Latest news with #Omid
Shafaq News
4 days ago
- Business
- Shafaq News
Iraqi Oil Ministry rejects link to US-sanctioned figure
Shafaq News – Baghdad On Tuesday, Iraq's Ministry of Oil denied any connection to a figure known as 'Omid,' who was recently sanctioned by the US Treasury for allegedly using Iraqi tankers to smuggle Iranian crude. The member of the parliamentary Oil and Gas Committee Baha al-Din al-Nouri told Shafaq News that both Oil Minister Hayyan Abdul Ghani and the director general of the State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) assured lawmakers during the July 14 session that there was 'no indication of Iraqi oil being mixed with Iranian crude or sold on the market.' Speculation over oil smuggling intensified after the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on a transportation company, al-Nouri pointed out.
New Straits Times
02-07-2025
- Sport
- New Straits Times
Omid's promotion adds pace to Selangor's frontline
KUALA LUMPUR: Selangor have promoted Afghanistan striker Omid Musawi from their Under-23 squad as they look to strengthen their frontline for the new M-League season. The 24-year-old, known for his pace, joined the Red Giants' U-23 side in October last year and is now eager to make his mark with the senior team. "Since arriving last year, I felt right at home," said Omid in a statement. "Selangor are a professional, development-focused club, and I'm proud to now be part of the senior team. This is a great opportunity for me to grow, not just as a player but as a person." "My aim is to play as much as I can, give my all, and help the team succeed." Born in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, and raised in the Netherlands, Omid began his career in the youth ranks of AGOVV Apeldoorn before moving to FC Twente's academy in 2011. He went on to score 10 goals and provide three assists in 31 matches with Twente's youth squad and also featured for their reserve side. His development continued with stints in the youth setups of Vitesse and PEC Zwolle, later earning promotion to the senior squads of both Dutch clubs. Omid's professional breakthrough came in Australia with Para Hills Knights SC, where he made 26 appearances, including in the National Premier Leagues South Australia. He made his senior international debut for Afghanistan in a friendly against Vietnam on June 1, 2022, and has since earned nine caps. Selangor have also signed Brazilian striker Chrigor Moraes and Thai international midfielder Picha Autra. The club are reportedly close to finalising a deal for former Kedah and Chonburi forward Willian Lira.
Time of India
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Iranians in Germany struggle with war back home
Representative Image The conflict between Israel and Iran has deeply affected the Iranian diaspora community in Germany. As a shaky ceasefire already threatens to quickly unravel, those who spoke with DW said they feel helpless, watching events unfold with anxiety and fear for friends and family. More than 970 people in Iran have been killed with over 3,400 injured in Israeli strikes since June 13, according to the Washington-based group Human Rights Activists. Iranian strikes on Israel have killed at least 24 people and injured over 1,000. As the conflict continues, daily life in Iran is being severely disrupted. Authorities in Iran have cut off internet connectivity, which makes it harder for families to stay in touch, while stifling information about what is happening in the country. A crowd in Tehran waves flags at a protestA crowd in Tehran waves flags at a protest Some Iranians in Germany said they feel guilty, torn between the safety of their adopted home and the chaos engulfing their homeland. Germany is home to one of Europe's largest Iranian diaspora communities. In Munich, Cologne, Berlin and Stuttgart, thousands of kilometers away from the chaos of war, they grapple with powerlessness, often unable to contact loved ones, and left only with hope. Interviewees have not shared their full names for security reasons. 'The guilt is unbearable' Sahar, 35, has lived in Germany's southern city of Munich for eight years. She said she had never imagined waking up to news of war in Iran. "For years, the regime told us: yes, there are sanctions against us, yes, we lack freedoms, but at least we have security," she said. "Where is that security now?" Sahar said it's hard to convey the emotional weight of the conflict to her German friends and colleagues. "How do you describe the feeling of knowing your people are suffering day and night, and then suddenly a missile hits their home in the middle of the night?" Sahar said she is even contemplating returning to Iran. "If this war drags on, I want to be with my family. The guilt is unbearable. At least if something happens, I'll be there with them." A mother alone in Tehran In the western city of Cologne, Omid said he worries about his 86-year-old mother who lives alone in Tehran. Her caregiver fled the city in fear two days ago. "I was planning to visit her next month," Omid said. "Now, I can't even reach her. The internet is down. Her landline doesn't work. I've never felt this helpless." "My mother's hearing is weak. Maybe she can't hear the explosions," he said. Omid has turned to neighbors, requesting them to check on her. But with communication cut off, he said it sometimes feels like shouting into a void. Suffering in silence Mastaneh, an engineer in the southern city of Stuttgart, avoids talking about Iran at work. "If someone asks, I'll cry," she said. "So, I start talking about projects and deadlines before anyone can bring it up." One day, while lost in thought at the office coffee machine, her Syrian colleague gently squeezed her hand and said: "I understand how you feel." That simple gesture broke her. "I hugged her and whispered, 'Poor people of the Middle East.'" A baby in danger Ali, a musician in the small western city of Aachen, said he worries about his baby niece in Iran who was born with a heart condition. "She needs constant medical care," he said. "My sister spent 14 hours trying to reach a safer city. I was losing my mind," he said, adding that his sister now cannot access the usual medical treatment needed for her baby. "If something happens to her, who do we blame?" Ali said. "Iran is as responsible as Israel. Netanyahu and Khamenei are equally guilty," he said, referring to the prime minister of Israel and Iran's Supreme Leader. Communication cut off Many Iranians abroad are clinging to any thread of connection back home. As soon as someone finds a working phone line or internet access in Iran, others are quickly informed. In the German capital, Berlin, Payam and a few others have created a WhatsApp group. Whenever someone in Iran is able to get online, the group asks them to check on multiple families. "The psychological pressure of the internet blackout is worse than the war itself. Not knowing anything about my family is the scariest part," Payam said. "If the government truly believes cutting the internet makes things safer, I can live with that. But if this blackout drags on and the war becomes drawn out, it'll be a nightmare," he added. "Actually, we're already living in one … will I hear from my family again?" Solmaz, who came to Germany as a refugee many years ago, hasn't returned to Iran in over two decades. "Will I hear their voices again?" she said, wondering about her friends and family still in Iran. She lost her mother three years ago, and last year, she met with her siblings in Turkey for a rare reunion. "It was the first time I saw my nieces and nephews," she said. "Even though I had never met them before, I realized how deeply I love them." These days, Solmaz finds herself constantly thinking about her teenage nieces and nephews. "I worry about their future. Is there any hope for them in this situation?" she said. She said her 16-year-old niece, Nasim, used to call her daily before the internet was cut off in Iran. "With her unique humor, she'd say, 'Auntie, another explosion happened here!' and then laugh loudly. She'd walk around the house with her phone, giving me a full report on everyone. She once joked, 'Auntie, are our dads braver than us? There are explosions everywhere, and my dad is just debating whether the watermelon he bought is sweet enough.'" Now, with days of complete silence from her family, Solmaz said she can't stop crying when she thinks of Nasim's jokes. "I don't know if I'll ever hear their voices again — those who had no choice but to stay in Tehran," Solmaz said. 'Listen to the people inside Iran' Negar, recently divorced and battling depression, said the war has sapped her of every ounce of strength. "I feel numb. I follow the news, I see the images, but I feel nothing. Maybe I'm in shock," she said. "What difference does it make if you write about me and a few others here? Who cares? Go listen to the people inside Iran!" she said Journalist Gilda Sahebi describes 'mixed feelings' in Iran.
DW
24-06-2025
- Politics
- DW
Iranians in Germany struggle with war back home – DW – 06/24/2025
DW spoke with several members of the Iranian diaspora community in Germany, who said they are watching war with Israel unfold with a mix of fear, helplessness and guilt. The conflict between Israel and Iran is deeply affecting the Iranian diaspora community in Germany. As a shaky ceasefire already threatens to quickly unravel, those who spoke with DW said they feel helpless watching events unfold with anxiety and fear for friends and family. Over 970 people in Iran have been killed with over 3,400 injured in Israeli strikes since June 13, according to the Washington-based group Human Rights Activists. Iranian strikes on Israel have killed at least 24 people and injured over 1,000. As the conflict continues, daily life in Iran is being severely disrupted. Authorities in Iran have cut off internet connectivity, which makes it harder for families to stay in touch, while stifling information about what is happening in the country. Some Iranians in Germany said they feel guilty, torn between the safety of their adopted home and the chaos engulfing their homeland. Germany is home to one of Europe's largest Iranian diaspora communities. In Munich, Cologne, Berlin, and Stuttgart, thousands of kilometers away from the chaos of war, they grapple with powerlessness, often unable to contact loved ones, and left only with hope. Interviewees have not shared their full names for security reasons. Sahar, 35, has lived in Germany's southern city of Munich for eight years. She said she had never imagined waking up to news of war in Iran. "For years, the regime told us: yes, there are sanctions against us, yes, we lack freedoms, but at least we have security," she said. "Where is that security now?" Sahar said it is hard to convey the emotional weight of the conflict to her German friends and colleagues. "How do you describe the feeling of knowing your people are suffering day and night, and then suddenly a missile hits their home in the middle of the night?" Sahar said she is even contemplating returning to Iran. "If this war drags on, I want to be with my family. The guilt is unbearable. At least if something happens, I'll be there with them." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video In the western city of Cologne, Omid said he worries about his 86-year-old mother who lives alone in Tehran. Her caregiver fled the city in fear two days ago. "I was planning to visit her next month," Omid said. "Now, I can't even reach her. The internet is down. Her landline doesn't work. I've never felt this helpless." "My mother's hearing is weak. Maybe she can't hear the explosions," he said. Omid has turned to neighbors, requesting them to check on her. But with communication cut off, he said it sometimes feels like shouting into a void. Mastaneh, an engineer in the southern city of Stuttgart, avoids talking about Iran at work. "If someone asks, I'll cry," she said. "So, I start talking about projects and deadlines before anyone can bring it up." One day, while lost in thought at the office coffee machine, her Syrian colleague gently squeezed her hand and said: "I understand how you feel." That simple gesture broke her. "I hugged her and whispered, 'Poor people of the Middle East.'" To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Ali, a musician in the small western city of Aachen, said he worries about his baby niece in Iran who was born with a heart condition. "She needs constant medical care," he said. "My sister spent 14 hours trying to reach a safer city. I was losing my mind," he said, adding that his sister now cannot access the usual medical treatment needed for her baby. "If something happens to her, who do we blame?" Ali said. "Iran is as responsible as Israel. Netanyahu and Khamenei are equally guilty," he said, referring to the Prime Minister of Israel, and Iran's Supreme Leader. Many Iranians abroad are clinging to any thread of connection back home. As soon as someone finds a working phone line or internet access in Iran, others are quickly informed. In Germany's capital, Berlin, Payam and a few others created a WhatsApp group. Whenever someone in Iran is able to get online, the group asks them to check on multiple families. "The psychological pressure of the internet blackout is worse than the war itself. Not knowing anything about my family is the scariest part," Payam said. "If the government truly believes cutting the internet makes things safer, I can live with that. But if this blackout drags on and the war becomes drawn out, it'll be a nightmare," he added. "Actually, we're already living in one … will I hear from my family again?" Solmaz, who came to Germany as a refugee many years ago, hasn't returned to Iran in over two decades. "Will I hear their voices again?" she said, wondering about her friends and family still in Iran. She lost her mother three years ago, and last year, she met her siblings in Turkey for a rare reunion. "It was the first time I saw my nieces and nephews," she said. "Even though I had never met them before, I realized how deeply I love them." These days, Solmaz finds herself constantly thinking about her teenage nieces and nephews. "I worry about their future. Is there any hope for them in this situation?" she said. She said her 16-year-old niece, Nasim, used to call her daily before the internet was cut off in Iran. "With her unique humor, she'd say, 'auntie, another explosion happened here!' and then laugh loudly. She'd walk around the house with her phone, giving me a full report on everyone. She once joked, 'auntie, are our dads braver than us? There are explosions everywhere, and my dad is just debating whether the watermelon he bought is sweet enough.'" Now, with days of complete silence from her family, Solmaz said she can't stop crying when she thinks of Nasim's jokes. "I don't know if I'll ever hear their voices again — those who had no choice but to stay in Tehran," Solmaz said. Negar, recently divorced and battling depression, said the war had sapped her of every ounce of strength. "I feel numb. I follow the news, I see the images, but I feel nothing. Maybe I'm in shock," she said. "What difference does it make if you write about me and a few others here? Who cares? Go listen to the people inside Iran!" she said To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion: Trump and the promise of peace
President Donald Trump may be the only person standing between Iran, Israel and an apocalyptic war of biblical proportions. At the outset of such a war, strikes on nuclear facilities would expose entire populations to toxic chemical plumes and radioactive materials. Nuclear disasters know no boundaries: think Chernobyl and Fukushima on steroids. At a press conference in late May, President Trump confirmed rumors that he called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to delay military strikes against Iran. Citing progress in the nuclear negotiations, he characterized strikes at this juncture as 'very inappropriate.' No one can claim that Trump's resistance to war and his moral revulsion at bloodshed lack a foundation in fact, faith, reason or history. As he told Esquire magazine in August 2004, a year after the Iraq invasion: 'What was the purpose of this whole thing? Hundreds and hundreds of young people killed. And what about the people coming back with no arms and legs? Not to mention the other side. All those Iraqi kids who've been blown to pieces. And it turns out that all of the reasons for the war were blatantly wrong. All this for nothing!' A similar antipathy for war is evident in Trump's approach to a nuclear deal with Iran. While not opposed to strikes as a last resort, Trump told reporters that he prefers an agreement that includes a rigorous verification regime to prevent Tehran from acquiring a bomb. 'I want it [to be a] very strong agreement where we can go in with inspectors, we can take whatever we want, we can blow up whatever we want, but nobody getting killed. We can blow up a lab, but nobody is gonna be in a lab, as opposed to everybody being in the lab and blowing it up.' If only the leaders of Iran and Israel were as concerned as Trump about the costs and precedents set by strikes on nuclear sites. In 'The Ayatollah's Nuclear Gamble: The Human Cost of Military Strikes,' a study published by Omid for Iran and the Hinckley Institute, Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was warned about the human cost of his nuclear gamble. Based on the available information, the study estimated that between 7,000 and 11,000 people — scientists, workers, soldiers and staff — at Iran's nuclear facilities would be killed or injured immediately. If only 5% of the 371 metric tons of uranium hexafluoride held at the Isfahan facility were to become airborne, with prevailing winds at 9.4 miles per hour, a toxic plume could expose approximately 240,000 residents in Isfahan alone within an hour. It concluded that 'the contamination of air, water, and soil from the thermal impact of strikes on nuclear plants would be immediate, vast, and, for the most part, irreversible.' The regional effects would be catastrophic. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed told journalist Tucker Carlson that strikes on the Bushehr nuclear plant would render the sea 'entirely contaminated' and put all Gulf countries at risk: 'No water, no fish … nothing. No life!' he warned. Israel is also at risk. In December 2021, the Jerusalem Post reported that the Islamic Republic claimed to have successfully simulated 'attacks on the Dimona nuclear plant using 16 ballistic missiles and five suicide drones.' Bemoaning the specter of 'the first radiological war in history,' Bennet Ramberg, a former State Department official, likened the effects of a successful strike on the Dimona reactor to 'a substantial radiological weapon or dirty bomb.' In his seminal study, he noted that 'the relative economic dislocation, population relocation, and immediate and lingering psychological trauma could be significant.' In a major address in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on May 13, 2025, President Trump offered Iran, Israel and the other players in the region an exit ramp. He lamented the disastrous Western interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq — the hubris of neo-cons and nation-builders — promising an era of peace and prosperity rooted in pragmatism and profit: 'Before our eyes, a new generation of leaders is transcending the ancient conflicts and tired division of the past, and forging a future where the Middle East is defined by commerce, not chaos; where it exports technology, not terrorism; and where people of different nations, religions and creeds are building cities together — not bombing each other out of existence.' President Trump may never win the Nobel Peace Prize. However, he has captured the imagination of Iranians and Israelis who want an end to the region's wars. Rather than rushing into a war, Iranians, held hostage by a cult of death and martyrdom, want Trump to prioritize peace and prosperity. With a national trucker strike spreading across 150 cities in Iran, the Iranian people would say yes to a broader Iran deal that would enable them to reclaim their stolen sovereignty, security, democracy and dignity. As Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeated time and time again, the Iranian people are our friends and partners. They are the ones who hold the keys to regional peace and stability that can save the lives of innocent Israelis and Palestinians, not the radical Shi'a clerics who seek war and destruction.
