Latest news with #USIranConflict
New York Times
15-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Judge Orders Release of Iranian Arrested in Louisiana After U.S. Bombed Iran
A magistrate judge in Louisiana on Monday ordered the release of an Iranian doctoral student arrested in the immediate aftermath of the U.S. bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities last month and barred officials from attempting to deport him, citing a 'grave risk' of irreparable harm. The student, Pouria Pourhosseinhendabad, 29, appeared to be the first Iranian national that the Trump administration sought to deport while Iran was engulfed in a 12-day war with Israel that the United States briefly joined. Mr. Pourhosseinhendabad, a student of mechanical engineering at Louisiana State University, was arrested along with his wife, Parisa Firouzabadi, on June 22, a day after President Trump announced that the United States had bombed three Iranian nuclear sites, thrusting the country directly into the war. He has since been held at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center, one of the agency's largest detention centers in the South. Ms. Firouzabadi appears to have been released; the petition mentioned her only briefly, and she is not listed in public records as an ICE detainee. His lawyers said that the couple's arrest involved an 'unconstitutional ruse.' The couple had recently reported a hit-and-run collision that damaged their car, and state police officers knocked on the door of their Baton Rouge apartment, claiming they were investigating the collision. Instead, Mr. Pourhosseinhendabad's lawyers said, the police led the couple to a large group of masked ICE agents in tactical gear waiting downstairs. Mr. Pourhosseinhendabad has an active F-1 student visa scheduled to expire in December 2030, according to his lawyers, and there was no warrant for his arrest. They argued in their petition for his release that 'a ruse is deemed unconstitutional where ICE tricks an individual to open their front door when they have not yet obtained a judicial warrant for arrest and no exigent circumstances exist.' An assistant U.S. attorney representing the government in the case did not submit any evidence or counternarrative disputing the allegations before Magistrate Judge Joseph H.L. Perez-Montes of the Western District of Louisiana ruled in the case. The attorney did not respond to a request for additional details in the case. Judge Perez-Montes granted the emergency petition for Mr. Pourhosseinhendabad's release and also enjoined the government from moving him to another jurisdiction. The Trump administration has previously moved people it is seeking to deport to more amenable legal jurisdictions. 'In these verified allegations,' the judge wrote 'petitioner has established that there is a grave risk he will suffer irreparable harm — specifically to include his possible continued detention and deprivation of liberty.'
New York Times
26-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
The Ayatollah Has a Plan
The United States' attack on Iran's nuclear sites last weekend, following a weeklong Israeli bombing campaign, has marked a turning point for Iran. Washington's involvement in the conflict represents one of the biggest challenges to the Islamic Republic since its founding in 1979 and is a moment of truth for the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has maintained Iran's hostility to the West during his 36 years in power. Now the future of the country's nuclear program, and the fate of the tenuous cease-fire with Israel, rests in his hands — and even in the face of grave threat, he is unlikely to back down. Iran's rulers are no strangers to war. Many of the country's top leaders, including its president, foreign minister and key military figures, are veterans of Iran's long war with Iraq in the 1980s, a grinding struggle that cost Iran billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives. Under Ayatollah Khamenei, who served as president from 1981 to 1988 and became Iran's supreme leader in 1989, the lessons of that brutal conflict have come to undergird the regime's worldview — and its national security policy. As Ayatollah Khamenei sees it, Iran is locked in a struggle for survival with the United States and its allies, including Israel. The policies he has pursued in the decades since he came to power — domestic repression, nuclear expansion and support for proxy militias including Hamas and Hezbollah — have all been in the service of winning that contest. His distrust of Washington has only deepened since Donald Trump's 2018 withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal Tehran negotiated with the Obama administration. The Islamic Republic understands its limitations in this struggle. Its military is woefully inadequate in the face of more advanced U.S. weaponry. Its economy has been severely constrained by international sanctions. And in recent years, Iranians have revolted against the regime's policy of perpetual resistance against the West, as well as against the regime's repressive domestic policies. The United States has also maintained a robust presence in the region, with tens of thousands of troops stationed across a network of bases. If this history is anything to go by, Ayatollah Khamenei will not retreat, let alone surrender. He has, for now, accepted a cease-fire with Israel — but only because he is confident that Iran held its ground in the face of U.S. and Israeli strikes. In the past, too, he has made concessions when necessary. Tehran entered both the 2015 nuclear deal and the most recent round of nuclear negotiations with the United States in order to relieve economic pressure. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
South China Morning Post
25-06-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Will Philippines help US in another Middle East conflict?
Advertisement The issue came up at a press briefing conducted by the Philippine military on Tuesday, where officials were asked if facilities designated under the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) could be used to support US operations against Iran. Following multiple attacks from Israel and Iran against each other earlier this month, the US joined its Israeli ally by attacking three nuclear facilities in Iran on Sunday. In retaliation, Iran launched multiple missiles targeting US forces at an air base in Qatar on Monday. EDCA, along with the Mutual Logistics Support Agreement, grants US forces rotational access to select Philippine military bases, where they preposition fuel, ammunition and other equipment. These arrangements operate alongside the 1951 Mutual Defence Treaty (MDT), which commits both countries to act in the event of an armed attack on either party in the Pacific. Colonel Francel Margareth Padilla, spokeswoman for the Philippine military, declined to confirm whether those facilities could be used in the current conflict, saying only: 'We do not want to hone in on the role of the armed forces. At this point in time, we are prepared for any contingencies.' Advertisement The Philippine military's current priority was 'to make sure that our countrymen will come home safe', she added.
Japan Times
25-06-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
Twelve day Middle East war shows how 'normal' the unthinkable has become
As the night sky above Doha lit up with Iranian missiles being intercepted on Monday, people across the city were on balconies and in gardens watching the show and filming it on their smartphones. For decades, the idea of a U.S.-Iran conflict raised the specter of World War III. Now Israel has attacked, the U.S. has joined in and the Islamic Republic just aimed its retaliation at the biggest American military base in the Middle East. All of that happened in the last 24 hours, following an equally chaotic 11 days. But on Tuesday morning, consultants in the Qatari capital and financiers in Dubai went to work as normal. Oil fell back to where it was when Israel first struck Iran on June 13; the S&P 500 ended the day higher than it began. The reaction reveals the degree to which the unthinkable has become mundane in a region upended by Hamas's attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and a broader sense that seemingly seismic events are quickly superseded by the next ones. But the ructions that have torn through the Middle East aren't likely to fully reveal their impact for years to come. While Iran is weakened and Israel triumphant, there are some concerning omens. Israel's devastation of Gaza, the decimation of Iranian proxy militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon and last year's swift fall of Iranian ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria have all left deep scars. Mourners attend the funeral of victims of Sunday's suicide bombing at the Mar Elias Church in Damascus. | REUTERS "Iran isn't finished as a regional power,' said Hal Brands, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a former Pentagon official. "It's a big country with a lot of residual capabilities, but we're going to see a significant regional shakeup.' For now, many in the region just took it in their stride. Some expats in Doha said the strikes were so well telegraphed, it was as if they knew what was coming. Others panicked and took shelter in basements, closing curtains and blackout blinds in case windows shattered. Many couldn't resist going outside to watch the missile trails. Once the choreographed Iranian response to U.S. strikes on its nuclear program was over, there was some worry and confusion because of a lack of information. But by Tuesday morning, it was business as usual after U.S. President Donald Trump declared a ceasefire had been agreed. Trump went as far as thanking Iran for "giving us early notice,' ensuring the base was evacuated and there were no casualties. The Qatar Stock Exchange closed almost 2% higher. Meanwhile, energy exports have continued without interruption. "It's surreal how quickly we revert to 'normal' life and that is what had happened by the time dawn broke this morning,' said Charlie Eastwood, a U.K. citizen who has lived and worked in Qatar for 13 years, "with the additional and even more surreal news that, honor clearly having been satisfied, a ceasefire had been agreed.' Emergency workers recover a body from the site of an Iranian missile attack on a residential building in Beersheeba, Israel, on Tuesday. | Daniel Berehulak / The New York Times Beyond the Middle East, a world also dealing with Russia's war in Ukraine, Trump's trade tariffs and tension with China is more inured to turmoil and unpredictability. Late Monday night, Trump wrote on Truth Social that the war "could have gone on for years, and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn't, and never will!' Indeed, the Iranian response demonstrated "calculated thinking,' according to Bader Al-Saif, assistant professor at Kuwait University and an associate fellow at Chatham House. Getting embroiled in a conflict with the U.S. would be "the kiss of death for Iran and they know that,' he said. But there were other harbingers of the essential flimsiness of the ceasefire. In between Trump's declaration and Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu's confirmation, Israel and Iran struck each other. A few hours later, the Israel Defense Forces said they had identified Iranian missiles headed toward Israel, which Tehran denied. A man clears broken glass from a sidewalk near the site of an Iranian missile attack in Beersheeba, Israel, on Tuesday. | Daniel Berehulak / The New York Times There is also Israel's own track record when it comes to ceasefires. It's been accused of not honoring them in Gaza and Lebanon. Netanyahu's government is unlikely to be willing to countenance any threat emanating from Iran, and has already said it will respond with force to any breaches of the truce. Some ministers — and even Netanyahu himself — have already floated the prospect of regime change. The echo of previous Middle East conflicts and uprisings that begin in triumph but end in sectarian violence and chaos resounds. Israel's attack on Iran also helped turn attention away from its war in Gaza against Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and Europe. Israeli forces have killed tens of thousands of people, destroyed most of the enclave and sparked a hunger crisis. If the Iran conflict is brought to a simmer, Europe — which expressed support for strikes on nuclear targets — may go back to threatening the Netanyahu government with trade sanctions over its prosecution of the war. People inspect the damage at the site of a reported suicide attack at the Saint Elias church in Damascus on Sunday. | AFP-JIJI In Gaza, around the time Israel was agreeing to the ceasefire with Iran, its forces opened fire toward hundreds of people waiting for aid, killing at least 25, the Associated Press reported. The same day, the U.N. — which Israel has blocked from administering aid — condemned the country's "weaponization of food.' Leaders from Qatar to Iraq warned that the Israeli and U.S. strikes could spark regional unrest. On Sunday, as U.S. missiles rained down on Iran's nuclear sites, a suicide bombing that killed dozens in a Damascus church offered a grim reminder of what that instability can look like. And then there are Iran's nuclear aspirations. The U.S. bombed three key sites on Sunday, including the underground enrichment facility at Fordow. Trump claimed they had been "totally obliterated,' but two days later the International Atomic Energy Agency still doesn't know the location of Iran's near bomb-grade uranium. That leaves Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei a choice that many autocrats must be weighing. One option is to pursue the bomb with great speed — if that's still possible — and become not just untouchable but even admired by Trump, like North Korea's Kim Jong Un. The alternative is to give up the nuclear program, come in from the cold, and risk suffering the fate of Libya's deceased dictator Moammar Qaddafi. "The Iranian nuclear program has taken a major hit, but hasn't been totally destroyed,' said Aaron David Miller, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former State Department Middle East negotiator under former U.S. Presidents Clinton and Bush. "They're going to want to keep the option of enrichment and potential weaponization open. This is a long game.'
Bloomberg
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Eerie Calm Descends in Middle East After Once Unthinkable War
As the night sky lit up with Iranian missiles being intercepted on Monday, people across Doha were on balconies and in gardens watching the show and filming it on their smartphones. For decades, the idea of a US-Iran conflict raised the specter of World War III. Now Israel has attacked, the US has joined in and the Islamic Republic just aimed its retaliation at the biggest American military base in the Middle East.
