West Asia in Crisis: What Happens to India?
In this episode of Central Hall, Kapil Sibal is in conversation with three eminent former diplomats – Shivshankar Menon, Talmiz Ahmad, and Vivek Katju – to discuss the fallouts of the Israel-Iran conflict.
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Hans India
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Yemen's Houthis claim ballistic missile strike on 'sensitive' target in Israel
Sanaa/Jerusalem: Yemen's Houthi group announced Saturday that it had launched a ballistic missile targetting a "sensitive" site in southern Israel, activating air defence sirens in Israel for the first time since a ceasefire for the Israel-Iran conflict went into effect on Tuesday. The strike, using a Zulfiqar ballistic missile, had "successfully hit its target," Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a televised statement aired by the group's al-Masirah TV channel. Saree added that earlier in the week, Houthi forces carried out "several military operations" targetting "sensitive" sites and military facilities in three Israeli cities: Beer Sheva, Jaffa (Tel Aviv), and Haifa, using a number of ballistic missiles and drones. All of the operations, he said, were "successfully executed." He said the operations were "a form of support for the oppressed Palestinian people," vowing that the group would continue its "supportive military operations until the aggression on Gaza ceases and the blockade is lifted." Meanwhile, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said in a statement that a missile fired from Yemen towards Israel on Saturday morning was "most likely successfully intercepted." Israel's national emergency service, Magen David Adom, said that there were no immediate reports of hits or casualties, Xinhua news agency reported. Following the launch, air defence sirens sounded across large areas of southern Israel, including the cities of Beer Sheva and Dimona as well as the Dead Sea region, sending hundreds of thousands of residents to shelters. On Thursday, Yemen's Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said that his forces have launched 309 ballistic, hypersonic missiles, and drones at Israel since mid-March, as part of what the group calls the second phase of its military campaign. In a televised speech marking the Islamic New Year, broadcast by the Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV, al-Houthi said 25 missiles and drones were launched this month alone in what he described as "qualitative military operations in support of Gaza." He reaffirmed that the Red Sea remains closed to Israeli-linked maritime traffic and accused Israel of continuing its offensive in Gaza with US backing. Yemen's internationally recognised government, meanwhile, accused Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of directly controlling the missile systems used by Houthi forces. Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani said Tehran was using Yemen as "an advanced missile platform" to threaten regional and international security while avoiding direct confrontation. The Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen, began targetting Israel in November 2023, weeks after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza, in what they say is an act of solidarity with the Palestinian people.
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First Post
an hour ago
- First Post
Houthi rebels claim missile launch at Israel following Gaza conflict
Warning sirens were heard in multiple areas of Israel before the military announced that the missile was 'most likely successfully intercepted.' read more Houthi supporters raise their machine guns during an anti-Israel rally in Sanaa, Yemen. AP Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi group stated on Saturday that it launched a ballistic missile toward Israel, citing Israel's actions in Gaza as the reason. Warning sirens were heard in multiple areas of Israel before the military announced that the missile was 'most likely successfully intercepted.' This marks the first Houthi-claimed missile attack on Israel since the June 24 ceasefire between Israel and Iran, which followed a 12-day conflict. Rebel military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a statement that the group targeted a 'sensitive Israeli enemy target in the occupied area of Beersheba using a Dhu al-Fiqar ballistic missile'. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The attack was in 'response to the crimes of the criminal Zionist enemy against civilians in the Gaza Strip', Saree added. The Houthis have launched repeated missile and drone attacks against Israel since their Palestinian ally Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war. The Iran-backed rebels, who say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians, paused their attacks during a two-month ceasefire that ended in March, but renewed them after Israel resumed its offensive. Israel has carried out several retaliatory strikes in Yemen, targeting Houthi-held ports and the airport in the rebel-held capital Sanaa. Saree said the rebel administration would 'continue its supportive operations until the aggression against Gaza stops and the siege is lifted'.
Mint
2 hours ago
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Donald Trump's head-spinning foreign policy
WASHINGTON—President Trump hasn't sounded much like Donald Trump in recent days. He said the U.S. needed to attack Iran over a growing nuclear threat, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization wasn't ripping off America and that Russian President Vladimir Putin was an impediment to ending the war in Ukraine. It was a remarkable shift for a president who said he would extract the U.S. from foreign entanglements, once called NATO obsolete and often has avoided criticizing Moscow. But Trump's supporters and critics alike said they didn't expect the new version of Trump to last for long. By Friday afternoon, Trump said he wouldn't lift sanctions on Iran after suggesting earlier in the week that he would do so. Minutes later, he said he was canceling trade talks with Canada. Since his first days in office, Trump has pinballed from dove to hawk, at some points promoting a more inward-looking America and at others defending risky armed responses. Trump has kept world leaders off balance since his second inauguration in January, threatening tariffs against dozens of countries, hinting at military incursions against Greenland and Panama and ambushing fellow national leaders in the Oval Office. The president's supporters said he would do whatever it takes to secure U.S. interests—and that keeping foreign leaders on their toes is a feature not a bug. This past week has underscored the complexities of defining a cohesive 'Trump Doctrine." He has promised to keep the U.S. out of conflicts in the Middle East, but has nonetheless engaged in them. He has said he would do whatever possible to end the war in Ukraine, but has at times been hesitant to put political and economic pressure on Russia to do so. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Trump practices 'purposeful strategic ambiguity" in foreign policy to give himself leverage in negotiations. 'World leaders fear him, respect him, and hang on every word he says," she said. Trump is in full command, Leavitt said, asserting that he is shaping—not reacting to—complex global events. 'The world has changed because of Donald Trump," she said, 'Donald Trump has not changed because of the world." But some analysts said Trump doesn't appear to have a clear foreign-policy worldview. 'It is hard to discern a coherent, strategically consistent thread through what Donald Trump does," said Christopher Preble, director of the Reimagining U.S. Grand Strategy program at the Stimson Center think tank. Trump initially resisted involving the U.S. in Israel's military campaign against Iran, but later authorized U.S. strikes on Tehran's nuclear sites. The mission was designed to inflict maximum damage on the facilities, knowing Iran was weakened and would struggle to retaliate, before turning back to his preferred diplomacy-focused approach. After helping to broker a cease-fire in the Israel-Iran war, Trump gave conflicting public statements about whether the U.S. would try to reach a deal with Iran to dismantle its nuclear program. 'We may sign an agreement," he said Wednesday at a NATO summit press conference, but added, 'I don't think it's that necessary." Two days later, Trump said the U.S. would pursue a nuclear pact that could include inspectors in Iran and the end of the nation's domestic uranium enrichment—but his advisers said he remained open to striking Iran again if necessary. Trump's comments this week triggered confusion among foreign-policy analysts and government officials over whether the U.S. would wind down sanctions on Tehran. Trump wrote on social media earlier this week that China could purchase oil from Iran, a move that would weaken the president's maximum-pressure campaign aimed at starving Iran of money to fund its nuclear ambitions and regional proxies. The White House later said there had been no change in U.S. sanctions policy. Then on Friday, Trump said he had been working to remove U.S. sanctions on Iran after all. But he said he changed his mind because he was angry at Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei for saying his country had won the war. Trump is hardly the only president who adjusted his foreign policy views in response to events. George W. Bush campaigned against nation-building, but after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan and Iraq before attempting to establish democratic beachheads in both countries. Barack Obama promised a more peaceful foreign policy, but he expanded the use of drone strikes and ordered more troops into Afghanistan and Iraq without fully resolving either conflict. Presidents who follow carefully-planned strategies aren't guaranteed success. The Biden administration spent months trying to avert a Russian invasion of Ukraine, but it didn't stop Putin from launching the largest European land war since World War II. Trump has long touted his personal approach to decision-making. 'I like following my instincts," Trump said when announcing his decision to send 3,000 troops to Afghanistan in August 2017 after campaigning on ending the war. 'But all my life I've heard that decisions are much different when you sit behind the desk in the Oval Office." After vowing to reduce military involvement in the Middle East, Trump also authorized a large campaign to defeat ISIS, attacked chemical-weapons sites in Syria and ordered the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, then the leader of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Trump promised a different approach in his second term: The U.S. would finally steer clear of the Middle East's internal affairs. 'In the end, the so-called nation-builders wrecked far more nations than they built—and the interventionists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves," he said during a May visit to Saudi Arabia. The following month, Trump authorized 125 U.S. aircraft, including seven B-2 stealth bombers, to drop more than a dozen 30,000-pound bunker buster bombs and a barrage of cruise missiles at Iranian nuclear sites. Trump quickly brokered a cease-fire between Iran and Israel, ending the 12-day war. The Iran strikes prove a Trump doctrine is coming into view, administration officials said. Vice President JD Vance, in a social-media post this week, said Trump's approach to foreign policy centers on three points: '1) Clearly define an American interest; 2) negotiate aggressively to achieve that interest; 3) use overwhelming force if necessary." Arriving at the framework took years, according to his supporters. 'I don't see this as a different Trump; I see it as a more experienced president," said Victoria Coates, vice president of the Heritage Foundation's national security and foreign policy team. Administration officials said the president's approach has led to successes. Iran's nuclear program was set back significantly by the attack Trump authorized. The U.S. brokered a peace deal between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. Trump also has said he persuaded India and Pakistan, two nuclear-armed enemies, in May to quit fighting after a four-day skirmish that could have spiraled out of control. Pakistan nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts, while India disputes the U.S. played a significant role. But such accomplishments don't stem from a core foreign-policy vision, said John Bolton, one of Trump's national security advisers in the first term, and whom Trump dismissed. The only consistency with Trump, he argued, is that he is inconsistent. 'There's an old saying about Washington weather that applies to Trump: 'If you don't like the weather, wait a minute and it will change,'" Bolton said. 'That is the only certainty in Trumpworld." Write to Alexander Ward at
