that Iranian forces have been launching one-way attack drones and ballistic missiles from locations embedded within civilian neighborhoods in cities including Dezful, Isfahan and Shiraz. According to the US military, such locations lose their protected civilian status under international law when they are used for military purposes, potentially making them legitimate targets during armed conflict. “The Iranian regime is deliberately endangering innocent lives,” CENT...

India’s Parliament reconvenes on Monday under the shadow of a widening war in West Asia, with External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar scheduled to brief the Lok Sabha on the fast-evolving war between Iran, Israel, and the United States. According to the revised list of business circulated on Sunday evening, EAM Jaishankar will make an official statement in the Lower House on the situation in West Asia when the second half of the Budget Session begins.  Sansad TV Screengrab of EAM Jaishankar by ANI The announcement comes amid mounting concern in New Delhi over the safety of Indian nationals across the Gulf and wider West Asian region as military strikes and retaliatory missile attacks continue to escalate. The Ministry of External Affairs earlier said the government has already facilitated the return of more than 52,000 Indians between March 1 and March 7 after partial reopening of regional airspace. Commercial and special flights have been operating to bring stranded tr...

Iran’s powerful clerical body responsible for appointing the country’s supreme leader said on Sunday that it has selected a successor to the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, marking a major political turning point as the war involving Iran, Israel and the United States continues to intensify. A member of the Assembly of Experts, the institution constitutionally responsible for selecting and supervising the supreme leader , said the decision had already been made but the identity of the new leader would be revealed later. Image Source: Conflict Radar “The vote to appoint the leader has taken place and the leader has been chosen,” Ahmad Alamolhoda, a member of the Assembly of Experts, told Iran’s Mehr news agency, adding that the name would be formally announced later on Sunday. The development comes days after Khamenei was killed in the opening Israeli strike on Iran on February 28, an event that triggered a rapid succession process inside the Islamic Republic’s political system. Under Iran...

China warned on Sunday that the war involving Iran, Israel and the United States should never have occurred, calling for an immediate halt to military operations as the conflict continued to widen across the Middle East and beyond. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the conflict was dangerous for the region and the wider international order, stressing that the use of force would only deepen instability. “This is a war that should not have happened—it is a war that does no one any good,” Wang said, urging all sides to stop military operations and prevent the crisis from spiralling further. Image Source: Mao Ning on X Warning against attempts to reshape Iran’s political system through force, Wang said efforts to pursue regime change would find little support internationally. He argued that the world cannot return to “the law of the jungle,” adding that armed conflict in the Middle East historically produces new cycles of instability rather than lasting solutions. China’s intervention...

Israel has launched fresh strikes on southern Lebanon, Beirut and an oil storage facility in Tehran as the war between Israel, the United States and Iran continued to widen across the Middle East, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning that the next phase of the conflict would bring “many surprises.” Image Via: Mario Nawfal on X The latest Israeli attack targeted an oil storage facility in Iran’s capital, sending towering flames into the night sky in what appeared to be the first known strike on a civilian industrial installation since the war began. Verified video recordings captured and assessed by Associated Press journalists showed massive pillars of fire rising from the site, illuminating the skyline of Tehran, the news agency said.  At the same time, Israeli forces carried out strikes in southern Lebanon and parts of Beirut as fighting with the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement intensified along Israel’s northern frontier. Iran responded with new attacks across...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman The eighth day of the Iran war looked like a regional system under stress, trying to prevent a wider collapse even as the military architecture around Iran kept thickening. The stories IndianRepublic.in tracked through the day fit together into a single picture that suggests India has moved into citizen-protection mode with more than 52,000 Indians returning from the Gulf; the U.S. has escalated both force posture and munitions support to Israel; Iran is trying to reopen diplomatic space with neighbours even while denying responsibility in sensitive flashpoints like Nakhchivan; Gulf states are publicly performing resilience under direct spillover; and the war’s information environment is darkening inside Iran itself under a prolonged internet blackout.  RAF F‑35Bs have carried out their first combat shoot‑down for the UK, destroying hostile drones over Jordan; Via: RoyalAirForce From an India lens, the most important ...

The United States has approved an emergency sale of 12,000 1,000-pound bombs to Israel , bypassing the usual congressional review process as the war with Iran intensifies across the Middle East. The U.S. State Department said Secretary of State Marco Rubio invoked emergency authority under the Arms Export Control Act to allow the immediate transfer of the munitions, arguing that the sale serves American national security interests and strengthens Israel’s ability to counter regional threats.  File Photo: The Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group; Via US Central Command The package, valued at about $151.8 million , includes thousands of BLU-110 general-purpose bomb bodies along with engineering, logistical and technical support services. U.S. officials said the weapons would improve Israel’s capability to confront current and future threats and reinforce its homeland defense, though the notice sent to Congress did not specify where the bombs would be deployed.  The decisio...

A deadly attack on a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz has killed at least four seafarers and seriously injured three others, prompting the International Maritime Organization to warn that thousands of maritime workers are now trapped in one of the world’s most dangerous shipping corridors as the Iran war spreads across Gulf waters. Representational Map Via:WorldinConflict International Maritime Organization Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said he was “alarmed and deeply saddened” by the incident reported on March 6 , which targeted the vessel Mussafah 2 and resulted in multiple casualties among its crew. The attack adds to a growing list of maritime incidents in the region since hostilities between the United States, Israel and Iran intensified. Strait of Hormuz the last 24 hours. Unreal. Source: @MarineTraffic pic.twitter.com/krcT5qp4ik — HFI Research (@HFI_Research) March 5, 2026 “My thoughts are with the families and loved ones of those affected, as well as the global maritime ...