In Pakistan, Iran’s Raisi warns Israel again; US flags sanctions: Top developments in Iran-Israel conflict

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi Tuesday threatened to annihilate Israel if it launches an attack on the Israeli territory. An Israeli attack on Iranian territory could radically change dynamics and result in there being nothing left of the “Zionist regime”, news agency IRNA quoted Raisi.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will honourably continue to support the Palestinian resistance,” Raisi said in his speech in Pakistan, as he visited the country for three days.

Raisi, the first head of state of any country to visit Pakistan after the February 8 general elections, was welcomed by Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at the Prime Minister House where the Iranian leader inspected the Guard of Honour.

Iran and Pakistan look to boost ties

During his visit to Pakistan, Raisi considered the border of more than 900 kilometers between Iran and Pakistan to be a valuable opportunity for the development, prosperity and prosperity of the border areas, and said that the informal trade between the two countries should be converted into formal trade, according to an IRNA report.

The duo agreed on joint efforts to eradicate terrorism as they discussed ways to promote cooperation between their countries, months after the two neighbours carried out tit-for-tat air strikes against alleged terrorist hideouts on rival lands.

President Raisi stated that the relations between the two countries are rooted in the history, civilization, culture and common beliefs of the two nations, and has created an unbreakable bond between the two nations, IRNA reported.

The two countries signed eight MoUs (memoranda of understanding) and agreed to push bilateral trade to USD 10 billion, according to news agency PTI.

US flags risk of sanctions

In the backdrop of Iran and Pakistan taking active steps towards boosting ties between the two countries, the United States on April 23 said that anyone considering a business deal with Iran needs to be aware of the potential risk of sanctions from the US.

“Just let me say broadly, we advise anyone considering business deals with Iran to be aware of the potential risk of sanctions. But ultimately, the government of Pakistan can speak to their own foreign policy pursuits,” Vedant Patel, Deputy Spokesperson of the US State Department, said, news agency PTI reported.

Germany to resume cooperation with UNRWA agency

The German government has planned to resume cooperation with the United Nations agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) in Gaza, the foreign and development ministries said in a joint statement on Wednesday, news agency Reuters reported.

An investigation by the former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna into whether some UNRWA employees were involved in the October 7 attack by Hamas concluded that Israel was yet to back up its accusations that hundreds of UNRWA staff were operatives in Gaza terrorist groups.

The German ministries urged the UN agency to implement the report’s recommendations, including strengthening its internal audit function and improving external oversight of project management, according to the report.

Pro-Palestinian protests on US college campuses 

Colleges and universities in the United States are witnessing debates and heightened disagreements around student protests, with the Israel-Hamas conflict at its centre.

The protests escalated last week with the arrest of around 100 pro-Palestinian protesting students from the premier Columbia University.

The protests comes after Israeli’s military offensive in Gaza killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, with the majority being women and children, which followed the Palestinian militant group Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, leading to the killings of more than 1,200 Israelis.

In light of these protests, and the approaching graduation in US, while Columbia University has canceled in-person classes, dozens of protesters were arrested at New York University and Yale. The gates to Harvard Yard were also closed to the public on Monday as authorities aimed to defuse campus tensions over Israel’s war with Hamas.

Universities such as Boston, MIT, Brown, Princeton, Northwestern and Emerson College also protested by staging walkouts. Commenting on these protests, President Joe Biden said he condemned both “the antisemitic protests” as well as “those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians”.

Iran-Israel Crisis

On April 14, Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles towards Israel, in retaliation for an Israeli attack on its consulate that occurred in Damascus, Syria, on April 1, leading to the deaths of 13 people, including two high-ranking members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Israel has been critical of Iran supporting regional groups such as Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Hamas – the latter of which was responsible for the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.

Israel, responding to Iran’s attack on April 14, conducted a strike on Iran on April 19, in which a military base near Isfahan, the western Iranian city around which a lot of the Iranian nuclear production capability is concentrated, was hit. Since then, both sides have chosen silence.

According to a Reuters report which quoted an Iranian official as saying there were no plans for further retaliation: “The foreign source of the incident has not been confirmed. We have not received any external attack, and the discussion leans more towards infiltration than attack.”

Where does the US stand on Iran-Israel conflict?

The Biden Administration in the United States was given a heads-up on the strike by the Israelis on Iran.

An American official said Israel had notified the US in advance: “We were not surprised.”

According to an explainer in The Indian Express, analysts have flagged Netanyahu’s abiding interest in prolonging the war and dragging the US into a conflict with Tehran. However, Biden has so far resisted, especially because a desperate battle for the White House looms, and many young Democratic voters are said to be extremely upset with the US support to Israel on the Gaza war.

US sanctions on Israeli military unit

On April 19, the United States announced a series of sanctions linked to Israeli settlers in the West Bank, in the latest sign of growing US frustration with the policies of Netanyahu, a Reuters report stated, in response to which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday said he would fight against sanctions being imposed on any Israeli military units for alleged rights violations.

“If anyone thinks they can impose sanctions on a unit of the IDF – I will fight it with all my strength,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

Israeli military head resigns over failure to prevent Hamas’ October 7 attack

The Israeli military said on April 22 that the head of its intelligence corps has resigned over Hamas’ October 7 attack, news agency AP reported.

Aharon Haliwa, the head of Israel’s military intelligence, becomes the first senior Israeli figure to step down over the failures surrounding Hamas’ attack. Haliwa had said in October that he shouldered the blame for not preventing the attack, which broke through Israel’s vaunted defences, according to the report.

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